Disclosure Day Ending Explained: What Does Listen Mean?

Directed by Steven Spielberg, ‘Disclosure Day‘ follows the story of the people who are being hunted by an organization who doesn’t want them to reveal a crucial secret to the world. The movie begins at a crucial point that has been building up for years, but once everything clicks into place, the events move quickly. The people who seemingly never crossed paths are united by a common cause; they don’t even have to explain to each other because of their connection. For two-and-a-half hours, we watch the protagonist in a race against time and a corporation. Eventually, when they finally get the chance, the message turns out to be something that no one had expected. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Disclosure Day Plot Synopsis

‘Disclosure Day’ begins with a man named Daniel Kellner being tracked by Wardex, the corporation he has worked for some time. It turns out he is not happy with what he has found out about the company’s work. So, he has joined a group of whistleblowers working together to steal data from Wardex and expose it to the world. We meet Daniel when he has run into a major problem. His girlfriend, Jane, was abducted by Wardex. In exchange for her life, they want him to give back everything he stole. But they underestimate Daniel, and he not only saves Jane but also escapes. Thus, Wardex’s chase continues, led by Noah Scanlon. Meanwhile, Margaret Fairchild is a weather reporter at KCXE, a Kansas City news channel.

In the morning, as she prepares to set out for the day while having a conversation with her boyfriend, Jackson, a red bird flies into their apartment. As Margaret stares at it, she feels something unlocking inside her brain, but doesn’t understand it. She starts speaking Russian and Korean, even though she has never spoken them before. She starts looking into people’s eyes, knowing the story of their lives, and using that information to persuade them to do what she wants, though never for anything bad. Things take a turn when she goes live on television and starts speaking in a strange tongue. To the entire world, it seems gibberish. But later, it turns out that Daniel understands her.

This understanding is mutual, as Margaret not only instinctively knows who he is but also knows exactly where he will be. Before this, she goes to the hospital to get herself checked out, where she is almost caught by Wardex agents posing as the FBI. When her boyfriend doesn’t believe her, she ditches him to join Daniel, who is part of a group led by another former Wardex employee, Hugo Wakefield. As the events unravel, we discover that all the conspiracy theories about UFOs are true and Wardex has been experimenting on aliens for decades. We also discover that Margaret and Daniel have a connection from their childhood, and that Hugo defected and formed his own team of whistleblowers because of an alien he helped escape.

Why Didn’t Scanlon Stop Margaret? Why did He Give Up?

In the film’s final scene, all roads lead to the WCXE newsroom. Daniel, Margaret, and the others make their way to the newsroom because, at the end of the day, it is about sharing the whole story with the world. Meanwhile, Wardex and Scanlon keep hunting them. They come close to capturing them, but Margaret uses the device Hugo stole to ensure their escape. Still, as she prepares to go on air, Wardex arrives at the site and cuts off power, including the backup generator. With no means to air and Wardex surrounding them from all sides, it seems all hope is lost. But Jane makes her way out of the crowd and hands Margaret the device Daniel stole. With that, Margaret gets the power back up, which means the program will commence as planned.

Even as other Wardex soldiers, particularly Boyd, are ready to step forth and intervene, Scanlon shares a look with Margaret and tells his people to back off. As he takes a seat, Boyd chides him for giving up and leaves with the rest of the soldiers. Like Boyd, we also wonder why he gave up when he did. Since the first scene, the only thing that Wardex and Noah Scanlon are interested in is capturing the whistleblowers and stopping them from leaking the stolen documents to the world. It doesn’t matter what it takes, but this information has to be protected, as it has been for so many decades. At one point, Scanlon becomes so desperate to find Daniel that he uses one of the three devices (the only one left with Wardex, since the other two have been stolen by Daniel and Hugh), even though it’s not exactly good for him.

It weakens and pains him to the point that it looks like he would eventually die if he kept using it. This shows the level of his dedication to his cause. However, as his conversation with Hugh shows, he wasn’t always this way. There was a time when Scanlon had more noble intentions and callings. When Hugo was brought on board, and they studied the aliens in their captivity, there was some hope in the way Scanlon treated them and what he wanted to do with the information at hand. He might not have been ready to share it with the world yet, but that didn’t essentially make him a villain. But then, his wife died, and his grief hardened him to the point that he forgot who he was and what he stood for.

Hugh later talks about this shift in him, but Scanlon is not ready to accept it. When he and Margaret finally come face to face, she uses his grief to make him comply with her. In his mind, she appears as his wife, reminding him of the goodness and empathy he once had. This leads him to step back, let Margaret rescue Daniel, and eventually run away with him. It is possible that he sees the same thing in the final scene as well. Or, seeing the device in Margaret’s hand and not having her badly affected by it could be the confirmation that things were well and truly beyond his control now. With the device, Margaret could do anything, and Scanlon realized that whatever he did next would only slow her down. The disclosure would still happen, sooner or later, and that’s why he decided to throw his hands up and simply sit back and watch it unfold.

