Disclosure Day opened in theaters last week, and while the movie exceeded box office expectations, the ending has confused even the biggest Steven Spielberg fans.
The story follows cybersecurity specialist Daniel Kellner, who steals extraterrestrial tech and files exposing decades of human-alien contact from the secretive Wardex Corporation. Branded a traitor, he goes on the run with his girlfriend.
Meanwhile, TV meteorologist Margaret Fairchild gains psychic abilities and starts speaking an alien language after a strange encounter, going viral and bringing her onto Wardex's radar. Eventually, they broadcast evidence of aliens worldwide, and a living alien is revealed that whispers a message to Daniel, who relays it to Margaret. She faces the global audience and says simply, "Listen" before the screen cuts to black.
Daniel and Margaret were abducted as children and given the ability to understand the aliens. While Disclosure Day takes us on the journey of how their existence is revealed (bringing an end to Wardex and the U.S. Government's exploitation of the extraterristrial beings), we never get to see the aftermath.
The movie repeatedly hints at the planet being on the brink of World War III, and it's left to audiences to decide whether the existence of aliens hastens humanity's demise or stops it.
Talking to Screen Rant (via SFFGazette.com), Disclosure Day writer David Koepp shared some insights into what happened next. "What's interesting is, if you asked my personal opinion, I think that eventually the human race would get to a place of great betterment, but getting to eventually would be painful and violent," he explained.
"I don't think as a species we do well with sudden dramatic change, and I think that Jane's character is right in that there would be chaos, and it would upend the existing structures of order around the world for better or worse. Worse at first, and then I think better."
In a separate conversation with Entertainment Weekly, Emily Blunt said the ambiguity is purposeful. "I think that's Steven's intention. The message could actually hold as a singular word, because in many ways, what's been revealed to the world at the end is enough to make you do the thing that I tell you to do at the end. However, I think she also may go on to tell you more of what the message is."
Josh O'Connor concurred, adding. "My interpretation is that 'Listen' is the beginning of a message — that would be my hunch. But then I also would say that 'Listen' as the word is suffice to tell the entire message. So there's more to be said, but the headline is, 'Hey guys, this is going to be about communication and listening and engaging.'"
As for why Disclosure Day's aliens resemble classic UFOs, it seems Koepp and Spielberg wanted to present them in a way that meant moviegoers could relate to, given decades of apparent hoaxes and "leaks" from Area 51.
"I think that that was important to both Steven and I. Steven first said, 'I want to respect the lore that's out there. There's a cultural memory of how things are and what might have happened. And I don't want to fly in the face of that.' And I took that to mean we're not making a movie that says everything you always thought is wrong. We're making a movie that says everything you always thought is right and here's abundant proof of it. And that was the distinction. I think that we could have made up a bunch of stuff that has no basis in lore or cultural memory and hope that it would become new memory. But we thought this isn't really about redefining that story. This is about acknowledging the fact that a whole bunch of s*** has been going on for 79 years that we weren't told about."
The movie could quite easily get a sequel, but it obviously wasn't planned as a potential franchise-starter. The whole point of the ending was to get people talking, not to set up a Disclosure Day 2 exploring the fallout of aliens being on Earth.
If you found out we weren’t alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you? This weekend, the truth belongs to seven billion people in Disclosure Day, the long-awaited new UFO movie from the legendary Steven Spielberg.
The cast of Disclosure Day includes SAG winner and Oscar nominee Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer), Emmy and Golden Globe winner Josh O’Connor (Challengers), Oscar winner Colin Firth (Kingsman), Eve Hewson (Bad Sisters) and two-time Oscar nominee Colman Domingo (Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man).
Disclosure Day is set to be released in theaters on June 12.