Disclosed

You’ve probably heard of the tradition of cardinals representing loved ones after they have departed. I had heard of it before 2019, and was at best, unsure. But then my grandmother died in 2019, and I started seeing cardinals more frequently- or maybe they were as consistent as before, I just failed to notice them. So when Emily Blunt‘s character in Disclosure Day is visited by a cardinal in her home in the first ten minutes of the movie, I thought: here we go (you’ll notice the silhouette of a cardinal on her face on the movie poster- a detail I only noticed after my second viewing of the film).

Turns out Disclosure Day isn’t really about grief- the cardinal’s visit represents something else- it is about innate human curiosity and wonder. When we allow ourselves to be led by curiosity and wonder, rather than fear and a need for control, we take a step further down the road of evolution. We become more of what we were meant to be.

Disclosure Day is another of Steven Spielberg‘s movies dealing with “close encounters” between humans and visitors from outer space- but it is not about aliens, and it’s not a horror or science fiction movie, either. I don’t watch trailers for movies I am interested in- for months I have run out of auditoriums when the first hint of next month’s Odyssey is previewed- but when trailers for DD aired in recent months I remained in the auditorium, sometimes with my eyes closed and not paying attention to dialogue. I knew it had something to do with aliens, and I remembered that sound Emily Blunt makes when she stands in front of the weather map.

That was all I knew.

Spoilers ahead for Disclosure Day. If you want to stop reading because you haven’t seen it yet, good for you- I’ll say it is a 9+/10. I have seen three movies twice this summer so far: DD, Obsession (11/10), and The Mandalorian and Grogu (7/10)- I only saw that one twice because the second screening was a different digital format and I was curious how it would be different; it wasn’t, and I feel asleep more than once.

Last warning for spoilers..

Emily Blunt is giving the weather report on a local news segment from Kansas City. She begins speaking in a foreign tongue, but not the way she just spoke Korean to an awaiting guest for preparing for the next news segment or at her loft when she spoke Russian to her boyfriend. The Russian part happens immediately following the visit of the cardinal I mentioned earlier. Not only can she speak and understand other languages, she can read the minds of people by looking in to their eyes- a police officer, colleagues at work, her boyfriend. While the rest of the world is fretting about the possibility of WWIII breaking out, she is panicking because she doesn’t understand what is happening to her. She knows she must leave town immediately and meet up with Josh O’Connor’s character. That guy also is experiencing previously unknown knowledge- his for years, hers for minutes; hers language and mind reading, his math, the “language of the universe.”

The new knowledge was given to them both by… you could probably guess.

Josh’s knowledge of maths led him to be hired by a tech company in the business of cyber security. We learn this company obtained alien technology first in 1947 at Roswell, New Mexico. Over the decades the company and the government kept this knowledge and technology secret from the world’s population. Josh O’Connor and Emily Blunt are the centerpieces of a plan masterminded by the brilliant Colman Domingo to disclose the information about the coverup and the existence of “other worldly species” visits for the last seventy years. Of course the company wants to keep this secret- out of fear of their own profits, but also humanity would tear itself apart given this new knowledge, when things are already terrible enough in the world.

The movie also has some interesting conversations around theology: if people learned of the existence of alien/superior beings, would they stop believing in God? Does Christian faith allow for the existence of life elsewhere? A nun, when questioned by Eve Hewson‘s character about the potential impact of this new knowledge on faith, says God “gave humanity dominion over this world” (“…over all the earth…” says the Bible [Genesis 1:26]). Earlier in the movie, we learn from Eve that she lived in a convent for three years, leaving not because she lost her faith in God, but in the Church. During this important phone conversation, the nun says, “You never lost your faith in God; you lost your faith in people.”

Disclosure Day wants us to reinvest in people, in community. At one point there is a debate between Colman Domingo and Colin Ferth‘s character- he heads up the company trying to keep the alien knowledge and tech proprietary. Colman has a great line about empathy- I meant to write it down at my second screening but I was too caught up in the moment and forgot- and I can’t find it online. Colin Ferth tries to dismiss it as “bleeding heart.” Emily Blunt is able to see and know people at their deepest level, which is a blessing and a curse to her. At one point she turns away from people, not wanting to become their religion. She also must confront her own past, which brings us back to the cardinals- a mobile in her childhood bedroom- a memory she has tried to hide for her adult life.

Like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and ET a few years later, movies set within the context of humans and aliens, Disclosure Day is really about connections with one another. The deeper knowledge being offered by the interplanetary guests is the power of empathy. Seeing people, knowing their stories, embracing each other with vulnerability. Literally the film ends with one word: “Listen.”

Fear of the unknown, fears of lost power or wealth, keep us from becoming more. Speaking to his new disciples about the challenges they will face bringing the Gospel to new people, Jesus says, “So have no fear of them… what I say to you in the dark, say to them in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the rooftops. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Don’t be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:26-27, 29, 31).

Or cardinals?

Related: my definitive ranking of the top 10 Spielberg movies that I have seen; no, I never saw Jaws.

10. Catch Me If You Can

9. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

8. Minority Report

7. Disclosure Day

6. Jurassic Park

5. Close Encounters of the Third Kind

4. E.T.

3. Schindler’s List

2. Saving Private Ryan

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark