Line #4 Film/Contact


1	[[quoteright:303:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/contact_1086.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:303:''If it's just us, it seems like an awful waste of [[ScifiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale space.]]'']]
3
4	->''"Some kind of celestial event. No... no words. No words to describe it. Poetry! They should have sent a poet. So beautiful. So beautiful... I had no idea."''
5	-->-- '''Dr. Arroway'''
6
7	''Contact'' is a 1997 movie directed by Creator/RobertZemeckis and [[TheFilmOfTheBook based on]] astronomer Creator/CarlSagan's [[Literature/{{Contact}} novel of the same name]], although in an odd case, Sagan wrote it first for the screen, then turned it into a book after it ended up in DevelopmentHell. Unlike most Hollywood science fiction adaptations, this attempted to stay true to the original and get the science right. Sagan died some months before the film was finished, so we don't know what he would have thought of it.
8
9	Dr. Eleanor "Ellie" [[MeaningfulName Arroway]] (Creator/JodieFoster) is a driven yet gifted scientist on the [[AbsentAliens failing]] SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project, who confounds her critics when a powerful signal is received from Vega, 26 light years away. The signal is encoded with technical instructions for building a FasterThanLightTravel device which can send a single ambassador to the stars. The film explores issues of science vs. faith, and [[IfJesusThenAliens whether the two are mutually exclusive]].
10
11	Not to be confused with the unrelated game ''VideoGame/{{Contact}},'' the unrelated pinball ''Pinball/{{Contact}},'' or the trope FirstContact. Or ''Series/ThreeTwoOneContact''.
12	----
13	!!This film provides examples of:
14
15	* ActivationSequence: There's a long sequence showing The Machine being activated for Ellie's flight. The rings are slowly spun up, the control center keeps checking for updates as to their status, and Ellie tries to inform them how the Machine is behaving with each new phase. They almost call it off, but finally go through with it when they barely make out Ellie's "OK to go" through the storm of interference the thing is producing.
16	* ActorAllusion: Possibly unintentional, but Ellie's father calls her "Sparks" as a nickname. Young Ellie is played by Creator/JenaMalone, who is from Sparks, Nevada.
17	* AdaptationalJerkass: The book is a meditation on the complexities of human society and is largely told from Ellie's point of view. Many characters still fulfill their basic roles but without the nuance of Ellie's thought process.
18	** Kitz was initially a skeptic of the signal but lent his full support once the clarity of the message was being translated, with his more hostile response to Ellie's story in the third act both more surprising while Ellie becomes aware that he is covering his bases after a two trillion-dollar project. The movie has him more of a continually hostile figure throughout, with only a couple hints that he is playing into a particular role.
19	** Ellie in the book is well educated on religious texts, especially the Bible, but considers herself agnostic [[HollywoodAtheist compared to more militant atheists around her]], even saying she considers herself Christian based on moral respect for the teachings of Christ but doesn't view him as a god. In the film she is more confrontational over religious topics, done largely to exaggerate her character development.
20	* AlienSky: The aliens create a beach based on the picture Ellie drew as a child.
21	* AlliterativeName: [[PunnyName Kent Clark]].
22	* AmericaSavesTheDay: Lampshaded by showing some of the background politicking and controversy over the US dominating the construction of the FasterThanLightTravel machine. In an attempt to alleviate this an international committee is used to select Earth's ambassador, but it's mentioned that the Japanese (who are also contributing significantly to the half-trillion-dollar project) are bought off from insisting on their own candidate by promising them a significant percentage of the technological spin-offs from FirstContact. Presumably, other behind-the-scenes deals were made to ensure an American candidate was sent.
23	* AnalogyBackfire: When Kitz asks Ellie why she thinks the aliens have to be benign, Ellie answers that the human civilization poses no threat to them, and that it would be like us being hell-bent on obliterating some microbes on an anthill in Africa, to which Drumlin replies: "[[LampshadeHanging Interesting analogy]]. And how guilty would we feel after obliterating some microbes on an anthill in Africa?" Which makes this film a reversal of the first ''Film/{{Species}}''.
