Aliens, Fiction, and Potholes: ‘Disclosure Day’ review/analysis
[Only a few Spoilers] by crisbaj
Walking into the theatre for the ‘Disclosure Day’ first-showing, I asked myself, “With thousands of SciFi TV and movies over the last century, how in the world will Spielberg tell a good Alien story on the big screen in a way worthy of a film-making master?”
Yeah, he did it. He pulled it off.
Classic Spielberg… emotional gut-grabber…
Putting aside the spit-storm that’s going to erupt in the Christian community over the theological lines he crossed, and the potholes in the road that will be a problem for many, Sir Steven did what he does best… a captivating, action-packed, warm-and-fuzzy movie that’s sure to be the 2026 ‘have you seen it?’ film.
‘Disclosure Day’ [Universal/Amblin Entertainment, now in theatres] spins the yarn of Snowden-like mastermind Daniel stealing Alien secrets from military-industrial giant Wardex. With the help of his conflicted girlfriend Jane, Danny wants to go ‘full Disclosure’ to the entire world. The backdrop is the world on-the-brink of War, as they are hunted by Wardex’s mad genius Noah, using super-power-infused Alien tekk. Acting as the Disclosure-collaborator is Hugo, a former Wardex insider, now steering Daniel into the orbit of Margaret, the TV weather girl who experiences her ‘other-species awakening’ on-air, in the form of Alien-sounding grunts and clicks for all of Kansas City to see.
Spielberg tells a progressive-revelation, multi-layered, complicated story with elegance, respect, wonder and kindness. He is, and has been one of our great cultural story-tellers. Who can say they didn’t cry when E.T. said good-bye to Elliot, or left stunned by the profundity of Schindler’s List?
By understanding the soul-wrenching power of good story with relatable characters, we are teleported into that place of wonder and shared connection. ‘Disclosure Day’ builds a fictional story while making withdrawals from our collective Alien experiences and memories. As the chase scenes and intense dialogue unfold, we all feel some sense of shared identity.
With Steven’s 1977 classic ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ taking us to that same emotional space, ‘D-Day’ stands as a perfect book-end to what many of us shared 50 years ago.
‘Disclosure Day’ is a surprising existential question: since I am alienated from you, as you are alienated from me, why are we so disconnected from each other?
The CE3K story was more about us… humans… than the Mother Ship at Devil’s Tower. Now, in the final scene of ‘D-Day’, we are faced with a more human question… what do we do?
In 2026, we all share a collective history regarding Aliens. Strange lights in the sky. Stories of crashes and cover-ups. Sightings. Unexplained encounters that the Government denies. ‘Project Blue Book’ and Area 51. Thousands of ‘abduction’ accounts. In regards to Aliens, nothing can surprise us. By the end of the film, even the un-wielding Noah becomes a protagonist. Hope and wonder reign supreme by the film’s finale.
Gorgeous symphonic music, scored and composed by the legend John Williams is always worth sitting thru to the end of the credit crawl.
If you see ‘Disclosure Day’, watch the eyes… all the characters… their focus, their color, their glimmers… perception is a side-story…
THEN THE POTHOLES…
As a writer in the ‘Christian Faith Community’, I paid careful attention to all the pre-release press junkets and ‘special-guest’ appearances of Sir Steven, as well as the actual film. To my alarm, a number of times he strongly steered into the parking-lot of ‘this film is totally true… it is Disclosure of Aliens and their message to us… we shouldn’t be afraid…”
Pothole!
Finally, at the D-Day world premiere, Spielberg admitted to Jamie Burton of ‘Official Pop Drop’, “…it’s not a true story, but it’s about something I believe is very close to the truth”.
Whew!
Let’s be clear: ‘Disclosure Day’ is an expensively-crafted, well-scripted, expertly filmed supernatural-science fiction thriller filled with a brilliant and talented star-studded cast.
The director-written story-line draws from numerous unconfirmed and personal accounts involving direct Alien activity since 1947. Spielberg claims to be convinced most of it actually happened.
That’s fine, but, ‘D-Day’ is fiction. Science fiction. SciFi. Speculative fiction.
Supernatural fiction.
‘Disclosure Day’ is not a documentary with real-world footage.
Next.
If Steven’s first venture into the ‘alien contact’ world, ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ was the extra-terrestrial ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’, then fifty years later, ‘Disclosure Day’ is a updated SciFi-Alien version of ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’.
In CE3K, telekinesis and extra-perception messaging was used sparingly in the ‘invite’ to meet the Aliens. Disturbingly, the SciFi-horror sequence of that movie, the abduction of the child Barry still shocks to this day. However, in CE3K, we never see the Aliens messing with Barry, even though he seems odd when they return him to his mum at the movie’s end.
Now referencing the elements of modern-day abductions recalled by many, ‘Disclosure Day’ shows us the reveal-flashback of the children Daniel and Margaret both abducted and ‘upgraded’ for the purposes of being the go-between interpreters for the coming Alien reveal.
