Unsolved:The Age of Disclosure

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Short description: 2025 American UFO documentary film

The Age of Disclosure
Release poster
Directed byDan Farah
Produced byDan Farah
Narrated byLuis Elizondo
Music byBlair Mowat
CinematographyVincent Wrenn
Edited bySpencer Averick
Colin Frederick
Production
companies
Farah Films
Release date
  • March 9, 2025 (2025-03-09) (SXSW)
  • November 21, 2025 (2025-11-21) (Theatrical and Amazon Prime Video)
Running time
109 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Age of Disclosure is a 2025 American UFO documentary film directed and produced by Dan Farah, where former United States government officials and people associated with the disclosure movement claim that alien intelligence is present on Earth[1][2][3] and has been subject to a decades-long government cover-up.[4][5][6] Farah described "disclosure" as when governments could reveal withheld information about alien life, as described in UFO conspiracy theory claims.[7] The film advances conspiracy theories concerning recovered alien materials, secret programs, and institutional secrecy by highlighting interviews with a wide ranging selection of participants including ufologists along with former and current US government officials and employees from the US military, the US intelligence community, and the US Congress.[1][2][3]

The film premiered at the 2025 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival on March 9, 2025. It was released in theaters and via Amazon Prime Video on November 21, 2025, becoming the highest-grossing documentary of all time on the platform.[8] It received mixed reviews from critics,[9] with scientists and skeptical commentators pointing out the lack of any physical evidence for the claims made in the film, and the film's credulous over-reliance on eyewitness testimony.[10][11]

Synopsis

Age of Disclosure includes interviews with former and present United States elected, military, and intelligence officials, along with ufologists, government associates, and fringe scientists who claim, in some cases for decades, that the U.S. government has been aware of alien life and retrieving their technology since 1947 if not before. Variety reported that according to director Farah, the "disclosure" concept in the films title refers to a hypothetical future time when governments would reveal to the public withheld information about aliens and UFOs, a pillar of some UFO conspiracy theories.[7]

Former U.S. Department of Defense employee Luis Elizondo narrates the film and says that he was assigned to the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) in 2009. Elizondo with AATIP engineer consultant and parapsychologist[12] Hal Puthoff[13] and his collaborator Eric Davis,[14] allege, among other claims, that they discovered a secret government "Legacy Program"[11] that investigated and concealed evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence for more than 80 years.[15][16] Jay Stratton, the former director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office's (AARO) 2017–2022 Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) who also appeared on the American reality TV series, The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, claims there is a race among governments to reverse engineer alien technology, and compares it to the Manhattan Project to develop nuclear weapons in World War II.[17]

The film features current U.S. Secretary of State and acting National Security Advisor Marco Rubio, members of the United States Congress, including Kirsten Gillibrand and Mike Rounds of the Senate, along with Tim Burchett, André Carson, Dan Crenshaw, Mike Gallagher and Anna Paulina Luna of the House of Representatives. Former intelligence community and military officials interviewed about their alleged UFO-related experiences include James Clapper, former Director of National Intelligence; Christopher C. Miller, former acting Secretary of Defense; Christopher Mellon, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence; and retired Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, former commander of the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command.[18]

Military fighter pilots connected with the Pentagon UFO videos and reports are interviewed, including U.S. Navy pilots David Fravor, Alex Dietrich, Ryan Graves, as well as former U.S. Air Force pilot and NORAD director, Colonel James D. Cobb.[18] Graves and Brett Feddersen, formerly of the United States National Security Council and a director at the Federal Aviation Administration, discuss aviation safety concerns related to UFOs.[19][20][21]

Retired U.S. Army colonel and Northrop Grumman executive Karl Nell, along with members of the UAPTF, Travis S. Taylor and Mike Gold, describe experiences they say happened to them in the 2010s.[22][18] Garry Nolan, an academic who takes an interest in ufology, and Mike Flaherty, a retired U.S. Navy intelligence officer, discuss their allegations of biological effects linked to UFOs.[23][15][24] Former Air Force Lieutenant Robert Jacobs describes witnessing what he believed to be a UFO disabling a missile in 1964.[25] Retired Air Force Captain Robert Salas recalled an incident in 1967 where a missile system malfunction allegedly coincided with a UFO report.[26][25]

