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Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, James Woods, John Hurt, Tom Skerritt ... see more see more... , William Fichtner , David Morse , Angela Bassett , Geoffrey Blake , Max Martini , Rob Lowe , Jake Busey , Jena Malone , Tucker Smallwood , David St. James

The search for life outside our solar system becomes a personal and spiritual quest for a young researcher. Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster) is a scientist who lost her faith in God after her parents died... read more read more... when she was a child. However, Ellie has learned to develop a different sort of faith in the seemingly unknowable: working with a group that monitors radio waves from space, Ellie hopes that some day she will receive a coherent message from another world that will prove that there is a world beyond our own. Ellie's hard work is rewarded when her team picks up a signal that does not appear to be of earthly origin. Ellie decodes the message, which turns out to be plans for a space craft, which she takes as an invitation for a meeting with the aliens. Ellie and her fellow researchers soon run into interference from a White House scientific advisor, David Drumlin (Tom Skerritt), who cuts off their funding and tries to take credit for their achievements. However, Ellie receives moral support from Palmer Joss (Matthew McConaughey), a spiritual teacher who advises President Clinton and tries to persuade her to accept the existence of a higher power, and financial backing from S.R. Hadden (John Hurt), a multi-millionaire willing to fund her attempts to contact the source of the message. Contact was based on a novel by Carl Sagan, who advised director Robert Zemeckis during the film's production until his death in 1996. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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74% liked it

180,180 ratings

Critics

63% liked it

62 critics

PG, 2 hr. 30 min.

Directed by: Robert Zemeckis

Release Date: July 11, 1997

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DVD Release Date: December 16, 1997

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Flixster Reviews (7,759)

  • moonrivers
    April 19, 2012
    moonrivers
    Robert Zemekis and Jodie Foster take on Carl (who died before the film was finished) Sagan's optimistic speculation on what the first alien (as in: from space not Uzbekistan) contact might be like. Interestingly the hypothesis goes (like in K-Pax) to thought being the fastest wa... read morey to travel. Science geeks everywhere will sumptuously bathe in the obligatory sense of awe and wonder. Billions and billions of stars.
  • fb701560354
    December 29, 2011
    fb701560354
    It's nice to see a science-fiction movie go into depth about things and not just have aliens blowing things up everywhere. Discussions about religion and the existence of god, relationships, space and other things really give great depth to the movie and it's characters. The co... read morencept here is great and original, and the execution surprisingly engaging and incredibly interesting and realistic. A great, but little known film from a great filmmaker with a great, cast that performs beautifully. Come in contact with Contact at least once.
  • fb1710827246
    October 31, 2011
    fb1710827246
    I loved the novel profoundly, but for this movie, it falls short.
  • ironclad1609
    September 17, 2011
    ironclad1609
    While the film starts out really slow, taking its time to introduce its main character, her dreams and motivations, it soon picks up pace once the signals from outer space arrive. The struggle with the government, religious fanatics and the race for the spot to travel to the unkn... read moreown civilization are getting more and more exciting by the minute, though. The film does raise interesting questions about how mankind would react to such news and what religious dimensions that would entail. The acting is top notch too, of course. While the rather philosophical ending that leaves a bit of space for interpretation may not be to everyone's liking, it is still a brave solution to such a film and yet leaves the audience very satisfied with the result.
  • shawnewing92
    August 10, 2011
    shawnewing92
    It's an exploration of life beyond our solar system that bumps into questions of faith, science and religion. Acting is good and the story is well put together. The ending may be somewhat disappointing for some, but still hints at a probable truth.
  • stevenecarrier
    July 9, 2011
    stevenecarrier
    Is "Contact" overly blunt with it's themes? Of course. Is bluntness an effective way of delivering a debate on the issues of religion vs. science? Obviously. This exploration of facts and faith is best explored with a heavy brush because it needs to be simultaneously thought prov... read moreoking and accessible, you don't want to be left in the dark, so to speak, you want to be engaged. Robert Zemeckis understands that and that's why "Contact" works so well. This is a condensed and easy to understand guide to the philosophy of Carl Sagan (I won't divulge what that is if you are not familiar because it's revealed quite nicely in the films final moments). On an entertainment front, I think the films works really well as a forced perspective, "Amblin-esque" exploration of religion, science and the unknown. It touches on all the correct thematic issues and emotional viewpoints without ever truly taking sides. Can "Contact" be sermon-y? Yes. Is it preachy? No. "Contact" is not preachy because it isn't trying to prove anything. The film is merely asking questions, so therefore it's rhetoric (or sermon) can be loud, but it's still a worthwhile film to get engaged with. Attention should also be paid to Jodie Foster's tremendous performance that rings endlessly true. The role would have been schmaltzy in lesser hands but Foster pulls it off exceedingly well.