24	* ArcSymbol: When Ellie arrives on the "beach" to meet the Vegans, she picks up a handful of sand, and a few particles shimmer brighter than others. The shape formed by these shimmering grains is the same as the shape made by the popcorn her father dropped when he collapsed. They also appear once again in the final scene, as the first stars to appear in the sky as the sun slowly sets.
25	* ArcWords: "If it was only us, that would be an awful waste of space."
26	* ArmiesAreEvil: National Security Advisor Michael Kitz comes closest to filling this role. [[WordOfGod The director stated he had fun with this character]][[invoked]]. In ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' he'd be a CardCarryingVillain, in ''Film/IndependenceDay'' he'd be a ReasonableAuthorityFigure. The point being that his viewpoint is ''necessary''.
27	* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Dr. Drumlin.]] In the novel, he [[spoiler: died saving Ellie, causing greatly mixed feelings in her.]] He was still a jerk, but she remembers that [[IWishedYouWereDead she wished he was dead]]. In the film, [[spoiler:he is killed along with several others by a suicide bomber disguised as a mechanic, and even though he gets a funeral, he's still hard to sympathize with given he tried to screw over Ellie]].
28	* BasedOnATrueStory: The workings of SETI are realistically depicted, and the character Eleanor Arroway is loosely based on RealLife SETI director [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EszGIvRdgTE Jill Tarter]]. Of course, everything following the eponymous FirstContact is, obviously, not based on a true story (at least until we've [[spoiler:calculated sufficiently down into pi]], we won't know).
29	* BelieverFakesEvidence: {{Discussed\|Trope}} in the finale. Kitz suggests that the whole alien contact situation was concocted by the late Hadden to stir belief, pointing out he had the means, motive, and opportunity. [[spoiler:{{Subverted\|Trope}}, as Kitz is later informed that while Arroway's device did only record static, it recorded several hours worth of static when her trip seemed to be an instant failure.]]
30	* BenevolentPrecursors: The Vegans. They've been doing this for a ''long'' time. [[spoiler:It's actually played straight ''twice'', because even the Vegans don't know who built the transportation network they're using.]]
31	* TheBigBoard: Both as a child and as a professional astronomer, Jodie Foster's astronomer character relies on sticking pins into maps to keep track of locations in the universe she has made radio contact with.
32	* BigBrotherIsWatching: S.R. Hadden is "introduced" watching Ellie through a video camera, albeit one in a building he owns, right before approving her funding. He also gets access to [[HappierHomeMovie Happier Home Movies]] from Ellie's past, including a birthday party filmed during Ellie's time at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.
33	* BrokenRecord
34	-->'''Ellie:''' I am okay to go... I am okay to go! Okay to go! ...I'm okay to go! I'm okay to go!... Okay to go!... Okay to go.\
35	'''Kent Clark:''' I hear her!
36	* BunnyEarsLawyer: Ellie herself before The Message arrives. Everyone agrees on her brilliance, but her SETI ideas are pretty [[IncrediblyLamePun out there]]. Some rumors about her behavior don't help.
37	-->'''Kent:''' These are government-owned telescopes, they can lease them to whomever they want, and they don’t want the high priestess of the desert using them anymore.\
38	'''Ellie:''' What?\
39	'''Kent:''' Staring at static on TV for hours at a time. Listening to washing machines. Did you really think these stories wouldn’t get out?\
40	'''Ellie:''' I was looking for patterns in the chaos, come on!
41	* TheCassandra: Arroway. To add to this, Palmer Joss is representative of Apollo.
42	* CastingGag: Creator/RobLowe was already known for his liberal causes when he was cast as Richard Rank, head of the Conservative Coalition.
43	%%* CatchPhrase: "Small moves".
44	%%* TheChessmaster: Hadden takes a ''very'' thorough interest in his long-term investments.%%Meaning?