Crew

The Age of Disclosure is the directorial debut of Dan Farah, who previously produced the science fiction film Ready Player One and the fantasy series The Shannara Chronicles.[27][5] Spencer Averick was the film's editor.[28] Blair Mowat scored The Age of Disclosure.[1]

Production

According to Farah, the film was produced in "secrecy", with minimal publicity, over three years.[7]

Release

The film was showcased at SXSW on March 9, 2025.[29] It released on November 21, 2025, on Amazon Prime[30] and had a limited, Oscar-qualifying release at theaters in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.[31]

Reception

Less than 48 hours after its release on Amazon Prime Video, The Age of Disclosure "broke that platform’s record for highest-grossing documentary" according to Deadline Hollywood.[8] According to Deadline, the documentary was "outperforming major studio titles", such as Jurassic World Rebirth and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.[8]

Critical response

Template:Rotten Tomatoes prose[32] The audience "popcorn meter" rating is 93%, based on more than 500 user ratings.[33] Template:Metacritic film prose[9]

Writing in The Hollywood Reporter, Daniel Fienberg called the film a "sensationalistic wolf in understated sheep's clothing" and opined that "almost nothing in The Age of Disclosure is 'new,' per se" but that the quality of its production values set it apart from similar films of the genre and that "some viewers will happily celebrate the fantasy, when it looks this legitimate". Fienberg dismissed it as "a basic cable exploitation doc done up with a fancy gloss", in which "nothing is proven, and thus nothing can be refuted".[1] On Collider, Nate Richard wrote that "as we get further into the movie, the more ridiculous it gets", that it was "executed in the most bland way possible", and that "the pacing makes the movie feel like you're watching a college PowerPoint presentation". Richard's conclusion was that: "...the movie felt like it was made to be an echo chamber for those who already believe in UFOs. If the job of The Age of Disclosure was to convert skeptics, it failed."[34] According to The Guardian reviewer Adrian Horton, the film, while being "serious and sourced", "has drawn gasps and criticism" with claims both "provocative and controversial".[6] Writing for The New York Times, Ben Kenigsberg concluded of the film that "anyone who sits through its nearly two hours of unprovable claims is a chump".[35]

Responses

Participants

In a December 2, 2025, episode of Hannity, host Sean Hannity opened his interview with United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio with what he said was a "fun question", asking him about The Age of Disclosure. Rubio, who appeared in the film, said he was concerned that "some adversary, another country for example, has developed some asymmetric capability for surveillance or the like for which we are not prepared," citing examples of drones or hot air balloons.[36] Regarding how closely information was held, Rubio said:

Addressing the film's other interview subjects, Rubio said:[37]

Scientists

Joshua Semeter, a Boston University professor of electrical engineering who was a member of the NASA Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Independent Study Team was skeptical of the film's allegations, "I have seen no evidence that the government has been hiding anything.... [U]ltimately, testimonies are simply not enough. They need to be backed up with evidence."[10]

Skeptics

Jason Colavito, a researcher who has documented the connection between pseudoarchaeology and UFO beliefs, wrote that the film was like "an episode of Ancient Aliens with better production values... By the time the film is over, the viewer has seen no evidence that is new, no stories that had not been told many times before".[38]

In Skeptic magazine, Michael Shermer criticized the film's reliance on anecdotes. Shermer compared the anecdotes featured in the film to claims about Bigfoot, saying, "If all you had were stories about what you saw, and maybe a couple of out-of-focus videos and grainy photographs, no one would believe you...and for good reason!".[11]

See also

  • Investigation of UFO reports by the United States government
  • UFO Cover Up? Live, a 1988 TV broadcast featuring Air Force officials, who later admitted to using the program to spread disinformation
  • UFOs: Past, Present, and Future, a film from 1976 noted for it similarity to the later blockbuster Close Encounters of the Third Kind[39]

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Government.

