Little green (or grey, or brown) men from outer space and Steven Spielberg have gone together like peaches and cream ever since he unleashed the unfettered wonders of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind upon us back in 1977. Since then, he’s gone back to the extraterrestrial well two more times (three, if you count the trippy ending of A.I.) and both times he’s cast beings from another world in very a different – sometimes rainbow coloured – light. If Close Encounters was the obsession-spawning, sometimes terrifying, awe inspiring lightshow; E.T. made aliens our bike-flying best friends, while the War Of The Worlds remake made them the agents of our 9/11 invoking destruction. But with Spielberg’s fourth movie – the secrecy shrouded Disclosure Day – the filmmaker is taking yet another approach to humankind’s connection with those that dwell among the stars. What would we do, if the proof that aliens exist lay right at our fingertips – would we squash the information or release it to a world who may not be able to handle it?
We take you now to the story already in progress as cybersecurity specialist Daniel Kelner is making some sort of clandestine deal with agents of the private corporation known as Wardex and it’s chief executive, Noah Scanlon. It seems that Wardex has been in possession of reams of proof that mankind has had decades of run-ins with alien species ever since the events of the Roswell incident and has been sitting on the world-altering truth for fear that any leaks would unravel society as we know it. However, after being turned by agents within the company, Daniel has copied and stolen a great many of those secrets and gone on the run, leading to Noah and his more devoted underlings to kidnap his girlfriend, Jane Blankenship, in order to smoke him out. But after managing to escape with help of a strange, alien artifact, the two go on the run even further as they debate the larger ramifications of what Daniel and his conspirators are trying to do.
Meanwhile, in Kansas City, restless meteorologist Margaret Fairchild finds her life instantly turned upside-down when she first seems to display mind reading capabilities and then starts uttering a strange, inhuman language live on-air while seemingly having no memory of it. Soon she’s having urges to hit the road as her powers drive her to meet with Daniel no matter the cost and as she makes the trip, both Daniel and Jane strive to keep at least one step ahead of Noah and Wardex.
However, that’s going to be far more difficult that you’d expect because not only do Wardex have all the black vans and armed agents you’d expect from a shadowy conspiracy, but the alien tech Noah has in his possession allows him to place his mind in the brain of a target to communicate, or even affect the actions of his intended victim. As the attempts to foil this attempt at extraterrestrial whistleblowing get ever more desperate, what will be the outcome of the fast approaching “disclosure day”?
There’s always been something special about watching Spielberg tackle the notion of otherworldly life, and arguably the most noticeable aspect (other than all the awestruck gawping) is how each film has approached it. From the all-encompassing obsession of Close Encounters, to the warmth and hope of E.T., the last time the director tackled alien’s was the destructive nihilism of 2005’s War Of The Worlds, that moved on from benevolent alien hugs, to being zapped into atoms by massive, honking death machines. However, with Disclosure Day, we find Spielberg once again trying something new that concerns itself more with our reaction to the knowledge of the existence of aliens rather than the effects of the aliens themselves. As a result, anyone expecting a big, climactic, Spielbergian lightshow may need to check their expectations at the door as his latest film is less about the answers as it is more about the questions.
For a start, Disclosure Day sees Spielberg in top, storytelling form as he merges various styles and politics from his previous movies to give us a chase film that crackles with invention. The tension and urgency of Minority Report merges with the ethics of The Post and the scale of Close Encounters to create something more akin to a political thriller than any other of the alien-themed sci-fi flicks that the director has previously done and as such it shows just how far he’s come. This does mean that anyone expecting a full-on, Spielberg 80s romp may find some of the early moral and spiritual discussion a bit heavy for a summer blockbuster (directly addressing the religious ramifications of the discovery of extraterrestrial life is something of a welcome surprise), but much like the aforementioned Minority Report, the script (by regular Spielberg collaborator David Koepp) knows when to hit the action button and when to delve even deeper into whether we as a species could actually handle such a thing.
However, Disclosure Day tends to work best if you give yourself over to the hopeful aspects of the director. If, like Colin Firth’s amoral antagonist, you feel that anarchy would reign, then the film will feel overly idealistic and even gullable – but then if you’re of the cynical persuasion, you’re probably going to think that it’s all not actually that big a deal and would probably be filed away in some people’s minds with countless other modern conspiracies as exagerated guff. Additionally, while Spielberg curiously has gotten no better at using painfully obvious CGI animals since Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, there’s also a feeling that the film’s ending is falls victim to the type of fan hype that’s either suggested that the film was a secret sequel to Close Encounters, or even an entrée to actual real news that aliens exist. As neither of those come to pass, some may feel that Spielberg is unable to stick the landing just as much as those numerous, crash-landing E.T.s.
However, up to that point, we’re in unfeasibly steady hands as Spielberg keeps the film at a steady jog, deftly delivering stunning action setpieces (the train sequence is a belter; as is Noah’s unbelievably tense possession of Jane) and complex scenarios on the fly. Margaret’s reading of minds is audaciously visualised by her reflection placed over the back of the head of the man she’s focused on and the director’s ability to compose a simple cinematic language to get across complicated concepts remain undeminished. It’s also fortuitous that Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor (both of whom already have faces naturally set to Spielbergian levels of awe) deliver great, strong work and that the likes of Firth, Eve Hewson, Colman Domingo and Wyatt Russell (as Margaret’s amusingly confounded boyfriend) are also on fine form.
You may not agree with the movie’s message that we’re able to process such monumental news and you may not agree with an ending that refuses to take responsibility for the very scenarios it poses, but the journey to get there sure is worth taking. Subtler than your average summer blockbuster, Disclosure Day finds Spielberg on rare, storytelling form as he once again suggests that the truth may not be quite so out there as we choose to believe.
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