CLEVELAND, Ohio — Sci-fi Spielberg is the best Spielberg: “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” “War of the Worlds,” etc. The director’s track record for turning the unknowable into emotional, edge-of-your-seat entertainment is undefeated. His latest, “Disclosure Day,” does it again, combining a breathless conspiracy thriller with a provocative story about what it means to be human.
“Disclosure Day” isn’t a direct sequel to “Close Encounters,” but it feels like a spiritual one. The 1977 film was about making contact with aliens. Its 2026 counterpart explores how far the government would go to cover up their existence. Spielberg, inspired by the 2023 congressional hearings on unidentified anomalous phenomena, came up with the story himself, jotting it down on 52 pages in the Notes app on his phone before handing it over to screenwriter and frequent collaborator David Koepp.
It starts with Daniel (Josh O’Connor), a cybersecurity expert at WARDEX, the deep-state agency charged with keeping the secret. He’s gone rogue, stealing a backpack full of archival evidence and a powerful piece of alien technology (known simply as “the device”) and then going on the run with his girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson). The film also introduces Margaret (Emily Blunt), a Kansas City TV weather forecaster who suddenly can read people’s minds and speak fluent Korean, much to the bewilderment of her partner Jackson (Wyatt Russell). Colman Domingo plays Hugo, the mysterious Svengali trying to bring Daniel and Margaret together, and Colin Firth is Noah, the ruthless bureaucrat trying to bring them in…