45	* ChekhovsGunman: Joseph TheFundamentalist. The first time Ellie (and the audience) sees him, he's one more guy in amongst the crowd that has gathered around the radio telescopes who is preaching fire and brimstone and points out to Ellie as "is this (Ellie) the kind of people you want talking to God?!?" The second time we see him, he's amongst the crowd surrounding a party at the mid-point, and Ellie picks him out because he's the only one giving the scientist congregation a DeathGlare. [[spoiler:The third time we see him, it's in a security feed as Ellie notices that he's snuck into the alien machine's launch site at Cape Canaveral... with a suicide bomb vest.]]
46	* CloseOnTitle: The title card and the rest of the opening credits immediately precede the closing ones.
47	* CommendedForPushback: Ellie. The potential funder S.R. Hadden, instead of taking offense when she flips her lid at a meeting with his short-sighted employees, is so impressed with her passion he writes her a check.
48	* CompositeCharacter:
49	** Palmer Joss in the film takes on aspects of several characters from the book. The first was a musician Ellie dated in college that she was quite fond of and [[TheOneThatGotAway disappointed it didn't work out]]. The second was Der Heer, a science advisor that she started seeing as the message and machine project started up, but it's implied they broke up as needs of the project kept them separated. Then there is the book Palmer Joss, a religious leader Ellie comes to respect for his more nuanced and open-minded take on the message, and by the end confides with him the events of the trip with a little ShipTease.
50	** The machine was designed to hold five people, most of whom [[ChekhovsGunman are introduced before the passengers were selected]], and Ellie comes to see them all as family after sharing the experience together. The movie has space for just one person.
51	* CoolOldGuy: Hadden again. He's the reclusive billionaire who bankrolled the continuation of Ellie's SETI work and treats her as a [[EccentricMentor personal protégé]]. He's also instrumental in helping decipher the Vega codex and ensuring Ellie is the one who takes the trip through the backup Machine.
52	* CyanidePill: Jodie Foster's character is given a suicide pill to use if anything goes wrong, such as being marooned or an incomprehensible FateWorseThanDeath. According to the film, every NASA astronaut and test pilot is given one of these, for emergencies where dying quickly would be a mercy. In his book ''Lost Moon'', Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell mentioned that this had been a rumor for some time, and that it was not true -- it would be much easier simply to open the main hatch and depressurize the spacecraft. Sagan insisted that they've "been giving these to the astronauts since the beginning of the space program, it’s never been made public, of course."
53	* DeathByChildbirth: Arroway's mother died from complications during childbirth.
54	* DeathGlare: Done [[RuleOfThree thrice]] by Joseph to Ellie. First at a protest against the SETI project in Utah, and second in front the hotel where Ellie arrives in a sexy dress and third at [[spoiler:the Kennedy Space Center before detonating a suicide bomb to destroy the machine]].
55	* DeceasedParentsAreTheBest: After her father instilled a passion for astronomy in Ellie Arroway and passed away, her life's mission revolved around the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. This culminates with [[spoiler:Ellie meeting an alien disguised as her father]].
56	* DeliberatelyBadExample: Joseph to Palmer Joss. Joss is the LoveInterest and his position in the "science vs. religion" arguments he has with Ellie is along the lines of "[[IfJesusThenAliens you believe in the possibility that aliens exist, so why can't you widen your mind just a little bit more?]]" Joseph is an incredibly creepy antagonist [[spoiler:who kills several people and causes billions of dollars worth of damage in a suicide attack because he believes people meeting aliens will make them forget God (or something similar).]]
57	* DisabilitySuperpower: [[PunnyName Kent Clark]], the blind astrophysicist with his enhanced hearing skills.
58	* DroppedInSpeechClip: The film opens with a long shot pulling away from Earth into deep space while audio representing radio transmissions are heard going from newest (at the time) to oldest as we move further away. Amid the period music and television audio are snippets of some of the landmark speeches from various time periods, including:
59	** Audio from the Challenger disaster.
60	** Richard Nixon's "I am not a crook" statement.
61	** Martin Luther King, Jr's "I Have A Dream" speech.
62	** JFK's first inaugural address.
63	** The "Day of Infamy" speech.
64	** Hitler's remarks at the Berlin Olympics (which become more significant later in the film).
