Auteur director Steven Spielberg returns the UFO/UAP genre that he helped revolutionized with Disclosure Day. It serves as the conclusion to his loose trilogy of extra-terrestrial contact films that started with Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. War of the Worlds does not really count because it was a remake of the 1950s classic and was more simplistic with its portrayal of extra-terrestrials. In other words, Aliens bad, humanity mostly good. With Disclosure Day, Spielberg once again proves that he is the master of his craft with this tense and thought-provoking film.

Disclosure Day stars Josh O’Connor as Daniel Kellner, a hacker on the run with his girlfriend Jane Blankenship (Eve Hewson) from a nefarious government-associated organization called Wardex run by Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth) because Kellner stole film evience that the U.S. government had recovered alien technology and beings from crash sites throughout the past 79 years, and imprisoned and tortured the recovered alien beings. He also stole a piece of alien technology that has to be handled delicately because of its unimaginable capabilities. Scanlon will stop at nothiing to capture Kellner because Kellner’s ally, Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo), is preparing to reveal the truth about extra-terrestrials to the public in a desperate attempt to bring the world back from the point of no return since it is on the edge of World War III.

Kellner is challenged not only by Scanlon but Jane herself, who questions the consequences of revealing the truth to a human populace that may not be ready to learn the truth about their place in the universe.

The film also follows the story of Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt), a restless weather meterologist in Kansas City, who begins to display psychic powers after encountering a cardinal in her apartment. These powers manifest in her ability to speak languages she never knew including an unearthly garble of clicks, and with the capability of understanding the emotions and thoughts of others. She too, goes on the run after being hospitalized after Wardex goons pretending to be FBI agents show up at her hospital room.

The paths of Fairchild and Kellner eventually cross paths as she is psychically drawn to seek him out and help him in his quest to disclose the truth to the world.

Unlike his previous films about extra-terrestrials, Disclosure Day is more mature, grittier and a fitting conlcusion to what Spielberg is trying to convey about contact with extra-terrestrial intelligence. While Close Encounters of the Third Kind focused on making contact and E.T. was about buidling relationships, Disclosure Day tackles the consequences of contact and how we react to that. The film tackles many important questions such as where do we go from here? What would happen if humanity learned it was not alone? What impact would such a disclosure have on societal institutions like religion? The end of the film may frustrate some but it is quite appropriate to leave its conclusion up to audiences since it respects them enough to let audiences come to their own conclusions.

Do not think the film is some kind of dry treatise about alien life. Disclosure Day moves briskly and is unbelievably riveting at times with the intense and creative action scenes that made Spielberg so renowned. Such moments include a thrilling pursuit that takes place in an abandoned farmhouse and an edge-of-your-seat sequence involving cars and trains. The moments when Scanlon uses an alien artifact to mentally hunt down and enslave his victims was downright disturbing and added to the film’s paranoia. Wardex is symptomatic of the runaway military-industrial complex that is plaguing this world supposedly for the good of all of us. It is quite easy for audiences to despise Scanlon and the corporate stooges that work for this malignant corporation and to root for the underdog heroes.

Fairchild’s use of her empathic powers was both eerie and captivating and shows how one can accomplish wonders without resorting to violence. Speaking of empathy, although the film is more adult and darker than Spielberg’s other alien films it still holds on to the loose trilogy’s message of hope and empathy being what wins out despite the obstacles the films’ heroes face. Unlike previous efforts where the idea of love and empathy being the greatest tool we need to get along, this film does not get lost in syrupy and over the top scenes to tug at our heartstrings. It lets the actions of the characters and events to convey that something more is needed for us to get by in this downtrodden world that is on the brink of a nuclear nightmare. To its credit, the film does not go overboard with its presentation of the eve of a world war, then again it disturbingly echoes what goes on with the real world, as people try to go about their normal lives with the backdrop of the global nightmare awaiting them. The film’s message about humanity having to be more empathic and trusting feels more relevant and resonant with us given our current circumstances.

The famous Spielberg tropes and camera work are present in the film and they still work. The film has a few flaws such as some of the special effects could have been better, although the found footage of the U.S. military recovering the alien crash sites are topnotch. The film also features many terrific performances especially by Emily Blunt who is at her best portraying someone who has been touched by something extraordinary and is understandably confused by her situation. Yet despite her situation, Fairchild is quite determined to find out what is going on with what is happenging to her and we can’t help root for her and Kellner as they stay one step ahead of Wardex.

For fans of his alien films, Disclosure Day is a logical conclusion to the theme of humanity and its place in the universe as we are given the chance to think outside the box for something better. One concept the film explores fittingly is that the aliens are not important but instead it is how we react to them. This was why Spielberg in his original cut of Close Encounters of the Third Kind never showed us any details about the alien spaceships, nor why we never learned about the aliens in his films or their motives, except in E.T.’s case that the aliens are explorers. This film comes closer to giving us the answer in that the extra-terrestrials are probably here to help us frrom ourselves, though that is up to any person watching the film. For anyone captivated by the recent renewed interest in the UFO/UAP phenomenon and is displeased by the lack of true disclosure, despite promises from government officials, the film feels very cathartic in its final moments.

The most important question for fans is how does Disclousre Day measure up to Spielberg’s other films, many of which are classics. Well, it is his best genre effort since his work in the early 2000s and a return to form for the master director. Disclosure Day shows that Spielberg is still in top form and the film itself has to be seen and treasured.

José Soto