| Major Cast | |
|---|---|
| Jena Malone | as Young Ellie |
| David Morse | as Ted Arroway |
| Jodie Foster | as Eleanor Arroway |
| Geoffrey Blake | as Fisher |
| William Fichtner | as Kent Clark |
| Sami Chester | as Vernon |
| Timothy McNeil | as Davio |
| Laura Elena Surillo | as Cantina woman |
| Matthew McConaughey | as Palmer Joss |
| Tom Skerritt | as David Drumlin |
| Henry Strozier | as Minister |
| Michael Chaban | as Hadden Suit |
| Max Martini | as Willie |
| Larry King | as Larry King |
| Thomas Garner | as Ian Broderick |
| Conroy Chino | as KOB-TV Reporter |
| Dan Gifford | as Jeremy Roth |
| James Woods | as Michael Kitz |
| Vance Valencia | as Senator Valencia |
| Angela Bassett | as Rachel Constantine |
| Donna Kelley | as Donna Kelley |
| Leon Harris | as Leon Harris |
| Claire Shipman | as Claire Shipman |
| Behrooz Afrakhan | as Middle-Eastern Anchor |
| Saemi Nakamura | as Japanese Anchor |
| Maria Celeste Arraras | as Latina Anchor |
| Tabitha Soren | as Tabitha Soren |
| Geraldo Rivera | as Geraldo Rivera |
| Ian Whitcomb | as British Anchor |
| Jay Leno | as Jay Leno |
| Natalie Allen | as Natalie Allen |
| Robert D. Novak | as Robert D. Novak |
| Geraldine A. Ferraro | as Geraldine A. Ferraro |
| Ann Druyan | as Ann Druyan |
| Rob Lowe | as Richard Rank |
| Jake Busey | as Joseph |
| Kathleen Kennedy | as Kathleen Kennedy |
| Michael Albala | as Decryption Hacker |
| Ned Netterville | as Decryption Expert |
| Leo Lee | as Major Domo |
| John Hurt | as S.R. Hadden |
| William Jordan | as Chairman of Joint Chiefs |
| David St. James | as Joint Chief |
| Jill Dougherty | as Jill Dougherty |
| Haynes Brooke | as Drumlin Aide |
| John Holliman | as John Holliman |
| Bobbie Battista | as Bobbie Battista |
| Dee Dee Myers | as Dee Dee Myers |
| Bryant Gumbel | as Bryant Gumbel |
| Linden Soles | as Linden Soles |
| Steven Ford | as Major Russell |
| Alexander Zemeckis | as Major Russell's Son |
| Janie Peterson | as Major Russell's Daughter |
| Philippe Bergeron | as French Committee Member |
| Jennifer Balgobin | as Dr. Patel |
| Anthony Hamilton | as British Committee Member |
| Rebecca T. Beucler | as NASA Public Relations |
| Marc Macaulay | as NASA Technician |
| Pamela Wilsey | as Voice of NASA |
| Tucker Smallwood | as Mission Director |
| Jeffery Thomas Johnson | as Mechanical |
| Yuji Okumoto | as Electrical |
| Gerry Griffin | as Dynamics |
| Brian Alston | as Communications |
| Rob Elk | as Pad Leader |
| Mark Thomason | as Security |
| José Rey | as Controller #8 |
| Todd Patrick Breaugh | as New VLA Technician |
| Alex Veadov | as Russian Cosmonaut |
| Alice Kushida | as Scientist |
| Robin Gammell | as Project Official |
| Richardson Morse | as Mission Doctor |
| Seiji Okamura | as Japanese Ensign |
| Bernard Shaw | as Bernard Shaw |
| Mak Takano | as Japanese Tech #1 |
| Hiroshi Tom Tanaka | as Japanese Tech #2 |
| Catherine Dao | as Life Support |
| Kristoffer Ryan Winters | as Dynamics #2 |
| Valorie Armstrong | as Woman Senator |
| Jim Hild | as Reporter #5 |
| William L. Thomas | as Reporter #6 |
| Diego Montoya | as Schoolboy |
| MPAA Rating: | PG |
| Production Co.: | South Side Amusement Company; Warner Brothers |
| Distributor: | Warner Brothers |
| Release Date (US): | ? |
| Domestic Box Office: | $100,853,835 (USA) (10/31/1997) |
| Opening weekend: | $20,584,908 (USA) (7/11/1997) |
| Production Budget: | $90,000,000 (Est.) |
| Crew | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PRODUCED BY | |||||||||
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| Music: | Alan Silvestri | ||||||||
| Cinematography: | Don Burgess | ||||||||
| Film Editing: | Arthur Schmidt | ||||||||
| Casting: | Victoria Burrows | ||||||||
| Production Design: | Ed Verreaux | ||||||||
| SArt Direction: | Bruce Crone Lawrence A. Hubbs |
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| Set Direction: | Michael J. Taylor | ||||||||
| Costume Design: | Joanna Johnston | ||||||||
| Supv'g Sound Editor: | Phil Benson | ||||||||
| Dialogue Editor: | Barbara McBane Ewa Sztompke-Oatfield |
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| Sound Effects Editor: | Douglas Murray | ||||||||
| Re-recording Mixer: | Tom Johnson | ||||||||
| Production Mgmt.: | Joan Bradshaw; Cherylanne Martin; Nannette Rosa-Collazo (unit manager: Puerto Rico) |
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| Stunt Coordinator: | Bud Davis | ||||||||
| Location Mgr.: | Paul Pav | ||||||||
| Consultants: | Jennifer Boardman (CNN anchor); Bryan Butler (VLA); Tom Kuiper (radio astronomy); Don Davis & Jon Lomberg (astronomical visuals); Gerry Griffin (NASA); Tim Monich (dialects); Dee Dee Myers (news media); Robert R. Snow (White House); Brian Summers (German television); Linda Wald (mathematics); Cliff Shirpser (aviation); Chris Miller (technical) | ||||||||
