Spoilers want to DM home.

It’s my very biased opinion that Spielberg is a superb director, but that he should stop chasing the ET wonder years. To be honest, I fear the global audience are much to jaded to be enthralled with the possibility. This feature is not trying to be naive, but it does feel closer to Encounters in spirit. You’ll see what I mean, but although it aims close I don’t think it quite hits the mark.

(Credit: Universal Pictures)

Disclosure Day (2026) was directed by Steven Spielberg who wrote it with David Koepp. Daniel Keller (Josh O’Connor) is on the run from shady organization WARDEX headed by Scanlon (Colin Firth), unintentionally involving Jane (Eve Hewson). Meanwhile, weather announcer Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) is going through eerie phenomena of her own in which she seemingly is able to speak other languages including a unknown clicking dialect during a live TV broadcast. This sends alert signals everywhere, including Hugo (Colman Domingo) who seems to be working to expose WARDEX.

So, what’s going on? In a word, and this is something almost everyone knows before even walking into the theatre, it’s all about extraterrestrial encounters. However, don’t expect them to just walk into frame – instead we’re focused on the government paranoia vs the apparently innocent wonder of believing they exist. We even get a faith vs alien via Jane’s past in a convent. Honestly, I think that angle would have been vastly more interesting than the main plot if it had been developed deeper.

There’s snippets and segments that work better than others. The desperate need to expose the truth doesn’t seem to consider the possible chaos that could ensue, except for a brief conversation between Daniel and Jane where she poses the consequences could be hectic. The race for the seemingly heroic faction to expose it all versus the sinister black-clad swat-like team of WARDEX to go as far as killing people to enforce a cover-up is extremely good-vs-evil coded. No shades of grey are considered.

Lightly recommended. I feel that casual audiences will just see it waiting for the alien show while alien conspiracy theorists will see it as too much of a fairy tale approach. Feels a lot like a spiritual successor to Encounters but with a lot less spark. Perhaps keep it for a rainy day.

That will do for now.