Disclosure Day Analysis: Did You Understand the Ending?

Steven Spielberg's new film hits theaters with the distinct flavor of a time machine. After more than two decades away from extraterrestrials (the last one being War of the Worlds back in 2005), Spielberg pays a surprise visit to sci-fi, behaving like that clueless friend who drops by unannounced, eats all your food, and completely misses the hint that it is long past time to leave. To top it off, you probably will not guess the subgenre.

Aliens! Totally unpredictable, right? Written by David Koepp, who penned Mission: Impossible (1996), Spider-Man (2002), and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), and featuring a long-standing partnership with Spielberg himself, the movie premieres to mixed reactions and a crowd discussing everything except what it actually has to say. One might suspect that a good portion of the audience left the theater without truly understanding what this movie is even about.

WARNING! This review contains spoilers. From this point on, you are entering Area 51 territory, so be careful!

Analyzing the Plot

The film opens right in the middle of the conflict without wasting time on introductions. The entire plot revolves around a secret government agency dedicated to a single function: preventing any information about the alien presence on Earth from leaking at all costs. It is no spoiler to say that aliens exist in this universe since the title practically gives it away, nor is it a secret that a group of whistleblowers within the agency itself decides to stop being complicit and expose all the rot being perpetrated against this other species.

The chase begins early when Josh O'Connor's character steals the most precious item from the vault: an alien artifact and the complete archive of every contact the United States has ever had with extraterrestrials. With this material under his arm and half the agency hot on his heels, the rest of the movie unfolds.

The cast carries the film on their shoulders whenever the script slips. Josh O'Connor is the kind of protagonist you root for even when the surrounding scene does not deserve the effort, and Emily Blunt, sharing top billing with him, delivers her part with the competence of someone who has done this many times and knows exactly how to command the screen.

The Flaws

Let us start with the CGI, which is an absolute eyesore. For a film with Spielberg's name attached and a major studio budget, some effects have the texture of a rushed post-credits scene, the kind that ages poorly before the premiere even happens. When it comes to the ships and creatures, the digital effects deliver far less than what the trailers promised, and trailers exist precisely to inflate expectations.

The action scenes do not help either. They are functional in the worst sense of the word: forced, generic, and packed with tropes so tired that you can predict the next move before the character even decides to make it. It is the type of chase that serves only to fill screen time without ever risking anything that would make your heart race.

The twists in the first and second acts follow the same pattern. They are there just to check a box and fulfill genre requirements, but they are predictable enough that nobody will lose sleep trying to figure them out. They function as narrative codes rather than genuine surprises.

There is also the frustrating habit of jumping from genre to genre, tossing adventure, action, thriller, sci-fi, and a hint of comedy all onto the same plate. In a different film, this mixture could be an asset. Here, it feels more like an excuse to stretch the runtime and delay the only thing that actually matters: the ending.

The Theme

Incredibly, one of the least discussed aspects of the film is its core theme. We know that in science fiction, fictional concepts serve as metaphors to address real-world issues. The best thing the film brings to the table is how it handles this metaphor.

Everything only ties together and starts making sense beyond the rules of its own universe in the final fifteen minutes, when the footage stolen by the protagonist finally comes to light. This is the moment that gives the entire film its reason to exist, transforming the science fiction into a reflection on the real world rather than just a story about little green men.

As the footage begins to roll, we gradually see fragments of what the US military has done to the aliens. We witness how they treat this other species, the various forms of torture, the disrespect, and the bureaucratic coldness of those who turn a living being into a mere object of study. At that point, the film stops being about extraterrestrials. The entire effort to prevent this material from reaching the public operates as a blatant condemnation of war crimes committed across the globe and the comfortable impunity of those who perpetrate them, later justifying everything in the name of technological advancement or natural resources. Swap the aliens for any population that history has treated as disposable, and the movie still works perfectly.

This is where the exhausting pile-up of genres and twists finally gains meaning, as if the film deliberately tested your patience for two hours just to make those final minutes hurt even more. It does not excuse what came before, but it is a strong card to play.

Disclosure Day is definitely not a magnum opus, and it would be generous to pretend otherwise. It is a technically uneven film, far too long for what it delivers most of the time, and it keeps you checking your watch throughout much of its runtime. Yet, it is also a film that needed to be made right now, exactly the way it was.

The theme is too powerful, too urgent, and too relevant to remain hidden behind subpar CGI and auto-pilot action sequences. Spielberg used the genre to shine a light on something many people would prefer to keep in the dark, and that still counts for a lot. It just does not count enough for anything more than this:

Rating: 3 out of 5

What about you? Will you share your alien experience with us in the comments?

Until next time!