Based on the 1985 bestselling book by Carl Sagan, Contact is a contagious selection of cinema that gets into your brain and bonds itself there in both vision and thought. Its effects are aesthetically pleasing and its action is undeniably satisfying, but this feature skillfully spends more time propounding queries and rousing discussions than it does distracting us with vacuous contentions.
Contact wisely places plot, concepts, and characters above all else. For example, the film holds scientifically feasible ideas supreme over the typical green-men gun battles one would expect. Hence, its ability to not conform to stereotypical standards is just one component that makes Contact smart, superior, and one of the best films to ever deal with ostensibly valid science applied to a fictional situation.
Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster) is a scientist infatuated with the stars and the possibility of extra-terrestrial life. Working for SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence), Ellie listens for any audible sounds from the depths of the solar system that may signify some sort of alien acumen. However, stricken with the limits of bureaucracy, Ellie discovers the difficulty in convincing investors to back her “alien-searching” research. Nonetheless, she doesn’t give up, and shows inexorable determination to uncover something that is not of this world.
Ellie’s fortitude finally pays off when she discovers a recurring signal sent from the star Vega. Ellie and her team begin to decode the message as the world waits, watches, and prays. The message from deep space progressively becomes clearer, and it becomes apparent that whatever or whomever is out there is trying to communicate.
Contact may be completely celestial on its outer shell, but it’s primarily personal at its core. Though the majority of Contact’s plot focuses on the search for extraterrestrial life, the film is more importantly about the main character’s quest to find her inner self. Ellie searches for not only sounds from space, but also purpose in her life. Throughout the picture, she is all alone on a mission to find the very meaning of her existence, while – from a scientist’s standpoint – she is faced with the disconcerting conflict of physical evidence vs. faith.
Contact poses very pertinent questions - on the clash between religion and science - that powerfully provoke thought, yet prudently do not boast any opinions. The film persistently asks, “Why are we here?”, “Who are we?”, “Are we alone in the universe?”, and “Is there a greater power that be?” By asking these seemingly-unanswerable questions, the film offers an updated version on the faith vs. facts trial in Inherit the Wind and represents itself as an outstanding human science-fiction feature.
Article comments
1 - Mat Brewster
Nice review. I liked the movie up until the ball drops. Once Jodi Foster goes to the alien world or whatever that was and sees her pop, I lost all interest.