There are two Steven Spielbergs. First, there’s the younger, more adventurous filmmaker who made sci-fi suspense films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jurassic Park, and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Then, there’s the master auteur who got a taste of awards success and kept chasing it with serious pieces of cinema like Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, and The Post. At a glance, it would appear as if the master’s newest movie, the alien film Disclosure Day, would be more of the first Spielberg. Well, not so fast.
Disclosure Day is about two factions of the government who are at odds over keeping classified information about extraterrestrial life secret. One side, led by the mean and nasty Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth from The King’s Speech), wants to keep the secrets secret while the other, led by the benevolent Hugo Wakefield (Sing Sing’s Colman Domingo), wants to let the world know the truth.
In between the two camps is Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor from Challengers), a young computer scientist who is empathetic to the aliens’ thoughts and feelings. While Daniel and his girlfriend, Jane (The Knick’s Eve Hewson), go on the run trying to figure out which side is the good side, another alien-sensitive human is discovered – a television meteorologist named Margaret Fairchild (A Quiet Place’s Emily Blunt). The goal for both sides changes once the new prize is uncovered – the disclosers want to get the two empaths together while the classified-keepers want them both destroyed.
The screenplay for Disclosure Day was written by Spielberg and co-writer David Koepp (Black Bag, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny). The narrative is a dense, almost overly complex mystery that weaves government conspiracy and religious faith into a thrilling, Hollywood-ready blockbuster. The audience learns all of the movie’s tricks along with the characters, so it’s an engaging watch as well. And from a philosophical standpoint, it gives its audience a lot to think about.
Where Disclosure Day falls short is in its tone. It can’t quite decide which side of the Spielberg fence it wants to live on, so it tries to straddle it. For most of the movie, it takes itself way too seriously for a movie about alien conspiracies. The cast and performances are all top-notch, which only amplifies this tonal inconsistency. It’s played straight, with very few winks and nods to the camera, while the plot is just aching for a little melodramatic overacting. It’s as if no one involved realized they were making a movie about aliens.
That is, at least, until the third act. That’s when things get campy, and that’s a good thing. If the first two hours were as much fun as the last 30 minutes, Disclosure Day would be a much more enjoyable watch. The climax is where things go off the rails, and in the best way possible. This is where it stops being Bridge of Spies and starts being E.T. And that’s also where it starts reminding the audience of the younger, more adventurous Spielberg.
Basically, Disclosure Day lacks the fun of Jurassic Park and the wonder of Close Encounters. Maybe with some bigger, more theatrical performances and a Danny Elfman score in place of the one that John Williams provided, it would be that classic Spielberg movie. But it’s not.
As it is, Disclosure Day is not a bad movie. Steven Spielberg doesn’t make bad movies. But it is a bit of a disappointment in that it’s a missed opportunity to harken back to the fresh-out-of-film-school Spielberg. While it’s nice to see Spielberg trying to make fun movies again, it would be nicer if those movies actually were fun.
GRADE: C-
Rating: PG-13 for some bloody images, action/violence, and strong language
Runtime: 2 hours 25 minutes
Release Date: June 12, 2026
Studio: Universal Pictures
