Disclosure Day Review: Steven Spielberg's Emotional Sci-fi Chase Movie Is Incredibly Thrilling

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Aliens are very real and they've been with us a long time, at least according to "Disclosure Day," Steven Spielberg's immensely exciting sci-fi chase thriller that hits the ground running and almost never lets up. David Koepp's script, based on a lengthy outline penned by Spielberg himself (written on the Notes app, according to press notes), wants you to know that seemingly every story about UFOs and aliens that's filtered into our collective consciousness in the last 70-odd years really happened. The Roswell crash? Real. Crop circles? Not hoaxes at all. The bonkers urban legend that President Richard Nixon once showed his buddy Jackie Gleason dead alien bodies? Yep, that happened, too.

If there's been a questionable History Channel documentary about a supposedly real alien encounter, that story finds itself woven into the fabric of "Disclosure Day." It's the UFO movie to end all UFO movies (note: in recent years, UFOs have been rebranded as UAPs, or Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, but I just don't think that has the same punch so I'd rather not use it). At the same time, "Disclosure Day" isn't really an alien/UFO movie. Instead, it's a breakneck conspiracy thriller that plays like Spielberg riffing on movies like "Three Days of the Condor."

"Disclosure Day" is asking a lot of heavy, philosophical, and even religious questions about our place in the universe, our capacity for empathy, and the very nature of faith and belief itself. "The X-Files" may have told us the truth is out there, but "Disclosure Day" asks, "Can we even handle the truth if we knew it?"

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This headier stuff didn't quite land with me. It feels almost like an afterthought at times, and if you're looking for a more reflective alien movie dealing with similar topics, you might want to seek out Robert Zemeckis' underrated "Contact," or even Spielberg's own "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." As for "Disclosure Day," it works far better as a whiz-bang chase movie — something Spielberg, the director of chase movies such as "Duel," "The Sugarland Express," "Minority Report," and "Catch Me If You Can," knows a thing or two about. The legendary filmmaker is pulling out all the cinematic stops here, creating a fast-paced saga that crescendos into an incredibly emotional finale. It will take your breath away.

There's been a lot of pre-release talk about how "Disclosure Day" is Spielberg's return to more blockbuster-adjacent storytelling. I'm a strong defender of Spielberg's 21st century output (I made an entire podcast about it, in fact!), which features some of his best and most challenging work, but it cannot be denied that the general public tends to look more fondly on his 1980s and 1990s blockbuster movies.

Here, the director seems to be attempting to blend his earlier earnest popcorn entertainment approach with his harsher, more cynical modern style. That makes for a somewhat strange cocktail. There are moments in "Disclosure Day" that are so relentlessly earnest that they kind of caught me off guard — we don't really get that in films of this size these days. Modern-day moviegoers used to abundant irony might not know what to make of such stabs at emotion.

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"Disclosure Day" launches right into the action, dropping us into the already-in-progress plight of Dr. Daniel Kellner (Josh O'Connor), a cybersecurity expert employed by all-powerful company WARDEX, which has been working with the United States government for decades, secretly studying aliens and their technology. After being convinced by former WARDEX higher-up Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo, very good at delivering exposition in an authoritative tone) to turn whistleblower, Daniel has put a target on his back, and WARDEX's nefarious head, Noah Scanlon (a surprisingly scary, menacing Colin Firth), will go to any means to stop Daniel from telling the world the truth. Also caught up in all of this is Jane (Eve Hewson), Daniel's girlfriend and a former nun.

We also meet Margaret Fairchild, a TV meteorologist played by Emily Blunt. Blunt has the trickiest role in the entire film, going through a gamut of ever-shifting emotions. Early in the film, Margaret undergoes an inexplicable change, much to the confusion of her dopey boyfriend, played by Wyatt Russell. Margaret can suddenly speak and understand seemingly any language, and even more incredible, develops psychic abilities similar to those of the precogs from Spielberg's "Minority Report."