65	* EpicTrackingShot: Young Ellie [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxa3j8bK-c4 running up the stairs]] to fetch medication for her father who has collapsed. The front image of her running then phases through the bathroom mirror as she opens the cabinet. A similar shot passes through a window as Ellie uses the HAM radio.
66	* ExactWords: Hadden tells Arroway that many people would like to see him depart this world, and says he'll grant them their wish soon enough. [[spoiler:Next time we see him, he's staying in the MIR space station. Though he does actually die not too long after.]]
67	* {{Fiction 500}}: S.R. Hadden seems almost ridiculously wealthy-toward the end he reveals he bought up ''all'' the companies that got subcontractor deals for the [=FTL=] Machine, in order to build his own backup copy and choose who gets to go. In the book, he even builds a duplicate of ancient Babylon in upstate New York and arranges to have prostitution legalized so that he can run an adult theme park.
68	* FirstContact: Although as the Vegan points out, Humanity contacted ''them''. They are the ones replying.
69	* FirstContactMath: The alien signal starts with prime numbers.
70	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
71	** The religious fanatic Joseph gives a DeathGlare to Ellie during protests against SETI's machine project. [[spoiler:This is the same glare he delivers again while at Kennedy Space Center, just before blowing up the machine]].
72	** [[spoiler: While traveling through the second wormhole, a ghostly image of Ellie's face manifested from her three times. The first two were "I had no idea" and "They're alive", which she said a few minutes later when she saw an alien city ("They're alive.") and upon seeing a beautiful cosmic sight ("I had no idea."). The third was "Oh God!", which she's already said at the start of the journey.]]
73	* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: [[spoiler:The Vegan takes the form of Arroway's dead father, and the meeting takes place on a Floridian beach. The vision ends with the meteor shower she and her father were supposed to see together.]]
74	** [[spoiler:The Florida beach isn't even a real one, but a more realistic rendering of the one Ellie imagined and drew in one of the flashbacks to before her father died. Every single exterior to the transit capsule after it enters the second wormhole is a picture previously shown somewhere in the film. For example, the alien city below four suns first appears in a poster in her quarters at Arecibo.)]]
75	* TheFundamentalist: Joseph. [[spoiler:The first time we see him, he's preaching fire and brimstone and decrying that ScienceIsBad to the crowd surrounding the radio telescopes. In the VideoWill discovered by the FBI after he blows himself (and the machine, and Drumlin among others) up he says that why he did this is incomprehensible ''right now'', but in the times to come before God passes judgment to mankind people will eventually understand him.]]
76	* GallowsHumor: Imagine getting a video signal from aliens in outer space and the first thing you see is [[spoiler:a Nazi swastika]].
77	* HappierHomeMovie: Hadden shows Ellie video footage of her happy childhood.
78	* HeadbuttOfLove: Ellie and Palmer do this right before she is about to travel from the ship to the Machine.
79	* HeadphonesEqualIsolation: Ellie listens on her headphones at the Very Large Array. It is when she first hears the Signal.
80	* HistoricalFiguresInArchivalMedia: The film famously used UsefulNotes/BillClinton's speech on microbe fossils purportedly found on Martian rock to depict the President talking about the discovery of the Vega message. The producers never asked for Clinton's permission for the footage, and the White House was, to say the least, not happy.
81	* HollywoodAtheist: Ellie, ever since her father's death. After the funeral, a priest tries to comfort her by saying it's "God's will" to help her accept it. Ellie only responds that she could have saved him.
82	%%* HollywoodCB: The radio telescope Ellie builds.
83	* HollywoodHeartAttack: Ellie's father suddenly died from one when she was a child.
84	* HollywoodLaw: There's no way the fact that the recording held 18 hours of static from a one-second flight, thus proving the core of Ellie's claims beyond question, wouldn't have come out in the hearing at the end. The idea that even Ellie wasn't aware of this is especially ludicrous.
85	* HumansAreSpecial: "You are an interesting species, that are capable of such [[HumansAreGood wonderful dreams]] and such [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters horrible nightmares]]".
