Steven Spielberg is back. The legendary director hasn’t made a film since 2022’s phenomenal The Fabelmans, and his return couldn’t come at a better time. The maestro is jumping back into the world of sci-fi blockbusters for the first time since 2016’s Ready Player One.
His latest, Disclosure Day, is a major step up. It’s also a giant middle finger to MAGA.
Now, Disclosure Day isn’t inherently political. But like many great science-fiction films, it holds an illuminating mirror to our society. Disclosure Day is about evil forces trying to stop the truth about aliens from coming out. Throughout the film, the powers that be do whatever they can to keep the story from leaking, working tirelessly and violently to keep their inhumane actions towards aliens from ever seeing the light of day. Not unlike, say, the relentless mission to keep the Epstein files concealed.
This is a film that celebrates not only humanity but the pursuit of truth.
Let’s take a step back. Nobody knows science fiction like Spielberg. The man has helmed one sci-fi classic after another, including E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Minority Report, and A.I. Artificial Intelligence. It’s one of the best genres to explore real-world issues. Through distant planets and otherworldly features, we can draw parallels to our world.
WARNING: Spoilers for Disclosure Day ahead.
Except Spielberg’s films have always been grounded on Earth, and Disclosure Day is no exception. There are two connecting stories that provide the foundation of Disclosure Day. In one, Daniel (Josh O’Connor), a cybersecurity expert, has gone rogue against the evil corporation he works for, called Wardex. Wardex has been covering up evidence of extraterrestrial life, but Daniel is ready for Disclosure Day, when he’ll reveal it to the world.
In the other, meteorologist Margaret (a tremendous Emily Blunt) finds her life in flux when she’s suddenly able to do things she never imagined, including knowing someone’s whole life the moment she sees them. At work, she’s suddenly overcome on-air and begins speaking in an alien language of eerie clicks and clacks, which predictably goes viral. The key to understanding what the hell’s happening to her lies with Daniel—the two are mysteriously connected.
Perhaps Disclosure Day’s most damning and prescient critique of American politics is its complete lack of an American president. That’s not to say this is an alternative country without government, but for a sci-fi film about an event that could change America and the world forever, the vacancy of any government figures is remarkable. There’s no attempt at creating a Trumplike figure, because as Disclosure Day sees things, the role of the American president has become all but meaningless.
It’s a sharp contrast to Spielberg’s ‘77 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In that film, the government was responsible for the cover-up. Here, it’s a big tech corporation. It’s a clear sign of the times that a major Hollywood blockbuster seems to view the government as such an embarrassment that it wouldn’t even factor in what would be one of the most significant events in the history of the world.
That’s not to say there isn’t an avatar for the president in Disclosure Day. The leader of Wardex, Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), feels like a stand-in for the current commander-in-chief. The fact that he’s entirely vested in corporate interests and not the will of the people is yet another repudiation of MAGA. He’s a man desperate to stop the truth from coming out, distracting the masses with whatever he can muster, doing whatever it takes for the truth to stay hidden.
Scanlon is a seedy, miserable man who is willing to do anything and everything to prevent Margaret and Daniel from meeting, as their connection to making Disclosure Day happen.
It’s never clearer that Scanlon is a MAGA symbol than when Hugo (Colman Domingo), a former Wardex employee helping Daniel with Disclosure Day, delivers a scathing monologue to Scanlon. It comes towards the end of the film, when all of Scanlon’s efforts have failed again and again—his malicious incompetence is about an unsubtle allusion to Trump I can imagine—though he’s not ready to give up just yet.
“When precisely did you lose your bearings?” Scanlon asks Hugo.
“When you lost yours,” Hugo responds.
Hugo details the way Scanlon has turned Wardex into a miserable, inhumane place. “You’ve brutally stifled their questions,” Hugo says of Wardex employees. “They are starved for the truth,” he continues. “This campaign of obfuscation and cover-up has to end.”
It’s a knockout moment from Domingo, but also a vital message about telling the truth. Hugo’s response to Scanlon is laced with exhaustion. He is deeply discouraged by how Scanlon has stifled dissidents, silenced critics, and tried to destroy anyone who gets in his way. Sound familiar?
This is a movie that strongly advocates for the importance of truth, that no matter how hard you try to suppress it, what is true will eventually be brought to light. That Scanlon eventually suffers a humiliating defeat, and the truth is ultimately disclosed about the aliens, is a moment of exceptional optimism when we need it most.
Yet Spielberg’s film is clever enough to show us the impact of what happens when we learn about aliens, just like we don’t know what would happen if and when the full Epstein files were ever released.
But that shouldn’t stop us from continuing the fight and leading with hope. As Disclosure Day suggests, the truth can set us free.