Emily Blunt, the actress who played Margaret tells that her character was ‘imbued’ with Alien powers in that sequence, allowing her telepathic and empath abilities to be revealed during the story. These Alien-imbued powers culminate in her complete activation by the end of the film.
The abduction and alteration scenes are treated with a fairy-tale, Disneyesque quality. We’re supposed to feel comfortable with all this.
Not.
Children abducted. Children being altered by Aliens. No consent. No permission. Memories repressed until revealed during the film.
Big Pothole.
Next.
One premise of the film is that humanity has lost one critical capacity that would insure its’ long-term species survival’… empathy. We watch as Margaret’s childhood Alien upgrade activates on-screen, demonstrating how this person-by-person connective virtue works, seeming to smooth frosting over the one raw reality of how that special ‘imbued ability’ was imparted.
Childhood abduction.
The end never justifies the means.
Pothole.
Next.
Everybody on the Planet would agree that mind-control, being forced against ones’ will to do harmful things, say things or behave in undesirable ways is bad… a deep violation of personhood and humanity.
In ‘D-Day’, the secretive Wardex, aided by the US Military, has acquired Alien tekk in the form of metallic objects about the size of a TV remote. They show up throughout the film as having abilities to do ‘super-natural’ things.
The Wardex villain Noah has learned to use them for ‘diving into people’, which involves astral projection, mind-control, physical control of another’s movements, thought manipulation, and making people (like Jane) do things against her conscious will that would involve harm to Daniel.
Use of ‘diving’, and other such ‘supernatural’ power to exert such manipulative control over a person is considered… well, in Christian circles, horribly evil.
Some Christian media reviewers are even labeled these scenes ‘demonic’ in nature.
Huge. Pothole.
Lastly, the famously a-religious Spielberg definitely dove head-long into Christian value systems and theological debates about Aliens and the Supernatural-Spiritual. There’s more than a few spiritual ‘wondering out loud’ moments in ‘D-Day’, especially to challenge long-held ‘human exceptionalism’… the belief that humanity is the only sentient and sapient species in God’s entire creation.
Sir Steven ‘wondered out loud’ in a recent CBS News interview, “Is God our God only on this planet? Or is God a God for every system where there is civilization and intelligent life?”
Spielberg’s ‘question’ was answered in the film emphatically by the character Sister Maura, Abbess of the Monastery of St. Clare of the Dawn, clarifying our understanding only applies “… on Earth!”
[It’s no accident that St. Clare of the Dawn is the patron saint of screen-viewed media… yeah, really!]
In a number of his pre-film-debut interviews, Sir Steven seemed amused that he would be ‘stirring up a religious controversy… maybe even having people question their faith’.
However, as theologian and author Leonard Sweet recently pointed out in his Substack blog, ‘D-Day’ won’t shake the truly Faithful. Moreover, the Alien question was asked, answered and settled in 1277 AD for Christians. [see Reference link at the end]
Minor Pothole.
So, does ‘Disclosure Day’ pose a problem for Christians?
For some… yes.
Even before the movie release, certain Christian media venues took the opportunity to register their concerns. There are no real Aliens, they’ve assert, just Angels or Demons and the coming great Deception [St. Matthew Chapter 24 and 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2]. Outlets like Christian Broadcasting Network and Charisma Magazine have posted some pretty strong anti ‘D-Day’ commentary and reviews.
I’m going to leave that debate alone in this diatribe.
Many points of pause, mucho potholes. The childhood abductions, forcing people against their will, mind-control, and telepathic powers. For many, huge potholes in the road, regardless of how one believes regarding Aliens.
Many Christian agencies are telling their Faithful, ‘you should pray about seeing ‘Disclosure Day’, possibly avoiding it all together.’
Yes, I would agree. Pray about it, go in ready for a rough road.
The theological arguments… sure, we’ll have fun watching the theologians go at it in their robes and cool hats on social media.
As far as huge numbers of people falling away from Christ and the Church over this film?
Not.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Those ‘pothole’ issues have been used in soooooo many previous SciFi movies over the last 50 years, the only thing that will turn up the volume on those ‘Disclosure Day’ scenes in 2026 will be its’ wider audience.
Perhaps these types of portrayals have just become normalized for many.
There is no denying how a gripping story, a brilliant cast, filmed brilliantly, scripted wonderfully… is a movie-house, big-screen winner.
Oh, yeah… there be Aliens and Saucers and Crash Sites, and… a lot of emotion at the end.
written by crisbaj
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Bio: Blogger crisbaj is a son, worshipper of God, disciple of Jesus, husband, father, grandpa, friend, guitarist, writer, and amigo. His life-long career and work has been as a nurse and educator, serving the poor around the world, while enjoying friends, strong coffee and loud music in the strangest places.
Reference:
<>Leonard Sweet’s Substack
https://leonardsweet.substack.com/p/an-open-letter-to-steven-spielberg
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