Picturehouse Recommends

It is everything you want from a Spielberg flick – and then some. Cinema's premier science-fiction filmmaker, Spielberg has created alien-centric classics across three decades – Close Encounters Of The Third Kind in the '70s; E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial in the '80s; War Of The Worlds in the '00s – each with a different vibe, capturing the mood of the moment. Tapping into the current fervour to declassify information about the existence of aliens, Disclosure Day is a very 2026 take on UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) and promises to be the director's definitive statement on his career-long passion. 

Written by Spielberg's regular collaborator David Koepp with a story by the director himself, the film is a high-stakes chase involving three distinctly Spielbergian heroes: meteorologist Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt), who, presenting a weather report starts talking in creepy clicking noises; cyber-security expert Daniel Kellner (Josh O'Connor), who can decipher Margaret's strange utterances and has knowledge that could change the world as we know it; and Daniel's girlfriend Jane Blankenship (Eve Hewson), a former novice who gets caught up as forces look to silence Daniel.

Helping them in their mission is Hugh Wakefield (Colman Domingo), a scientist and advocate for full disclosure ("people are starved for the truth"), guiding Daniel and Margaret on their quest. However, trying to keep them from divulging their truth is Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth) the head of Wardex, a government contractor who will stop at nothing to ensure the truth about alien life remains under wraps. Cue a story that embraces classic alien iconography – crop circles, Roswell footage – but also raises fascinating philosophical questions about the realities of revealing the truth, chiefly who gets to decide what the world can cope with? 

Disclosure Day delivers everything you expect from a Spielberg summer movie: imaginative action set pieces (a sequence involving a train is nerve shredding), maximum intrigue, stunning imagery and a huge emotional wallop, all wrapped up in a timely tale about the need for empathy. It's the kind of epic experience that is best seen large and loud at Picturehouse. Watch the screen, then watch the skies. Ian Freer 

In The Know 

1. Spielberg's UFO interest was revived by a 2017 New York Times article including reports from Navy Jet pilots about a 40ft long oblong hovering in the sky. 

2.  The film's working title was "Non-View", a reference to a line of computer code in the script. The phrase doesn't make it into the finished film. 

3. Beginning their partnership on 1974's The Sugarland Express, Disclosure Day marks Spielberg's 30th collaboration with composer John Williams.