    This film meant a lot to me when I was growing up. It's a film that helped open my mind to bigger things and it works great for those uninitiated in the ways of Sagan. I can still say that after more than a decade that "Contact" still holds much relevance.
  • sergioogarcia
    June 26, 2011
    sergioogarcia
    Another excellent movie. Scifi? I'm not sure. This relates a lot to the WOW signal, a radio signal received by SETI in 1977. Based on a Carl Sagan novel and dedicatd to him, this Robert Zemeckis movie is a MUST see. Good cast, excellent story, fantastic visual effects and directing.
  • FiLmCrAzY
    June 5, 2011
    FiLmCrAzY
    i couldnt finish the end of this movie because it truly was that rubbish.
    I very much like sci-fi movies but the aliens that are in it are only seen/heard through electrowaves which is a stupid concept.
  • xXGiNoBiLiPRXx
    May 19, 2011
    xXGiNoBiLiPRXx
    A message from deep space. Who will be the first to go? A journey to the heart of the universe.

    Incredibly brilliant film. The story and the inmense quantity of scientific even though fictional facts were just overwhelming. Jodie Foster gave a magnificent performance and probab... read morely one of her best in her long career in films. Great film everyone should rent and enjoy.

    Dr. Eleanor "Ellie" Arroway (Jodie Foster) is a brilliant scientist and confirmed atheist, having lost both parents before age 12 to -it was Gods will- events. She directs her research talents and efforts towards SETI, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, renting time at the Arecibo Radio Telescope under the critical eye of NSF Director David Drumlin (Tom Skerritt).

    At Arecibo, Ellie meets influential spiritual ponderer Palmer Joss (Matthew McConaughey), and has an intense, brief, but detached (on her part) affair with him. One day while looking in a Cracker Jack box, he finds a toy compass and gives it to her, 'so she wont lose her way.' Palmer wants to get closer to Ellie in terms of a relationship, but Ellie is more preoccupied with her search for extra-terrestrial life. Shortly afterwards, Ellie is angered when Drumlin pulls her team's funding. She gets in a heated debate defending her work, to which Drumlin chastises her for spending time on 'nonsense.'

    Taking action, Ellie and her team pool together to try and get funding for their project from private sources. Ellie and her team spend 18 months searching, before finding their benefactor in the form of S. R. Hadden (John Hurt), a billionaire investor who had been known for innovation. Hadden's funding allows Ellie to have access to the 'Vert Large Array' (VLA) in New Mexico, a facility with several large radio antenna dishes which Ellie uses to try and continue her search. Even here, Drumlin and the scientific community are not far behind. With 4 years of finding nothing, and even though all funding for the project is privitized by Hadden Industries, the project is still in danger of being shut down. Even so, Ellie vows not to quit.

    One evening, while listening intently, Ellie finds a signal: a prime number pattern emanating from the star Vega, confirmed by others the world over, undeniable and strong in its pulsing power. Other persons in world-wide countries are utilized to record the signal, since the VLA is only aligned to Vega for a certain amount of time. Shortly thereafter, Drumlin inserts himself into the situation, taking credit for Ellie's work and pressuring her with national security issues by using government pit bull Michael Kitz (James Woods) to militarize the project, feeling that due to other countries having heard the message, Ellie has compromised national security (even though the message was not specifically 'USA-only' in nature).

    Kitz and his assistant Rachel Constantine (Angela Bassett) inform the President when a video feed of Hitler is found mixed into the prime number pulse pattern. It is from the 1936 Olympics, the first television signal strong enough to leave the atmosphere, but the implications are threatening. Is the alien intelligence seeing a friend in Hitler, or merely bouncing the signal back to Earth? Religious right mouthpiece Richard Rank (Rob Lowe) reports that the fundamentalist camp is wary. At the same time, a number of people descend on the VLA compound in New Mexico, trying to hear the signal. Some come for support, others, such as a religious zealot named Joseph (Jake Busey), have come to condemn Ellie and the others, preaching against science.

    Some time after, it is found that interlaced within the signal, are a number of pages of data, over 60,000 in total. Ellie is then given authority over the deciphering, but after many months, the pages do not seem capable of lining up. Ellie soon gets her answer in the form of S.R. Hadden, who meets with Ellie privately. He then explains that Ellie and her team had been deciphering the pages in 2-dimensions. The pages it seems, were created in 3-dimensions. With this revelation, Ellie is able to find the primer, or the key to decoding the alien's message. Within the pages, there appear to be some form of blueprints. While Ellie speculates they could be a transport, Kitz and his security detail feel it could be a weapon of some kind, falling back on speculation that any alien life forms would be hostile to mankind.