A brilliant student of science, Eleanor Arroway has become a radio astronomer after making a major contribution to the field. SETI is her passion, and she pursues it relentlessly, even when her superior David Drumlin cuts off her funding. Deeming SETI to be pointless, he thinks he is doing her a favor. She raises private money enough to buy some time on the VLA — but Drumlin pulls the plug on this too. Undaunted, she makes the rounds again, and just when the last foundation turns her down, a phone call from a mysterious benefactor countermands their decision. But it only buys her three more months of observing time.
But luck is with her. The VLA detects a signal, it is genuinely ET, and shortly it is verified at other observatories. The VLA is soon swarming with interested parties: presidential advisors, military and CIA types concerned about threats. Right in the thick of things is David Drumlin. (Also present around the site is a crowd of what Willy Ley called "original thinkers." Among them are members of a religious sect utterly opposed to scientific projects.)
Amid all the hubbub, which draws Ellie to Washington, DC, her team continues to analyze the signal. They find it to contain reams of digital data, which they decode into a set of what appears to be blueprints or schematics for some sort of device. But nobody can make any sense of them — until the mysterious benefactor steps in. He contacts Ellie to set up a private meeting. There, he is revealed to be S. R. Hadden, eccentric billionaire. He gives her the key to understanding the blueprints.
No one is quite sure what the device will do, but there is enough understanding to know that it is no doomsday weapon designed to eliminate competition. It appears to be some sort of transport system; pictures show a spherical capsule with a human inside dropping into the core of it. This machine is built at Kennedy Space Center, and Drumlin is chosen to be the human who enters it. Alas, a religious nut case manages to get inside with a bomb and destroys it, along with Drumlin, during a power-up test.
Once again S. R. Hadden steps in, revealing to Ellie that he's had a duplicate constructed in Hokkaido, Japan. He asks her, "Wanna take a ride?" Of course he already knows the answer. The ride takes place, according to Ellie, and her testimony afterward makes it a wild one in every sense — but rather than resolving an ancient question, it raises vexing new ones.
Eleanor Arroway is an exceptional child: highly intelligent, with a gift for science. She is exceptional in another way as well: exceptionally lonely. Along with the loneliness often felt by children more intelligent than the norm, she misses her mother who died birthing her and her father, who suffered a heart attack when she was 10. We see her plaintively calling "CQ" on her amateur radio set, and finally getting a response from a faraway fellow "ham." In her loneliness, Ellie stands in for the whole human race, eager to discover that we are not alone in this unimaginably vast cosmos.
Both the scientific aspects of the search — the use of radio astronomy tools — and the cultural aspects of any scientific establishment — the fighting for grants, the office politics — are portrayed with high verisimilitude. Of course the inherent conflict between realism and drama results in some shortcuts being taken. I don't object; in this case, the shortcuts taken are justified. I don't recall any that would cause a well-informed viewer to slap his head in disgust.2 The number of consultants the producers called on is a measure of how much they cared about getting details right.
The film also butts the scientific outlook of the mature Dr. Arroway against faith in the person of Pastor Palmer Joss, confidant of President Bill Clinton (who appears in the film.) This points up the most vexing questions raised by Ellie's experience, which are: "If any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, how can we trust our observations of that technology? Should we not rather treat what we perceive as equivalent to the faith that convinces many to believe in a supreme being?"
These are questions we are not yet capable of resolving.
My Rating:
9 out of 10
Capsule review: Contact succeeds on almost every level. It is well plotted, well acted, and well produced. Although dramatized, the situations it portrays might well happen in the real world, given a verified ET signal.
It also poses some profound questions.
| IMDB Rating: 7.4 | Raters: 199,440 |
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