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Disclosure Day – Film Review

Cast: Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Colman Domingo, Wyatt Russell

Director: Steven Spielberg

Synopsis: A cybersecurity expert and a meteorologist find themselves being pursued by a sinister government organisation due to their connection to some strange unexplained phenomena…

Review: “Are we alone in the universe?” A burning existential question humanity has asked across the aeons of our existence, driven by the belief that, in such a vast universe, extraterrestrial life exists beyond the world we call home. Without a definitive answer, cinema has extensively explored the concept of extraterrestrial life since its inception, beginning with the 1902 short film A Trip to the Moon by Georges Méliès. Among modern filmmakers who have left a UFO-sized imprint on this genre, you need look no further than Steven Spielberg. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and War of the Worlds (2005). After looking inward to tell his personal story of how he fell in love with moving pictures and aspired to make them with The Fabelmans, the legendary filmmaker turns his camera back to the skies in search of that elusive, definitive answer to whether alien life could really be out there.

The world stands on the brink of a catastrophic global conflict and cybersecurity expert Daniel Kellner (O’Connor) is hunted by his former employer, the shady government organisation Wardex headed by the ruthless Noah Scanlan (Firth), after he stole top-secret documents and hard drives confirming the existence of extraterrestrial life. Daniel is determined to release the information to the public, believing they have the right to know, with Wardex stopping at nothing to capture him and ensure those files never see the light of day. All the while, Kansas City meteorologist Margaret Fairchild (Blunt) experiences strange occurrences, speaking languages she doesn’t know, both human and non-human, with the latter occurring when she’s on air. Soon, Margaret finds herself pursued by Wardex as well, as she’s connected to this mysterious event in a way she doesn’t fully understand. She soon finds herself in a race against time to find Daniel and a group of former Wardex employees who have gone rogue with their mission to broadcast the truth before it is too late.

Throwing the audience headfirst into the action, amidst an extremely politically charged world where global superpowers stand ready to destroy each other with the simple push of a button, is certainly a bold (and depressingly relevant) way to open your film, without giving much in the way of key context. A striking way to open a film which could have very easily backfired. However, in such a distinguished filmmaker’s hands, it wastes no time in immediately conveying the gravity of the situation. The stakes could not be higher, as Daniel and his girlfriend Jane (Hewson) race to keep the files out of Wardex’s hands and make them public knowledge before the planet is left devastated by a nuclear catastrophe and civilisations as we know them have crumbled.

Given the extent to which he has explored the topic across his spectacular career, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Spielberg has been fascinated by extraterrestrial life since a very young age, a fascination that has become a staple of his filmography. Yet this is a far cry from the whimsical wonder of seeing a young boy become best friends with an alien with a glowing finger who just wants to phone home. Based on a story outline by Spielberg, the screenplay by the director’s long-time collaborator, David Koepp, remains grounded in a gritty political thriller shaped by 21st-century politics. Agendas fly all over the place as various parties are pursued by the government, which will do everything in its power to prevent top-secret files that expose dark truths which could be utterly damaging to its reputation from coming to light. It all sounds eerily familiar to the world we live in today.

With no shortage of men in suits relentlessly pursuing both Daniel and Margaret, the film offers plenty of exhilarating chase sequences, including one involving a moving train, allowing Spielberg to remind us of his force behind the camera. Yet beneath these slickly directed action sequences, many key players lack substantial character development. O’Connor is solid as a cyber expert determined to blow the whistle on long-buried government secrets, but his relationship with Jane is severely underdeveloped. In a rare change of pace from the quintessentially charming British man he usually plays, Firth is suitably menacing as Scanlan, complete with his natural accent, no less. He has a machine-like determination to prevent full disclosure, believing it would cause severe, irreparable harm to all of us.

The unquestioned star of the show, however, is Blunt’s Margaret. A woman who is initially far out of her depth, with little idea of what happened to her on air and confused as to why the government is suddenly pursuing her. Yet, as the film progresses, both she and the audience slowly come to understand just how integral she is to ensuring humanity’s survival, particularly as the film’s climactic third act comes into focus.

The rest of the cast, including Colman Domingo’s Hugo Wakefield, are not given nearly enough screen time or development, eschewed in favour of the high-intensity chase sequences. As the old saying goes, “the thrill is in the chase, not the capture”, but perhaps Spielberg could have leaned more into the cerebral side of the sci-fi mystery. Nevertheless, even after five decades of making us look to the stars and so much more, the veteran director gives us plenty to ponder. Not only to ask if there is life out there, but also how we can be a more cooperative and unified species, should the day ever come when it is revealed that we are not alone in the universe after all.