Disclosure Day: Christian Review & Analysis

If you've been hungering for the taste of a tense, entertaining, but also heartfelt sci-fi blockbuster, Stephen Spielberg’s Disclosure Day will satisfy, even if it’s not Spielberg’s most revelatory exploration of alien life or faith. I was invited to attend a press screening because of Disclosure Day's interest in theological questions about purpose, calling, and the implications that the discovery of alien life would have on our understanding of God and creation. Below I’ll share a Christian review of Disclosure Day as a whole, its portrayal of people of faith, and its exploration of theological beliefs and biblical imagery.

Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) in Stephen Spielberg's new alien movie, Disclosure Day

What is Disclosure Day About? (Summary)

Disclosure Day follows two primary protagonists. Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) plays a whistleblower on the run from WARDEX, a quasi-governmental organization tasked with keeping a lid on the evidence of alien life forms. His story begins in medias res, as he flees from WARDEX’s sinister leader, Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), with a trove of evidence along with his girlfriend, Jane (Eve Hewson), an ex-novitiate (i.e. nun-in-training) who has to ward-off Scanlon’s efforts to psychically possess her through the use of an alien artifact. Meanwhile, after a strange encounter with a cardinal, weather forecaster, Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt), begins speaking in unknown tongues and manifests a variety of psychic powers that eventually draw her to Daniel and Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo), the leader of a WARDEX splinter group that is seeking to facilitate the disclosure of alien life to the whole world. 

Disclosure Day Reaction and Review

Like many children of the 80’s and 90’s, Stephen Spielberg’s films hold a near and dear place in my heart. Because Disclosure Day revisits many of the tropes and themes of Spielberg’s past works, it’s impossible not to view it in comparison to them. Seen from that vantage point, Disclosure Day isn’t a disappointment but also isn’t particularly revelatory. Spielberg remains a consummate storyteller who weaves tension, humor, and pathos together in perfect proportion and pacing, while delivering epic chases and moments of spellbinding awe. At the same time, there are only a few elements of Disclosure Day that feel genuinely novel and intriguing when compared to his past works (or those from similar directors). Scanlon’s attempts to psychically possess Jane and use her against Daniel are creepy and tense, and Margaret’s bumbling psychic awareness is quite entertaining. I only wish the film leaned more into these elements and a little less into standard on the run from the government tropes.

Unfortunately, the film’s use of psychic powers and the alien artifacts can also undermine the tension, particularly in the latter half. Whenever Scanlon and WARDEX have the upper hand, Margaret manifests a new ability. As a result, the film’s antagonists become increasingly less formidable and the outcome of events is less and less in doubt, exactly at the moment when the tension should be strongest.

Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth) the villain of Stephen Spielberg's Disclosure Day

Given the title of the film, I was also hoping that we would spend a little more time with characters grappling with the implications of alien life being disclosed. Jane does a bit, but not quite as much as I’d like to see. The final moment of disclosure is well done, but left me wishing that we could get more time with normal people reacting to and processing the big news. Unfortunately, most of the characters in the film already know about alien life at the get-go, so there just isn’t much room for that in the script.

Many of these faults can be overlooked on account of Disclosure Day's masterful cast and performances. Emily Blunt will rightly garner a great deal of attention for her winsome portrayal of Margaret, in which she effortlessly ranges across the emotional spectrum from hot-mess charm to bumbling confusion to clear-eyed conviction to wild-eyed terror to sincere compassion and everywhere in between. Eve Hewson convincingly portrays Jane’s struggle with possession. And Colin Firth brings sinister gravitas to Scanlon that makes him a worthy antagonistic force for most of the film.

Christian Review of Disclosure Day's Theology and Portrayal of Faith

The moral conflict at the center of Disclosure Day is basically between those who are driven by fear and bigotry to try to control what the world knows and those who are driven by empathy and open-mindedness to entrust the world with the knowledge of the truth. A movie with similar themes made in the 2000s-2010s would almost certainly position Christians and the Church on the side of bigotry and fear, but in Disclosure Day Christians are without exception portrayed in a positive light. Although Jane, the ex-novitiate, briefly wrestles with whether Daniel should disclose knowledge of the aliens to the public because of the potential consequences it might have for people’s faith in God, she ultimately comes out on the film’s preferred side of this question because of the influence of her more religious and theologically-minded mentor, Sister Maura. For Sister Maura, faith is not a source of fear and insecure bigotry but rather a grounding source of confidence that makes open-mindedness and compassion possible. While Spielberg’s films have often been fairly faith-positive, it's encouraging to see what seems to be a larger cultural trend away from demonizing the Church.

But Disclosure Day isn’t just interested in Christian believers; it’s also interested in Christian belief itself. I want to give the film props for taking seriously the implications that the discovery of alien life would have for the Judeo-Christian understanding of Scripture and creation. Too often, science fiction films never stop to consider the intellectual and spiritual challenges that would come with such revelations. Even as things are today in the real world, the mere idea of aliens visiting our world serves a kind of alternative transcendent narrative that a number of people look to in the place of a biblical understanding of creation, miracles, angels, demons, etc. 

