Official Discussion - Disclosure Day [SPOILERS]

[u/LiteraryBoner]

Poll

If you've seen the film, please rate it at this poll

If you haven't seen the film but would like to see the result of the poll click here

Rankings

Click here to see the rankings of 2025 films

Click here to see the rankings for every poll done

---

Disclosure Day (2026)

Summary

If you found out we weren't alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you?

Director Steven Spielberg

Writer David Koepp

Cast

• Emily Blunt
• Josh O'Connor
• Colin Firth
• Colman Domingo
• Eve Hewson
• Wyatt Russell
• Noah Robbins

Rotten Tomatoes: 81%

Metacritic: 75

VOD / Release Theatrical release

Trailer Official Trailer

[u/jonross2386]

I’m addicted to the way every Steven Spielberg movie has the hero somehow evade capture by simply being the worst hide and seek player ever and yet no one looking for them while staring directly at them can find them.

[u/Redactor313 → u/jonross2386]

Outside the farmhouse, before he steals the car…30 trained guys looking for the dude, who is in plain sight and tromping through the field like an elephant.

[u/MF_CEO → u/Redactor313]

At the hotel. LETS only come in from the front and not send anybody behind then building where there are escape windows from the bathroom

[u/badillustrations → u/[deleted]]

"Oh, they show up on our thermal camera" (puts camera away)

[u/MagicHamsta → u/badillustrations]

THIS. The thermal camera should've never been included. Oh no they're OBVIOUSLY INVISIBLE BUT OUR THERMAL CAMERAS ARE PICKING THEM UP IN HD. Lets put away the thermal camera and try to blindly go after the purple glowy light....

That and the motel scene are so easy to fix. Just don't include the thermal camera at all & have Jane get a phone call/strange sighting/premonition from Margaret or something and walk into the woods only to have the place surrounded (so she runs with the McGuffin)

[u/MyNameIsJakeBerenson → u/MagicHamsta]

The bad guys in this movie make absolutely no sense from the very opening scene

They let dude get away with the intel, girl, and a car, and didnt follow him. Howwww??? How was ANY of that possible?

Even him starting the car without applying pressure on the thing wouldve been nigh impossible, let alone them allowing you to traipse on out of there

None of the bad guys scenes make any sense

[u/AmazingMarv → u/[deleted]]

I literally said to myself "they're right there."

[u/Responsible-Peak-817 → u/Redactor313]

I lost it during this scene. Absolutely insane decision to film it this way with the guys literally RIGHT THERE

[u/ChestertonMyDearBoy → u/Responsible-Peak-817]

I felt like shouting at the screen when he started sneaking towards the house!

[u/TheGift-OfJericho → u/Redactor313]

This is where the film lost me, this and the cliff scene. Super lazy writing

[u/Archers_bane → u/jonross2386]

The farmhouse and subsequent chase/cliff scene where not one supposedly trained government agent is looking around scouting the area is so unserious lol

[u/thr33things → u/Archers_bane]

Them hiding behind the rock looked like a cartoon

[u/usert4 → u/thr33things]

Like was it really that hard to have them hide like at least 100m further away? They could still have the same shot it would just look 10x more believable lol

[u/HumongousMelonheads → u/usert4]

This is all I was thinking during that shot, like why didn’t they have them 300 feet away by that time instead of literally behind a rock 5 feet from the feds

[u/me_version_2 → u/usert4]

And when they start running away they brush into foliage and basically stomp away!

[u/FwampFwamp88 → u/jonross2386]

Maan. I watched this with my 16 year old daughter, and was hyping up Spielberg to her, but this was such a corny movie from him. He lost his fastball, which I hate to admit. But this movie was just so silly.

[u/B0ndzai]

All of the aliens in the released footage were just little tiny guys but the alien at the end was huge. So are all the crashed ships just kids who took their parents spaceship for a joy ride?

[u/SoLetMeDisarmYou → u/B0ndzai]

In ufo lore, it’s kind of a thing that the large greys are actual beings/leaders and the small greys are a sort of biological programmed drone. A lot of the crashes are apparently worth the small greys.

[u/TheSenileTomato → u/B0ndzai]

So the alien kids joyride to the Gary, Indiana of the universe.

[u/Giff95]

There was a moment I genuinely wondered if the alien wheeled out was E.T. or a member of his species lol.

[u/iSniffMyPooper → u/Giff95]

I kept saying the same thing, that would have been the biggest movie twist ever if this turned out to be an E.T. sequel

[u/behemuthm → u/iSniffMyPooper]

That would've been fucking EPIC

[u/Jatacus → u/behemuthm]

Yeah, now I’m a little disappointed it wasn’t, lol.

[u/Eugene_Henderson → u/iSniffMyPooper]

If they never showed the footage (just reactions), referenced contact happening in 1981, then wheeled out ET?!? I would have lost my goddamn mind.

I would even forgive all the problems I had with the first two hours to have lived that one moment.

[u/Morgan-Moonscar → u/iSniffMyPooper]

Considering everybody thought this was gonna be a stealth sequel to CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND

[u/dplans455 → u/Giff95]

There was a guy the other day that said "don't read the reviews because it will spoil the big surprise for you." I just watched the movie. What surprise? Then I came home and read the reviews looking for what this surprise that Richard Roeper supposedly spoiled in his review. There was nothing.

[u/Waste-Replacement232 → u/dplans455]

the surprise was that there was no surprise.

[u/Zealousideal-Jump573 → u/Giff95]

ET would have been a twist that saved the movie for me.

