David Jeffrey is a retired GP & palliative care doctor
A Steven Spielberg film is always eagerly anticipated, and Disclosure Day does not disappoint. The screenplay of this conspiracy thriller is written by David Koepp whose previous work includes Mission Impossible and Jurassic Park.
Avoiding spoilers, the film involves a zany weather reporter, Margaret Fairchild, played by Emily Blunt, and her psychic connection with cybersecurity expert, Daniel Keller (Josh O’Connor). Daniel, a whistleblower, has discovered that the USA government agency, Wardex, is suppressing evidence of encounters and abuse of extraterrestrials in the Nevada desert since the 1940s. Having downloaded evidence of these encounters with aliens over 80 years, he plans, with the assistance of his girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson), to disclose his findings to the world. Daniel and Jane are pursued by Noah Scanlon, the Wardex chief (Colin Firth), and his henchmen in a fleet of black limousines, determined to prevent the disclosure. Daniel and Jane are aided by his former boss Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo) who co-ordinates his breathtaking escapes by phone. It is never made clear why Daniel’s disclosure should prove so startling to a world depicted to be on the brink of a global nuclear war.
From a medical perspective the fascinating strand though this action-packed movie is the claim that empathy is what makes us human.
Echoing Spielberg’s earlier sci-fi classics, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and ET, the film reflects the director’s belief that extraterrestrial life must exist in our universe, a belief shared by many people. In his film, the supposed alien involvement in crop circles and the Roswell incident in New Mexico, both well-known fakes, are treated as serious evidence of alien presence on our planet.
The main theme of this alien-encounter movie is the primacy of empathy. From a medical perspective the fascinating strand though this action-packed movie is the claim that empathy is what makes us human. Margaret encounters a red bird in her home and instantly becomes proficient in speaking every language and can understand, and experience, the emotions of everyone she meets. Emily Blunt is funny and brilliantly distracted, speaking in Polish, Russian, Korean and, as the alien mouthpiece, in a clicking tongue which interrupts her weather forecast. Her first empathic encounter is with a daunting traffic cop who, instead of booking her for speeding, is almost reduced to tears as she describes and sympathises with his domestic difficulties. Total empathy of this kind is of course impossible, but it is fascinating to examine the possible consequences of knowing and feeling exactly how another person perceives their world. Empathy is a virtue, but the film warns that it can be used to manipulate others. Its claim for the primacy of empathy is a powerful antidote against those wealthy American influencers who have described empathy as a weakness. The last word to humanity, in this marvellous film, comes from an alien, through Margaret’s voice, “Listen”.
The action moves at a frantic pace, the plot is totally fantastic, take your family and friends, suspend your disbelief, the film is enormous fun, baffling, exciting and at times truly scary.
Featured Film: Disclosure Day, Directed Steven Spielberg, Universal Pictures, Rating 12A, 2hr 25 mins Sci fi thriller.
Featured Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash
