In the 2001 novel I understood that the Earth was launching the nukes at the Star Child as a defense against what they perceived as an alien attack.
Maybe I totally screwed that up. But that’s how I read it.
According to Wikipedia we’re both wrong and @JohnT is right:
The Star-Child then returns to Earth, where he intercepts an orbiting nuclear weapon and safely detonates it outside the atmosphere before it can reach its intended target.
The ones in War of the Worlds sure weren’t very nice.
The aliens in WotW were awful but the most horrifying scene in that movie is when the mob steals their van.
Oh yeah, Spielberg did make an evil alien movie-- forgot about that one.
In my defense, it is one of his more forgettable, dumb movies.
Saw Disclosure Day this weekend and quite enjoyed it! It’s a popcorn movie, so I was easily able to suspend disbelief about the science, pseudoscience, etc., and just go along for the ride, which was fun and even a little surprising. It is very well acted - there is not a stinker in the bunch, and Emily Blunt was truly excellent. As others mentioned upthread, Courtney Grace does a star turn as the anchor at the end; she was note perfect, just wonderful stuff.
They did a good job pacing out the info and keeping me guessing about where exactly it was all headed - I very much enjoy being surprised by a movie/story, and this was just surprising enough for me. I also like how they dropped us into the story in the middle of things - and then ended the same way. I know some others earlier did not appreciate that ending, but I thought it was excellent and, from a filmmaking perspective, good symmetry with the beginning.
There were a few things I did not like, including the car/train encounter, which seemed like an action sequence from another, more cartoon-y movie, and the CGI animals were laughably fake-looking. (Well, the cardinal was decent). I mean, this is a Spielberg blockbuster - they couldn’t afford the best animal CGI? So incongruously bad.
Otherwise, very enjoyable, 8/10 from me.