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Spoilers follow for <\/strong>Disclosure Day<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\nIn the new Steven Spielberg movie, Disclosure Day, it\u2019s probably not too much of a stretch to expect that there is some sort of disclosure. In fact, the closing act of the movie is all about how Kansas City meteorologist Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) and cybersecurity expert Daniel Kellner (Josh O\u2019Connor) blow open a nearly century-old conspiracy by the US government to suppress the truth about the existence of extraterrestrial life among us. But did you know there are actual<\/em> protocols for the real<\/em> Disclosure Day?<\/p>\n\n\nMore to Disclose:<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<\/section>\nIt\u2019s true! Spielberg didn\u2019t come up with the title out of thin air \u2014 Disclosure Day is a real thing that organizations like the SETI Institute (which stands for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) have been preparing for all these years. Not only that, but for the first time since 2015, the SETI Institute recently released an updated version of their protocols<\/u> (on June 5, 2026) for how to reveal the existence of alien life. In a document dated June 1, 2026, and ratified by the International Academy of Astronauts (IAA), the new protocols take extra precautions for our modern world that is steeped in AI fakery, and will be taken to the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in T\u00fcrkiye this October. If approved there, they\u2019ll \u201cestablish a permanent Post-Detection Sub-Committee to address legal, ethical, and societal implications of a confirmed discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nMeanwhile, Margaret and Daniel blab the whole thing on Kansas City television, live on the air. Look, Disclosure Day is an action movie (mostly) that has good guys, bad guys, and in-between guys. There\u2019s a vast difference in what the SETI Institute is dealing with, which is a possible signal from an alien civilization making its way to Earth. By comparison, the movie has aliens walking around, experimenting on people, and getting dissected and experimented on themselves. One is fact, the other is fiction.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s no fun. So instead, let\u2019s have some fun, why don\u2019t we, and break down how close Disclosure Day (the movie) compares to the protocols for Disclosure Day (the real thing).<\/p>\n
(Note: For organizational purposes, we\u2019re going to go through \u201cPosition Paper on Declaration of Principles Concerning the Conduct of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) \u2013 (2026 Update)<\/u>\u201d which lays out the before, during, and after of Disclosure Day \u2014 the real event, not the movie. It would be pretty annoying if they spoiled the whole movie the week before it came out.)<\/p>\nHandling Candidate Evidence<\/strong><\/h2>\nAccording to this section of the SETI protocols, if there is \u201cputative detection of extraterrestrial intelligence,\u201d the first step is that the discoverer needs to authenticate it themselves using any resources they have on hand. However, those resources can include multiple \u201cfacilities\u201d and \u201cmore than one organisation using different instrumentations and methods.\u201d In addition, any information needs to be \u201chandled with extreme care\u201d and \u201cuphold the highest standards of scientific responsibility and integrity.\u201d That includes conveying the \u201cimportance and significance\u2026 to non-specialist audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n
This gets into a murky area with the movie, because we only really get the highlights of first contact thanks to the footage from the 1947 Roswell crash that\u2019s broadcast on TV once Daniel dumps the complete files on the worldwide media (we\u2019ll get to that in a second). Also, it\u2019s important to note before we get any further that Spielberg began developing Disclosure Day in 2023 and filmed it in 2025. So despite the movie coming out after<\/em> these revised protocols, the film isn\u2019t able to incorporate them because that\u2019s not how time works.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n
Disclosure Day Images<\/h3>\n<\/span><\/output><\/p>\n
Anyway, there\u2019s actually a good chance that the first part of this was accurate, though much more hands-on than SETI is likely expecting. We see multiple scientists carefully gathering and cataloguing evidence of the crash, and clearly they\u2019ve built an entire organization (called Wardex) to handle the continued study of aliens and alien artifacts.<\/p>\n
The second part? Not so much, as the whole plot of the movie is based on first the US government, then Wardex independently, keeping the existence of aliens secret. Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth) argues that he\u2019s thinking of Humanity\u2019s interests by keeping this secret, but that\u2019s definitely not<\/em> what SETI is implying or saying in their protocols.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nNational Astronomy Observatory, Socorro, New Mexico (Photo by: Joe Sohm\/Visions of America\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/output><\/p>\n
Communicating and Sharing Information<\/strong><\/h2>\nHere\u2019s where things fall apart big-time as far as Spielberg\u2019s movie goes. In this section, the IAA lays out that \u201cSETI practitioners\u201d should feel free to present reports both publicly and in private settings. While they can decline to engage with both media and social media, they will do their best to provide updates, thinking first of the \u201csafety of their researchers.\u201d In addition, they should<\/em> respond to \u201creasonable requests from news organizations\u201d and should be \u201cprompt, accurate and honest.\u201d<\/p>\nWhile there is \u201cno obligation to disclose verification efforts until a discovery is confirmed,\u201d the document urges scientists to provide accurate and verified info in order to dispel rumors. Basically, they are told to cut off the conspiracy theories at the knees, and if there are \u201cspeculative or unconfirmed statements and conclusions,\u201d they \u201cshould be clearly identified as such.\u201d<\/p>\n
Basically, they are told to cut off the conspiracy theories at the knees.
