There are no spoilers for Disclosure Day
I saw Disclosure Day yesterday and I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. It’s a phenomenally entertaining and genuinely moving film. I will see it again in theaters. Emily Blunt is a standout and she should get an Oscar nomination for her performance. It helps that I believe in aliens, as I’ve talked about on our podcast. Director Steven Spielberg is also a believer, and that definitely comes through. Without giving away spoilers, he humanizes (for lack of a better word) extraterrestials, as you may know from watching E.T. or even Close Encounters. I wanted to cover this interview he did with The Rest is Entertainment podcast. He’s making a lot of headlines for getting turned down to direct a Bond movie – twice – but of course I’m more interested in his thoughts about aliens. Here’s some of what Spielberg said and you can see the interview at this link and below.

Do you believe in aliens?
I do believe that we are not alone in the cosmos – in the universe. As far as ‘do I believe that aliens are here and have been here,’ 50 years ago to make Close Encounters, I would have said ‘seeing is believing. I’ve not even seen a UFO.’ But today, I’m more inclined to say with all the smartphones that are out there, all the things that I’ve seen – I believe the believers. I am absolutely ready to say that I do believe that we are not alone here on this planet.

Was that one of the things that prompted you?
Well, one thing that prompted me to make it was just that whistleblowers were now coming from higher levels of authority. They were coming from the United States Air Force. They were coming from the from Navy pilots. They were coming from our intelligence community in Washington. People were blowing the whistle and saying that the government has been hiding for decades the truth that we are not alone. And I started believing those believers and not just the rank and file people who have had close encounters of all kinds throughout all of these years.

Documentaries have been made about them… The school in Zimbabwe where those 60 kids had that phenomenal encounter with beings from off-world so many things have happened that I am now in a position to tell a story about it.

[Transcript from YouTube, edited for clarity]

I agree, the whistleblowers really convinced me, particularly the navy pilots who risked their careers and reputations to go public. (See 60 Minutes.) If you’re interested in UFOs and the story about the Zimbabwean children’s experience he mentioned, watch the Netflix docuseries Encounters, which was produced by Spielberg. I wrote up a review in 2023 and included some of my other favorite documentaries in that post. The Brazilian film Moment of Contact is another compelling documentary, that’s on Tubi.

As for Disclosure Day, I have some very nitpicking issues with it, but I’m going to be vague. We’ve seen how people react to shocking events. There’s a kind of shrug and quick adaptation to the new status quo. If you’re a smart pragmatic person you expect society to push back, show alarm and adjust more than it ever does. This quiet acquiescence is the true horror, but it’s not something that translates well on screen. It’s also so unsatisfying.

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Photos credit: Jennifer Graylock/Avalon, Ian West/PA Images/INSTARimages, Getty Images