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	Movies - Contact

Contact is a 1997 science fiction film adapted from the novel by Carl Sagan.

Directed by Robert Zemeckis, its main stars are Jodie Foster as Dr. Eleanor Ann "Ellie" Arroway, Matthew McConaughey as Palmer Joss, James Woods as National Security Advisor Michael Kitz, and Tom Skerritt as Dr. David Drumlin.

Plot summary

The plot in the movie is loosely based on the novel.

Ellie Arroway — a brilliant scientist who had lost both parents in her youth (her mother at birth, her father when she was nine years old) — is a lead researcher in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). Though she is granted time at the massive Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico for her research, she is ridiculed by other scientists and, mainly, by Dr. David Drumlin, her former teacher and now chief of the National Science Foundation and the President's science advisor. Drumlin ultimately shuts down her research, as he regarded it to be a waste of Ellie's time and the public's monetary resources.

With the help of friends and partners from the Puerto Rico site, Ellie engages in a desperate search for private sponsors for her research. After thirteen months of rejections, Ellie's passionate plea during a presentation wins her a grant from reclusive billionaire industrialist S. R. Hadden (John Hurt), allowing her SETI research to continue.

Leasing time from the government-owned Very Large Array of radiotelescopes in New Mexico, Ellie and her colleagues spend the next four years combing the skies. Unfortunately, Drumlin intervenes again, recommending the cancellation of their government lease in favor of other research. Fortunately, that same day, Ellie detects a message of unknown origin, in the form of a sequence of prime numbers, coming from the star Vega. She alerts her colleagues, setting off a media frenzy.

Multiple parties descend on the New Mexico facility as nearly two dozen radiotelescope sites around the world confirm the message. Included in the rush are the President's National Security Advisor — who tries to militarize Ellie's project — and Dr. Drumlin — who tries to usurp Ellie and take over the project himself (now that something has been found). Further research on the message reveals a sideband of additional data interlaced with the television image of Hitler's opening speech for the 1936 Olympics (the first television transmission of enough power to travel into space). Hadden aids Ellie by giving her a key piece crucial to solving the puzzling encryption that the schematic is written in. The embedded data describes a schematic for what appears to be some sort of machine. Government concerns over the possible malevolent intentions of the machine delay any thoughts of constructing it at first. However, after further encryption decoding reveals an illustration of a human figure and other design clues indicating that the machine is meant to transport a single human occupant, it is decided that the machine will indeed be built.

Because of the initial controversy about its purpose, the machine received no special name, remaining known solely as "The Machine" throughout the rest of the film. As the construction of The Machine carries too large a price tag for any single country (even the United States), the International Machine Consortium is formed to finance its construction, with the actual construction taking place at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Because of it, disputes arise on who will travel in it; there are candidates from several countries participating in the project. From the USA, the candidates are Ellie, Dr. Drumlin (who leaves his government post in hopes of being chosen for the trip), and a former astronaut who later quits the contest at the request of his family, leaving Ellie as the front-runner.

Early in the story, theologian Palmer Joss appears as Ellie's love interest during her days in Puerto Rico. Later, Palmer has an important impact in the political process of choosing the Machine's passenger, as he has now become a religious advisor to the President. During a hearing, Joss intentionally impairs Ellie's candidacy by causing her to reveal her atheism, giving the victory to Dr. Drumlin (who crafts a religious response which is more of what the selection committee wanted to hear). Ellie ends her relationship with Joss and remains with the project as an advisor.

A religious fanatic, wrapped in explosives, infiltrates the Florida site of The Machine. In a suicide bombing, the fanatic destroys The Machine, killing Dr. Drumlin and others. In the aftermath, Hadden (who is now living on the Mir space station in an attempt to delay the progression of his cancer) informs Ellie of a second Machine, secretly built in Hokkaido, Japan by sub-contractors who were acquired by Hadden's company. Ellie travels to Japan to become the passenger on the second Machine. Shortly before Ellie suits up, Joss makes amends with her by revealing that his acts at the hearing were influenced more by his fear of her losing her.

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Movies - Contact

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