Genre : Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller Contact, based on the novel of the same name by Carl Sagan, is the story of a scientist who discovers an intelligent signal broadcast from deep space.
Dr. Eleanor "Ellie" Arroway (Jodie Foster) is a brilliant young scientist in radio astronomy. She is an atheist. She has joined the Project of SETI, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, for years. And now she is working in the Arecibo Radio Telescope facility under direct supervision of the Director David Drumlin (Tom Skerritt) himself. At Arecibo, Ellie meets Palmer Joss (Matthew McConaughey), an influential spiritual person.
Someday Drumlin forbids Ellie from using the radio telescope facility any longer. Alone, Ellie struggles for 18 months looking for funding to continue her research. Finally she gets her funding from a mysterious billionaire investor S.R. Hadden (John Hurt), a genius engineer in his day but now dying of rapidly-spreading cancer and living aboard a private jet. With funding from Hadden Industries, Ellie and her independent team moved their research to the VLA, Very Large Array of radio telescopes in New Mexico.
After 4 years of scanning the skies day and night, someday Ellie finds a strange intelligent signal with prime number pattern broadcasting from the star Vega, 26 light-years away from earth. At the same time all of the radio telescopes around the world confirm this phenomenon. The power of this extraterrestrial signal is strong and undeniable.
With no time Drumlin comes to VLA facility, taking credit for Ellie's work and pressuring her with national security issues. The U.S. government sends military forces commanded by Special Agent Michael Kitz (James Woods) to take over the Project and secure the entire facility. Witnessed by Drumlin and Kitz, Ellie and her fellow scientists try to decipher the prime number pulse pattern and discover a video recorded of Hitler speech in the 1936 Olympics opening ceremony.
Meanwhile, Hadden is able to crack codes that hidden in the Hitler’s video and found a detail construction blueprint for some kind of machine. Scientists and engineers from all countries in the world work together to build the most sophisticated machine ever constructed based on the blueprint. Senate hearings are held to select the pilot for the machine. Drumlin and Ellie are the candidates for the pilot. Unfortunately a suicide bombing by a terrorist (Jake Busey) destroys the machine and kills Drumlin.
Nobody knows that Hadden also build a similar machine in Japan. He offers the pilot seat to Ellie. Ellie embarks on her voyage through a time-space wormhole, traveling in no time to Vega, 26 light-years away from earth. The trip is amazing. The sights during her journey are beautiful. She meets the alien who sent the prime number signal to earth. And the most unforgettable moment is when she meets her departed father.
Director : Robert Zemeckis
Awards : Nominated for Oscar
Rating : 9/10
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