Movie Review: Disclosure Day

Steven Spielberg’s last film, the magnificent and emotionally devastating The Fablemans, was Spielberg at his most personal, pulling back the curtain on his past and dissecting his own emotions during his childhood and his parents’ divorce. It is the most personal film in his filmography, and a side of Spielberg we had never seen before.

With Spielberg’s latest film, Disclosure Day, Spielberg returns to the form that people most know him for with a big-budget summer blockbuster involving aliens. It’s like watching a master chef make their signature dish.

Disclosure Day gets the ball moving right away. We are introduced to Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor), who is in some sort of hostage situation to get his girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson) back from Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth) and his team of Men in Black-type agents after Daniel stole something valuable from Scanlon and his company, Wardex, while he was working there. Daniel and Jane escape this situation when Daniel pulls out a mysterious rod that frightens everybody.

Emily Blunt and Wyatt Russell in Disclosure Day — L to R: Emily Blunt is Margaret Fairchild and Wyatt Russell is Jackson in DISCLOSURE DAY, directed by Steven Spielberg.

This was a spectacular start to Disclosure Day. It was tense, thrilling, and intriguing. It left me with dozens of questions but also set the tone and pace of what was to come. Things get even more intriguing when we shift to Kansas City and meet Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt), a local weather girl with dreams of becoming an anchor. On a seemingly normal day, Margaret is getting ready for work when a cardinal flies into her apartment. Margaret stares at it intensely and, after a few minutes, her boyfriend (Wyatt Russell) shoos it away. After this encounter with the cardinal, Margaret begins to speak multiple languages and can read people’s thoughts and emotions but has no idea how or why. Things escalate even further when she starts delivering the weather report and starts speaking using mysterious, otherworldly tones. Margaret’s senses begin to kick in, and she sets out on a journey to meet with Daniel, though she has no idea why.

Disclosure Day is a non-stop chase, with each character having a set goal of where they want to go. Margaret wants to get to Daniel. Daniel is trying to meet with Hugo (Colman Domingo), another former Wardex employee who knows the truth about everything and wants to help Daniel and Margaret. And Noah wants to get the device back from Daniel so he can keep the secrets his agency has under wraps. Their motivations are clear, but the mystery of what is happening remains consistently intriguing throughout the entire film. Spielberg, working from a script by David Koepp, slowly reveals clues and hints to what is happening, never giving away too much information, yet always adding layers to its characters or the plot. And when the chase ends and all the questions are answered, the film comes to a perfect climax that is bold, emotional, and masterfully crafted. The film runs for nearly two and a half hours, yet I never asked myself when it would end. I only kept wondering what was going to happen and how deep and big this would get.

Colin Firth in Disclosure Day — Colin Firth (center, standing) in DISCLOSURE DAY, directed by Steven Spielberg.

While Spielberg has worked with aliens several times throughout his career, he has given us different iterations of them in each film. In Close Encounters of the Third Kind, aliens come to Earth peacefully and for research. In E.T. the Extraterrestrial, it was a friendly alien who got left behind by his home ship. In War of the Worlds, it was the classic takeover-the-world aliens hellbent on destruction. In Disclosure Day, Spielberg once again gives us another idea of what aliens can be and why they came to Earth. Spielberg also hammers home something that he has been telling us for years: regardless of who you are or what your beliefs are, aliens can somehow unite us all, whether through intrigue, kindness, or fear.

Spielberg’s filmmaking is in top form with Disclosure Day. He keeps the thrills coming with technical proficiency and exciting set pieces. Whether it is the camera swirling around Daniel as a crop circle forms, a single-take tracking shot of Daniel trying to steal a car from the agents chasing him, or an intense and heart-racing train sequence, Spielberg once again proves that he is a master at set pieces and understanding camera movements. Disclosure Day also boasts a spectacular cast, all of whom give great performances, particularly Emily Blunt, who gives one of the best performances of her career and is the emotional lynchpin of the whole film, and features a stellar score from John Williams.

Disclosure Day is as good as blockbuster filmmaking gets. It’s a gripping and visually stunning mystery with a great cast and exciting set pieces. It is one of the best movies of 2026.

TL;DR Review of Disclosure Day