\u201c<\/span><\/span><\/div>\nEr, whoops! Wardex has been lying to the public for decades about this, and assuming that Disclosure Day takes place in the \u201creal\u201d world, there are uncountable alien theories, websites, conventions, etc. While these protocols have been laid out over 80 years since \u201cwe\u201d made contact, if Wardex and company had followed them, there\u2019d be a lot less wild theorizing going on in the world at large. And no, Wardex \u2014 and Scanlon \u2014 are not<\/em> honest, which is what spurs Kellner and company to want to reveal the info they\u2019ve been holding in the first place.<\/p>\nCommunicating Verification<\/strong><\/h2>\nSimilar to the above, this point comes after the scientists involved have confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are communicating with an alien intelligence. If so, they are told to \u201cpromptly report this conclusion in a full, complete and open manner to the public, the scientific community, and the Secretary General of the United Nations.\u201d In addition, the report should be peer-reviewed, providing \u201copen access publication of the verification data\u201d and sending it to multiple relevant organizations.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nSteven Spielberg on the set of Disclosure Day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/output><\/p>\n
Haha, no, that doesn\u2019t happen in Disclosure Day! In fact, beyond Wardex holding the info for decades, Daniel and the other defectors make no attempt to bring this info to independent scientific organizations or<\/em> the United Nations at any point. The movie lays out that the US President was initially looped in\/in charge of the alien investigation efforts, implying that A) aliens only landed in America, and B) info was not shared with the rest of the world. But it\u2019s not explicit about that.<\/p>\nSo while without peer reviewing the data (i.e., asking Steven Spielberg), we can\u2019t say with certainty that the United Nations was not informed in the world of Disclosure Day, it sure seems like most of this stuff was ignored entirely, and on both<\/em> sides. It\u2019s not just Wardex at fault here, but the rebels fighting against them too. They could have just gone to the UN! Instead, Daniel\u2019s compatriot, Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo), builds a 1:1 reproduction of Margaret\u2019s childhood home so she can remember the night aliens abducted her, which seems way more complicated than taking a trip to New York City.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/span><\/p>\nMonitoring, Archiving, and Data Accessibility<\/strong><\/h2>\nThe short version of this is that not only should all data be \u201cpreserved and disseminated,\u201d but that all the data should be \u201crecorded, and securely stored\u2026 in at least two repositories in different geographic locations.\u201d<\/p>\n
While one could quibble that Daniel\u2019s backpack \u2014 which holds all the info he\u2019s stolen from Wardex \u2014 is not what\u2019s laid out here, the underlying philosophy of the Wardex rebels is in line with the IAA. They believe this data belongs to all of Humanity, and the IAA agrees. Perhaps uploading it to every news organization versus every scientific organization is not<\/em> the right way to go about things, but by the end of the movie, everyone has access to all video footage available.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nColin Firth in Disclosure Day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/output><\/p>\n
There is another aspect that\u2019s not referenced in the movie, which is that Daniel, Hugo, and company seem to be releasing video<\/em> evidence, not scientific data. Wardex has decades of research studying the visitors, their crafts, and their artifacts, and all that is still held by Wardex. Likely the global outcry (which we don\u2019t get to see in the movie) will lead to further disclosures on subsequent days, but while the overall \u201cthis belongs to the people\u201d philosophy is right, they\u2019re sort of releasing the wrong things to the wrong people.<\/p>\nData and Frequency Protection<\/strong><\/h2>\nAgain, what they\u2019re uploading is footage of alien autopsies, not<\/em> data. But Daniel also uploads the footage to every news organization while tossing the drives in a pile on the desk in the KCXE news station control room once he\u2019s done with them. So yeah\u2026 not<\/em> very well protected.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nEmily Blunt in Disclosure Day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/output><\/p>\n