One of the Best Parts About ‘Disclosure Day’ Is This Practical Costuming Choice for Emily Blunt’s Heroine

[Editor’s note: The following article contains some spoilers for “Disclosure Day.”]

Margaret Fairchild thinks about her clothes a lot. Or, more accurately, she thinks about what her clothes say about her a lot. As a broadcast meteorologist at Kansas City’s local station KCXE, Margaret is frequently on air wearing the seemingly requisite brightly colored, body-con dresses so many people associate with the classic local news anchor lewk. Every morning, she needs to look perfectly coiffed before she hits the airwaves, and that means full glam, every hair in place, and a dress that would not look out of place in the club, circa 1997. And high heels, of course.

That’s the expectation of her position, and while Margaret (Emily Blunt) indicates early on in Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day” that she might want something else than what her current life affords her — there’s an itchiness to her, a sense she’s in the wrong place and will only know the right one when she gets there — she still plays a set sartorial game. She goes by the rules. She understands how things work, what’s expected of her. It makes her trustworthy, and it makes her relatable.

And, crucially for what will unfold in Spielberg’s latest spectacle, her clothing choices also telegraph that she is a pragmatic person. Because when Margaret gets ready in the morning — again, with full glam and fancy dress — she doesn’t put on her heels. She puts on a pair of practical, comfortable sneakers. White, low top, unfussy. Good for commuting, easy to slip into and out of. Keeps the heels looking fresh for TV. When she eats her breakfast, chats with her boyfriend Jackson (Wyatt Russell), and runs out the door, the sneakers are on.

They are also on when some very wild stuff starts happening, and they work to both ground Margaret as a sensible person and allow her to be very comfy indeed when she needs to get a little crazier. They don’t tell us everything we need to know about Margaret, but they tell us a lot. And they tell us how Spielberg, screenwriter David Koepp, and costume designer Paul Tazewell feel about her, and what they want the audience to feel about her. Steady, practical, relatable.

Yes, this is all from a pair of sneakers. Trust me.

‘Disclosure Day’Universal Pictures and Amblin En

I’ve been on this particular beat (or, perhaps more appropriately, I’ve been on a real movie shoe kick for years now). Remember Bryce Dallas Howard’s heels in “Jurassic World”? They still piss me off, despite my giddy joy over Howard’s sneaky, funny rebuttal to the whole thing with 2024’s “Argylle.” So, yes, I keep my eyes out for footwear that stands out in the movies, especially on female characters (men are always wearing something practical or, even better, totally forgettable).

Margaret’s sneakers are unmissable from the start. She’s wearing them when we first meet her. After she changes out of them, has her on-air freakout that’s long been a major part of the film‘s marketing, and is whisked off to the hospital for tests, they still come with her. That Tazewell, an Oscar-winning costume designer best known for his lavish costumes in films like “Wicked,” is behind them speaks volumes. They are meant to be seen.

She is also wearing them when things start getting wild. They’re on her feet when a friendly cardinal fits her, unlocking something in Margaret that allows her to unleash communication powers she previously did not possess (in short order, we see her speak fluent Russian, mind-read an annoyed cop, and understand the intricacies of Korean). And when she realizes the suits milling outside her hospital room are not, in fact, the FBI, she throws on her sneakers, comfy jeans, and a sensible sweater and she gets the fuck out of there.

This is the only kind of heroine who can properly lead this kind of alien invasion thriller. You need someone normal to believe in when things go topside (when the non-FBI dudes show up and there’s a train chase and just like, a lot of aliens, for example), and Margaret’s outfit makes it clear she’s that gal, in the minimum of time and effort.

It should not be quite so thrilling to see a heroine wearing practical outfits while a) on the run and b) preparing to change the course of human history, but again, I direct you to the Bryce Dallas Howard heels debacle of just eleven years ago. If you cannot wear cozy sneakers while running from dinosaurs, when can you?

That “Disclosure Day” gives Margaret such an obvious pair of kicks is not obvious at all, but it is refreshing, honest, and real. And, even if you don’t gaze at footwear the way I do, what it tells us about our heroine still somehow seeps into the greater picture. That’s someone who can stand on her own two feet, comfortably.

A Universal Pictures release, “Disclosure Day” is now in theaters.