What did the Alien Say? What does “Listen” Mean?

Once the power has returned and Scanlon has given up, Margaret begins her work, which involves showing all the stolen files on live TV. The broadcast is picked up by news channels all over the world, so that in that moment, the whole world is watching it unfold together, as one. After a series of videos revealing the arrival, capture, and experimentation of aliens, it leaves everyone shocked and confused. Hugh brings out the final trick. Earlier in the movie, it was mentioned he had aided in the escape of “In Vivo 17,” who turns out to be an alien. While still at Wardex, Hugo had been the only one to maintain contact with the alien, which is why he could bond with him enough to get him out and then help him orchestrate the rest of the plan.

The alien is wheeled out, and Hugo directs Margaret and Daniel to interact with him. They were the ones chosen to serve as translators for the aliens and their intentions years ago. Now that they are together and the world is watching, the alien says something to Daniel, who then relays it to Margaret. She walks in front of the camera and says, “Listen.” This is where the camera cuts to black, leaving the audience unsure what happens next. Given the characters’ primary purpose, it makes sense that the film ends here. The film is called ‘Disclosure Day,’ which is why the events of the film lead up to the moment when the stolen files are finally in front of the world.

Moreover, throughout the film, the conflict is never about the contents of the files, or the origin of the aliens, or why they came to the Earth in the first place. The characters clash over whether the information about the aliens should be shared with the whole world. To exhibit the complexity of this dilemma, we have Jane, one of the good guys, wondering whether Daniel is right in his actions. She is worried that it might change the world for the worse, which is why, to clear his mind of doubts, she calls Sister Maura and shares this quandary with her. Through the characters, the audience, too, is posed with this question as well, so by the time they have made up their mind about whether or not the broadcast should go forward, the end arrives.

With Scanlon giving up, the war is over. He has stepped back, the files are out, and the alien is on the screen for all to see, which permanently removes any possibility of doubt. The “disclosure” has happened, the word is out, which is what Daniel had been fighting for since the first scene. With that, it is not surprising that the filmmakers chose to end the movie there. But that still leaves the question of why they chose to end it with “Listen.” The alien’s message would still have remained a secret if Margaret hadn’t walked up to the screen and started speaking. The camera could have cut to black before that, but then, it wouldn’t have been as compelling. It leaves us at the beginning of an address that the world is waiting for with bated breath, but the truth is, we already know what it’s going to be. The film has already told us that.

The Aliens’ Message is Peppered Throughout Disclosure Day

At the beginning of the film, when Margaret starts speaking an alien language during her weather broadcast, everyone thinks it’s gibberish. But Daniel, whose mind has been wired to decode things, understands it. He hears her say, “Don’t be afraid of what you don’t understand.” Later in the movie, Hugo tells Scanlon that the aliens see empathy as an evolutionary advantage. It is built in the core of their system, and that is what they want to share with the world. They didn’t come to Earth to invade it or use it for their own ends, as Scanlon believes. Their message, like that of all the Gods humans already believe in, is one of peace and love. And in the end, this is likely what the alien whispers to Daniel. Or at least, that’s the core of the message.

The aliens speak a very different language from ours, and the whole reason they chose Daniel and Margaret was so the duo could serve as their translators. But the thing with translation is that it isn’t always word-for-word. It is more about relaying the content and the emotion of what is being said. Moreover, although Daniel and Margaret can understand the alien language, they perceive it very differently. He sees it as a set of mathematical equations, which he can then translate into English. She is more in touch with the empathic side of it, so she is basically translating emotions rather than the exact words. This is why, rather unknowingly, she uses the alien language during her broadcast.

It’s like, a person’s true expression can come only through their mother tongue. Case in point, the Korean guy who is trying to say something he cannot quite land until Margaret converses with him in his language and then gives the best possible translation to the others. She seems to be doing the same thing in the end as well. So, when she says “Listen,” it is the most concise translation from alien to English she gives. What Daniel tells her is likely a direct English translation, but her focus is more on bringing out the emotions and the empathetic side of the aliens.

And given what we already know about the aliens from the film, “Listen” likely sums up their message just right. This is the core of the message that the Gods of humans have already relayed. Listen, have patience, understand the other person, empathize with them, and extrapolate from here to the part where it’s nothing but love and peace on Earth. There is a good chance that “Listen” is also just the beginning of the speech that Margaret is about to give. But honestly, there is nothing she’ll say that the audience hasn’t heard before. It has been recounted countless times in movies, songs, books, and gospels. The question now is: will they listen this time?

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