{"id":2616532,"date":"2026-06-20T05:21:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T09:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/aliens-to-the-rescue-review-of-disclosure-day\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T05:27:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T09:27:28","slug":"aliens-to-the-rescue-review-of-disclosure-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/aliens-to-the-rescue-review-of-disclosure-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Aliens to the rescue: Review of Disclosure Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Faliens-to-the-rescue-review-of-disclosure-day%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2616532&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Steven Spielberg has been somewhat adrift in recent years, diverging from his earlier masterpieces like Jaws, Raiders of the lost Ark, and Empire of the Sun. His recent films-The Post,Ready Player one,West Side Story,and The Fabelmans-have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-kamala-harris-bought-375-pot-on-paris-trip\/\" title=\"EXCLUSIVE: Kamala Harris Bought 5 Pot on Paris Trip\">received mixed reviews<\/a>,with some critics viewing them as either nostalgic or unneeded. His latest film, Disclosure Day, marks a return to his roots with a compelling extraterrestrial-themed story that explores government conspiracy and alien contact. the film features a deep state agency steadfast to hide evidence of aliens, with intense spy-thriller elements and suspenseful set pieces. The storyline centers on characters like Daniel kellner and Margaret Fairchild, who struggle against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/china-to-ban-pick-up-artists\/\" title=\"China to Ban Pick-Up Artists\">government suppression<\/a> to reveal the truth about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sen-rubio-speaks-out-on-unidentified-flying-objects-spotted-over-u-s-military-installations\/\" title=\"Sen. Rubio speaks out on unidentified flying objects spotted over U.S. military installations\">extraterrestrial life<\/a>. While it may not drastically alter Spielberg&#8217;s career trajectory, Disclosure Day is praised as an engaging and well-crafted film amid a <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >predictably dull summer movie season<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<article class=\"fn-body\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like a shark hunter who has lost track of the shark, or an adventurer unable to locate the Ark of the Covenant, Steven Spielberg has been drifting for the better part of the decade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In recent years, Spielberg has seemed far removed from the glories of <em>Jaws <\/em>(1975) or <em>Raiders of the Lost Ark <\/em>(1981), to say nothing of what I consider his masterpiece, the impeccably rendered, intimately scaled World War II drama, <em>Empire of the Sun<\/em> (1987). The director\u2019s skeptics each mark the start of his decline in their own way, but his four most recent films seem a logical place to start: <em>The Post<\/em> (2017) was a particularly lame example of legacy <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/media\/\">media<\/a> cheerleading, while <em>Ready Player One<\/em> (2018) represented a devastating concession to the most pernicious forces in modern movies, including CGI, video games, and pop culture nostalgia. More recently, Spielberg\u2019s version of <em>West Side Story<\/em> (2021) was defiantly unnecessary, and his admittedly skillful autobiographical saga, <em>The Fabelmans <\/em>(2022), was a souffle of boyhood anecdotes.<\/p>\n<section class=\"explore-more-section\" id=\"wex-recommended-widget\">\n<div class=\"magazine-container single\">\n<h1 class=\"magazine-title mt-2\">Recommended Stories<\/h1>\n<p>             <i class=\"fa-solid fa-play icon\"><\/i>         <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-grid\">\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/4616676\/dc-host-muted-juneteenth-america-250\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Washington hosts relatively muted Juneteenth compared to America 250 events<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/4613523\/joy-behar-admits-vance-isnt-bad-guy-after-appearance-the-view\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Joy Behar admits Vance isn\u2019t a \u2018bad guy\u2019 after appearance on The View<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/4613142\/world-cup-tourists-fall-in-love-america\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>How World Cup tourists have fallen in love with America, and America has fallen in love with the tourists<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Perhaps one reason why his newest release, the extraterrestrial epic <em>Disclosure Day<\/em>, opened to such robust box-office returns is that it promised a certain retrenching from its director. Enthusiasts of Spielberg\u2019s previous alien-focused films, especially <em>Close Encounters of the Third Kind <\/em>(1977) and <em>E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial<\/em> (1982), cannot be faulted for assuming their maker would produce a fresh set of beatific visions: heavenly images of friendly neighbors seeking fellowship with lonely Earthlings.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-1\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap\" style=\"min-height:5px;\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" style=\"display:none;\">Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-15\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-1\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Disclosure Day<\/em> provides this \u2014 and, happily, something more. To be sure, the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/movies-and-films\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"744\">movie<\/a> comes loaded with obligatory sentiment about the inexhaustible goodness of aliens, which Spielberg, his terrifying 2005 version of <em>War of the Worlds<\/em> notwithstanding, takes as an article of faith. The aliens are so kindly that they first approach humans by appearing in the guise of friendly forest creatures, such as deer or foxes \u2014 creatures, incidentally, that are not always so friendly in real life but are unambiguously so here. We never get to know a specific alien in this film the way we became best buds with E.T., but taken as a species, there can be no doubt that, to quote the 1951 classic <em>The Day the Earth Stood Still<\/em>, they come in peace.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\">Emily Blunt and Josh O\u2019Connor star in Steven Spielberg\u2019s Disclosure Day. (Niko Tavernise\/Universal Pictures)<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; data-large-file=&#8221;https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2026\/06\/localimages\/LA.Film_.062426.jpg?w=696&#8243; height=&#8221;658&#8243; width=&#8221;1024&#8243; &#8220;https:><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Emily Blunt and Josh O\u2019Connor star in Steven Spielberg\u2019s Disclosure Day. (Niko Tavernise\/Universal Pictures)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet if <em>Disclosure Day<\/em> were simply a restatement of Spielberg\u2019s fervent hopes for human-alien contact, it would be nothing more than a reminder of his old movies \u2014 a welcome reminder, in light of <em>The Post <\/em>and such, but alarmingly close to pastiche. After all, there are only so many angles from which to film a <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/ufos\/\">UFO<\/a>, or, as the kids say nowadays, a UAP. Happily, Spielberg has something stranger \u2014 and scarier \u2014 in