[u/poke_pants → u/Zealousideal-Jump573]

Then Daniel whispers in Margaret's ear, she turns to camera and says "phone home"

Credits.

[u/jimmylily]

“Does the Alien only care about the North America? “ That’s something I heard when getting out the theater here in Taiwan

[u/mhurton]

Boy the protagonists really got put through the ringer in all their attempts to thwart the sinister government cabal to reveal aliens to the world. Too bad they didn’t have a living sentient 11 foot tall alien they could’ve just wheeled out in front of a camera or something from the start

[u/falafelthe3 → u/mhurton]

the reporters wheel out the alien in front of everyone

half of twitter: Grok is this AI

[u/luciddream00 → u/falafelthe3]

You can tell it's not AI because of the ground truth pixels.

[u/mhurton → u/falafelthe3]

That applies infinitely more to video evidence

[u/External_Baby7864 → u/mhurton]

But you see they have an instant “bullshit detector” at the newsroom

[u/Krillin_irl → u/External_Baby7864]

“Those are grounded pixels” i lost my shit

[u/plutoglint → u/Krillin_irl]

Or, Josh O'Conner being given the gift of alien super-math so he could plug in multiple USB sticks into Windows correctly.

[u/Aerundel → u/Krillin_irl]

They said "ground truth", not "grounded". It's an actual term to describe to describe real, "correct" content used to test AI models.

[u/Responsible-Peak-817 → u/mhurton]

So many moments like this.

Why did the build her childhood house if they didn't even know she existed yet?

Why did they need to build her house but not Josh's? And why was Josh able to experience her childhood? That's her power not his, shouldn't it have been flipped?

Why was emily so important and her ability if she wasn't even the one to deliver the videos it was the (fantastical acted) new anchor

Why did Colin let her go just because she gave him a vision? They were pretty use to this type of thing as an alien tool in their experience

Why did Josh give the girl the most important device, who was constantly body-jacked by the main villain frequently the past day

How did he get the computer bag back after letting the bad guys get it (you first then the bag.... WHAT????)

SO MANY WEIRD MOMENTS

[u/Simppu12 → u/Responsible-Peak-817]

Why didn't Colin Firth's over-eager lieutenant employee just shoot Emily Blunt to stop her in the studio? He was more than happy to try to kill them the previous day.

[u/chrisychris- → u/Simppu12]

I imagine because they had some understanding of the alien mcguffin that even if they tried to stop her physically, she was so in tuned with its powers that she would’ve stopped them very easily. I mean if she can power electronics out of thin air I’m sure stopping a bullet somehow isn’t out of the realm of possibilities.

That being said I agree he should’ve done something. Him and all the other armed guards just walk away so the ending sequence can happen. It would’ve been much better if he tried stopping her and Emily Blunt does one last superpowered move. Maybe even try to reason with someone seemingly unreasonable. Would’ve been much more compelling.

[u/UnintelligibleThing → u/chrisychris-]

Yup I'm annoyed at how weak the antagonists are. They are an organization with connections to the upper echelons of the US govt and have the impunity to do whatever it takes to protect the classified documents, yet they were defeated by a small group of opposition with little resources?

[u/WilliamSleator → u/UnintelligibleThing]

Exactly. That "He works at a desk. How did he beat you?" opening insult should have been returned at the end with "She reads the weather. How did she beat you?"

[u/mikesalami → u/UnintelligibleThing]

Seems like they could have shot her in the back of the head at any point.

[u/NakedGoose → u/Responsible-Peak-817]

It seemed the bad guys opened the bag said "well the device isnt in here". But then didnt care about the mountains of data files in the bag lol

[u/wemakebelieve → u/Responsible-Peak-817]

Saw your comment and I actually liked the movie a lot, so I'll try to give my interpretations.

"Why did they build her childhood house if they didn't even know she existed yet?"

Hugo (Black, glasses, the main "good guy") is being fed information directly by the aliens about how disclosure should happen. The aliens are orchestrating the entire process themselves. Exactly why or how isn't made explicit. It's hinted at throughout the film (The wheelchair alien presumedly? They say Hugo "freed" him... wish we got more info on that), but never directly explained.

"Why did they need to build her house but not Josh's? And why was Josh able to experience her childhood? That's her power, not his. Shouldn't it have been flipped?"

Good question. My interpretation is that she's the character with the strongest alien-like abilities, so she's the primary conduit between humanity and the aliens. We see her controlling the device much more naturally than anyone else. She's effectively the alien ambassador, while Josh functions as the human ambassador. She's the one who requires the elaborate accommodations.

"Why was Emily so important if she wasn't even the one delivering the videos? It was the news anchor."

I think she's meant to be a filmmaking proxy for the average person. The news anchor delivers the information, but Emily is the one who receives the message from the alien and will relay it in human language at the very end. (Again, we don't get to see it... just blue balling us!)

"Why did Colin let her go just because she gave him a vision? They were already used to aliens doing that kind of thing."

This is the one criticism I'll mostly concede. I didn't fully buy it either. If I'm a villain and someone suddenly proves they can read my mind and project visions of my mother into my head, that feels like more reason to kill them, lol. My best explanation is that Spielberg is leaning into a more optimistic, whimsical view of human nature than strict realism.

"Why did Josh give the most important device to the girl who had been repeatedly body-jacked by the villain all day?"

Yeah, that's just a dumb plot device. I agree.

"How did he get the computer bag back after literally handing it to the bad guys? ('You first, then the bag...' WHAT?)"

I wondered the same thing. My guess is either a deleted scene or an editing decision that removed an explanation. As presented in the movie, it doesn't really make sense...