86	* {{Hypocrite}}: One of Dr. Drumlin's most unsavory qualities is that he feigns religious belief in order to be the committee's selection for the interstellar voyage, knowing that Ellie was disqualified as a representative of the human species due to her atheism. In reality, Drumlin is also an atheist, as is clear from his earlier contemptuous remarks towards Palmer Joss about his vocation as a religious minister and a writer on religious subjects. [[spoiler: Ultimately, he suffers DeathByIrony at the hands of TheFundamentalist suicide bomber.]]
87	* IfJesusThenAliens: Invoked. A member of the group of participators outside the VLA has a cutout of Jesus with a UFO above his head in place of his halo and a banner saying "Jesus is an Alien".
88	-->"''Hail to Vega!''"
89	* InnocentAliens: Ellie believes the Vegans are this without question, and gets frustrated when anyone considers otherwise, ignoring [[StrawmanHasAPoint their good points about being cautious or her being too trusting]][[invoked]]. She turns out to be right.
90	* IntelligenceEqualsIsolation: There are a lot of scenes of Ellie alone, or isolated from other people. Despite this, we see she gets along well with other scientists. Haddon even plays a HappierHomeMovie of Ellie's birthday party at the Arecibo Observatory.
91	* InvisiblePresident: News footage of Bill Clinton was expertly spliced into the film, much to the annoyance of the White House. Averted in the novel, in which the President is a woman, and implied not to be the first.
92	* IronicEcho: Ellie brings up OccamsRazor (All things being equal, the simplest explanation is usually the correct one) to Palmer as an explanation of her skepticism. In the Senate hearing at the end, Occam's Razor is brought up to Ellie regarding the most likely explanation to her claims.
93	* ItMayHelpYouOnYourQuest: The toy compass Ellie is given by Palmer before her journey first looks like a [[TheLadysFavour Gentleman's Favour]] but later becomes a plot point. In the scene where she separates herself from the restraint chair in the pod to retrieve said compass, which had come loose from her neck, the chair breaks violently apart from its fastenings, fulfilling Palmer's prediction that the compass would one day save her life.
94	* JerkassHasAPoint: Dr. Drumlin is a consummate politician, and he admits as much to Ellie, stating that in a fair and just world idealists like her rather than hypocrites like him would be in charge of things, but that's not the world we inhabit.
95	** He's also correct in saying that if taxpayers fund scientific research, scientists should be accountable to the public in showing that their work has some benefit to those who pay for it. Drumlin says this as a cynical ploy to score political points, but what he's saying is still correct in principle.
96	* JumpedAtTheCall: Humanity eagerly jumps to the challenge of building the Machine, despite the cost mounting in the Trillions. It's even admitted during the first test, they ''still'' don't know what it'll actually do.
97	* KnightTemplar:
98	** Joseph, the blond-haired fundamentalist [[spoiler:who blows up the first FTL device with a SuicideAttack.]]
99	** In some ways, Ellie Arroway is this herself, except her cause is ForScience. Critically, she has sufficient self-awareness to ''recognize this tendency in herself,'' and acknowledge that she might, in fact, be mistaken: "Is it possible that it didn't happen? Yes. As a scientist, I must concede that, I must volunteer that."
100	--->'''Ellie:''' For as long as I can remember, I've been searching for something, some reason why we're here. What are we doing here? Who are we? If this is a chance to find out even just a little part of that answer... I don't know, I think it's worth a human life. Don't you?
101	* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler:Dr. Drumlin's death at the hands of the fundie suicide bomber]]. Drumlin and Arroway have been rivals for years - Arroway attains high-end positions at SETI projects, and Drumlin uses his connections and charisma to criticize and ultimately shut those projects down so the equipment can be used for his own conventional radioastronomy projects. When the Message arrives, Drumlin then uses those same connections to take Arroway's hard-earned place heading the team deciphering it. And when the Machine is built and the selection hearings are choosing the candidate to be sent, where Arroway simply states her case as if testifying before a jury, Drumlin approaches it like a job interview and easily beats her. Arroway's atheism makes her unpopular as a candidate, while Drumlin claims a belief in God he [[{{Hypocrite}} showed no indication of before]] to help gain the spot. He then [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown rubs it in]], saying that though Arroway deserves the position more, SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids
102	* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: In a movie making money for Hollywood by portraying aliens, Ellie says, "Beg for some of that Hollywood money! They've been making money off aliens for years."
