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Disclosure Day is a 2026 film about what happens when a cybersecurity expert and a meteorologist obtain proof that alien life does in fact exist. The movie is directed by Steven Spielberg and stars Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Colman Domingo and Eve Hewson. Wyatt Russell is also there, I suppose.
Now, I want to make one thing abundantly clear: I did not hate this movie. Actually, I found myself quite entertained by it. It’s a touching story about processing trauma and how difficult it is to get out an important message in today’s overly-fragmented media landscape. I am a sucker for alien cinema, and not many filmmakers do the concept of extraterrestrial life as much justice as Spielberg does. The last 15 minutes were undoubtedly thrilling and Spielberg directed the hell out of this movie. His collaboration with cinematographer Janusz Kamiński continues to impress; there were multiple shots in the film that had me in awe and left wondering, “How the hell did they do that?”
However, if you take the script of this movie, written by another Spielberg regular David Koepp, and give it to any other director- Disclosure Day would be an absolute trainwreck. Nothing about this movie is realistic at all (Except for the president not being let-in on the information about alien life anymore. There’s something I can get behind).
Since I watched this film my brain has been working double-time to wrap my head around Disclosure Day’s many, many, plotholes. Am I just overly-analytical? Almost certainly yes. This is a film about aliens, in order to enjoy it you have to be able to suspend your disbelief at least a little bit. Due to my inability to do so, here’s a comprehensive list of those aforementioned plot holes, and other nitpicks, in semi-chronological order.
DISCLAIMER: SPOILERS FOR DISCLOSURE DAY FROM HERE ON OUT
Who was the other guy in the car with Jane?
In the film’s introductory sequence, when Josh O’Connor’s character Daniel is making a deal to save Eve Hewson’s Jane, there is another man that was held captive in the car with her. And he just runs off into the night. Who was that guy?
Hugo’s earpiece
A recurring motif in the film is that whenever someone in the resistance is calling Colman Domingo’s character Hugo, they must immediately destroy their phone in order to not be tracked. However, Hugo is seen wearing the same earpiece the whole time. Does he have a stash of earpieces that he wears and then subsequently destroys every time his phone rings? Must be expensive.
Jane and Daniel’s secrets
Not necessarily a plot hole, but I found it funny that Daniel considered Jane’s secret (formerly being a nun) much worse than his own (previously being in prison and working at WARDEX for 8 years to commandeer evidence that aliens exist).
Is it World War III or not?
It is briefly mentioned multiple times in Disclosure Day that it takes place during the beginning stages of an all-out nuclear World War. However, no one really seems to care? When Emily Blunt’s Margaret is on her way to work, it’s business as usual. When Jane’s in the diner, everyone needs their coffee before they can check the news I guess. The only time we see the citizens in any sort of panic is when Wyatt Russell, as Jackson, enters the gas station outside of Kansas City which is being absolutely raided. I guess that makes sense, considering Kansas City is full of tweakers in real life too (NOTE: a Denver Broncos fan wrote this).
WARDEX stopped hunting Jane
After WARDEX captured Daniel at the motel, Jane escaped with the alien device. Noah knew that she was with him, and didn’t stop to think about why they didn’t capture her too. After they realized Daniel didn’t have the device, wouldn’t the logical explanation have been that Jane had it? Noah could’ve tapped-back into her mind, and boom, just like that, the movie’s over. Use your critical thinking skills, Noah!
Margaret’s questions
It really bothered me whenever Margaret would ask Hugo questions like “What is this? What are we doing? What’s the plan?” They already implied that Margaret has the power to know everything about a person just by looking at them. Does that not also include that person’s goals and intentions?
Alien-wizard battle
Why didn’t Noah bring his device with him to the news station in the film’s finale? Him and Margaret could’ve had a Deathly Hallows-style alien-wizard battle. Instead of a long stream of candescent Expelliarmus light flowing from each wand, it could’ve been the two of them battling to turn the station’s power on and off.
Ad-revenue doesn’t stop for aliens
Perhaps the most unrealistic part of the film is that there were no Fanduel or Kalshi ads played to break up the in-universe Disclosure Day broadcast.
Hugo’s alien
Seriously? Hugo had an alien the entire time that no one else knew about? Did Daniel know about it, and just never thought to mention it to Jane or Margaret? Why did they have to come up with this whole complex scheme to expose WARDEX when Hugo could’ve just gone live on TikTok with the alien, or taken him to a Knicks game? Okay, maybe not the Knicks, two tickets at MSG would probably cost more than the resistance’s entire operation.
Oh yeah, also, where the hell did Hugo get the alien?
No one dies in this movie (Just BLAST ‘EM!)
If this movie were realistic (and if Colin Firth’s Noah were this powerful Elon-esque character that we are made to believe he is), they would’ve disposed of the resistance any time they had a chance to. And believe me, they had a lot of opportunities. He has more money than anyone, they would’ve gotten away with it. For this last section of the article, I will identify the many times that WARDEX could’ve got the job done, but didn’t.
- You could argue, “But they wanted to keep Daniel alive so they could find the rest of the resistance!” I thought the same thing, but then I remembered that when Noah took control of Jane’s mind at the farmhouse, he instructed her to stab him with a knife. So I believe that WARDEX had every intention of killing Daniel, from beginning to end, but they didn’t.
- In the opening scene of the movie, they let Daniel and Jane go because he was threatening to use the device. They knew, and even acknowledged, that Daniel didn’t know how to control the device, so why didn’t they just BLAST ‘EM?!
- Seriously, nobody saw Daniel crawling around outside of the farmhouse? BLAST ‘EM!
- They also could’ve killed Daniel inside of the motel room- instead they opted to take him back to WARDEX, where they also could’ve killed him. Instead they let him and Margaret walk free. I get that she had the power to make herself appear like people’s loved ones, but that clearly didn’t work on everyone considering the henchman followed them out of the facility. They let him take the backpack with him too. JUST BLAST ‘EM!
- Once they saw everyone’s heat signatures in the warehouse, they should’ve just STARTED BLASTING ‘EM, no? They knew that the resistance had access to one of the alien devices, so they must’ve figured that some tomfoolery was going on (I’ll concede, the part where the goons ran into invisible objects was entertaining though).
- At the end of the movie, when Noah and the rest of the WARDEX loyalists arrive at the news station, why didn’t they BLAST ‘EM?! There was no obvious reason for him to have a change of heart, considering he was insufferably evil for the whole movie. They already went through the effort of getting to the station and shutting down the power; if you truly believe that humans can’t handle the knowledge of extraterrestrial life, just BLAST ‘EM!
