Disclosure Day (2026 | USA | 145 minutes | Steven Spielberg)

We are conditioned to treat immediate, breathless praise of a new blockbuster with a healthy dose of skepticism. And we should. But Disclosure Day deals in the kind of truth that is impossible to suppress, whether we’re talking about seventy years of government secrets or the reality of the film itself: Steven Spielberg has delivered another late-career masterpiece. It is a film so fiercely entertaining and intellectually stimulating that trying to temper my enthusiasm for it feels like an exercise in dishonesty. It genuinely belongs among his absolute best work.

At heart, Disclosure Day forces us to confront a deeply philosophical question: If handed incontrovertible proof that our accepted history is a multigenerational lie, what do we do with the truth?

The casting here is magnificent, largely because these actors don’t just occupy space—they form an intricate web of beautifully written, interlocking friction. At the center is Josh O’Connor as Daniel Kellner, a reformed felon turned cybersecurity expert who realizes the data he’s guarding is trapped on the wrong side of the corporate firewall. He is balanced by Emily Blunt’s Margaret Fairchild, a Kansas City meteorologist who one day develops the capacity to speak fluent Russian and the ability to read the exact intentions of everyone she meets. Orchestrating the paranoia from above is Colin Firth, playing the defense contractor boss Noah Scanlon, who puts the “deep” in deep state, while an always-brilliant Colman Domingo plays Hugo, the rogue employee determined to blow the whistle on the whole operation.

At the core of the resistance are Daniel and Margaret, bound together by a gravitational chemistry that makes their alliance inevitable. Surrounding them are their romantic partners, who represent different flavors of terrestrial skepticism. In a funny twist of cosmic symmetry, both skeptics are played by high-profile Hollywood nepo babies—though anyone launching a critique of inheritance here will have to contend with how good they both are. Eve Hewson (daughter of Bono) plays Daniel’s deeply Catholic girlfriend Jane, treating the alien revelation less like a political scandal and more like a crisis of the soul. On the flip side, Wyatt Russell (descendant of the Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn dynasty) plays Margaret’s musician husband, beautifully capturing the panic of a man who fears his wife’s sudden mind-reading abilities are just a horrific medical emergency.

There is one scene I cannot stop thinking about, less for its plot relevance or entertainment value than for its profound humanity. Caught in an existential crisis, Jane calls Sister Maura (Elizabeth Marvel) to ask if the world-changing secrets she’s harboring conflict with the tenets of her Catholic faith—specifically, the book of Genesis. As a non-believer who has spent a lot of time reading Genesis recently, I found their conversation deeply moving. Sister Maura’s answer offers a brilliant theological bridge, proving that ancient scripture and disruptive new truths can coexist, leaving the story of creation open to a much larger interpretation.

Ideas alone don’t propel blockbusters, though. Action does. Thankfully, Spielberg hasn’t lost his appetite for pure, relentless kinetic energy. Daniel spent years navigating digital firewalls, but now he is physically running for his life, trying to make his way to Hugo while Noah Scanlon and his corporate minions use every ounce of their firepower and technology to stay hot on his trail. Early on, after a botched apprehension, a bewildered Scanlon barks at the henchmen who let Daniel slip away, noting the absurdity that a guy who spends his entire life sitting behind a computer just completely outfoxed them. The resulting chases are brilliantly choreographed and, for my money, rank as exciting as anything in the early Indiana Jones movies.

When the final action sequence leads directly into the film’s ultimate payoff, I wasn’t prepared for how emotional I would find it. It is moments like this where Steven Spielberg proves why his entire cinematic footprint has generated enough value to rival the GDP of a small nation. He is a master technician, certainly, but at heart he remains an unmatched storyteller. At 79 years old, he is still operating at the absolute peak of his powers.

As for what those world-shaking truths in Disclosure Day actually reveal about the human condition?

I’m not saying it was aliens, but it was aliens.

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Disclosure Day opens in theaters everywhere on Friday, June 12.