    Soon afterward, an encryption team is able to determine that the plans are indeed for a type of transport. Construction of the machine is estimated to cost as much as a third of a trillion dollars, with a number of countries vying for the ability to join in construction, or to have a representative from their country vie for the chance to travel in the machine.

    A special panel is convened to select the appropriate candidate for the trip. Ellie is surprised when Drumlin resigns his post to become a candidate. Ellie is also a candidate, and makes it to the final round for deciding who will go. Palmer (who is on the panel) cripples Ellie's chances of being selected by asking her if she believes in God. Ellie indirectly answers the question by not stating a direct answer. Her falter is then picked up by Drumlin, who then speaks 'passionately,' using God in his closing remarks. His 'grandstanding' attitude towards the panel works, and he is chosen to go. Ellie feels betrayed by Palmer, who states that he couldn't choose someone who doesn't believe in God. Ellie angrily tells him that she told the truth, whereas Drumlin just told them what they wanted to hear. She then returns the compass he gave her.

    Finally, the machine is completed, and it's test-run is televised on all major news networks. While Drumlin is supervising the test from the machine, Ellie is allowed to be part of the test's control team at NASA's Mission Control. All seems to be going well in testing, until Joseph (who Ellie had seen previously preaching against the project at the VLA in New Mexico) is spotted on security cameras in the machine's gantry, with explosives strapped to his chest. Drumlin and a number of men try to subdue him, but Joseph detonates the explosives, destroying the machine and those conducting the test inside the machine, including Drumlin. Ellie then returns to the VLA, saddened that her discovery or any chance of making contact appears to have been destroyed. That evening, she is surprised to find a satellite uplink in her apartment. The uplink connects her to the MIR Space Station, which has now become home to S.R. Hadden, as a way to try and slow the terminal cancer that is 'eating him alive.' Happily, Hadden shows Ellie that his company had secretly constructed a second machine on Hokkaido Island, and that he wants her to take the trip this time.

    Ellie is flown to a special ship off Hokkaido, where she is met by the machine's crew, and given a pre-flight rundown, showing her everything from survival gear, to a suicide pill in case she is marooned in space. Shortly before the trip, she is reunited with Palmer, who returns her compass that she gave him during their last meeting. He then reveals that he has come to care about her, and that previously, he hadn't wanted her to go.

    Ellie is then put into the transport pod, and after it is launched into the center of the machine, she appears to travel through several wormholes, seeing bits of alien machinery, and a city on a distant planet of some kind. At one point, Ellie separates herself from the restraint chair in the pod, which soon breaks apart from it's fastenings. As Ellie stares through a wall of the pod, it's translucency reveals a brilliant, celestial event. Before she realizes it, she is transported to a sandy beach environment (similar to one she drew as a little girl). Suddenly, she notices something moving towards her. As it draws near, she is shocked to see that it is her Father!

    However, she soon determines that everything (the beach, the image of her Father) is not real, but memories and thoughts taken from her mind by the alien (who has taken on the guise of her Father). He explains that this was a way to allow them to make things more comfortable for her. The alien then reveals that the broadcast signal from the 1936 Olympics was how the aliens knew about Earth, and that there are many others out in space. When Ellie asks about the transport system, the alien explains that their race found it, but they have no idea who built it. The alien then explains that in examining her memories, that humans feel 'so alone.' But to them (the aliens), the one thing they've found that brings them comfort, is each other. Soon, the alien explains that Ellie has to go home. However, she tries to ask more questions, but is told by the alien that she has taken the first step, and in time, mankind will make another, and find out more. "That's the way it's been done for thousands of years," he explains.

    Ellie then seemingly lands on the floor of the pod, back on Earth. Asking to know how long she was gone, she is shocked when everyone tells her that the pod just dropped straight through the machine. A number of video footage confirms this, and a video recorder that was on her communications headpiece only recorded static.

    After these events, Kitz resigns from his post as National Security Adviser, and holds an inquiry to find out 'what really happened.' During the inquiry, Kitz assumes that the entire thing was a hoax: from the alien message to the construction blueprints. His feelings are that it was all a scheme perpetrated by S.R. Hadden, maybe in some crazed idea to unite the world (Hadden is unable to be presented to the panel, as he has since died onboard MIR, finally succumbing to cancer). Even with Kitz demanding answers, Ellie explains that without any evidence or proof, she firmly believes that she did travel to Vega, and that she did experience the meeting with the other being. The hearing ends, and Palmer is there to accompany her. Outside the Capitol building in Washington, a number of people are there, many in support of Ellie's theory. As she is put into a car, Palmer is asked his opinion. Stating that since he is a 'man of faith,' he is bound by a different covenant than Ellie. But even so, he does state that he believes her.