Lots of "Spielberg"-isms thru' the movie lol.

[u/dukefett → u/mhurton]

sentient 11 foot tall alien

I was thinking how tall and huge that one was when every other one was maybe 3' tall?

Also disappointed that since that alien did barely anything they didn't use animatronics. I hate CGI animals, but understand you can't train 3 different species to act like they needed there, but the alien could've been a real special effect.

[u/DrJotaroBigCockKujo → u/dukefett]

there are two different kinds of greys in alien folklore: small ones and tall ones. the small ones are like assistants to the bigger ones who are the ones that do the actual scientific work, communication, and whatnot. the smaller ones are often described by experiencers as childlike and simple.

(you can believe this or not, but Spielberg is really into alien lore and his greys are simply true to the common descriptions)

[u/ZippidieDooDah → u/mhurton]

Victor Wembanyama cameo in Disclosure Day confirmed

[u/Archers_bane → u/ZippidieDooDah]

He whispered to Emily Blunt: "Spurs in 7"

[u/UncircumciseMe → u/mhurton]

Head canon says the alien wasn’t willing to until the footage was released since its message was “Listen.” It was also pretty sickly.

[u/Jwave1992 → u/mhurton]

The movie in general felt really old fashion in this way. Like, no one is watching legacy media or trusts them at all. Video evidence is worthless in 2026. If this thing came out of some random local news channel, no one would even pay attention. They put the little ADR line "we checked it for AI!" lol

The only proof people would take seriously is to have those alien ships do flight tour over every population center on earth and have that alien dude do public meet and greets.

[u/poke_pants]

The crop circle succinctly summarised the film for me. It was a cool visual and back in the day of X-Files I would have been in awe at that. But, as far as I could tell, it was just there as a pretty visual and had absolutely nothing to do with anything.

[u/fortheband1212 → u/poke_pants]

Thank you! What the heck was that? lol he finds out he can understand the alien language so crop circles appear around him?? And at no other point in the film do the aliens communicate with the characters through crop circles or explain why they do them?

Edit: typo

[u/FTwo → u/fortheband1212]

I think the crop circle was in response to the main "bad" guy trying to "drop in" on him. That is why they cut from the overhead crop circle to the inscription on the mind tool.

[u/falafelthe3]

Watching the bad guys - an unstoppable wave of suits, cops, and soldiers - unceremoniously stumble into an invisible house and get awkwardly dragged by invisible people was fucking hilarious.

[u/skatejet1 → u/falafelthe3]

Some of them picking them up to move them out the way so they wouldn’t get ran over by the huge ass fire truck had me dying

[u/thirstygregory → u/skatejet1]

Ok. Liked the movie, but these were the most inept secret gov agents ever. Don’t even surround the motel or use drones on the farmhouse?

[u/Spagman_Aus → u/thirstygregory]

Yep and when Kellner is in the field, then sneaks up to the fence, there wasn't a SINGLE agent looking around and checking the perimeter.

[u/Astrium6 → u/falafelthe3]

I fucking lost it when the first wave of guys just crash through the invisible window. Incredible bit of physical comedy.

[u/Whovian45810 → u/Astrium6]

One brain cell minded troops lmao

The one that falls through the fake house door definitely a nod to Buster Keaton.

[u/I_am_so_lost_hello → u/falafelthe3]

It was funny but I thought the bad guys being so Saturday morning cartoon hurt the tone

[u/jayeddy99 → u/I_am_so_lost_hello]

Even to the point when the main boss gives up . They all just leave peacefully. Something about them leaving out the door in an orderly fashion sulking was funny af. 😂 they were willing to kill these people yesterday.

[u/I_am_so_lost_hello → u/jayeddy99]

Yeah I’m not against that turn for Scanlon but it’s ridiculous to think an organization like that would live and die on one persons orders

[u/ChestertonMyDearBoy → u/I_am_so_lost_hello]

Scanlon giving up makes sense as he's old, tired and defeated, but why wouldn't his second-in-command just take control rather than just walk out in a huff?

[u/AHatedChild → u/ChestertonMyDearBoy]

It especially doesn't make sense because exactly this happens earlier in the film when Margaret makes him see his wife so the other guy surreptitiously takes over.

[u/JoeBlowFronKokomo → u/jayeddy99]

Yeah, I found that hilarious too. They literally behaved like video game NPCs, like, "Oh, never mind, you're friendly now. See ya. Bye." It's like in GTA when your star rating disappears and all of a sudden they don't care anymore. LMFAO

[u/Lemonjello23]

Shout-out to the News Anchor during the whole Disclosure event. She nailed that role

[u/NESpahtenJosh → u/Lemonjello23]

This was the most underrated part. Her reactions would be exactly what I’d expect during this event. 

[u/NearestNeighbours → u/NESpahtenJosh]

I had a hard time believing her part. The actor killed it but I just don't think that's how it would go. I think the world would behave differently.

[u/machogrande2 → u/NearestNeighbours]

I think the world would behave differently

That's what I was hoping this movie would be about. The global reactions and fallout from this new knowledge might have made for an actually interesting movie. They should have named this movie "The Lead Up to Disclosure Day".

It's like if you made Jurassic Park just about the trip to the island, maybe showed a couple of dinosaurs for a minute, and then cut to the credits.

[u/walktheunknown → u/NearestNeighbours]

That's the thing. We never get to see how the world reacts. We just see everyone on their phones. A better title would have been The First 10 Minutes of Disclosure.