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Fienberg, Daniel. "'The Age of Disclosure' Review: Dan Farah's Polished Doc Legitimizes Unverifiable Theories About UFOs". Hollywood Reporter. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/the-age-of-disclosure-review-ufos-aliens-dan-farah-1236158783/. "The documentary uses 34 talking heads from various levels of the government, military and intelligence community to allege a deep state conspiracy covering up interactions with non-human intelligent life and technology of non-human origin going back to 1947's Roswell Incident." 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Zilko, Christian. "'The Age of Disclosure' Review: A Case for Alien Life That's Far More Serious Than Anything We've Seen Before". IndieWire. https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/the-age-of-disclosure-review-sxsw-alien-documentary-1235100024/. "Farah is a little too willing to let his subjects veer into conspiracy territory at times...eventually succumbs to the Achilles heel that brings down so many promising conspiracy theories..." 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Kurtz, Jefferey. "Another look at UFOs". Hearst Media Services Connecticut, LLC. https://www.ctinsider.com/opinion/article/jeffery-kurz-opinion-new-case-ufos-20222212.php. "What sounds like a conspiracy fever dream is from a documentary, "The Age of Disclosure," which recently debuted at the SXSW Film Festival, in Austin, Texas" 
  4. ↑ Groundbreaking UFO Documentary Director Breaks Silence on Film's Revelations, Hollywood Reporter, March 5, 2025
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Dodd, Johnny (March 8, 2025). "Director of Groundbreaking UFO Doc Says What He Learned Left Him 'Rattled': 'Things Could Get Really Bad, Really Fast'". PEOPLE. https://people.com/director-groundbreaking-ufo-doc-says-what-he-learned-left-him-rattled-11692704. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Horton, Adrian (12 March 2025). "'80 years of lies and deception': is this film proof of alien life on Earth?". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/mar/12/age-of-disclosure-ufo-documentary. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Morfoot, Addie (2025-11-24). "8 Reasons Aliens Exist and Have Visited Earth, According to 'The Age of Disclosure' Documentary". https://variety.com/2025/film/news/age-of-disclosure-documentary-aliens-exist-rubio-uap-1236590833/. "'I think it’s only a matter of time before the release of this film is followed by a sitting president stepping to the podium and telling the world, 'We’re not alone in the universe,' the director told Entertainment Weekly. 'It’s the most significant moment a leader could possibly have.'" 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Carey, Matthew (2025-12-08). "Oscar-Contending Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Doc 'The Age Of Disclosure' Becomes VOD Phenomenon, Outperforming 'One Battle After Another' & More". https://deadline.com/2025/12/he-age-of-disclosure-uap-documentary-vod-charts-1236642653/. "The Age of Disclosure, Dan Farah’s explosive documentary that makes a potent case for the existence of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena and the U.S. government’s alleged efforts to conceal that knowledge, is off to a tremendous start on VOD, boosting the film’s underdog bid for Oscar recognition. Within 48 hours of the film’s release on Prime Video, it broke that platform’s record for highest-grossing documentary, producers tell Deadline, surpassing the mark set by Oscar winner Free Solo." 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "The Age of Disclosure". https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-age-of-disclosure/. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Barlow, Rich. "New Film The Age of Disclosure Alleges Government Cover-Up of UFOs, but BU Expert Is Skeptical". Boston University. https://www.bu.edu/articles/2025/ufo-news-government-cover-up/. "Joshua Semeter (ENG'92,'97), a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Boston University's College of Engineering, says there has been investigation — and he knows. He served on a 2023 NASA panel that studied the evidence for UAPs, including classified congressional testimony by David Grusch, a former Air Force and intelligence officer...[Semeter:] All the evidence I have seen is now in the public domain and has been highlighted in multiple documentaries." 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Shermer, Michael (November 23, 2025). "The Aliens are Here (Again)! A Review of The Age of Disclosure". Skeptic. https://www.skeptic.com/article/the-aliens-are-here-again-a-review-of-the-age-of-disclosure/. 
