‘Disclosure Day’ decodes alien beliefs

Alien possibilities, government secrecy and a race for truth collide in Disclosure Day, a new science-fiction thriller created and directed by Steven Spielberg.

Disclosure Day is screening in Ster-Kinekor cinemas, Nu Metro theatres, and at The Bioscope. The movie released on Wednesday (10 June 2026).

The story begins with a live weather broadcast, in which a meteorologist slips into a trance and produces coded alien-like clicking sounds on camera. The moment draws the attention of Dr Daniel Kellner, a WARDEX cyber-security expert who believes classified agency data can decode the broadcast and expose hidden extraterrestrial evidence.

Margaret and Daniel are placed at the centre of a conspiracy thriller, rather than a conventional alien-contact spectacle. Their search for answers connects personal memory, public truth and the risks of exposing information that powerful people believe should remain buried.

Emily Blunt (Edge of Tomorrow) leads the cast as Margaret, with Josh O’Connor (Wake Up Dead Man) playing Daniel. Colin Firth (The King’s Speech) appears as Noah Scanlon, the head of WARDEX, whose belief in secrecy places him in direct conflict with those pushing for disclosure.

Colman Domingo (Michael) plays Hugo Wakefield, a former WARDEX insider helping the disclosure effort, while Eve Hewson (Flora and Son) plays Jane Blankenship, whose religious perspective adds another layer to the story’s questions about humanity’s place in the universe.

The film’s significance lies heavily in Spielberg’s return to extraterrestrial subject matter. Disclosure Day is not a sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but the production frames the new film as a thematic bookend to the 1977 classic. That earlier film helped define Spielberg’s sense of wonder around contact with life beyond Earth.

Disclosure Day takes a more contemporary route. The film links alien secrecy to modern concerns about misinformation, institutional power and public trust. The premise draws on cultural debates around UFOs and government transparency, turning those concerns into a large-scale thriller.

Spielberg developed the story himself, with the screenplay written by David Koepp. Their previous collaborations include Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

The project extends a career built around defining mainstream cinema. Spielberg’s work helped shape the modern blockbuster after Jaws, while films like ET the Extra-Terrestrial and War of the Worlds made alien stories part of his wider cinematic identity.

Disclosure Day now places that long-running fascination in a present-day context, asking what humanity might do when hidden truths move from rumour to public reality.