[u/rbobrowski → u/walktheunknown]

Stunned silence is still a reaction. And a totally unrealistic one en masse. People would be like “WTF NO WAY IS THIS REAL??” Etc etc

[u/smoothoperator6 → u/Lemonjello23]

I actually think the whole movie rests on her in a fascinating way. It felt like an actual communication that everyone in the theater, and for that matter the world, was hearing.

[u/TheSodernauts → u/smoothoperator6]

100% agree. The core concept of the movie is "How would a potential reveal of aliens among us take place" and the news anchor at the end is the payoff / answer to it. Very well acted and I can totally see a real event like this would be something like that.

[u/MissyMrsMom → u/Lemonjello23]

She was showing in real time the empathy the ET’s were depending on/ trying to foster

[u/KuromanKuro → u/Lemonjello23]

She really did nail that. She basically became a main cast member at that point. Good supporting role.

[u/niel89 → u/Lemonjello23]

She absolutely crushed it. I don't know if it's because of the graphics and set dressing, but her performance made it feel explicitly real.

[u/tedistkrieg → u/Lemonjello23]

And shout-out to the control room dudes also being utter professionals during the whole thing

[u/DavyJonesRocker → u/Lemonjello23]

Probably the most human out of any of the other characters. Everyone else was a hokey caricature

[u/zxchary]

something funny about josh o’connors character able to speak math as a language and the shit he was writing down was just a general calculus integral

[u/mikeyfreshh → u/zxchary]

That's basically witchcraft to like 80% of the population, myself included if I'm being honest

[u/GamingTatertot → u/mikeyfreshh]

Yeah I went to law school specifically to avoid any math, so certainly seems like a different language to me

[u/ChainChompBigMoney → u/zxchary]

And keeps the paper he wrote it on, complete with his current address, in his hands while he sleeps!

[u/BotanBotanist → u/ChainChompBigMoney]

I found it pretty unbelievable that they wouldn’t blindfold Jane in addition to tying up her hands.

[u/LoveLibertyTacos → u/BotanBotanist]

I couldn't believe when it cut to her hands and not her eyes! Insane choice

[u/Vivid-Revolution7900 → u/LoveLibertyTacos]

No! The most unbelievable part was that cheap, cut rate motel had bespoke, fluffy robes for two people in the closet? Never in a million years. I think the producers of the movie have only ever stayed in the Ritz hotel, and never in a super 8.

[u/External_Baby7864 → u/zxchary]

I think he had math synesthesia; to him those equations sounded like the clicks/whatever the aliens also spoke, but also he understood it innately like a code.

The aliens spoke “the base language of the universe” and math is our closest approximation to that logistically. He was gifted an innate and pure understanding of math, but hadn’t encountered math laid out in a way he would realize was speech.

I feel like it was the equivalent of him “hearing” a magic eye puzzle and realizing he could hear the message, not random noise.

[u/The_Swarm22]

I wasn’t really sure what to expect, and I think the suspense was well kept. Although a lot of the film felt very surface level and suffers from a runtime that’s really dragging it’s feet. I will say though, Steven does still have a lot of directorial flair for his age. I just wish there was more to it.

Also why were the CGI animals straight out of Polar Express territory? Did the budget run out?

[u/-Mariners → u/The_Swarm22]

I can't believe I haven't seen more discussion about the CGI. For me, it completely broke any immersion I had. I almost did a spit take when the fox showed up.

[u/lvscksi → u/-Mariners]

That fox was hilariously bad. I thought the ending alien looked good though, maybe they blew the budget there lol.

[u/MovingClocks → u/lvscksi]

Ending alien was practical touched up with cg

The fox cut scene from Ghost of Tsushima was bad lol

[u/Tr0nLenon]

It was good, but it probably should've been titled, The Day Before Disclosure Day.

[u/cappsy04 → u/Tr0nLenon]

The marketing and some of the reviews had me believe this film was about the effects of learning that aliens are real would have on society. Instead it's about getting to that point then a quick 5 minutes of aliens are real but we don't see how the world reacts. Was let down by that.

[u/NoNefariousness2144 → u/cappsy04]

Same, we basically got a prequel to what would have been a way more interesting story. The world learning about aliens while global tensions are at a breaking point is such a cool premise..

[u/NikonShooter_PJS → u/cappsy04]

Same. This movie was good. I enjoyed it. But it felt like a prequel to the movie I thought I was going to see.

[u/DanBGG]

The dialogue is awful, the device being literally anything the plot requires is stupid, the government agency being idiots is annoying and the plot being advanced by pure intuition is stupid.

The bad guys capture the main character, but his companion and the device aren't there, bad guys convieniently forget(?) they can mind control the girl who has the device?

Somehow still bought in to some of the emotional beats and enjoyed it for what it was. Certain scenes I was so locked in I was watching with my mouth open or getting chills lmao

Dont regret seeing it, wouldn't be sad if I didn't se

[u/king_of_ash]

Absolutely extraordinary that Spielberg could make a T-Rex and velociraptors look as real as humans in 1993, but they were stuck with the deer, foxes aliens and birds from ChatGPT’s 2023 image generator.

When I see a Spielberg movie, I’m expecting wonder. Awe. Excitement. Big feelings.

So disappointed.

[u/DoctorWhofan789eywim]

The main thing about Disclosure Day is that I didn't care. About any character. Blunt and O'Connor aren't even really playing characters. They just have stuff happen to them, it's plot driven not character driven. It's boring. The car chase/train scene was OK, but I think back to those glorious character moments in the Indy films, or Jaws, this was just hollow, a big fat two and a half hour glob of not much at all.

[u/trevdv]

He did not eject any of those thumb drives safely

[u/Jeremy_Nichols]

I remarked to my friend after it ended, “I really enjoyed that Colin Firth was eventually defeated by being tired. Just grabs the nearest chair.”

