A cybersecurity expert and a Midwest weather reporter seek to reveal the existence of aliens to the world while para-government agents try to stop them by any means necessary. Disclosure Day ponders faith and meaning, but crash lands in a hazy spiritual landscape. Action violence, some harsh language and a few bits of suggestive dialogue crop up, too.
Are we alone in the universe?
Dr. Danny Kellner knows the answer to that question. And he wants everyone else to know it, too. But not everyone shares Danny’s desire for total transparency. Chief among them, Wardex, his old para-government employer.
Wardex was created to keep certain, shall we say, extraterrestrial interests strictly confidential. And those in charge are willing to kill to keep it that way.
Despite the danger, Danny and his fellow Wardex defectors are determined to deliver the truth to the world. Danny has the evidence, but that’s only one piece of the puzzle. The other lies with Margaret Fairchild, a Kansas City weather anchor who recently acquired some shocking abilities—not the least of which was becoming a sparkling conversationalist in a mysterious, alien language.
A language only Danny can understand.
By working together, can Danny and Margaret reveal the truth about extraterrestrials to the world? Or will Wardex bury the secret—and them with it?
Full disclosure? That’s the idea.
Danny’s (and his compatriots’) desire to reveal a hidden truth to the world in the face of great danger is admirable. Although different characters wrestle with this mission and its potential consequences, the film lands firmly on the side of knowing (and reckoning with) the truth as a good thing—which, to some, may seem to echo a fundamental Christian understanding regarding the ultimate Truth.
A group of nuns offer sanctuary to Danny and his girlfriend, Jane. Characters risk their lives for each other. One child comforts another as they share a frightening experience.
[This section contains spoilers.]
One of the main themes that Disclosure Day explores is how people of faith might reevaluate their beliefs if they discovered that extraterrestrials existed. And in this film—as in many of director Steven Spielberg’s works—aliens do exist.
Oftentimes, the film seems to pit this knowledge (the existence of aliens) against faith (belief in God). Jane was, for a time, a novice nun—but she left because she had questions about God’s divinity. Despite this, Jane believes that God (or, at least, the idea of God) remains essential to humanity’s moral framework. Thus, she questions Danny’s desire to reveal the existence of aliens to the world, as it could undermine faith in God.
To be fair, the characters in Disclosure Day don’t universally believe that the knowledge of aliens is a death knell to faith in God. Sister Maura, one of the prominent nuns at a monastery and a mentor to Jane, believes God’s love (and presumably, sovereignty) would extend to extraterrestrials as much as humans. Sister Maura goes a bit further, however, asking, “Why would [God] make such a vast universe only for [humanity]?”
Noah, a Wardex bigwig, uses a piece of alien technology to assert control over other people—somewhat akin to a spiritual possession or mind control. In one scene, Jane tries to resist Noah’s influence. In her duress, she squeezes a crucifix in her hand so hard that it cuts into her palm. (The bleeding wound recalls stigmata.) The pain temporarily frees Jane from Noah’s power but, eventually, the alien artifact wins out, and the crucifix falls to the ground. During this encounter, Noah and Jane both quote from Jesus’ prayer in Luke 22:42.
A man says that empathy is the “core of animate existence” and the “ultimate evolutionary advantage.” Extraterrestrials are called “supreme beings” and “nearer to God” than humans.
Both Danny and Margaret have been “gifted” with special abilities by aliens. Danny was given an innate understanding of mathematics, which are called the “book of the universe.” Margaret has the perceptive, almost psychic power to know the people she meets as well as they know themselves. She changes her appearance in the minds of others.
Upon witnessing Margaret’s otherworldly abilities, a woman crosses herself and bows to Margaret. Margaret rejects this sign of worship, saying, “I will not be anyone’s religion.”
We are told about St. Clare of Assisi, who received a miraculous vision of a Roman Catholic mass that she was unable to attend in person due to illness: This is compared to someone’s ability to use an alien device to be in “two places at once.”
Nuns pray and hold rosary beads in a monastery. We see crosses and statues of saints. Someone prays to God the Father in Latin. A Gideon Bible is briefly glimpsed in a hotel room.
After learning Jane was once a novice nun, Danny wonders if she keeps the same religious commitments; she responds in the negative by reminding him that they’ve had sex. At one point, they share a kiss.