103	* LotusEaterMachine: When Ellie is knocked out, [[spoiler: she awakes in her personal paradise. Apparently, the aliens used her childhood painting and the image of her late father as the setting for their first contact.]]
104	%%* MakingASpectacleOfYourself: Dr. Hadden.
105	* MaybeEverAfter: At the end of the movie, we don't get a good look at Ellie's hand to see if she's wearing a wedding or engagement ring.
106	* MeaningfulEcho: Arroway's father used his {{catchphrase}} "small moves" to call upon her patience when operating the CB radio. During the Alien projection, the phrase is used to call upon the patience of humankind in moving ahead with the contacting:
107	--> '''Arroway''': But other people need to see what I've seen...\
108	'''Alien''': This is the way it's been done for billions of years.\
109	'''Arroway''': But I...\
110	'''Alien''': [[OneLinerNameOneLiner Small moves, Ellie. Small moves]].
111	* MeaningfulName: Arrow-way.
112	* AMinorKidroduction: Eleanor, for the first several minutes of the movie.
113	* MissingMom: Eleanor's mom, not just her dad, is gone from her life but is mentioned much less than her dad. Justified, as it's noted at one point that she died in childbirth, so Ellie has no memories of her, while having many loving memories of her father.
114	* MythologyGag:
115	** Sort of-Ellie speculates that the message could be Tome One of an Encyclopedia Galactica. She also mentions the term ''Technological Adolescence'', both of which are seen in Creator/CarlSagan's series, ''Series/CosmosAPersonalVoyage''.
116	** When Ellie first arrives at Hadden Industries, she's dressed in a turtleneck and beige suit similar to what Creator/CarlSagan often wore.
117	* ANaziByAnyOtherName: There's a certain amount of alarm when the signal turns out to be a retransmitted television broadcast of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler giving a speech. Kitz even suggests it comes from ScaryDogmaticAliens who find his views appealing. Cooler heads point out that aliens wouldn't understand the context of the transmission -- the speech is Hitler opening the 1936 Olympics, which would have been the first strong [[AliensStealCable TV signal sent into space]]. Sending it back is simply their way of showing the message was received. But that doesn't stop the Neo-Nazis from believing "Hitler lives on Vega".
118	* NewTechIsNotCheap: [[spoiler: A terrorist attack]] destroys the first device. There are plans, but building the device was so expensive for the entire world that the prospect of building a second one is summarily dismissed. It is then that a second, backup device is revealed to have been built in secret:
119	-->"First rule of government spending: why build one, when you can build two, at twice the price? Only, this one can be kept secret.
120	* ObstructiveBureaucrat: The Vegans, arguably. [[spoiler:"It's been done this way for millions of years."]] Although it's heavily implied, all throughout the film, that they know what they're doing and are benevolent. As both her father and the Vegan himself tells her, "Small moves".
121	%%* OhCrap: Ellie, when she sees Joseph doing a DeathGlare at her in the station.
122	%%* OneLinerNameOneLiner: "Small moves, Ellie. Small moves."
123	%%* OneWordTitle
124	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: The Vegans. They aren't from Vega at all ([[{{Pun}} nor are they shown to have an aversion to eating meat]]), as it is pointed out that the system is far too young to have created life. It's just that one of the hubs for their PortalNetwork is located there, which is how they became aware of humanity's presence.
125	* ParentalAbandonment: Ellie's mother died in childbirth. Her father died of a heart attack in her childhood.
126	%%* PlaceBeyondTime: The Machine loosely fits this trope.%%How?
127	* {{Precursors}}: Whichever alien race built the PortalNetwork. [[spoiler:It wasn't the Vegans.]]