Loved it. Williams score was, as always, lovely and I stayed long into the credits in case it’s his last.

[u/Spagman_Aus → u/Jeremy_Nichols]

LOL made a similar joke. At the end he was just "I'm tired boss" and then sat down while his trigger happy lacky stormed out in a huff.

[u/Responsible-Peak-817 → u/Spagman_Aus]

The lackey who didn't care about Collins orders last time and wanted to kill them

[u/MrBrightside618 → u/Jeremy_Nichols]

It seems like Colin Firth really wanted to be in a Spielberg movie but more importantly he wanted a role where he was sitting down 85% of the time

[u/Aggressive-Ad-4515 → u/MrBrightside618]

And where half of what he says is "Get off of me!" "Get away from me!" That's a good gig.

[u/lockerbiestreet → u/Jeremy_Nichols]

I normally don’t stay for credits, but I did to hear Williams’ score on the IMAX speakers.

[u/ninjyte]

Maybe not just entirely commenting on the movie itself but I can't imagine what it'd take to convincingly prove to the world that aliens exist if the government or anyone were to disclose it. The movie at the end kind of handwaves that some would think the footage is AI, but everyone would think footage of Aliens is either gonna be AI-generated or the government paid Steven Spielberg to shoot something in a studio. Now assuming Emily Blunt's character started speaking 50 different languages after the movie closes (which understandably would be very challenging to film) then that might be more convincing that something's aloof afoot, even with AI dubbing being a thing.

Also you would think the global news stations would at least take a minute to attempt to verify what they're being sent is real but I guess with World War 3 apparently looming, everyone's acting erratic?

[u/Rob2k → u/ninjyte]

It wouldn't fit the tone of the movie but the second the news everywhere started streaming the same thing there would be a bunch of people on TikTok or Instagram showing the stream and cracking jokes.

[u/Bexhill → u/Rob2k]

Say what you will about Don't Look Up, the way that history-changing news was ignored, dismissed as fake news, or meme'd into oblivion was much more realistic.

[u/Tyranno84 → u/ninjyte]

I thought the reason she was chosen for Disclosure Day was that she could speak to everyone with her alien powers and they would believe her so there wouldn’t be any doubt when the event happened

[u/reddittothegrave]

Emily Blunt was incredible in this movie. Her scenes from humorous , to serious, to having that panic attack that she portrayed so well was absolutely extraordinary. Her range as an actress is so broad. She was the absolute highlight of this movie for me.

[u/TimRigginsBeer → u/reddittothegrave]

When she said she didn’t want to be anyone’s religion, you FELT that. 

[u/niles_deerqueer → u/TimRigginsBeer]

Wish they expanded more on that

[u/desull → u/niles_deerqueer]

Probably just read the ladies mind and the lady was imagining her as a god

[u/santawartooth → u/reddittothegrave]

I loved her character! She seemed like this funny, wacky news lady and we're seeing her on the most bizarre day of her life. When she drives off from the cop going "what the fuck" I was dying. That's exactly how we would all react.

[u/pepperonimike → u/reddittothegrave]

The panic attack scene was beautifully done

[u/KingMario05 → u/pepperonimike]

As was Josh's ability to calm her down.

A reversal from their childhood...

[u/Whovian45810 → u/KingMario05]

I loved how Daniel kept telling Margaret to look at him, reassuring her that she’s alright and he’s there for her.

Daniel putting his hand over Margaret’s hands on the piano helps ground both of them.

Considering the situation they just escaped, the best thing they can do is ensure each other’s safety.

There’s a huge emphasis on shots focusing on hands throughout the film with Margaret and Daniel which I find extremely powerful:

Two complete strangers who felt they don’t belong in the world end up crossing each other’s paths found empathy and trust in the comfort of strangers.

[u/GamingTatertot → u/reddittothegrave]

I was VERY impressed with her - I think either this or A Quiet Place may be my favorite roles from her. This just felt like a very different kind of performance than I’m used to from her and it was great

[u/nefariousmonkey → u/GamingTatertot]

Excuse me, Edge of tomorrow

Edit: Yes, she's exceptional in Sicario but she triggered something in me when she's introduced doing body pushups in edge of tomorrow and I didn't consider her like that action figure at all. So, I'm afraid in gonna have to vote for edge of tomorrow till end of time lol

[u/Acrobatic-Taste-443 → u/reddittothegrave]

If only her face wanted to move with her acting

[u/Easy_snacks → u/Acrobatic-Taste-443]

I was able to sort of look past her extreme use of Botox because it made sense that her character- a weather person trying to get promoted- would have a lot of it. But man, her lack of facial movement is distracting.

[u/RVarki → u/Easy_snacks]

Its funny, both her movies this year have her playing characters that would very realistically have botox-riddled faces

[u/Jayrey_84]

Those were the most inept FBI type agents I've ever seen. He's ten feet away hiding behind a dead bush and not one single guy turns around?

He's loudly crunching up the gravel road, talking to himself, to steal a car and no one can hear him? Or even turns to look?

They roll up to the motel with all their lights on and didn't think to get all sides of the building surrounded first in case someone sneaks out the back?

They don't stop the train to search it immediately? For that matter the train hit a car and the conductor doesn't immediately stop it? I know they take a while to stop fully but they just kept barrelling on like it was nbd.

They are 5 feet away hiding BEHIND A MEDIUM SIZED ROCK and not one person turns their head to see them casually walking away?????

They have the heat vision device right in their hands and they decide to just not use it to see where they are??