Spielberg keeps moving all the players around from one location to the next, assuring us that it'll all come together in the end. It does, too, but first we're treated to one immensely thrilling action set-piece after another. Daniel, Jane, and soon Margaret are constantly being chased, which leads to exciting scenes like a car chase where a car crashes through a house, and, most memorable of all, a train sequence that ranks as one of the best action scenes Spielberg has ever crafted (and as anyone whose seen "The Fablemans" knows, he's got a thing for trains).

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"Disclosure Day" is another reminder of why Spielberg is one of the best to ever do it. No currently working filmmaker understands blocking and camera placement like he does, and right from the jump, the fluid camera movement triggered a wave of nostalgia within me, as if to say, "Movies should move, and thank god Spielberg is still around to remind us of that." Once again working with longtime cinematographer Janusz Kamiński, Spielberg bathes "Disclosure Day" in deep shadows and sharp beams of light that give the film an almost dream-like atmosphere.

Speaking of longtime Spielberg collaborators, "Disclosure Day" is yet another partnership between the filmmaker and composer John Williams, and while it almost seems trite to talk about yet another Spielberg/Williams score (this is their 30th film together!), the work Williams is doing here is absolutely wonderful. That the legendary composer is 94 and still able to create something this memorable is worth celebrating. Williams' "Disclosure Day" score isn't loaded with hum-worthy melodies like his work on Spielberg's "Jaws," the "Indiana Jones" films, or "Jurassic Park," but rather more subtle, more haunting; it only enhances the aforementioned dream-like atmosphere. It's a unique blend of the ominous and the beautiful.

From a technical standpoint, "Disclosure Day" is a wonder to behold. Where it falters a bit is its script, which is run-through with some clunky, tin-eared dialogue and a few leaps of logic that are difficult to overlook. Thrown into the mix is a mysterious MacGuffin known as the device, a piece of alien tech that can seemingly do whatever the script needs it to at any given moment. On more than one occasion, it feels like Spielberg and Koepp are using the device as a trick to to move the story along when they've painted themselves into a corner.

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As clumsy as some of the script material can be, Spielberg manages to bring it all home by finding a genuinely emotional through line. Most of this is centered around Blunt's Margaret, who finds herself suddenly in the midst of a world-altering, life-changing scenario that plays hell with her mental and emotional state.

One of the best scenes arises when Margaret is able to mentally manipulate WARDEX pursuers by conjuring up their loved ones, leaving everyone visibly shaken; it's one of the many instances where "Disclosure Day" equates the preternatural with something akin to a religious experience.

Eve Hewson's Jane, the almost-nun, also grapples with these events as they relate to her faith — she's of the conflicted opinion that maybe WARDEX is right, and telling the world about the existence of aliens might be a grave mistake. As for O'Connor's Daniel, even though the actor is quite gifted and I've enjoyed almost everything I've seen him do to this point, his character is a bit underbaked here; the narrative seems far more interested in Margaret than Daniel.

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All of this excitement is building towards a grand finale that I won't dare spoil, except to say whatever qualms I had with the film seemed to slip away as Spielberg worked his magic to remind us that he's a master of staging scenes that inspire a sense of wonder. I'm not sure if it rings "true," exactly, but there's an attempt at invoking a world-shaking moment of honesty that made me a little dizzy.

It's almost a reminder of a simpler time when conspiracy theories dealt with the fantastical and the unknowable, and a genuine (if misguided) quest for truth — unlike now, when we're inundated with crass politicians and grifter influencers who traffic in baseless conspiracy for their own selfish benefit.

At the heart of all the sci-fi shenanigans going on here is a longing for empathy in the face of things we can't quite understand. With "Disclosure Day," Steven Spielberg is attempting to give us a little hope in a hopeless world. The truth may not actually be out there, but wouldn't it be wonderful if it was?

/Film Rating: 9 out of 10

"Disclosure Day" opens in theaters on June 12, 2026.