Spoilers for Disclosure Day are below!
Disclosure Day wastes no time throwing audiences into the action, with Josh O’Connor’s Daniel already deep into the conspiracy at hand, in the midst of a hostage exchange. Steven Spielberg’s latest keeps a good pace, with Emily Blunt’s Margaret having an awakening that sends audiences on a journey to reveal the truth to the world. Colin Firth’s Noah is out to stop them by any means necessary, with the world on the brink of war with North Korea. But what exactly is the truth?
As the trailers teased, alien life exists, and Disclosure Day is all about proving it to the world. Yet the film is packed with religious overtones, framing a sci-fi story steeped in faith. While aliens may have drawn viewers in, Spielberg uses his blockbuster to challenge popular notions about belief and higher powers in the universe. Disclosure Day’s biggest twist is its bold messaging, which shouldn’t feel so alien. With that in mind, what does Margaret’s final message to the audience mean?
Is ‘Disclosure Day’ a Sequel To ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’?
Let’s get one of the biggest questions out of the way up front, as Disclosure Day was widely speculated to be a secret sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and I added plenty of fuel to that fire. However, I can now safely report that Spielberg’s latest is not a sequel to his 1977 sci-fi classic. Disclosure Day is a spiritual sequel in that it takes the same fascination on display in Close Encounters and adapts it for modern audiences, but the films don’t share any direct story connection. In no way does that hinder the overall enjoyment, but earlier trailer connections seem to boil down to Spielberg’s directorial style, offering distinct parallels.
What Are Experiencers?
Throughout Disclosure Day, characters are often referred to as experiencers. This first comes up when Noah tries to dive on Daniel. When Noah is hurt during the attempt, he suspects that Daniel is an experiencer. The term is Disclosure Day‘s way of referring to an abductee or someone abducted by aliens. Daniel and Margaret are both revealed to be experiencers, each with distinct abilities. That doesn’t necessarily mean that every experiencer gets abilities, as the movie makes a point of noting that Daniel and Margaret are special, with Hugo underscoring that the world has been waiting for them.
Daniel can understand complex mathematics at a glance, even translating it into spoken language, which hints at math being the true universal language. Margaret’s abilities are a bit stronger, as she can read minds, project images into people’s minds, understand languages, and control the unique alien device that aids them on their journey. Her gifts are akin to an empath, which is key to understanding her role and final message.
What’s With All the Animals?
Simply put, the animals are aliens in disguise. While Margaret relives her childhood abduction, there is a great shot of the animal tracks in the snow turning into alien footprints. One of the best shots in the film sees Spielberg pan around a deer’s head, only for it to morph into an alien during the process. The animals are meant to be disarming to the young children, helping to keep them calm during the abduction.
It’s worth noting that when the younger versions of Daniel and Margaret are on the ship, he’s scared after the aliens are revealed, and Margaret helps calm him. This reinforces Margaret’s role as an empathetic savior figure, even on a minor scale, and why masking as animals may be needed. This also means the bird that flies into Margaret’s apartment and activates her was one of the many forms the aliens take.
What Exactly Is the Alien Device?
The alien devices used throughout Disclosure Day prove useful multiple times, and the movie establishes that Wardex originally had three. Noah uses one to essentially hijack people’s minds, allowing him to influence and interrogate them from afar to gather intel or even kill someone. Hugo hints that the devices are far more powerful, which is information gotten from an alien he helped escape Wardex’s grasp. Margaret puts the device’s power on display by using it to turn people and objects invisible and even to power the TV station. However, her use also shows that they have limited power, or that extreme usage can destroy them.
When young Margaret and Daniel are abducted, the same devices are seen on a ring encircling their faces, insinuating that this is how they were given their abilities. Given everything the audience sees the alien devices doing, the best way to describe them is as a type of reality manipulator. It can manipulate someone’s mental state, project you into their mind, make things invisible, and imbue people and objects with power, all of which manipulate a perceived reality in imaginative ways. The way Daniel initially wields it like a gun and the extreme precautions Noah takes go a long way toward explaining how dangerous it can be. Noah is even injured by the device, while Margaret uses it with ease, reinforcing that they were not meant for regular human use.
Steven Spielberg Has Faith in ‘Disclosure Day’
Disclosure Day can be seen as a simple alien thriller, but Spielberg has layered the movie with so much more. The film purposefully poses questions about religion and personal beliefs in a higher power. Is that higher power God or alien beings? Disclosure Day allows audiences to find their own truth in the grandiose philosophical questions. It challenges those with faith to believe that, if there is life beyond Earth, it was likely created by God as well.
Some people even begin to see Margaret as a savior. Her ability to read people’s minds allows her to help them, giving her a following of faithful via her insights. Margaret rejects being someone’s religion, but this also poses bigger questions in the grand scheme. If Margaret has the gifts of a savior, does that mean another savior, say Jesus, was merely a person imbued with abilities from aliens? It’s the type of sci-fi that can spur deep contemplation on religion, making people question what is true. If there is no God, does that mean aliens are the higher power? Does that notion dismantle religion if angels and demons are all of a sudden understood to be misinterpretations of alien life?
Daniel and Margaret are even set up as Adam and Eve figures. The pair is specifically meant to deliver a message to the world that could challenge strongly held beliefs, almost like birthing a new faith. Even the alien device feels steeped in religious symbolism, as when it’s first used on Jane, she almost seems possessed by a demon, clutching her crucifix tightly. Imagine that moment playing out without understanding the sci-fi device behind Jane’s control, and it could immediately seem like someone possessed and taken over by an unseen force. As someone who stepped away from a religious calling to find renewed faith in the journey with Daniel, Jane’s character even speaks to a belief in extraterrestrial life that does not inherently negate one’s understanding of God, allowing the ideas to reconcile.
What Does ‘Disclosure Day’s Final Message Mean?
After everything Spielberg put forth in Disclosure Day, it feels like far more than the culmination of his sci-fi career. The movie plays on real-world UFO topics that have hit mainstream news media in recent years, with many believing that real disclosure isn’t the fallacy it once was. Spielberg looks to have faith in disclosure, but the director also seems keen on the idea that alien life may be the first sign of even greater things for all humanity. The movie emphasizes that aliens see empathy as humanity’s greatest advancement, which begins with simply listening.
After Margaret and Daniel broadcast the disclosure materials to the world, an alien is brought out, giving them one last message: “Listen.” It’s a single word, but one loaded with meaning. As the third act plays out, the world watches and listens, with the film highlighting people of all walks of life tuning in. Even Noah finally stops to sit and take it in as the world finally learns the truth. After years of probing, he’s allowing the truth to reach him through the proper channels rather than forceful tactics.
When Margaret tells the audience to listen, the message is Spielberg asking people to listen to the disclosure, to listen to their hearts, to listen to each other, to listen to the truth their faith defines for them. Where does your faith lie? Whether it’s in humanity, God, or grandiose sci-fi explanations, Disclosure Day wants audiences to understand that empathy is the key.
- Release Date
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June 12, 2026
- Runtime
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145 Minutes
Cast
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Josh O’Connor
Daniel Kellner
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
