Josh O’Connor plays a cybersecurity expert who defects from his company and steals classified information about the existence of aliens.
With Disclosure Day, Steven Spielberg returns to one of his favourite topics – aliens – 44 years after he last explored it in 1982’s E.T. the Extraterrestrial.
Spielberg, who also famously made 1977’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, brings the alien theme to the present day in his latest sci-fi flick, which stars Josh O’Connor and Emily Blunt.
O’Connor plays cybersecurity expert Daniel, who has defected from his company Wardex and taken a raft of classified materials to blow the whistle on the existence of aliens. Naturally, Wardex boss Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth) doesn’t want this information being disclosed to the public and sends his team to chase down Daniel and his girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson) and retrieve ‘the device’ and files.
In a separate storyline, Blunt plays Kansas City TV weather presenter Margaret Fairchild, who suddenly starts behaving weirdly, speaking new languages, making unusual clicking noises, and reading people’s minds. She telepathically knows that she needs to find Daniel and goes off in pursuit.
Naturally, their storylines come together eventually, as both Daniel and Margaret are being guided by Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo), another Wardex defector who is in charge of the disclosure plan.
We are dropped right into the middle of the story and have no idea what is going on. Who are these people? What information does Daniel have, and why does Wardex want it? These questions are gradually answered over the course of the film, mostly thanks to Jane being an outsider and our window into this new world.
The film gets off to a strong start as the mystery is gripping, and it comes together spectacularly in the end, which is surprisingly moving. However, the middle is more of an action-packed chase as Daniel and Jane keep trying to evade the Wardex team, and this might be less interesting to some.
As he has proven over his 55-year career, Spielberg knows how to make an exciting blockbuster packed with action setpieces, clever sci-fi ideas, memorable visual moments, and amazing practical effects – and he delivers all that in Disclosure Day, which feels like something he might have made in the ’90s or 2000s.
Among this strong, star-studded ensemble, Blunt easily outshines everyone else. Her foreign language moments are impressive, as well as her ability to flit between absurd and comedic beats to heavy, emotional ones. She’s extraordinary.
Disclosure Day isn’t perfect (the CGI animals are a low point), but it is still a great summer blockbuster. Spielberg does it once again.
In cinemas from Wednesday 10th June
By Hannah Wales
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