The latest film from Steven Spielberg, Disclosure Day, brings forward his trademark theme of alien visitations. He explores the issue through a race between scientist Daniel Keller (Josh O’Connor), a whistleblower who stole archival footage of the U.S. government’s encounters with extraterrestrials (starting from the Roswell incident in 1947), and the said government (or rather a Private Military Unit in the style of infamous Blackwater), which wants to recover the tapes before Keller can disclose them to the world.
Keller is aided by Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt, in a brilliant, nuanced performance), a weather report presenter whose manic energy is soon explained as a compelling need to connect with and help Keller. Margaret feels an inexplicable compunction to locate Keller—a drive reminiscent of that of Roy Neary, the character played by Richard Dreyfuss in the masterpiece of the genre, Close Encounters of the Third Kind—and it has the same source: alien telepathic messages that have been directing Margaret’s mind since her childhood ET encounters. Keller and Margaret are pursued by the sinister Wardex Corporation, which is using alien technology to detect locations and manipulate the minds of people around Keller.