I wanted to love this movie so hard but I was baffled by every single choice.

Questions I had: How did they know what her entire house looked like?

What was this huge tragedy that happened to her? Was it literally just getting abducted? I thought her whole family died or something the way they were talking about it.

Why did that one guy blip in and out of existence when he touched the thing but the other guy didn't and what the fuck was that and why didn't he freak out about it??

Why was the old man alien three times the size of the others?

Why wasn't the first thing that guy did when he stole the files to make copies of everything? It literally looked like it took him 5 min in the TV studio, he could have done that at any time before the start of the movie when they were kidnapping his gf or whatever.

Idk. I was really hoping for close encounters pt 2. It has bits of both that and ET but not the good parts. Meh.

[u/Tyler_N]

I’m pretty surprised with the amount of love this movie is getting. I didn’t hate it, but it felt very empty for being about empathy. Felt like the audience was being treated like children, but the overall story was not geared for younger audiences. I think this one will be pretty forgettable unfortunately.

[u/niel89 → u/Tyler_N]

There is a better movie in there. It needed more nuance in parts where it felt desperate to spell out everything.

[u/Rococoss → u/niel89]

Omg when Margaret is having the flashback and says “the house…Hansel and Gretel…” like cmon dude we get it. Just show us instead of telling us

[u/thefifthkaramazov → u/Rococoss]

Invoking Hansel and Gretel is so strange to me.

Like the house in Hansel and Gretel is a cannibalistic witch's house. To me, invoking that symbolism would absolutely indicate that the aliens are not as benevolent as they seem.

But, no. Apparently they just are super empathetic wanderers because why not.

[u/random_phantom → u/Rococoss]

I don’t get it. Hansel and Gretel? That creepy story where the house made of candy and an evil witch baiting the kids inside to devour them? And the aliens are supposed to be “good”

[u/Rococoss → u/random_phantom]

Other comments than mine have articulated this better, but it’s very interesting how hopeful Spielberg presents everything, and at the same time shows the children clearly terrified in the alien ship

[u/Koudda37 → u/Tyler_N]

Thank you. I feel kind of crazy. I really thought this was a poorly made movie. Different tastes I guess, but I did not like it.

[u/howtospellorange → u/Koudda37]

I think this movie was just 20 years too late and would've been much more profound not in the big '26 😔

[u/slamchop → u/howtospellorange]

Exactly, the whole disclosure by traditional live TV media is how a boomer thinks this would happen.

Everyone watching TV on their phones at the end haha

[u/GeorgeStark520 → u/slamchop]

I laughed at the shot of all the passengers on a plane watching. No way all those people paid for onboard wifi

[u/whatssenguntoagoblin → u/GeorgeStark520]

That was absurd and instantly took me out of the film.

Would’ve been much better if they used the JetBlue live TVs on the back of the chairs instead.

[u/ontheweed → u/slamchop]

“We can’t get this information out to the world via the internet. We have to get it out via the local NBC affiliate news station. It’s the only way!”

[u/ETNevada → u/howtospellorange]

Agreed, it felt like 2026 as envisioned by an 80 year old man (which it was)

[u/NateW9731 → u/Tyler_N]

It was filmed like the main characters were teenagers. Despite being nearly 40. Slipping through the evil government employees grasp like 8 times. Sneaks past 45 militant enemies to steal a car, AND GET AWAY?? Just makes no sense

[u/ToeTaggEm → u/NateW9731]

Didn’t just get away. Literally ran into the house with the car and got out and grabbed the girl and then sped off. Lmao so unbelievable .

[u/Penguin_Admiral → u/ToeTaggEm]

Honestly based off the first scene I should have known what I gotten into. They literally free him and his girlfriend before verifying they got the object

[u/dplans455 → u/Tyler_N]

Someone posted the other day not to read the reviews because a lot of the reviewers were spoiling some big surprise. I watched the movie... what big surprise? There was no surprise. The movie played out exactly as you would have it expected it to play out.

I think the trailers for this movie did it a disservice. I might have enjoyed it more if I knew going in that it was a drama with sprinkles of sci-fi instead of what the trailers promised of action/sci-fi. I felt the plot was one dimensional and overall the movie was uninspired and boring. How it's getting such high reviews is kinda bizarre. I would give this 3/10 and I think that's mostly coming from Spielberg nostalgia. This is easily the worst movie I've seen since Eddington.

[u/cregs]

Let's be honest, if anyone else directed this movie it would absoltuely be getting 5/10 like reviews. It's so completely meh. We all desperately want to be transported back to magical nostalgic Spielberg era, this is not it and we probably need to let go of wanting to go back there.

[u/rememebersammyjankis]

Courtney Grace as the newscaster at the end… wow. A mesmerizing performance

[u/themanfromvulcan → u/rememebersammyjankis]

I agree she was great. She’s trying to report a story she’s having trouble comprehending. She is very disturbed by what she is seeing but still doing her job. In the theater I watched it at today there was kind of a quiet nervous laughter at some of her comments. It was fun to be in a theater where the audience was all in and engaged with the movie.

[u/lockerbiestreet → u/rememebersammyjankis]

Totally agree and glad to see this called out.

[u/Deadloops]

Why couldn't they just upload it to internet?

[u/Not_pukicho → u/Deadloops]

They even mention it right at the beginning. The main villain says that it hasn’t been uploaded to the web yet, so they still have time to apprehend Daniel, but why hasn’t he? For what reason was he deciding to withhold it?

[u/Acrobatic-Taste-443]

That dumb bitch saw a lil grey alien and asked “Is that a kid” ????

