Major spoilers for Disclosure Day lie ahead!
What would happen if there was definitive proof of the existence of alien life from the government and it could be shown to the world? That’s the topic at the heart of Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day. This recent 2026 movie release offers action, thrills, humor and heart as one would expect from a Spielberg film. However, it’s also incredibly thoughtful and that vibe persists up through the final frame. With that, CinemaBlend recently spoke to screenwriter David Koepp about the final word that’s uttered in the film.
During CinemaBlend’s chat with Disclosure Day screenwriter David Koepp, who also previously wrote other famous movies like Jurassic Park, Spider-Man and Mission: Impossible, I had to ask him about the movies’s last word: “Listen,” which is uttered by Emily Blunt‘s Margaret Fairchild. Koepp provided a thoughtful answer:
It happened when I wrote the very first draft and I got to the very last scene. I wrote that word and I just picked my hands up and said, ‘I’m done’. There is nothing I can say that will further enhance that thought. She is saying, ‘Listen,’ ’cause I’m about to tell you things that you need to know, but the entirety of the thought can also be listened to. We’ve talked about empathy for two and a half hours. That is listening to one another.
During the spine-chilling ending of Disclosure Day, Margaret and Josh O’Connor’s Daniel Kellner are able to make it to the KCTV station to make the film’s titular event happen after a couple of hours of nail-biting thrills. Margaret gets to anchor for the first time to break the news, while Daniel leaks the life-threatening bag of government files he’s been risking his life for.
After humankind witnesses a montage of jaw-dropping footage of evidence that the government has been recording extraterrestrial life from across history, one of these aliens appears in the newsroom as well to deliver a message through Margaret. We never hear the message itself as the movie ends on the word: “Listen”.
While some might see the credits unfold and say “That’s it?”, as Koepp shared, we don’t need to as the word itself encapsulates the entire message of the movie. Disclosure Day is about showing empathy for others, and the biggest rule of grasping the feelings of others is to in fact listen to them. As the screenwriter continued:
It also happens that it’s the first word of a great book by one of my favorite authors, Kurt Vonnegut. Slaughterhouse Five starts with the word ‘Listen, Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.’ ‘Listen’ is the whole point. When you can say everything you mean in one word, you stop talking.
Koepp was also inspired by the sci-fi masterpiece, Slaughterhouse Five, specifically at the start of Chapter 2. The novel from Kurt Vonnegut also features aliens called the Tralfamadorians, who experience all of time simultaneously. So it’s both a nod to one of the great classics of the genre and a clever way to deliver the message of the movie.
While he could have certainly thought up some message from the aliens, I appreciate David Koepp explaining the reasoning for the conclusion. The critically-acclaimed Disclosure Day certainly gets me thinking about how the world would really react if the moment indisputable evidence of alien life was shown to the world really happened. At the same time, it explores how human empathy and connection is one of our greatest strengths as a species, and the final word underlines that point beautifully.
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