Steven Spielberg's Disclosure Day opened in theaters on June 12, 2026 and began streaming on Peacock on October 9, 2026. Many viewers come away asking how much of it is real. Short answer: the story is fiction, but Spielberg has said a real 2017 news story about a Pentagon UFO program pushed him to make it — and in 2026 the U.S. government really did start publishing UFO files. This guide separates the two.
Disclosure Day was directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by David Koepp, based on a story by Spielberg, and released by Universal Pictures. Emily Blunt plays Margaret Fairchild, a TV meteorologist, and Josh O'Connor plays Daniel Kellner, a cybersecurity administrator who admits to stealing secrets about non-human life that he had been hired to conceal. Colin Firth, Eve Hewson and Colman Domingo co-star.
The film is not based on a book or on a specific real event. It is an original screenplay, and the government cover-up at its center is fictional.
When the Justice Department adds Epstein files or the Pentagon publishes new UFO files, we email you a short summary and a link to the official records.
Spielberg has said in interviews that a December 2017 New York Times article — "Glowing Auras and 'Black Money': The Pentagon's Mysterious U.F.O. Program" — rekindled his interest in the subject. That article revealed a Pentagon UFO research effort funded with about $22 million and published Navy infrared footage of an object filmed during the 2004 USS Nimitz encounters.
Those events are real and documented. The Pentagon formally released that video and two others in April 2020, and AARO's 2024 Historical Record Report gives the official account of the program behind the 2017 story — the Defense Intelligence Agency's AAWSAP, which ran from 2009 to 2012.
Several things viewers might assume are movie inventions actually happened:
• The U.S. government is publishing UFO files. Since May 8, 2026, the Department of War has released 478 files in seven tranches through its PURSUE site at war.gov/UFO, after President Trump said in February 2026 that he would direct agencies to release them. • Navy pilots and sensors have recorded objects the military could not identify. The 2021 intelligence community assessment examined 144 such reports and could explain only one. • The government has a UAP office. AARO, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, has investigated reports since 2022.
The film's central premise — confirmed non-human life and a cover-up being exposed — is not supported by any official record. The 2021 ODNI assessment did not mention extraterrestrials; NASA's 2023 independent study found no conclusive evidence of an extraterrestrial origin for UAP in the scientific literature; and AARO's 2024 report found no evidence that any U.S. investigation confirmed extraterrestrial technology, and no empirical evidence of reverse-engineering programs. Some former officials dispute AARO's conclusions, but no official record released to date confirms non-human life.
If the film sent you looking for the real thing, start here: our guide to every 2026 UFO file release, the explainer for the latest batch (Release 06, September 18, 2026), and the guides to the Navy videos and AARO's historical report — each built from the original documents, with sources listed at the end.
No. Disclosure Day is an original screenplay by David Koepp from a story by Steven Spielberg. The government cover-up it depicts is fictional, though Spielberg has said a real 2017 New York Times report on a Pentagon UFO program inspired him.
It opened in theaters on June 12, 2026 and has streamed on Peacock since October 9, 2026.
Yes. Since May 8, 2026 the Department of War has published 478 UAP files in seven releases on its PURSUE site at war.gov/UFO. The files are unresolved cases, not proof of non-human life.
Facts on this page were checked against the sources below on October 21, 2026 by Himanshu Singh. Spot an error? Email hello@nowdeclassified.com.
We'll email you when the government releases new Epstein files or Pentagon UFO files — with a link to our sourced explainer.
A complete guide to the Department of Defense PURSUE program: what it is, how declassified UAP files are released via war.gov, what the three release tranches contain, and how to navigate the archive.
The three officially released Navy UAP videos explained: FLIR1 (Tic Tac), Gimbal, and GoFast. What each shows, AARO's official verdict (all unresolved), and where to find them in the DoD archive.
Complete guide to the Pentagon's AATIP program, the BAASS contract awarded to Robert Bigelow, Senator Harry Reid's role, the Skinwalker Ranch studies, and what official documents say about the $22M program that preceded the modern UAP disclosure era.
Complete guide to AARO's 2024 Historical Record Report: the government's first systematic review of historical UAP programs, what it concluded about crash retrieval claims, and what the archive record shows.