Steven Spielberg’s 'Disclosure Day' asks the one question that could unite humanity

Before seeing the new science fiction movie “Disclosure Day,” I reached out to some of Earth’s top experts about its underlying premise — that is, whether or not extraterrestrial intelligence exists in the universe.

What I learned has changed how I view not only this particular movie, but the poignant subject it semi-realistically depicts. Thanks to the scientists I interviewed and the artists who put "Disclosure Day" on the big screen, I can look at the subject of UFO sightings and feel an emotion that is increasingly rare these days — hope.

In “Disclosure Day,” directed and co-written (with David Koepp) by Steven Spielberg, cybersecurity specialist Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) teams up with meteorologist Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) to expose evidence that intelligent aliens have already visited our planet. It’s a tantalizing concept, especially since evidence of UFO sightings became increasingly public starting in 2023. Spielberg himself has also been long interested in this topic as a filmmaker, with “Disclosure Day” joining three of his other movies in the alien genre. All three of those entries are, in my opinion, classics; they include “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” in 1977, “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” in 1982 and “War of the Worlds” (which I saw in theaters three times in 2005, and personally regard as the best of all Spielberg's alien movies).

Does “Disclosure Day” hold up to its predecessors? As each of those movies captured different aspects of the possibilities involved in human-alien encounters — the wonder, the childlike dreaming and the horror — I wanted to learn how well "Disclosure Day" captures a fourth aspect of this subject, the act of disclosure itself. Before diving into the movie’s intrinsic quality, let me first review the thoughts of scientists far more knowledgeable about UFOs and possible alien intelligence than myself.

"There is credible evidence that people, cameras, radar systems, and other instruments sometimes observe phenomena that cannot immediately be identified,” Dr. Franck Marchis, Senior Astronomer and Director of Citizen Science, SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute, told AlterNet. “In that limited sense, unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs, certainly exist.” Marchis qualified this observation, though, by noting that the objective reality of UFOs and UAPs does not mean they exist because of intelligent aliens.

"An unexplained observation is not, by itself, evidence of an extraordinary origin," Marchis said. "Most cases are eventually explained as aircraft, satellites, balloons, drones, atmospheric effects, instrumental artifacts, or misinterpretations.”

Marchis added, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. A blurry video or an eyewitness account is not enough. We need calibrated measurements, complete metadata, observations from multiple independent instruments, and analyses that can be reproduced by independent teams."

An Ivy League scholar who frequently discussed extraterrestrial intelligence confirmed Marchis’ claims.

"It is clear from government reports and disclosures that the Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence agencies detect objects whose nature is unidentified,” Harvard University astronomy professor Avi Loeb told AlterNet. “This is a serious national security concern. But as a scientist, I view it as a golden opportunity to check whether one in a million unidentified objects may be non-human-made.”

Loeb continued, “We do not have definitive evidence for that from the disclosed data, but we do not have to wait for the U.S. government to tell us what is in the sky. We can simply look up. This is why I lead the Galileo Project at Harvard University which operates three new observatories (in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Nevada) and uses triangulation to determine distance, velocity and acceleration and AI to search for outliers among millions of detected objects in the sky."

Timothy Caulfield, Professor at the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Law and School of Public Health, as well as Research Director at its Health Law Institute and a well-known pseudoscience debunker, agreed with Loeb and Marchis that "there is a great deal of solid – evidence-informed and science-based – speculation about the existence of intelligent life in the universe. Indeed, most experts in the field agree that intelligent extraterrestrial life exists. The universe is inconceivably massive!”

He concluded, “What is more controversial is whether aliens have visited Earth, which seems much much more unlikely, given what we know about physics, the size of the universe, and the lack of concrete evidence."

Now that we have established the part of “Disclosure Day” that is true (that UFOs have been spotted) and the part that is merely speculative (that they are piloted by intelligent aliens), how does the movie hold up as a work of art?

From a storytelling standpoint, "Disclosure Day" is more a spiritual sequel to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" than to any of Spielberg's other alien films. While "E.T." was mostly about the wonder toward aliens felt by a child and "War of the Worlds" analyzes the problem from the perspective of pure malevolent horror, "Disclosure Day" — like "Close Encounters" — uses a more cerebral approach. Both movies focus on the psychological and spiritual dimensions of the question of aliens encountering human being. How would the knowledge that we are not alone in the universe impact each of our lives as individuals? What would it mean for our civilization on a collective level? The story by Spielberg and screenplay by Koepp approach these subjects thoughtfully, clearly displaying their extensive self-education on the subject. Their answers to these questions are plausible, and thereby give "Disclosure Day" a sense of groundedness, of realism, more so than Spielberg's three previous alien flicks.

It is also the least accessible of those movies. When I surveyed fellow moviegoers after seeing the movie, four said they liked it, three said their feelings were mixed (one used the adjective "disappointed) and one said he outright "hated" it. Interestingly, those who liked it and those who didn't all cited the same reason — that this easily has the least spectacle of any of Spielberg's alien films. While it contains some memorable action set pieces and special effects-driven moments, there are far fewer than in the other Spielberg alien flicks. We don't get the memorable five tones from "Close Encounters," the silhouette of a child on his bike riding with an alien in the basket from "E.T." or the mammoth killer tripods from "War of the Worlds." "Disclosure Day," by contrast, is more focused on ideas than thrilling people.

For those inclined to philosophize about the subjects of aliens, human civilization and God itself, however, "Disclosure Day" is just intellectual enough to satisfy. Spielberg's and Koepp's ideas are not particularly original, but they are presented compellingly nonetheless, and are particularly sold by O'Connor's and Blunt's performances. After you leave the theater, you are left asking: How would humanity react to the disclosure that aliens exist?

"My hope is that disclosure would bring people together just like a knock on the front door by a neighbor calms down the loud arguments within the house,” Loeb told AlterNet. “We will also realize that we are not at the top of the food chain, cosmologically speaking."

Marchis was a little more optimistic than Loeb.

"I believe humanity is more prepared than it has ever been,” Marchis explained. “Science fiction, movies, journalism, and decades of scientific discussion have familiarized the public with the possibility of extraterrestrial life. The initial announcement would obviously be historic and dominate global attention. But after a few weeks, most people would still need to return to their jobs, families, and everyday concerns. The deeper effects would emerge over time, I believe. A confirmed discovery would probably lead to massive new investment in SETI, astronomy, planetary science, and space exploration.” (Marchis also mentioned that SETI “recently launched a Kickstarter campaign for SkySphere, our intelligent all-sky camera, to accelerate the deployment of this global network and allow individuals and organizations to participate directly in monitoring the sky.”)

"There seems little doubt that confirming the existence of extraterrestrial life would be a massive moment in the history of humanity,” Caulfield told AlterNet. “But, if it happens, it is very unlikely to be the result of ship landing or a dramatic reveal by a government whistleblower. It would be the discovery of an astronomical anomaly that is slowly confirmed via peer review and the use of rigorous scientific methods.”

He added that he thinks "most humans would welcome the news and be tremendously excited." I'm inclined to agree with him.

While I can’t say for sure that Caulfield and I are correct about whether humanity will by and large be excited if aliens visit Earth, I am certain that anyone with decent-or-above taste in entertainment will enjoy “Disclosure Day," especially if they share the values of Loeb, Marchis, Caulfield and yours truly.

Anyone who enjoys smart science fiction will find plenty to love. Yet I'm deeply grateful for "Disclosure Day" for an additional reason; in these bleak times, it actually inspires hope for the future.

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