128	* PromotedToLoveInterest: Palmer Joss in the movie. In the book, Ken der Heer (the President's science advisor) serves as the LoveInterest, while Joss is something of a minor character.
129	* RasterVision: Featured frequently, with a whole scene dedicated to showing a science team trying to make sense of a TV signal from deep space.
130	* RefusedTheCall: According to the Vegan [[spoiler: who appears as Ellie's father]] many but not all races they contact choose to respond.
131	* RetiredMonster: Possibly. Hadden has made enemies of a ''lot'' of people, industries, companies, and governments. One of the [[MagnificentBastard possible]][[invoked]] reasons why he is helping out with the Machine is to give something back to a world he has taken a lot from.
132	* RomanticismVersusEnlightenment: Ellie for Team Enlightenment and Palmer for Team Romanticism.
133	* RuleOfCool: The opening sequence shows a pull-back from Earth where we hear 10-year-old music before we've even left the solar system, completely missing the real propagation times for the radio signals[[note]]moving at the speed of light, radio signals would pass the outer planet Neptune in only a little over four hours, but not reach the nearest extrasolar star system (Alpha Centauri) for about four years[[/note]] but it doesn't matter because it gets the message across so powerfully.
134	* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Hadden thinks that rules and laws don't exactly apply to him... turns out he's right, but that's only because he owns half the damn planet.
135	* SexyDiscretionShot: Ellie and Joss kiss, then are seen talking in bed together after they clearly had sex offscreen.
136	* ShoutOut: Creator/WilliamFichtner's character in the film, a blind astrophysicist with enhanced hearing as a result of his condition, is named Kent Clark, a play on the name of Franchise/{{Superman}}'s alter ego, Clark Kent. The character is based on a real-life blind SETI scientist, Kent Cullers.
137	* SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids: After Drumlin is selected over Arroway because her atheism turned off the selection panel (he learned from her mistake and professed a hitherto-unseen belief in God), he tells her that he wishes the world were a place where her honesty were rewarded, not taken advantage of as he did. Arroway answers: "Funny. I've always believed that the world is what we make of it."
138	* SpaceTravelVeto: The first attempt at launching the wormhole device obtained by aliens is stopped stone cold by a [[TheFundamentalist fundamentalist]] suicide bomber destroying the facility. He rants in the VideoWill he leaves behind that his actions make no sense right now but they will in the future, after mankind has endured Doomsday and regained its faith in God.
139	* SuicideAttack: Joseph, a Christian fundamentalist, blows up the machine with a suicide vest believing that it's somehow against God.
140	* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: This is the central conflict of the film. The main character is an atheist and believes in rational explanations for everything, but at the end her journey to the center of the galaxy is revealed to be in every respect a religious experience[[note]]Except for the little matter of [[spoiler:the eighteen hours of static on Ellie's recorder, proving that time ''did'' pass for her]][[/note]], where the alien beings are like God.
141	* SurveillanceStationSlacker: Basically Jodie Foster plays a protagonist version of this. See also her two scientist colleagues at SETI.
142	* SurvivalMantra: A brief one when Ellie is about to be launched by the Machine, as the structure begins shaking violently around her and it seems like it's going to go horribly wrong, she at first shouts over the noise, then quietly whimpers over and over again "Okay to go. Okay to go." half through muscle memory, half through sheer terror. [[spoiler:It allows Kent to hear her over the radio and stop Mission Control from aborting the launch.]]
143	%%* TheSvengali: Hadden could be seen as one, depending if it was him who cooked up this BatmanGambit of a scheme.%%Examples aren't arguable.
144	* TearsOfAwe: Ellie Arroway sheds a few tears as she witnesses a magnificent celestial event in the transport pod.
145	* TechnoBabble: When the signal comes in, Arroway is shouting all sorts of scientific instructions into her walkie-talkie.
146	* TechnologyPorn: Great focus is given to different radio telescopes, mid-90s computers and lots of audio and signal equipment. Then there is the Machine, a fantastic piece of engineering with five cylindrical rings [[WhenThingsSpinScienceHappens that spin faster and faster]].
