| The Age of Disclosure | |
|---|---|
 Release poster | |
| Directed by | Dan Farah |
| Produced by | Dan Farah |
| Narrated by | Luis Elizondo |
| Cinematography | Vincent Wrenn |
| Edited by | Spencer Averick Colin Frederick |
| Music by | Blair Mowat |
Production company | Farah Films |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 109 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Age of Disclosure is a 2025 AmericanUFO documentary film directed and produced byDan Farah, where formerUnited States government officials and people associated with thedisclosure movement claim thatalien 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 inUFO conspiracy theory claims.[7] The film advances conspiracy theories concerning recovered alien materials,secret programs, andinstitutional secrecy by highlighting interviews with a wide ranging selection of participants includingufologists along with former and currentUS government officials and employees from theUS military, theUS intelligence community, and theUS Congress.[1][2][3]
The film premiered at the2025 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival on March 9, 2025. It was released in theaters and viaAmazon 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] withscientists andskeptical commentators pointing out the lack of anyphysical evidence for the claims made in the film, and the film's credulous over-reliance oneyewitness testimony.[10][11]
Age of Disclosure includes interviews with former and presentUnited States elected,military, andintelligence officials, along withufologists, government associates, andfringe scientists who claim, in some cases for decades, that the U.S. government has been aware of alien life and retrieving their technologysince 1947 if not before.Variety reported that according to director Farah, the "disclosure" concept in the film’s title refers to a hypothetical future time when governments would reveal to the public withheld information about aliens and UFOs, a pillar of someUFO conspiracy theories.[7]
FormerU.S. Department of Defense employeeLuis Elizondo narrates the film and says that he was assigned to theAdvanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) in 2009. Elizondo with AATIP engineer consultant andparapsychologist[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 ofextraterrestrial intelligence for more than 80 years.[15][16] Jay Stratton, the former director of theAll-domain Anomaly Resolution Office's (AARO) 2017–2022Unidentified 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 toreverse engineer alien technology, and compares it to theManhattan Project to developnuclear weapons inWorld War II.[17]
The film features currentU.S. Secretary of State and actingNational Security AdvisorMarco Rubio, members of theUnited States Congress, includingKirsten Gillibrand andMike Rounds of theSenate, along withTim Burchett,André Carson,Dan Crenshaw,Mike Gallagher andAnna Paulina Luna of theHouse of Representatives. Former intelligence community and military officials interviewed about their alleged UFO-related experiences includeJames Clapper, formerDirector of National Intelligence;Christopher C. Miller, formeracting Secretary of Defense;Christopher Mellon, former DeputyAssistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence; and retiredRear AdmiralTim Gallaudet, formercommander of theNaval Meteorology and Oceanography Command.[18]
Militaryfighter pilots connected with thePentagon UFO videos and reports are interviewed, includingU.S. Navy pilots David Fravor, Alex Dietrich, Ryan Graves, as well as formerU.S. Air Force pilot andNORAD director, Colonel James D. Cobb.[18] Graves and Brett Feddersen, formerly of theUnited States National Security Council and a director at theFederal Aviation Administration, discussaviation safety concerns related to UFOs.[19][20][21]
RetiredU.S. Army colonel andNorthrop Grumman executive Karl Nell, along with members of the UAPTF,Travis S. Taylor andMike Gold, describe experiences they say happened to them in the 2010s.[22][18]Garry Nolan, an academic who takes an interest inufology, 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 bea UFO disabling a missile in 1964.[25] Retired Air Force CaptainRobert Salas recalledan incident in 1967 where a missile system malfunction allegedly coincided with a UFO report.[26][25]
The Age of Disclosure is the directorial debut ofDan Farah, who previously produced the science fiction filmReady Player One and the fantasy seriesThe Shannara Chronicles.[27][5]Spencer Averick was the film's editor.[28] Blair Mowat scoredThe Age of Disclosure.[1]
According to Farah, the film was produced in "secrecy", with minimal publicity, over three years.[7]
The film was showcased atSXSW on March 9, 2025.[29] It released on November 21, 2025, onAmazon Prime[30] and had a limited,Oscar-qualifying release at theaters in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.[31]
Less than 48 hours after its release onAmazon Prime Video,The Age of Disclosure "broke that platform’s record for highest-grossing documentary" according toDeadline Hollywood.[8] According toDeadline, the documentary was "outperforming major studio titles", such asJurassic World Rebirth andMission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.[8]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 30% of 10 critics' reviews are positive.[32] The audience "popcorn meter" rating is 93%, based on more than 500 user ratings.[33]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 45 out of 100, based on five critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[9]
Writing inThe Hollywood Reporter, Daniel Fienberg called the film a "sensationalistic wolf in understated sheep's clothing" and opined that "almost nothing in TheAge 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] OnCollider, 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 toThe Guardian reviewer Adrian Horton, the film, while being "serious and sourced", "has drawn gasps and criticism" with claims both "provocative and controversial".[6] Writing forThe 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]
In a December 2, 2025, episode ofHannity, hostSean Hannity opened his interview withUnited States Secretary of State Marco Rubio with what he said was a "fun question", asking him aboutThe 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:
You had people that came forward to us – some of these people were navy pilots, admirals, generals, whatever, that would come forward and say that there were programs in the U.S. Government that not even presidents were made aware of.
Addressing the film's other interview subjects, Rubio said:[37]
We have people with very high jobs in the U.S. government that are either, A: liars, B: crazy, or C: telling the truth. And two of those three options are not good. I don't have the answers. I don't want to call them liars. I just don't have any independent way to verify the things they've said.
Joshua Semeter, aBoston University professor ofelectrical engineering who was a member of theNASA 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]
Jason Colavito, a researcher who has documented the connection betweenpseudoarchaeology and UFO beliefs, wrote that the film was like "an episode ofAncient 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]
InSkeptic magazine,Michael Shermer criticized the film's reliance on anecdotes. Shermer compared the anecdotes featured in the film to claims aboutBigfoot, 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]
This article incorporatespublic domain material from websites or documents of theUnited States government.
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'sRoswell Incident.
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...
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
'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.'
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.
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.
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.
'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.
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 confrontingaliens at the Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, US.
