How Disclosure Day makes empathy more powerful than any alien revelation

When people hear that Steven Spielberg has made another film involving extraterrestrial life, they naturally expect a story about aliens.

After all, this is the director behind ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’, ‘ET the Extra-Terrestrial’ and ‘War of the Worlds’. Throughout his career, Spielberg has often used aliens to explore humanity's hopes, fears and sense of wonder.

But ‘Disclosure Day’ is different.

Yes, the film deals with the possibility of life beyond Earth. There are mysteries to unravel and questions about what might exist out there in the universe. Yet the more I watched, the more I realised that this is not really a film about aliens at all.

Instead, it is a film about empathy. More specifically, it is a film about listening.

At a time when everyone seems to be talking at once, Disclosure Day argues that listening may be one of the most important skills we have. The film repeatedly shows that understanding another person can be just as powerful as any scientific discovery. That message runs through the entire story.

Spielberg has always been interested in communication. In ‘Close Encounters’, music became a bridge between humans and extraterrestrials. In ‘ET’, friendship overcame barriers that words could not. In ‘Disclosure Day’, however, communication takes on a more personal meaning. The challenge is not learning how to speak to aliens. It is learning how to listen to other people.

One scene captures that idea perfectly.

At one point in the film, the main characters are being chased by Scanlon's right-hand man. The pursuit turns dangerous when their car is forced into the path of a moving train. To survive, they have no choice but to climb onto the moving train and escape through one of its carriages.

What follows is one of the film's most emotional moments.

Margaret, played by Emily Blunt, suffers a severe panic attack after the terrifying ordeal. Blunt is outstanding in the scene. Her fear feels completely real. As I watched, I could almost feel her panic myself. Her breathing becomes rapid, she struggles to focus and she looks overwhelmed by everything happening around her. She looks at her shaking hand and is convinced that she too, like her father, has Parkinson's.

Daniel, played by Josh O'Connor, does not try to solve the situation with dramatic words or heroic gestures. Instead, he listens.

First, he helps Margaret control her breathing. He stays calm and encourages her to focus on the present moment. Then he notices that the train carriage is filled with musical instruments. He gently makes her touch one of the stringed instruments beside her and focus on what she can feel.

It is a small moment, but a powerful one.

Margaret does not instantly recover. There is no quick Hollywood solution. It takes time. Slowly, through Daniel's patience and support, she begins to calm down and reconnect with reality.

For me, this scene explains what Disclosure Day is really about.

Daniel does not "fix" Margaret. He simply stays with her, pays attention and helps her through a difficult moment. The film suggests that empathy is not about having all the answers. Sometimes it is simply about being there for someone and making them feel heard.

That idea extends far beyond this one scene.

Another scene that stayed with me comes later in the film, when Jane manages to escape shortly after Daniel is captured by Scanlon.

Shaken and alone, she finds refuge in a roadside diner and makes a phone call to Sister Maura. On paper, it is a simple conversation. In practice, it becomes one of the film's most thoughtful moments.

Up to that point, much of the story has been driven by questions about what the characters have seen and what it all means. Jane is struggling to make sense of a reality that seems to challenge everything she thought she knew. So she turns to someone she trusts.

She asks Sister Maura how she would react if she learned that non-humans lived on Earth.

What follows is not a debate about science or religion. It is a conversation about keeping an open mind.

Jane tells her, "Genesis says we're the supreme creation."

Sister Maura's response is beautifully simple.

"On earth. Genesis says that we are God's supreme creation on Earth. why would He make such a vast universe and save it only for us?"

It is one of those lines that quietly changes the direction of a scene.

What I loved about this exchange is that Spielberg does not present faith and discovery as opposing forces. Sister Maura does not react with fear or denial. Instead, she responds with curiosity. She listens to Jane's concerns and offers a perspective rooted not in certainty, but in humility.

Throughout the film, the alien mystery often takes a back seat to the relationships between the characters. The extraterrestrial elements are important, but they mainly serve as a way of testing people's fears, beliefs and ability to understand one another.

In Spielberg's earlier films, the focus was often on the wonder of meeting something unknown. In Disclosure Day, the focus is on understanding people.

That makes the film feel surprisingly relevant. We live in a world where disagreements often become louder than conversations. People are quick to react and slow to listen. Against that backdrop, Spielberg's message feels both simple and important.

The film asks a powerful question: before we can understand beings from another world, are we capable of understanding each other?

According to Disclosure Day, the answer begins with empathy.

And empathy begins with listening.

That is why Disclosure Day stayed with me long after it ended. Beneath its science-fiction story is a deeply human message. Spielberg may have made a film about the possibility of alien life, but what he is really exploring is something much closer to home.

In the end, Disclosure Day suggests that listening is not a passive act. It is a gift, a skill and, perhaps, a superpower.