Written by Spoiler Alert !!!Since this piece discusses the top moments of Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day, it contains spoilers for the entire plot and ending of the movie. So, if you haven’t seen it, do so and come back.
Disclosure Day is, among other things, the film Steven Spielberg has been circling his entire career. Spielberg has always taken the UFO as not a plot device but a mirror. It reflects back at us everything we most fear and most want: confirmation that we are not alone, and the terrifying possibility that whoever is out there has been watching long enough to form an opinion, and they are not impressed. FandomWire’s Joshua Ryan gave this movie a mostly positive 7/10 review.
Disclosure Day was released today (June 12, 2026). This movie features some extraordinary set pieces. Emily Blunt delivers her performance with a combination of physicality and grace that will make you forget you’re watching an actress perform. She doesn’t so much play Margaret Fairchild as she becomes her. Here’s taking a look at the ten moments that will stay with you long after the credits roll. These scenes remind you why, nearly fifty years after Close Encounters of the Third Kind, no one does this quite like Spielberg.
Here’s Disclosure Day, summarized:
TitleDisclolsure DayDirectorSteven SpielbergMain CastEmily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin FirthPremiseA Kansas City meteorologist and a cybersecurity whistleblower discover they share a childhood connection to an alien abduction, and race against a shadowy government contractor to release 79 years of suppressed evidence of extraterrestrial contact to the world.IMDb score (as of June 12, 2026)6.9/10Rotten Tomatoes score (as of June 12, 2026)82% | N/A
1. The Opening Wrestling Match
Josh O’Connor in Disclosure Day | Credits: Niko Tavernise/Universal Picture – © Universal Studios
It opens in media res at a pro wrestling match, shot in jarring POV close-up. The scene made me genuinely think whether the exhibitors had mistakenly put on a wrestler’s biopic. But no, it was just Spielberg being cheeky. That’s the arena where cybersecurity expert Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) is making a hand-off under duress, with his girlfriend already kidnapped.
The scene features real AEW wrestlers Brian Cage and Lance Archer, with Chavo Guerrero Jr. serving as fight choreographer and appearing as the referee. The noise of the crowd and the ring gives Daniel just enough cover to make his move against Wardex.
2. Margaret’s Live Broadcast Goes Awry
Emily Blunt and Wyatt Russell in Disclosure Day | Credits: Universal Pictures
After a red cardinal flies into their apartment and lands on the kitchen table, Margaret suddenly finds herself able to speak Russian and Korean, and get inside the head of anyone she encounters using eye contact. While on air, about to deliver her usual perky weather forecast, she spaces out and starts making strange clicking sounds — a language that is gibberish to everyone except Daniel, who instantly recognizes it as code.
Blunt was told the dialogue would be enhanced using AI post-processing; instead, she used her vocal training to create a distinct set of vocalizations and performed them in a single four-minute take, as she revealed at Hot Ones (via Variety).
3. The Car Chase That Goes Through the Farmhouse
Josh O’Connor and Emily Blut in Disclosure Day | Credits: Niko Tavernise/Universal Pictures
Among the most thrilling action scenes in this Spielberg alien movie is one where a car goes not around, but through, a rural farmhouse, front door to back wall, with Wardex operatives in pursuit. Before the mayhem, there’s a gorgeous single-shot oner as Daniel approaches the farmhouse, with Janusz Kaminski‘s camera weaving through the scene in one unbroken, fluid movement. It’s the sequence, we feel, that most clearly announces Spielberg is still operating at the top of his game.
4. The Car vs. Train Collision
Disclosure Day boasts of several stunning action set pieces | Credits: Amblin Pictures
With Wardex operatives bearing down on them, Daniel and Margaret find themselves in a vehicle that gets hooked onto the side of a moving freight train and dragged along the tracks. They have seconds to get out before an oncoming train on the adjacent track destroys the car entirely, which it does, right after they clear it. The sequence runs close to ten minutes and is the film’s single most kinetic set piece. What stops it from being pure spectacle is a beat just before the mayhem begins, where the two of them share a moment of unexpected, loose humor, which makes you realize how much you want them to survive it.
5. Scanlon Drops Into Jane’s Mind
Colin Firth in Disclosure Day | Credits: Universal Pictures
Noah Scanlon, played by veteran British actor Colin Firth, is the most chilling character of the film. In his medical chair seat, and clutching onto a cylinder-shaped device, he sits with his eyes closed and suddenly finds himself within Jane’s mind, communicating with her, moving around with her, and finding Daniel’s whereabouts through her senses.
There comes a time when he pushes her body towards Daniel, with a knife held by her. The only escape from his clutches lies in Jane stabbing her hand and breaking the psychic connection.
6. The Newsroom Oner That Belongs in a Film School Textbook
Emily Blunt delivers a career-best performance as Margaret Fairchild in Disclosure Day | Credits: Universal Pictures
Prior to Margaret’s breakdown during the broadcast, there is also a long, unbroken shot in this UFO movie that follows her through a terrible morning inside the news station. She finds herself unwittingly reading minds and blurting out secrets about other people she could never have known. The camera stays with her the whole way. It spins and weaves through the newsroom without a single cut. Janusz Kamiński, who has won two Oscars for two of the best Spielberg movies, Schindler’s List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998) (both ‘The Godfather’ of their respective genres) characteristically displays pure cinematic wizardry here.