    In the aftermath of the inquiry, Kitz is in a discussion with Rachel Constantine. After discussing the investigation committee's findings, Rachel explains to Kitz how it appears that he overlooked the portion of the report regarding Ellie's video recorder. While Kitz said that it had just recorded static, Rachel has discovered in the report that it actually recorded 18 hours of static.

    Ellie is shortly thereafter given a grant to continue her work. The ending of the film cuts to some time later on. Ellie is still working at the VLA, and even more dishes are being created, to allow the team to search further into the galaxy.
  • romy861
    January 1, 2011
    romy861
    Extremely slow moving in the beginning. Seriously, I was nearly asleep and probably would have switched it off if my husband wasn't watching with me!
    It was worth sticking with though, and it did get very good and exciting in the end. Put it like this, I went from literally n... read moreearly asleep and nodding off, to bolt awake in the part where she went into space. And this from a girl who doesn't like sci fi especially!
    I generally like Jodie Foster, but I wasn't so keen on her here for some reason, and it seemed ridiculous for Jenna Malone to play her younger self. This is nitpicking, but Jenna has such beautiful straight hair, and Jodie's looked like a rats nest through most of this. It definitely wasn't a glamourous role for her, and her accent kind of annoyed me here too. Ditto to Matthew McConaughey.
    I did admire the atheism in this movie shown by Jodie's character. It was a very brave more for the makers of this film to risk making their main character unlikeable to a lot of people in this way. I am an atheist myself, so for me it was refreshing to see someone else come out and say it instead of being fearful, but I can acknowledge a vast audience for this may not feel that way.
    All in all, a good little film. Worth sticking with, although it does take a while to see that payback.

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Critic Reviews

Richard Schickel
February 16, 2011
Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine

Something like one of those mysterious asteroids that get the astronomers all worked up: a large body of gaseous matter surrounding a relatively small core of solid substance. Full Review

February 16, 2011
Newsweek

When it's good, it's very good. And when it's not, it can be as silly and self-important as a bad '50s sci-fi movie. Full Review

Todd McCarthy
March 26, 2009
Todd McCarthy, Variety

Like Jodie Foster's hopeful space voyager in the picture, "Contact" may not travel quite as far as it hopes to go, but the trip is worth taking nonetheless. Full Review

June 9, 2007
Washington Post

Begins with a big bang, gradually falls into a lull and finally succumbs to entropy. Full Review

Rita Kempley
June 8, 2007
Rita Kempley, Washington Post

Contact takes forever to lift off. Full Review

Mick LaSalle
June 18, 2002
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

When it tries to personify the struggle between skepticism and faith in the relationship between Ellie and her theologian boyfriend, it becomes flat and obvious. Full Review

Liam Lacey
April 12, 2002
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

Contact, which aims for awe, ends up with piffle. Full Review

Peter Travers
May 11, 2001
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

An exhilarating adventure.

Desson Thomson
January 1, 2000
Desson Thomson, Washington Post

While the movie doesn't qualify as an awful waste of space by any means, it has so many creative black holes, you'll have to weigh the entertainment odds before making this journey. Full Review

Roger Ebert
January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Zemeckis uses special effects to suggest the climactic events without upstaging them. Full Review

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Facts

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    • S.R. Hadden: [over video feed from Mir space station] I wanna show you something. [shows satellite feed to Ellie] Hokkaido Island.
    • Ellie Arroway: The systems integration site.
    • S.R. Hadden: Look closer. [zooms satellite feed to reveal second machine] First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price? Only, this one can be kept secret. Controlled by Americans, built by the Japanese subcontractors. Who, also, happen to be, recently acquired, wholly-owned subsidiaries...
    • Ellie Arroway: [speaks with Hadden] ... of Hadden industries.
    • S.R. Hadden: They still want an American to go, Doctor. Wanna take a ride?
    • S.R. Hadden: [to Arroway in the tone of Hannibal Lecter] Clever girl.
    • Kent: Dr. Arroway will be spending her precious telescope time listening for... uh... listening for...
    • Ellie Arroway: Little green men.
    • Palmer Joss: You could call me a man of the cloth, without the cloth.
    • Young Ellie: Dad, do you think there's people on other planets?
    • Ted Arroway: I don't know, Sparks. But I guess I'd say if it is just us... seems like an awful waste of space.
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Contact Trivia

  • Which actress has starred in all of the following films? Taxi Driver Contact Inside Man The Accused  Answer »
  • In M. Night Shymalans "The Village" why were the villagers forced to contact the outside world?  Answer »
  • True or False Captain Jack Sparrow(Johnny Depp) wore contact lenses which served as sunglasses so he wouldn't be squinting in the sun all the time while shooting Pirates Of The Carribean   Answer »
  • I starred in 'Contact', 'The Accused', and also had a guest star role in an episode of the television series 'Kung Fu'. Who am I?  Answer »
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