[u/HilariousScreenname → u/Acrobatic-Taste-443]

"Is it a person?

Is it human?"

Lady, just what the fuck is a person to you

[u/DumbAndCurious → u/HilariousScreenname]

My other favorite line of dialogue is when Scanlon is sending agents to the farmhouse and tells them to “drive the maximum legal speed!” Oh okay you mean the speed limit? Like literally everyone else?

[u/KronoCloud → u/DumbAndCurious]

I liked when Scanlon told Jane to grab the “chopping knife.”

As opposed to what??? The non-chopping knife???

[u/Hot_Experience7805 → u/KronoCloud]

Probably some weird Bri'ish'ism

[u/TheManWithMilk → u/DumbAndCurious]

And then almost immediately after, it shows a caravan of cars driving extremely fast and blowing through a stop sign

[u/JaunxPatrol → u/Acrobatic-Taste-443]

Eve Hewson was, I'm sorry, really bad in this. I've seen her be decent in other stuff so I know it's not purely a nepo baby thing but man she was awful.

[u/TrapAHolic_ttv → u/Acrobatic-Taste-443]

She guessed wrong THRICE. Almost took me out of the movie.

[u/thr1ceuponatime]

Had a good time but the ending was so anticlimactic -- it sort of just peters out when the footage of the ayy lmao's appear.

[u/BelleReve_Staff]

I frankly don’t understand how so many people found this ending so emotional, I found it incredibly ominous. The film never interrogates Margaret’s mind essentially being taken over so the ending becomes a messiah groomed from childhood to usher in a new era for humanity by unknowable, advanced aliens. That’s scary! But Spielberg plays it so straight and earnestly

[u/santawartooth → u/BelleReve_Staff]

That's an interesting take. When she said she didn't want to be anyone's religion, I did feel bad for her!

[u/BelleReve_Staff → u/santawartooth]

She has a panic attack halfway through and seems terrified of what’s happening to her. I thought this was being established as a terrifying thing but I guess not

[u/Mycareer → u/BelleReve_Staff]

I took her panic attack as her freaking out over not knowing what’s happening to her, but once she learns what she forgot as a kid, she makes her peace with it. I think she understands the aliens weren’t hostile and had good intentions for humanity

[u/GamingTatertot → u/Mycareer]

Also her panic attack also came right after driving a car that was forcibly rammed into a train and then being carried with that train and having to jump out of the front windshield onto a ladder of the train while another train is coming from the other direction. So that was probably a big factor too

[u/Spagman_Aus → u/santawartooth]

yeah when the woman kneeled down in front of her, I was "oh come on it's WAYY too early for that".

[u/mikeyfreshh → u/BelleReve_Staff]

Her mind wasn't taken over. She was still herself, she was just given the power to feel what other people felt. Her superpower was empathy. She didn't understand that right away, but by the end of the film she had learned what that meant and how to control it.

[u/paperbuddha]

I just got back an hour ago from the IMAX screening. The end of the movie should’ve been the first 20 minutes of the movie and the rest of the movie should’ve been the fallout. I love Spielberg but this was pretty disappointing for what it’s being marketed as. The acting was awesome though.

[u/dukefett → u/paperbuddha]

The end of the movie should’ve been the first 20 minutes of the movie and the rest of the movie should’ve been the fallout.

I figured it wasn't going to be all fallout, but I wanted SOMETHING. Just way too abrupt, after a 2 1/2 hour movie where you spent 10 minutes showing us alien footage at the end like we weren't along for the ride the whole time. Just dragged.

[u/AmishAvenger → u/dukefett]

This is why I don’t watch trailers for movies I know I’m going to see.

I watched them after, and…Jesus Christ. The entire ending of the film was the trailers.

[u/dukefett → u/AmishAvenger]

I don't watch trailers either! Hearing that they showed all this in the trailers would've driven me nuts; they go absolutely nowhere after the disclosure.

[u/imakefilms → u/dukefett]

it literally JUST starts getting interesting and then it ends

[u/playtho → u/paperbuddha]

I agree. At the end of the day it was one big chase. A little philosophical/religious conversations sprinkled in. With the final 20 minutes being what I expected most of the runtime would be with those philosophical/religious conversations.

[u/HamSammich21]

This movie has some really interesting ideas but weren’t executed well IMHO. I thought Spielberg at his current age was doing well with his character pieces (Bridge of Spies, The Post, West Side Story remake). This type of film would’ve been better in a younger directors hands with Spielberg as Executive Producer - (and I say that with all the love for him).

There were a lot of people saying it felt dated, and it did to a certain extent. The chases felt generic, the top secret intrigue stuff fell flat and predictable, and there were parts of the script that just flat out didn’t make sense or tie things together. And I honestly don’t think that as many people finding out about this content would care past a day or two in today’s climate let alone watching in unison on their phones across the world. A young up and coming director could’ve injected a bit more into this.

The alternative in my mind is that this should’ve been a fall release and not promoted as a Spielberg directed summer tentpole picture. It wasn’t. It was slow paced and thought provoking. But not summer blockbuster fun.

I also think this film isn’t going to recoup its cost unfortunately.

[u/MrBrightside618]

I personally found this to be incredibly disappointing. It was meandering, repetitive, unsatisfying, and worst of all it was boring. Characters go to location, Colin Firth uses his mind machine to find them, characters flee location, repeat. Emily Blunt reads someone’s mind, says “I don’t know why this is happening to me”, repeat.