  12. ↑ Pigliucci, Massimo (2010). Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226667867. https://archive.org/details/nonsenseonstilts0000pigl/page/90/mode/2up?q=puthoff. Retrieved 2025-12-05. "Harold Puthoff is the director of Austin's Institute for Advanced Studies, but is also a well-known parapsychologist and conducts research on so-called zero point energy, the idea that one can extract energy from empty space—a proposition, I should add, that violates basic principles of thermodynamics and that is considered pseudoscience by credentialed physicists." 
  13. ↑ Cooper, Helene; Blumenthal, Ralph; Kean, Leslie (December 16, 2017). "Glowing Auras and 'Black Money': The Pentagon's Mysterious U.F.O. Program". New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html. "'We're sort of in the position of what would happen if you gave Leonardo da Vinci a garage-door opener,' said Harold E. Puthoff, an engineer who has conducted research on extrasensory perception for the C.I.A. and later worked as a contractor for the program." 
  14. ↑ NP, Ullekh (2025-11-23). "An explosive new film spotlights a secret American project on UFOs". https://openthemagazine.com/entertainment/an-explosive-new-film-spotlights-a-secret-american-project-on-ufos-3. "For his part, Eric W. Davis, an astrophysicist who was a scientific advisor at AATIP, goes on to make an explosive claim that President George Bush Sr had told him in a conversation about American military men confronting aliens at the Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, US." 
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 "SXSW 2025: Dan Farah's "The Age of Disclosure" Stuns Crowd With Shocking Alien Doc". The Credits (Motion Picture Association). 10 March 2025. https://www.motionpictures.org/2025/03/sxsw-2025-dan-farahs-the-age-of-disclosure-stuns-crowd-with-shocking-alien-doc. 
  16. ↑ Weekman, Kelsey (11 March 2025). "'The Age of Disclosure' documentary presents evidence of aliens and UFOs with broad bipartisan support. Will people believe it?". Yahoo Entertainment. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/the-age-of-disclosure-documentary-presents-evidence-of-aliens-and-ufos-with-broad-bipartisan-support-will-people-believe-it-224248772.html. 
  17. ↑ James Hibberd (January 22, 2025). "'Age of Disclosure' UFO Documentary Trailer Touts "Biggest Discovery in Human History"". The Hollywood Reporter. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/age-of-disclosure-ufo-documentary-trailer-sxsw-1236114831/. 
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Vatandas, Aydogan (2025-12-02). "The Age of Disclosure, Religion and the End of Human-Centered Philosophy". Politurco. https://politurco.com/the-age-of-disclosure-religion-and-the-end-of-human-centered-philosophy.html. 
  19. ↑ Blumenthal, Ralph; Kean, Leslie (Nov 20, 2025). "The Age of Disclosure,' Documentary About U.F.O.s, Gets a Congressional Audience". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/movies/the-age-of-disclosure-congress.html. 
  20. ↑ Cartolano, Marco (July 27, 2023). "Who is Ryan Graves? Former Navy pilot, UFO whistleblower has Central Mass. roots". The Worcester Telegram & Gazette. https://www.telegram.com/story/news/local/2023/07/26/who-is-ryan-graves-ufo-whistleblower-has-central-mass-roots/70470688007/. 
  21. ↑ "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency" (in en). July 26, 2023. https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-implications-on-national-security-public-safety-and-government-transparency. 
