All is (Sort of) Disclosed in Spielberg's "Disclosure Day"

It's been a while since I’ve seen a studio and filmmaker project an aura of secrecy surrounding an upcoming project to the point that you feel like you’re talking about trade secrets, yet that is how things were approached for Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day.” For the past few years, the studio stubbornly only referred to this as the “2026 Steven Spielberg Film.” Actors were forced to deny they were even making it, and when the trailer did come out it raised more questions than answers. The poster (in an industry whose marketing is celebrity-focused and milquetoast) featured Emily Blunt staring up to the sky as a light shaped like a bird covered her face.

Just what kind of movie was this going to be?!

Well, I now have the difficult job of discussing what we have and doing so in a way that respects the filmmaker's secrecy. I did this with Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron,” and now I am doing so for Mr. Spielberg, another one of the greatest living filmmakers of our day, who deserves to have his vision experienced first-hand as well. I will start by saying this is likely not the movie summer audiences will be expecting. What can audiences possibly expect when everything—from the marketing to what the story is about—has been kept purposefully vague?

Well, when audiences watch a Spielberg film they expect many things. They expect emotional stakes. If the movie is released in the fall they expect high adult drama, whereas if the movie is released in the summer (like it is here) they expect a more sprawling adventure. If the actor's name is above the title, chances are you can expect either a character study or an emotional drama. “Disclosure Day” is a movie that asks questions about the universe, what is out there, and who gets to be the arbiter of knowledge (a little questioning of the existence of God may or may not also be tossed in there).

In short, Spielberg is giving summer audiences the thinking man's film he usually gives us during the fall, except with a summer marketing blitz (complete with IMAX and PLF screen formats). It is an odd film to thrust upon the moviegoing public between “Masters of the Universe” and “Toy Story 5,” but then, if you’re Spielberg you don’t move for the competition; the competition moves for you. It’s a testament to his enduring gravity in Hollywood. Those who have been watching Spielberg films for years may be at a bit of an advantage over younger audiences.

The most I will say about the story is that it feels like a soft remake of his classic film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” asking many of the same questions he did back then but through a modern lens of what we know to be true now (and what we still do not). For younger generations who have not caught up on his backlog yet, they will be experiencing Spielberg’s fascination for the unknown for the first time and discovering that he is not scared of it but is genuinely excited by it.

He is a man who has been telling timeless stories for years, and watching “Disclosure Day” you get the sense that he is still seeking the answers to the ultimate story in his head. When he made “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” he famously said he regretted showing the aliens on screen, feeling that that aspect of the story should have been kept as a mystery. Here, he is much more willing to show the audience what lies behind the curtain while finding a more profound mystery to keep veiled in the shadows. For a summer blockbuster, some may consider it a cop-out, but for those who love asking bigger questions, the result is beautiful.

Yet that feeling of Spielberg having already walked down this path does temper my excitement a little. From the visuals to the cinematography, to how he directs his actors, Spielberg’s years of experience shine through. John Williams' haunting yet beautiful score is a triumph of evoking movie magic, and I’m glad the two worked together one last time. The characters in the movie may talk more like amateur philosophers than everyday people, but considering what they go through, maybe the only logical thing for them to do is discuss their disbelief out in the open.

Younger audiences with an open mind will likely walk away from this the way I walked away from the aforementioned ‘Close Encounters,’ with the feeling that the universe and all of its mysteries were somehow just opened up to them in a profound way that can’t be discussed (so it must be witnessed). However, I am very serious when I say “Disclosure Day” is a fall thinking man's film being sold as a summer blockbuster, and I wonder if audiences are going to push back on it as a result. While the film is very good, it may be tough to convince families to embrace it when toys and Minions are just around the corner. Oh well, that’s their problem (and maybe Universal’s), not Spielberg's.