mind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As scripted by David Koepp from a story by Spielberg, <em>Disclosure Day<\/em> presents nothing less than a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/kathleen-j-anderson-airstrikes-reveal-forever-war-in-syria-despite-withdrawal-and-challenge-of-dealing-with-iran\/\" title=\"Kathleen J. Anderson: Airstrikes Reveal Forever War In Syria Despite \u201cWithdrawal\u201d And Challenge Of Dealing With Iran\">deep state committed<\/a>, by any means necessary, to the permanent concealment of <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4560458\/war-department-declassifies-uap-documents-after-long-fueled-justified-speculation\/\">evidence of alien contact<\/a>. This task has fallen to a vastly powerful, apparently unregulated government-adjacent group known as Wardex. Social media feeds are scrutinized in banks of monitors for any sign that the secret knowledge has spilled out, while Edward Snowden-like leakers \u2014 notably, our hero Daniel Kellner (Josh O\u2019Connor) \u2014 are subject to threats, intimidation, and worse. The movie even cooks up a juicy villain at the center of the operation, Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), whose clipped, British-accented English and well-groomed beard conceal the maniacal degrees to which he will go to keep E.T.\u2019s cousins hidden from view. <\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-2\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap\" style=\"min-height:5px;\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" style=\"display:none;\">Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-16\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-2\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There follows a hectic but involving variation on the \u201cparanoid conspiracy\u201d movies popular during Spielberg\u2019s heyday (but never made by Spielberg himself), including <em>The Conversation <\/em>(1974) and <em>Three Days of the Condor<\/em> (1975).<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Daniel, a rogue government worker who believes his civic duty compels disclosure, is contrasted with Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt), a perky, upwardly mobile local TV meteorologist in Kansas City, Missouri, whose unaccountable fluency in Russian, newfound habit of vocalizing using clucking sounds, and intermittent capacity for mind-reading are clues that aliens might have once paid her a visit. (Pleasingly, Spielberg again locates all-American innocence in Missouri, the state to which Kate Capshaw\u2019s Willie Scott wished to return after having been put through the mill in 1984\u2019s <em>Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom<\/em>.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over the course of the film, Daniel and Margaret, separately or as a duo, must dodge Wardex\u2019s efforts to silence or sideline them. Margaret busts out of a hospital populated with suspicious government types, while Daniel seeks refuge with his loving, greatly tolerant girlfriend, Jane (Eve Hewson), in abandoned, off-the-grid structures. Once Daniel and Margaret have met up, they catapult themselves aboard a train while evading bullets.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-3\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap\" style=\"min-height:5px;\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" style=\"display:none;\">Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-17\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-3\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We are treated to some first-class set pieces, including one straight out of Hitchcock. Using mind-control gear evidently purloined from crashed UFOs, Noah remotely enters the consciousness of Jane, a former Catholic postulant who, when not under the influence of nefarious actors, gamely tries to incorporate alien civilizations into her theology. (Spielberg remains respectful of traditional religious belief to the extent that a nun is among the movie\u2019s most likable characters.) Yet Noah, in this dazzlingly suspenseful scene, transmits to Jane the desire to kill Daniel \u2014 to do Wardex\u2019s dirty work, in other words. Agonizingly, we watch as Jane lies in wait for Daniel to return \u2014 the tip of a kitchen knife poking from her sleeve. (Spoiler alert: she snaps out of this lethal trance.) Later, Daniel, Margaret, and a cadre of whistleblowers marshal alien tech to turn invisible while warding off Wardex officials, who, comically, find themselves running into unseen objects and obstacles like Keystone Cops.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/premium\/4593499\/why-we-feel-beckoned-by-backrooms\/\">REVIEW: WHY DO WE FEEL BECKONED BY BACKROOMS?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thanks to such stellar set pieces, <em>Disclosure Day<\/em> is seldom less than gripping. As Margaret, Blunt is especially good \u2014 just off-kilter enough in her daily life for her good-natured, guitar-strumming boyfriend Jackson (Wyatt Russell) to think that her obvious signs of prior alien contact might mean she\u2019s just having a bad day. Inevitably, Daniel and Margaret combine forces so they can make the disclosure promised in the title: Daniel, with his abundance of flash drives; and Margaret, with her access to a local TV station \u2014 which, in the film\u2019s universe, is apparently a sufficient platform from which to reach the whole world.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-4\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap\" style=\"min-height:5px;\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" style=\"display:none;\">Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-25\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-4\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Does this movie change the course of Spielberg\u2019s career as it enters its last act? Not quite. But, as we approach what is likely to be a punishingly bland summer movie season, the director is to be credited for fashioning a first-rate entertainment from what could have been a retread.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Peter Tonguette is the Life &#038; Arts editor of the <\/em>Washington Examiner <em>magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-5\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap\" style=\"min-height:5px;\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" style=\"display:none;\">Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-26\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-5\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spielberg has been drifting away from his classic hits lately<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2691,"featured_media":2616533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/LA.Film_.062426.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[5835,9418,50916,18433],"class_list":["post-2616532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-aliens","tag-disclosure","tag-review-2","tag-ufos"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/LA.Film_.062426.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2616532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2691"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2616532"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2616532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2616536,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2616532\/revisions\/2616536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2616533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2616532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2616532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2616532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}