  22. ↑ "Karl E. Nell. Archives of the Impossible" (in en). https://impossiblearchives.rice.edu/karl-e-nell. 
  23. ↑ "Documentary claims three UFOs landed in New Mexico — and George Bush knew about the 'alien' encounter". The Times of India. 22 November 2025. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/science/documentary-claims-three-ufos-landed-in-new-mexico-and-george-bush-knew-about-the-alien-encounter/articleshow/125507280.cms. 
  24. ↑ Sharma, Shivangi (November 23, 2025). "From Secret UFO Files To Alleged Alien Bodies: Documentary Says George Bush Confirmed 1964 Encounter In Private Talks" (in en). The Daily Jagran. https://www.thedailyjagran.com/world/ufo-files-to-alleged-alien-bodies-documentary-says-george-bush-confirmed-1964-encounter-in-private-talks-10281657. 
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Tritten, Travis (19 October 2021). "Air Force Veterans Who Are UFO True Believers Return to Newly Attentive Washington" (in en). Military.com. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/10/19/air-force-veterans-who-are-ufo-true-believers-return-newly-attentive-washington.html. 
  26. ↑ Phillips, Grant (20 November 2025). "Former Air Force Captain discusses nuclear UFO experience in new doc" (in en). Ojai Valley News. https://www.ojaivalleynews.com/culture/former-air-force-captain-discusses-nuclear-ufo-experience-in-new-doc/article_3839043b-fc05-44ae-a520-40011839e93f.html. 
  27. ↑ "CHS graduate's documentary about aliens premiered at SXSW". Essex News Daily. April 4, 2025. https://essexnewsdaily.com/arts/chs-graduates-documentary-about-aliens-premiered-at-sxsw. 
  28. ↑ Gleiberman, Owen (2025-03-09). "'The Age of Disclosure' Review: A Documentary Claims to Offer Proof that Alien Spaceships Are Visiting Us. But Does It Really?". https://variety.com/2025/film/reviews/the-age-of-disclosure-review-sxsw-1236332637/. 
  29. ↑ "The Age of Disclosure" (in en). https://schedule.sxsw.com/2025/films/2206293. 
  30. ↑ Hailu, Selome (October 16, 2025). "'The Age of Disclosure': Documentary Revealing Government Cover-Up of Non-Human Intelligence Sets Release in Theaters and on Amazon, Plus New Trailer". Variety Magazine. https://variety.com/2025/film/news/the-age-of-disclosure-ufo-documentary-release-date-trailer-1236554168/. 
  31. ↑ Johnny Dodd (October 16, 2025). "Viral UFO Documentary, Featuring Dozens of Government and Military Insiders, Finally Gets a Release Date". People. https://people.com/ufo-documentary-age-of-disclosure-gets-release-date-prime-video-11830770. 
  32. ↑ "The Age of Disclosure". Rotten Tomatoes. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_age_of_disclosure. 
  33. ↑ "The Age of Disclosure – audience rating". Rotten Tomatoes. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_age_of_disclosure. 
  34. ↑ Richard, Nate (2025-03-12). "'The Age of Disclosure' Review: This UFO Doc Won't Make You Believe". Collider. https://collider.com/the-age-of-disclosure-review/. 
  35. ↑ Kenigsberg, Ben (2025-11-20). "'The Age of Disclosure' Review: Release the Extraterrestrial Files". New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/movies/the-age-of-disclosure-review.html. 
  36. ↑ "Secretary of State Marco Rubio With Sean Hannity of Fox News' Hannity". https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2025/12/secretary-of-state-marco-rubio-with-sean-hannity-of-fox-news-hannity. 
  37. ↑ Hannnity, Sean (December 2, 2025). Secretary of State Rubio discusses President Trump's foreign policy doctrine and why it qualifies as 'America first' (TV). Hannity. Retrieved December 2, 2025.
  38. ↑ Colavito, Jason (November 22, 2025). "Review of "Age of Disclosure": An "Ancient Aliens" Episode with Better Lighting". jasoncolavito.com. https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/review-of-age-of-disclosure-an-ancient-aliens-episode-with-better-lighting. 
  39. ↑ Meehan, Paul (1998). Saucer Movies: A UFOlogical History of the Cinema. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810835733. https://books.google.com/books?id=vHlZAAAAMAAJ. 



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