Margaret and her boyfriend are not married, but they live together. Due to their extraordinary connection, Margaret seeks out Danny, making her boyfriend a bit jealous.
A muscular wrestler is seen shirtless. Some flirtatious dialogue crops up.
Wardex is committed to keeping their alien secrets under wraps, so Danny, Margaret and others face deadly peril while being pursued by Wardex operatives.
Danny steals a car and a high-speed chase ensues. Cars crash, flip and careen off a cliff. A car gets hooked onto a train and pulled along the tracks; a train traveling in the opposite direction obliterates the car just after its occupants vacate it. People fire guns. A person under mind control wields a knife; she breaks the connection by stabbing her own hand.
Footage shows the torture of an alien: We don’t see much of it, but we hear the creature’s pained screams. Other footage shows the aftermath of alien ship crashes, and we see extraterrestrials who have been injured or killed.
Noah takes control of people through an alien device, and it seems like a painful experience for his victims. But Noah’s use of the device causes him harm as well.
We see some blood as the result of beatings and other wounds. It’s implied that a woman is in a physically abusive relationship. People (comically) crash into an invisible structure.
The f-word is used once and nearly used a second time. We hear the s-word seven times. God’s name is misused about 30 times, paired once with “d–n.” “H—” is used eight times.
We are told that Danny did drugs—specifically, ketamine—while in college. We see kegs of beer stacked in a loading dock.
To share the truth about the existence of aliens with the world, Danny stole the “data he was paid to protect.” He served time in prison for cybercrime, after which Wardex immediately recruited him.
We hear that the world is in a precarious spot with lots of international strife. People stock up on supplies in preparation for a possible doomsday scenario.
Margaret’s father died from Parkinson’s disease when she was a child. A character has an intense panic attack.
Are we alone in the universe?
It’s a question many have pondered while gazing at the countless stars that litter the vast of night. Steven Spielberg, no stranger to telling alien-infused science fiction stories, has been obsessed with that question since childhood.
“There’s pockets [about aliens] that, of course, are conspiracy theories,” Spielberg said on an episode of CBS Sunday Mornings. “But the actual idea that we have been under observation and [are] being interacted with is something that I have kind of always hung on to as a core truth.”
As Christians, we’d say that we are under observation, in a sense, and certainly share an interaction with something that is beyond humanity. But it’s not bug-eyed little gray aliens: It’s what Disclosure Day frequently seems to pit them against—an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, fully divine and sovereign God who made humanity in His own image and desires a relationship with each and every one of us.
Unfortunately, the film trades the solid ground of theological historicity for the shifting sands of a pseudoscientific mystery box.
This might be a good place to mention that, in the real world, plenty of Christian theologians have wrestled with the topic of alien life—without much consensus. In his 1958 essay “Religion and Rocketry,” none other than C.S. Lewis surmised that, “If we find ourselves to be but one among a million races, scattered through a million spheres, how can we, without absurd arrogance, believe ourselves to have been uniquely favored [by God]?”
Lewis also references a similar analogue to aliens faced by St. Augustine: “St. Augustine raised a question about the theological position of satyrs, monopods and other semi-human creatures. He decided it could wait till we knew there were any. So can this.”
In short, when it comes to aliens, it’s all speculation. But even if aliens do exist, they are subject to the same sovereign Lord.
But setting aside Disclosure Day’s spiritual spaciness, does it work as a film? I think so, if for no other reason than Spielberg is still a master filmmaker and had a talented cast at his disposal. Is it the director’s best film in 20 years, as some have said? Even considering Spielberg’s somewhat less than impressive filmography over the last two decades—thrown into sharper relief due to the seismic impact of his work prior to 2006—I’d say no. Not by a long shot. There are too many ideas floating around in Disclosure Day that, while they may deserve merit individually, don’t coalesce into a fully functional whole.
In the end, Disclosure Day is an entertaining but unfocused rumination on the revelation of extraterrestrial life that, unfortunately, undermines a lot of its own intrigue. Toss in action violence, a bit of harsh language and spirituality that’s as blurry as a picture of a UFO, and you’ve got a film that many families will be fine leaving undisclosed.
Bret loves a good story—be it a movie, show, or video game—and enjoys geeking out about things like plot and story structure. He has a blast reading and writing fiction and has penned several short stories and screenplays. He and his wife love to kayak the many beautiful Colorado lakes with their dog.
