Disclosure Day (Christian Movie Review)
Disclosure Day has plenty of Spielbergian magic and compelling ideas to make for a highly entertaining sci-fi journey, even if it doesn’t fully weave its promising ideas together or explore its thematic questions in meaningful enough ways to reach its full potential.
About the Film
The year is 2026 and the dynamic duo of director Steven Spielberg (79 years old) and composer John Williams (94 years old) are teaming up for another buzzworthy film about aliens. What a gift for movie lovers! The film is fittingly set against the backdrop of the real-life US Government releasing previously classified UFO files. Much of the discourse and conspiracy theories around UFOs and government coverups tend to focus on the desire for the files to be publicly released. However, Disclosure Day asks what happens when the dog finally catches his tail—what would we actually do with this earth-shattering information? Disclosure Day has plenty of Spielbergian magic and compelling ideas to make for a highly entertaining sci-fi journey, even if it doesn’t fully weave its promising ideas together or explore its thematic questions in meaningful enough ways to reach its full potential.
Without spoiling major plot points (the less you know going in the better), this isn’t really a film about aliens. Although their presence is felt throughout, on-screen aliens play only a minor role. Disclosure Day is more about humans, and the worldview implications for our identity, religion, and faith to discover that we are not alone in the universe. It’s an interesting concept and adds a greater degree of intellectual and thematic depth than some of Spielberg’s previous films in the genre (even if it occasionally exposes some of his weaknesses as a storyteller). It’s more a phycological thriller and drama than an edge-of-your-seat Sci-Fi action flick.
Disclosure Day is an impressive cinematic showcase that shows Spielberg is an all-time great for a reason, despite being nearly 80 years old. The camera is constantly in motion and doing interesting things. A showstopping action sequence featuring a moving train had me grinning with joy at the pure cinematic mastery (“This is movie making, baby!”). Several other sequences are a total delight, capturing a sense of wonder, awe, and heart in ways that Spielberg arguably has done better than anyone for over fifty years.
Unfortunately, while Disclosure Day is jam-packed with inventive narrative ideas, striking visuals, and thematic questions, the sum is never greater than the parts. The various intriguing threads are never fully woven together to make an impactful tapestry, as a film that is simply about too many different things to ever be about any one thing. At times, the film feels like a series of pieced-together moments and ideas that all relate (in varying degrees) to the film’s central idea, rather than a cohesive narrative.
Re-watchability is a not a requirement of a great film (there are plenty of excellent movies that I don’t feel a need to revisit). But the re-watchability test might reveal some of the shortcomings of the film. Disclosure Day is carried by the intrigue of the mystery at the climatic destination, but the actual journey to get there is not always as compelling. Actress Emily Blunt is fantastic in the film, particularly near the end when she carries the story with some dramatic and emotional moments. But the film doesn’t give these character moments enough space to breathe. The film asks captivating questions but rushes to the next exciting car chase sequence before allowing audiences (or the on-screen characters) time to ponder them.
In the lead up to the film’s release, Spielberg made provocative statements about how the film explores question of God that may shake some Christians. Those claims prove overblown, but Disclosure Day is one of the most overtly theological stories in Spielberg’s expansive filmography. There’s plenty of religious imagery and dialogue that would feel at home in a faith-based film. It’s reminded me of Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man (and not just because both feature actor Josh O’Connor). When I interviewed Rian Johnson for that film, he noted that talking about religion in a so-called secular film is a sort of third rail, but that faith and the church is central to the experience of so many people. He thinks that people actually want to talk about it. I agree, and Spielberg seemingly does so too.
I was intrigued by the promise of the theological dialogue, but the film doesn’t really have much to say, or as profound or shocking of implications as it seems to think it does. Whereas Wake Up Dead Man felt deeply personal (Johnson was raised Christian but left the faith as an adult), Disclosure Day comes across more as someone on the outside of the church projecting how those inside the church might react. I commend the willingness to tackle questions of faith and religion, but it felt more like theological dialogue purposed to add a sense of intellectual depth to a sci-fi film, rather than a sci-fi film used to authentically penetrate theological questions.
In the end, Disclosure Day is an entertaining film from one of Hollywood’s greatest storytellers, so it is hard to be overly critical. Still, much like the over hyped (and under delivered) release of the real-world UFO files, the film fails to meet its unfairly lofty expectations. Disclosure Day is a good film that may still disappoint audiences hoping for a great one. It may not entirely work as a thought-provoking work of theological questioning, but audiences shouldn’t take for granted the opportunity to experience the creative genius of Hollywood legends like Spielberg and Williams.
For Consideration
On the Surface—(Profanity, Sexual content, violence, etc.).
Language: There are 2 F-words (although one is not fully articulated), and a collection of other profanities (mostly “s—”), as well frequent uses of God’s name.
Violence: A character stabs the palm of her hand with sharp objects, drawing some blood. Some aliens undergo torture (mostly off-screen, but the screams are heard).
Sexuality: A former nun remarks to her boyfriend that they have had sex, as an example that she no longer fully follows her religious lifestyle.
Other: There is talk about empathy being an “evolutionary trait.”
Engage The Film
The Truth Will Set You Free
The film’s various thematic threads are connected by questions on the nature of truth—who controls the truth, and how do we (or should we) respond to receiving the truth? The influence of religion is shown in both a positive and negative sense. Religious language and biblical quotations are used to manipulate and repress the truth by institutions that believe the greater good comes from their authority and power to steward and guard people from the truth.
At the same time, the most authentically religious characters in the film are the ones who best navigate the shocking disclosure of alien life. When a woman is being controlled by the leader of the manipulative institution (with the help of some alien mind control device), she uses a cross necklace to pierce herself in the palm of her hand, allowing the pain to break the connection. The necklace recurs throughout the film, providing some vivid imagery of someone (literally) clinging to Jesus and the cross as a source of truth amid confusing times.
In one scene, the same young woman expresses that while she questions whether Jesus was divine, she still believes that faith and religion is essential for the moral order of life and society. She has doubts—fueled by her changing and chaotic circumstances—but is continually pulled back to God. After discovering the truth of alien life, she asks her religious mentor, “Do you believe that God loves us?” Are we still God’s prized creation with a special place in His created order or merely one among many? The mentor responds by asking how God’s creativity and power could be contained to just us? The disclosure of alien life does not shake her faith; it merely reaffirms her conviction of God’s power and glory. She says to the younger lady, “You did not lose your faith in God. You lost your faith in people.”
The film reflects what C. S. Lewis would call sehnscht, or theologian Blaise Pascal would refer to as a “God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man.” People are innately drawn to worship something greater than us. A religious bystander even bows down to Emily Blunt’s character (after she has demonstrated some unexplained powers), leading her to run away and declare, “I will not be someone’s religion!”
Humans are created to worship, and Disclosure Day reflects that reality, even as it emphasizes the external forces and circumstances at work to repress, shake, or deny the truth. The film’s message is perhaps best encapsulated in the words of Jesus, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32). The last word in the film is a simple exhortation to “listen.” It’s an optimistic message that the truth sets people free, and so the more openly available the truth is, the better. Interestingly, the film is set against the backdrop of civilization on the brink of World War III, but the news broadcast is interrupted by the “disclosure day.” The bigger questions of meaning and our place in the universe make all our earthly conflicts and trials seem trivial in comparison.
