Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) has stolen a vast quantity of data from the employer who paid him to keep it safe. As he races to escape the operatives of his former employers who seek to prevent him from leaking the data, his path begins to converge with Kansas weather reporter Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt). If these two people, who are strangers to each other, are able to leak the information Daniel has stolen, the world will change forever. 

Steven Spielberg’s latest film is a personal passion project for him. One in which he gets a “Story By” credit alongside his longtime collaborator, David Koepp, who delivers the screenplay. The plot is inspired by the many real-life accounts of UFO sightings and seeks to discuss what might happen if someone wanted to expose the truth to the world. Spielberg has, of course, explored the idea of aliens visiting Earth in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, War of the Worlds, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. To some extent, you could also add A.I. Artificial Intelligence to that list as well. It seems fair to say that Spielberg is very interested in the idea of alien life and its visiting this planet. 

The story is set in a world where we are on the precipice of World War 3. Background news stories allude to a political knife edge that could put our world on the brink of chaos. Kellner’s former boss, Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), argues that the human race would never be able to hear the news of alien life without tearing itself apart, and to do so now would be catastrophic. So Scanlon pursues Kellner and his girlfriend, Jane (Eve Hewson), every step of the way in an effort to stop them getting to where they need to be. Hewson’s character, Jane, adds another questioning element to Kellner’s dilemma, asking if the proof of the existence of aliens would obliterate people’s faith and destabilise humanity even further? 

Whilst this might all sound rather heavy, Spielberg has chosen to wrap all of these questions up in what is essentially a chase movie. The touchpoint from Spielberg’s career would be Minority Report meets Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Kellner and Fairchild find themselves drawn to an unknown location and each other, as per the characters from the latter film, whilst there are intensive chase sequences, supported by futuristic technologies throughout. 

It is at its best in those chases and in Emily Blunt’s best performance since 2015’s Sicario. The action sequences featuring a farmhouse escape and a moving train are both masterclasses in excitement and tension. Whilst Blunt’s character, the most fascinating in the film, gives her the range to play someone who is slowly having new realisations of the human experience. Where her character begins and ends the movie is a captivating watch made better by Blunt’s delivery and commitment. 

The story itself can feel a little thin, and I would expect it to be too much of a leap for some. There are long periods of the film where Kellner refuses to divulge his knowledge, and Fairchild is unaware of hers. Whereas the denouement will require some buy-in to the earnestness with which Spielberg presents it. 

The result is a good film that is only mid-tier Steven Spielberg. The chase movie elements of Minority Report and War of the Worlds mixed with the empathy of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. All Spielberg films that feel like they have greater longevity than Disclosure Day.