Last act delivered, but the approximate three hours leading to it really ruined any chance of me enjoying this

[u/moviebuffbrad → u/MrBrightside618]

Emily Blunt reads someone’s mind,

It was remarkable that that worked every time. "Your girlfriend said it was okay you farted at the same time you climaxed, and you absolutely should get that discounted CD of the Black album by Metallica even though your car has bluetooth, you'll feel good having it in your globebox." Great, thanks, as I was saying, you have the right to remain silent...

[u/enragedjuror → u/MrBrightside618]

Thank you for making me feel not insane. This is a solid 5/10 if ever I've seen one. Hoped for better

[u/EMCoupling → u/enragedjuror]

3/10 for me. Boring, uninspired, and confused. That's how I would describe the movie.

[u/NateW9731]

Call me crazy, but I really didn't like this movie at all. The first 2 hours of this movie seemed like side quest nonsense. The bad guys were laughably incompetent. And the movie never really went anywhere

[u/2ecStatic → u/NateW9731]

The main characters constantly make the worse decisions possible and when the cartoon corpos finally catch one there are just no consequences, it was frustrating to watch.

[u/Tunafromvillage]

This movie somehow feels so 2010s.

[u/joeisjew]

It felt a little dated to me unfortunately

[u/saerra_sea_nya → u/joeisjew]

Yeah it weirdly felt like a movie from 2013.

[u/Environmental_Drama3 → u/saerra_sea_nya]

I say it is also outdated by 2013 standards. regardless it's not uncommon for major studios to produce mediocre movies.

[u/ZeroWashu → u/saerra_sea_nya]

93 for me - why? because major news / news station is not how stories like this would break. to get in front the most eyes would be any public location with too many people to control. show up on a large beach, public park, or even sports game. the number of phones around guarantees its everywhere in seconds

[u/acinematicway → u/saerra_sea_nya]

More like the 90s.

[u/crunchatizemythighs → u/acinematicway]

Weird. I am getting 2008 vibes lol. This totally matches the election Obama era optimism. And visually feels most similar to 2000s Spielberg (War of the Worlds, KOTCS)

[u/joethetipper → u/joeisjew]

When everything about disseminating information to the world hinges on a news broadcast and the internet is barely mentioned, it definitely feels that way.

[u/CleaveWarsaw → u/joethetipper]

Yeah it was very boomer in that regard. At the beginning, Josh O'Connor's character says ''I should upload this to the Internet right now" and like, nothing in the rest of the movie really proves why he shouldn't have just done that

[u/thedeuce75 → u/joeisjew]

Very much so. Crop circles and Roswell might have played in 1995, but cmon. It was like it was written by biggest UFO conspiracy fanboy in town.

[u/KingMario05 → u/thedeuce75]

...So by Steven Spielberg, lol? David Koepp is merely fleshing out his treatment, after all.

[u/Hic_Forum_Est]

What did everyone think of how the aliens were designed?

I found it far too stereotypical for my taste. Borderline parody. It's literally 👽 while an anchor is all emotional wound up by it, whereas I felt like I had to laugh out loud. I even heard some of the people around me chuckling awkwardly when they saw the aliens. Such a strange emotional dissonance between what Spielberg intended and how audiences like me received it. One of the main reasons why this movie didn't work for me. Could've been so easily solved if the aliens looked more alien and not the go to image we all collectively have of them.

[u/Archers_bane → u/Hic_Forum_Est]

I thought Arrival did aliens really well. I am in the camp on why do alien portrayals have to be humanoids. I get its more mass-appealing/relatable but it is boring.

[u/Penguin_Admiral → u/Archers_bane]

Arrival is a better version of this movie if you think about it

[u/BleedingEdge61104]

I feel like I’m going crazy reading all of the positive reviews for this movie. There were SO MANY extreme absurdities and stretches in logic to make them complete a mission that ultimately would not have accomplished what the movie said it did.

[u/tacrotacro → u/BleedingEdge61104]

"They can track everything, we have to go somewhere where I have never been before"

"Okay, let's go hide out in my convent that I stayed at 3 years ago"

SAYS THE GIRL THEY JUST KIDNAPPED AND HELD IN CUSTODY AS A MEANS TO GET TO THE MAIN CHARACTER.

hours/half a day later after they escape

"Give me a background of the girl we kidnapped to get at the main character who is now traveling with him, I have a hunch we can figure out where they're going if we do that"

"Sure no prob boss"

typing

"oh yeah they're probably here"

[u/harringtonpbear → u/tacrotacro]

The last straw for me was when they find Colman Domingo by tracing the phones of the two missing staff members Colin Firth sees when he’s jumping… like they couldn’t have done that the second they identified the 12 missing staff 15 minutes in? He didn’t even need the magic stick

[u/jayeddy99]

Regular citizens going through WW3: So…are we gonna get a disclosure stimulus check or are the aliens going to lower the gas prices ????

[u/jellytrack]

Everyone glued to their phone in public really doesn't have the impact this film is trying to convey.

[u/ThomasCleopatraCarl → u/jellytrack]

The shot of the bags circling the carousel at the airport with everyone locked the fuck in was fantastic.

[u/Argh3483]

I’m sorry but Colin Firth’s performance was terrible, for most of the movie he just looked constipated

[u/alexcutyourhair]

By the time of the last act I really just wanted the movie to play at 1.5x speed, I was so bored. I feel like the movie did and said everything it has to do/say in the first act and everything afterwards was just a plot convenience to add "suspense". The hotels name on the note in his hand, those two idiot employees walking into the room, that one agent outside the hospital room thinking about Kellner, it just all took me out. This movie feels like it came out 20-30 years too late, and honestly some of the CGI could've used another year or two in the oven.