7. Margaret’s Childhood Home, Rebuilt in a Warehouse
A still from Disclosure Day | Credits: Universal Pictures
Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo) and his crew have rebuilt Margaret’s childhood home, room by room, down to the very furnishings. The idea here is that by putting her in an environment her subconscious knows all too well, she will be able to access memories she hasn’t thought about for years. It works, but before she and the others can process what she’s discovered, Wardex surrounds the building. Margaret uses one of the alien devices to render the entire group invisible, and they walk out inside fire trucks without a single Wardex operative knowing they were ever there.
8. The Gingerbread House Flashback
Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor in Disclosure Day | Credits: Universal Pictures
We are taken back to that night in 1996, when a young Margaret woke up to find animals in her bedroom (a stag, a fox, a raccoon; the shot made its way into the trailers, too). They were standing at the foot of her bed. They take Margaret through the forest and to the fairy tale-looking cottage, where she finds young Daniel waiting for her on the bed. Inside, young Daniel was already there, lying on the bed beside her. And we come to know later that the animals she saw in her room were not really animals at all. The whole scene has a dream-like quality.
The experiments performed that night gave Margaret the ability to communicate in every language on Earth. They also rewired Daniel’s mind to understand mathematics at an extraterrestrial level. It is the film’s emotional core, and it lands.
Watch the Disclosure Day trailer below:
9. The Great Invisible Fire Truck Escape
Emily Blunt in a scene from Disclosure Day | Credits: Universal Pictures
In Disclosure Day, there comes a scene where a number of fire trucks drive silently by behind a line of heavily armed Wardex agents, none of whom see anything because the vehicles are invisible. Margaret has made use of the alien object to make an optical illusion, covering all of them with a bent light beam. It is simultaneously one of the most absurd and most satisfying sequences in the film. Spielberg plays it completely straight, which is exactly the right call.
10. Every Screen on Earth Turns On at Once
The ending of Disclosure Day takes place at a local Kansas City news station, which Hugo’s team has commandeered. As Margaret begins speaking directly to the camera, the broadcast goes local, then national, then global. The tape recorder rolls: UFO sightings, crash sites, aliens kept by the government, 79 years worth of evidence about how Wardex has been covering up the issue for decades now.
Scanlon, who is observing all of this in his operations room, pulls out his earpiece and leans back. He knows it’s over. Margaret ends with a single line: “The truth belongs to you. This is Disclosure Day.” Then the film cuts to the world watching, and for the first time in 145 minutes, everything goes quiet. This ending is what makes Disclosure Day one of the best among Spielberg’s filmography. The alien whispered something in Daniel’s ear, and we don’t know what. Unlike many blockbusters today, there’s no post-credits scene dangling a sequel in your face, so this is not exactly a cliffhanger. It just gives you a lot to think about.
Here is a recap of the 10 unforgettable moments!
#Unforgettable MomentKey Scene Details 1The Opening Wrestling MatchAn in media res cold open shot in jarring POV close-ups at a pro wrestling match. Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) makes a hand-off under duress, using real AEW wrestlers (Brian Cage, Lance Archer) and the roaring crowd as cover.2Margaret’s Live Broadcast BreakdownDuring a routine weather forecast, Margaret (Emily Blunt) spaces out and begins emitting strange clicking sounds. Blunt famously delivered this uncanny, alien linguistic performance live in a single four-minute take without AI audio manipulation.3The Farmhouse Car ChaseA high-octane sequence where a getaway car smashes straight through a rural farmhouse from the front door to the back wall, preceded by a gorgeous, unbroken single-shot tracking movement by cinematographer Janusz Kamiński.4The Car vs. Train CollisionA kinetic, 10-minute set piece where Daniel and Margaret’s vehicle gets snagged by a moving freight train. The tension is perfectly balanced by a brief moment of organic, loose humor between the characters right before they escape.5Scanlon’s Psychic IntrusionThe film’s chilling antagonist, Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), sits in a specialized medical chair to mentally hijack Jane’s mind, using her senses to hunt Daniel and weaponizing her body against him until she forcefully breaks the connection.6The Newsroom OnerA masterclass in cinematography that follows Margaret through a chaotic morning as she involuntarily reads minds and blurts out dark corporate secrets. The camera weaves seamlessly through the newsroom without a single cut.7The Rebuilt Childhood HomeHugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo) constructs an exact, room-by-room replica of Margaret’s childhood home inside a warehouse to unlock her deeply suppressed memories, triggering the psychological climax of her character arc.8The Gingerbread House FlashbackA dream-like sequence detailing the 1996 abduction night. Young Margaret is guided through a forest by “animals” to a cottage where a young Daniel is waiting, revealing how the extraterrestrial experiments altered their minds and abilities.9The Invisible Fire Truck EscapeTrapped by Wardex operatives at the warehouse, Margaret uses an extraterrestrial device to bend light, creating an optical illusion that allows the team to drive a fleet of entirely invisible fire trucks right past armed guards.10The Global Broadcast ClimaxCommandeering a local news station, the team broadcasts 79 years of suppressed UFO evidence to every screen on Earth simultaneously. The film ends on a quiet, deeply thought-provoking note as an alien whispers a final, unrevealed secret to Daniel.
Which of these moments hit hardest for you? Let us know in the comments!
Disclosure Day is playing in theaters now.
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