Disclosure Day (2026)

Will the discovery of intelligent alien life change everything or be history's biggest anticlimax?

Disclosure Day was directed by Steven Spielberg.

You probably knew that. Most people do.

But do you know who wrote Disclosure Day?

It was David Koepp.

It’s strange more people don’t know that.

According to website, the numbers.com, Koepp is the fourth most successful screenwriter of all time. That’s a pretty dubious statistic, but there’s no denying Koepp has written plenty of hits. You’ve probably seen most of his work

He wrote the first two Jurassic Park movies. He wrote the first Mission Impossible movie, the first Spiderman movie¹ and Carlito’s Way².

He also wrote a film that came out earlier this year called Cold Storage, which I enjoyed way more than Disclosure Day, but you know my aesthetic leanings.

Like Disclosure Day, Cold Storage is also about aliens and government secrets. Unlike Disclosure Day, Cold Storage is cynical, dark, gory, and very funny.

Cold Storage is based on a novel³ that was also written by David Koepp. Disclosure Day is based on a story written by Steven Spielberg.

So, if you had to guess which film was closer to Koepp’s personal views…..

I bring this up because Disclosure Day is a very optimistic movie. One that has considerable faith in humanity. For the most part, the message is communicated effectively and believably, especially if you had no idea Koepp wrote Cold Storage.

Disclosure Day is a very well directed movie. The performances and cinematography are very good. The editing and suspense are extraordinary. The score⁴ is beautiful.

It’s also very well written. The dialogue is great, the pacing’s good, it’s never boring. And the positive message Disclosure Day puts out actually seems somewhat plausible. This is pretty extraordinary when you realize it was written by someone who probably doesn’t believe it.

I’ve read lots of reviews about Disclosure Day from people who didn’t have many or any problems with the film.

I don’t really have problems with it. I just prefer Cold Storage.⁵

Perhaps discussing the plot of Disclosure Day will illustrate why.

The plot: Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) and his girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson) have been kidnapped by black ops who work for government agent, Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth).

Jane has no idea what is going on, but Daniel does. Daniel is a cyber security expert who has stolen government files proving aliens have visited Earth and the government has known for at least eight decades. He has also stolen a piece of alien technology that looks like a harmonica, a really dangerous harmonica! By waving this small metal rectangle around, Daniel terrifies several armed men into standing down and manages to escape with Jane.

As they drive away, Jane reveals that she was once a novitiate and fought the evil nun, Valek in Romania and that she knows a convent where they can hide out.

Meanwhile…

A Kansas City Weatherwoman named Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) is local celebrity because she does the shimmy every time there’s hail in the forecast.

One day a cardinal flies into Margaret’s apartment and locks eyes with her. Her pill of a boyfriend, Jackson (Wyatt Russell) shoos the bird away but he’s too late, Margaret has been uplifted. She can now understand every language and read people’s minds.

Neither of these new powers interests her much, not enough to stop her from rushing to work, it’s only when she’s on the air and starts reading the forecast in an extra-terrestrial language that it all becomes too much and she passes out cold.

When she wakes up she’s in a hospital. Black Ops people working for Scanlon are in the waiting room, waiting to kidnap her but remember, Margaret can read minds now so she’s one step ahead of them! She steals her pill of a boyfriend’s car and drives north because that’s where her ESP is telling her she will meet Daniel, whom she doesn’t know, but knows that she must meet.

But…

Scanlon has a dangerous harmonica of his own and he uses it both to track Margaret’s location and also to take demonic possession of Jane so he can force her to try stabbing Daniel with a butcher knife in the middle of a car chase.

And while all of this is happening, the world is on the brink of World War III.

Daniel is convinced letting humanity know about the aliens will bring peace to the world.

Scanlon is convinced ‘disclosure’ will do so much psychological harm to humanity that six thousand years of civilization will be wiped out over night.

My biggest problem, for lack of a better word, with Disclosure Day is that I didn’t believe Daniel or Scanlon.

It’s possible, err, probable, I’m just bitter and have “lost my faith in people” as many characters in this movie are accused of.

In many aesthetic ways, Disclosure Day is a superior film to Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 or Gareth Edward’s Monsters, but both those movies seemed to depict a more realistic societal reaction to extra-terrestrial life. In both those movies aliens come to earth and cause great change but humanity mostly just shrugs and carries on like always.

If aliens came to Earth right now, I don’t think it would stop any wars. I think someone would launch an alien meme coin that would generate more attention than the aliens themselves.

I’m bitter.

But back to David Koepp.

In both Disclosure Day and Cold Storage, Koepp uses deer as avatars for alien intelligence.

In Disclosure Day, making eye contact with a deer is the first step to peaceful communication with advanced alien life.

In Cold Storage, making eye contact with a deer causes it to vomit virulent alien slime.

It is a testament to Koepp’s storytelling ability, that he can make both outcomes seem plausible in two radically different films.

But if you want to watch to movie about aliens that is optimistic and restores faith in humanity, I think Project Hail Mary is a better choice.

1. The first real Spiderman movie. The one from 2002, not that CBS nonsense from the 70s.

2. I’ve never seen Carlito’s way. Is it any good?

3. A novel called “Cold Storage”

4. Composed by 94-year old John Williams!

5. I do realize that might mean I have problems.