It all began with a series of otherworldly booms on the shortwave radio. A systematic prime number pattern coming from somewhere far beyond planet Earth itself. Some form of life, light years from our solar system, sent a radio signal along with a mysterious collection of blueprints to humankind. That is when Ellie Arroway and her team realized an alien species has given them instructions to the construction of a spacecraft far more advanced than any other human technology.

     Contact, directed by Robert Zemeckis, is a science fiction film like none other. With actors Jodie Foster as Ellie Arroway and Matthew McConaughey as Palmer Joss, Warner Home Video brings the audience an “out of this world” experience in 1997 about the infinite void of space along with an exchange between human and extraterrestrial life. The aliens seen in the movie send an array of instructions on how to create a spacecraft able to travel at the speed of light. By the end of the film, Ellie discovers what can be found in the depths of space.

     Ever since she was young, Ellie Arroway had always been fascinated by the sounds she heard being emitted while tuning a radio, as well as the sight of the open night’s sky. She grew up and searched for extraterrestrial intelligence in college while counting on the idea that there must be something alive out there. Palmer Joss, Ellie’s boyfriend, has a much more religious perspective rather than scientific. Despite his own beliefs, he truly believes that Ellie has found something spectacular in the stars. Michael Kitz, played by James Woods, believes that what Ellie claims she has witnessed is nothing more than a hoax. 

     An interesting part of the movie was when the spherical passenger pod was dropped into the spinning arcs of the alien machine. The contraption was a gargantuan display, with three vast circular pieces that spun rapidly, creating enormous amounts of energy. The cockpit was then dropped into the contraption from above, bringing the passenger deep into space at nearly the speed of light itself. This scene of the film was arguably the most riveting and suspenseful, being the climax that everything before had led up to gradually, creating an astounding amount of intensity.

     Contact is something that would be appealing to both adults and children interested in the theoretical life of the unknown. The movie in its entirety is based around a small radio signal caught from space which soon evolves into great discoveries. Zemeckis’s work puts into perspective what may happen when the human race encounters an alien intelligent life form in the real world. The direction his cinematography takes creates sustenance for a curious imagination. It is meant to make the viewer wonder what is beyond their own life, and when such phenomena will finally be unearthed.