Have I ever mentioned that I once (possibly) had an alien encounter (maybe)? Here are the details: it is the middle of the night, the house is quiet, no one else is awake; for some reason, I get out of bed and head into the hallway — maybe I’m going to the bathroom, or maybe I’m thirsty and my destination is the kitchen faucet. I round the corner and take a single step into the living room. From this vantage point, I can see all the way across the house and into the laundry room. Standing just outside the window of that room is a luminescent humanoid figure, its willowy limbs gesticulating.
I froze. I probably screamed. I was only 3 years old.
Let’s analyze my revelation: Given the fact that I remember the incident more than 50 years later, it’s safe to say I saw something in that window. The memory has long since matured into a ripple of low-key trauma and lingering fascination. While I believe life likely exists elsewhere in the universe, I have yet to see any evidence to suggest aliens would travel the vast distances between stars to survey a St. Petersburg residential neighborhood, skulk in manicured shrubbery, and indulge in aberrant voyeuristic inclinations.
To the best of my knowledge, my glowing extraterrestrial friend never made a return visit.
Later that same decade, the film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” sparked a resurgence of interest in extraterrestrial life and alien visitation. That film, directed by Steven Spielberg, got its name from J. Allen Hynek’s classification of close encounters with extraterrestrials. Hynek — an American astronomer, professor, and ufologist — acted as an advisor to the U.S. Air Force on Project Sign, Project Grudge, and Project Blue Book. Spielberg went on to direct “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” released in 1982. More than 40 years later, Spielberg returns to this subject matter with a new film that unofficially serves as a thematic conclusion to the trilogy.
Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day” was released in theaters on June 12. The film’s screenplay was written by David Koepp and is based upon a story by Spielberg. Expanding on the continuing theme of humanity’s first contact with extraterrestrial entities, the film combines elements of action, conspiracy thriller and high-concept sci-fi epic. For those expecting a magnum opus from the 79-year-old cinematic genius — well, this isn’t exactly that. What Spielberg does deliver is solid, albeit tortuous, storytelling that examines everyday individuals confronted by extraordinary circumstances. The director’s trademark sense of wonder eventually materializes in a final act, proving he can still evoke hopefulness and resolve in viewers.
The film opens in the middle of a tense confrontation. Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor), a former cybersecurity specialist with the Wardex Corporation, has stolen a massive cache of files relating to human-alien contact dating back almost 80 years. Wardex, working with clandestine agencies within the U.S. government, has abducted his girlfriend Jane Blankenship (Eve Hewson), using her as a bargaining chip to retrieve the data. Brandishing a piece of alien tech, Daniel manages to rescue his girlfriend and retain all the files, but the two must go into hiding while waiting to rendezvous with Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo), another defector from Wardex who seeks to make all the information about aliens available to the public.
At the same time, Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt), a television meteorologist, has an encounter with a cardinal which triggers implanted psychic abilities. Her boyfriend Jackson (Wyatt Russell) recognizes a change in her but does not know how to proceed.
For much of its runtime, the film jumps back and forth between Daniel, Margaret, and Wardex CEO Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), the film’s primary antagonist. Firth’s Scanlon is less intimidating than his chief of security, Casper Boyd, played quite menacingly by Henry Lloyd-Hughes. As you might expect, the bad guys at Wardex repeatedly attempt to capture Daniel. Sometimes he eludes capture. Sometimes he is captured but manages to escape. Wash, rinse, repeat. Sprinkled throughout these sequences the viewer must endure some clunky dialogue and superfluous exposition. The drama is occasionally cloying and unwieldy, with personalities emerging slowly and relationships difficult to define. Slowly, the threads start to entwine. The characters spend a lot of time meandering, repeatedly voicing their confusion over what is happening to them and ostensibly lurching from one skirmish to the next. Their bewilderment, of course, is necessary. They are individual puzzle pieces in a mystery they’re only beginning to acknowledge. Blunt does most of the heavy lifting here, with Domingo and Russell also bringing their A-game to the project.
Spielberg both concedes and challenges today’s pervasive cynicism, petitioning us to let down our guard and set aside our psychological default strategy. In “Disclosure Day,” empathy is portrayed as more than a just an amiable ethical principle — it is suggested that it is a critical survival mechanism. Hugo states this idea directly, claiming that empathy is humanity’s foremost evolutionary advantage.
For those familiar with UFO lore, the film is a virtual buffet of subtle references and Easter eggs. From Roswell to Kecksburg, the script reminds us of those stories that continue to fascinate even without hard evidence.
“Disclosure Day” struggles to live up to the promise and ambition of its premise. The story gets as close as it can to something quantifiable and demonstrable, but ultimately, it spends a lot of time propping up the same conjecture and speculation that has been floating around for years. Fortunately, it does it in a manner that sheds light on the human condition, provides occasional moments of genuine spectacle, and concludes with an immersive final act that is optimistic and deeply moving.
Lee Clark Zumpe is entertainment editor at Tampa Bay Newspapers, a Tomatometer-Approved Critic, and an author of short fiction. He can be reached by email at lzumpe@TBNweekly.com.