147	* TragicKeepsake: One that is never pointed out, but at different points Ellie wears a ring with a blue gem in it that belonged to her father. It's one of two personal effects she brings with her on the trip, the other being the compass Palmer gave her. [[spoiler: The image of her father has him wearing the ring too, as it is taken from her memories. Both rings can be seen when he holds her hand]].
148	* TypesetInTheFuture: The logo of the International Machine Consortium (IMC) is typeset in Eurostile Bold Extended.
149	* VillainousValor: Drumlin has his moments. When an angry Arroway barrels down on him with her jeep, Drumlin calmly stands in the middle of the road while everyone else dives for cover. [[spoiler: It foreshadows his death when he tries and fails to stop the suicide bomber, instead of running for his life.]]
150	* WeComeInPeaceShootToKill: It's suggested by Kitz that the machine might be a Trojan Horse doomsday device, meant to eliminate any potential rival civilization.
151	* WesternTerrorists: Joseph, who suicide bombs the interstellar travel machine at the Kennedy Space Center due to his Christian beliefs.
152	* WhamLine:
153	** "First rule in government spending: Why build one when you can build ''two'' at twice the price?", followed in the end with another: "Wanna take a ride?"
154	** "The fact it recorded static isn't what interests me...[[spoiler: What interests me is that it recorded approximately eighteen hours of it.]]"
155	* WhamShot:
156	** Integrated with the WhamLine above, Hadden shows Ellie satellite photos of Hokkaido Island, the Machine systems integration site. Then zooms in far enough to show the secret second Machine.
157	** When Ellie reaches her destination [[spoiler: on the alien beach]], for a moment a group of stars arranged in a crescent shape stands out. [[spoiler:When she sifts some sand with her fingers back at the telescope at the end of the movie, the same crescent of stars briefly glitters -- in the palm of her hand.]]
158	%%* WhatYearIsThis: After Ellie returned from her cosmic journey:%%Quotes aren't acceptable context.
159	%%-->'''Ellie Arroway:''' What day is this?\
160	%%'''Director:''' ''(confused)'' I'm sorry, did you say "what day"?\
161	%%'''Ellie Arroway:''' How long was I gone?\
162	%%'''Director:''' Ellie, the IPV dropped straight through the Machine. [[WhamLine You didn't go anywhere.]]
163	* WhenThingsSpinScienceHappens: The Machine is a giant gyroscope that generates a [[OurWormholesAreDifferent wormhole]] by spinning its rings at tremendous speed. The last ring is brought to speed via ''rocket propulsion''.
164	* TheWorldIsJustAwesome: As well as the awe-inspiring sequence that contains the page quote (which even was a former {{Trope Namer\|s}}[[invoked]]) -- a staggering symphony of visual effects and music built around Jodie Foster's note-perfect performance -- the movie opens with an amazing [[EpicTrackingShot pullback]] that, starting from Earth orbit, proceeds to give you the faintest hint of just how INCREDIBLY HUGE the universe is, complete with a kind of audio time-travel, backwards through the history of broadcasting as the signal travels away from Earth at the speed of light.
165	* YearInsideHourOutside: Dr. Arroway's trip through the PortalNetwork, conversation with an alien, and return home seemingly took about 18 hours. But as it took less than a second as time is reckoned here on Earth, quite a few people ended up strongly doubting that she actually traveled anywhere at all, since no one on Earth saw Arroway's pod disappear and her recording equipment displayed only static. This suggests that what Arroway experienced was AllJustADream, [[spoiler:but unknown to her and the general public it turns out that the camera recorded a full eighteen hours of static. This may be actually [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadowed]] - on her way there we see flashes of Ellie speaking lines she's ''going'' to say in a couple of minutes, which suggests some serious temporal distortion.]]
166	* YouAreNotReady: When Ellie insists that everyone on Earth should know about what she experienced. The Vegan [[spoiler:who takes the form of her father]] tells her, "Small moves, Sparks. Small moves."

Context Film / Contact