Jane, the novitiate, is understandably concerned that widespread disclosure might cause people to cast away their belief in a supreme being in favor of supreme beings. She also worries about how the existence of a higher form of life might upend Genesis’ portrait of creation, in which humans are depicted as the culmination of God’s creative work. In response, however, Sister Maura points out that Genesis is concerned with God’s creative work on earth and doesn’t necessarily rule out the possibility of created beings beyond the earth. She even goes so far as to argue that the vast expanse of the universe would be wasted, if we were the only ones here in the universe.

I appreciate that Maura’s attempt to integrate the knowledge of aliens is fairly orthodox and in line with how believers have had to integrate other scientific discoveries in the past. In my view, it’s a little more likely that unexplained aerial phenomenon actually involve sightings of angelic or demonic beings. If rock-solid evidence of biological alien life were to be disclosed, however, it wouldn’t fundamentally shake my faith, because, like Maura, I don’t think Genesis is interested in or speaking to such questions, in the same way that it isn’t interested in the shape of the earth, the exact age of the universe, or the fate of the dinosaurs. My only serious quibble with Sister Maura is her argument that the vast universe would be wasted if we were the only occupants. The vastness of the universe isn’t wasted – it magnifies the glory of God and also inspires humble awe in his creatures. 

Sister Maura (Elizabeth Marvel) and other nuns in Disclosure Day

As much as I appreciate the film’s willingness to engage with these questions, I do wish they had taken things a step further. The real challenge that the existence of other sentient creatures would pose for Christian theology would not be with regard to the doctrine of creation; it would be with regard to the doctrines of sin, death, and redemption. If aliens existed, would they be sinful like us, or is it possible that they would remain unaffected by the fall and therefore innocent and deathless? If they were sinful, could they be ingrafted into Christ by faith for salvation? I don’t necessarily expect a Hollywood blockbuster to have answers to such thorny theological questions, but I would have liked to have seen the characters wrestle with the theological implications of aliens just a little bit more – Maura’s response is just a little too pat. 

By the way, I don’t think we ever see the aliens in Disclosure Day sinning, so the film could potentially fit with the view of alien life that CS Lewis articulates in his Space Trilogy. Lewis’ basic premise is that, if sentient creatures (or “gnau”) exist on other planets, they would be created innocent like Adam and Eve. The Space Trilogy highlights the unnaturalness of sin by contrasting the thoughts, desires, and actions of fallen humans with those of the unfallen aliens that they intrude upon.

In addition to its explicit theology, Disclosure Day also implicitly engages with several Christian themes. Perhaps the most evocative moment in this regard takes place when Scanlan possesses Jane using the alien artifact. I use the word possess, because the scene clearly evokes demonic possession. Although Scanlon is not a demon, he is basically a wizard holding a wand in his hand. By contrast, Jane holds a crucifix in her hand, which she uses to resist his dark influence. Merely holding an external symbol of Christ isn’t enough for Jane though. To overcome Scanlon’s intrusion, she personally needs to unite herself to Christ’s suffering by piercing her own hand in exactly the same place where the nails of the cross are driven in traditional depictions. Again, I only wish the film had done a little more with this very profound moment instead of rushing on to the next chase.

Calling and purpose is another key theme in Disclosure Day that will resonate with Christian viewers. Near the start of the film, Margaret questions whether she is where she’s supposed to be. Similarly, we learn that Jane chose not to become a nun, not because she doubted God but rather because she doubted her sense of calling. Over the course of the film, we see both characters find their way to where they are supposed to be and this gives them resilience and courage in the face of challenges. There’s some overlap here with traditional Christian understandings of calling, although this view of purpose probably has just as much if not more in common with new agey notions.

Finally, it’s interesting to note how Disclosure Day appropriates the imagery of biblical stories as well as pagan mythology. I don’t think it’s an accident that Margaret Fairchild’s gift is unlocked when she is visited by a bird (a cardinal, not a dove – that might have been a little too on the nose). After this visitation, she begins speaking in foreign languages that she doesn’t know and in tongues (i.e. the alien speech), while perceiving the thoughts of others and spouting off wisdom she doesn’t even fully understand. We’re clearly meant to be thinking of stories of the biblical prophets and apostles, although Margaret vehemently discourages others from worshiping her. 

Aliens appearing as a fox, moose, and raccoon in Stephen Spielberg's Disclosure Day

If the aliens had only appeared in the form of birds, I wouldn’t go further than the biblical text in my explanation, but the decision to have them appear in a variety of animal forms calls to mind pagan mythology as well. The gods of Greece, Egypt, and many other cultures typically appear to mortals in the form of animals. In Greek mythology, deities like Zeus do this in order to avoid overwhelming humans with their true form – which is exactly what the aliens are trying to do. I imagine the decision to depict the aliens in this way was suggested by the common idea that the ancient pagan gods may actually have been aliens.

Is Disclosure Day Worth Seeing?

Disclosure Day will please a fairly broad audience, but not everyone. If you’re not into sci-fi or thrillers, the brief bits of theological exploration probably aren’t worth the ticket. But if you’ve had a hankering for a classic Spielberg film filled with action, spectacle, humor, and heart, it’ll leave you fairly satisfied. It may not be ranked among the very best films of Spielberg’s long and illustrious career, but as a Christian and a fan of cinema, I’m happy to see films like this getting made.