History Film / Contact

* 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.

* MissingMom: Eleanor's mom, not just her dad, is gone from her life but is mentioned much less than her dad.

* 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 impressed with her passion and writes her a check.

* CommendedForPushback: Ellie. The potential funder H.R. Hadden, instead of being offended when she flips her lid at a meeting with his short-sighted employees, is impressed with her passion and writes her a check.

* CommendedForPushback: Ellie. The potential funder H.R. Hadden is impressed with Ellie's passion instead of offended by Ellie's rudeness when she flips her lid at a meeting with his skeptical funding board.

, slams down her briefcase and rants at potent for dismissing her as crazy, we discover that

* 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.

** 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.

* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Averted. The so-called 'Vegans' make contact with a signal based on mathematics. When the National Security Advisor asks why these {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s don't just communicate in English, Arroway responds that 70% of Earth's population speak other languages (the video it's embedded in was in German in any case). "Mathematics is the only truly universal language." Also the schematics for the FTL machine don't match up [[spoiler:until it's realized they're three-dimensional.]]

* BrokenAesop: After the [[{{Anvilicious}} laborious effort]][[invoked]] to establish total equivalence between faith in religion and faith in science - representing both as mere personal choice in the absence of any hard evidence - the film breaks that [[AnAesop Aesop]] by [[spoiler: definitively showing that Arroway, as opposed to the more religious characters across the aisle, actually ''has some evidence'' of her claims, and the evidence is being suppressed by the government officials involved]]. Granted, Sagan would probably have approved.

* CatchPhrase: "Small moves".
* TheChessmaster: Hadden takes a ''very'' thorough interest in his long-term investments.

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Averted with Howard Hughes-expy S.R. Hadden, though even he implies he's not a saint.

** Audio from the Challenger disaster
** Richard Nixon's "I am not a crook" statement
** Martin Luther King, Jr's "I Have A Dream" speech
** JKF's first inaugural address
** The "Day of Infamy" speech
** Hitler's remarks at the Berlin Olympics (which become more significant later in the film)

* HollywoodCB: The radio telescope Ellie builds.

* IfJesusThenAliens: Invoked, where one of the group of participators outside the VLA have a cutout of Jesus with a UFO above his head in place of his halo and a banner saying "Jesus is an Alien".

* 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]]. Though she turns out to be right.

* OhCrap: Ellie, when she sees Joseph doing a DeathGlare at her in the station.
* OneLinerNameOneLiner: "Small moves, Ellie. Small moves."
* OneWordTitle

* PlaceBeyondTime: The Machine loosely fits this trope.

* TheSvengali: Hadden could be seen as one, depending if it was him who cooked up this BatmanGambit of a scheme.

** 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.]]
* WhatYearIsThis: After Ellie returned from her cosmic journey:
-->'''Ellie Arroway:''' What day is this?\\
'''Director:''' ''(confused)'' I'm sorry, did you say "what day"?\\
'''Ellie Arroway:''' How long was I gone?\\
'''Director:''' Ellie, the IPV dropped straight through the Machine. [[WhamLine You didn't go anywhere.]]

* 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.]]

* 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, where the alien beings are like God.

** 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 hit. Drumlin says this as a cynical ploy to score political points, but what he's saying is still correct in principle.

* AdaptationalJerkass: The book is a meditation on the complexities of human society and largely told from Ellie's point of view. Many characters still fulfill their basic roles but without the nuance of Ellie's thought process.
** Kitz was initially a skeptic with 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 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.
** Ellie in the book is well educated on religious text, 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.

* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Averted. The so-called 'Vegans' make contact with a signal based on mathematics. When the National Security Advisor asks why these {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s don't just communicate in English, Arroway responds that 70% of Earth's population speak other languages (the video it's embedded in was in German in any case). "Mathematics is the only true universal language." Also the schematics for the FTL machine don't match up [[spoiler:until it's realised they're three-dimensional.]]

* 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.

'''Kitz:''' [''leans forward so he is looking directly in the camera''] That is interesting, isn't it?

* 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).]]

** Hitler's remarks at the Berlin Olympics (which becomes more significant later in the film)

** [[spoiler: While traveling through the second wormhole, a ghostly image of her face manifested from her three times. The first two were "I had no idea" and "They're alive", which she's 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.]]
* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: [[spoiler:The Vegan takes the form of Arroway's dead father, and the meeting takes place on a Floridean beach. The vision ends with the meteor shower she and her father were supposed to see together.]]

* TechnoBabble: When the signal comes in, Arroway is shouting all sorts of scientific instructions into her walkie talkie.
* TechnologyPorn: Great focus is given to different radio telescopes, mid-90's 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]].
* 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 affects 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]].

* EpicTrackingShot: Young Ellie [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxa3j8bK-c4 running up the stairs]] to fetch medication for her father who has collapsed.

* HotScientist: Dr. Eleanor Arroway, who regularly wears no bra under clothes.

* EverythingsBetterWithSpinning: The Machine fits this trope.

* BigBrotherIsWatching: H.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.

* 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.

* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Averted. The so-called 'Vegans' make contact with a signal based on mathematics. When the National Security Advisor asks why these SufficientlyAdvancedAliens don't just communicate in English, Arroway responds that 70% of Earth's population speak other languages (the video it's embedded in was in German in any case). "Mathematics is the only true universal language." Also the schematics for the FTL machine don't match up [[spoiler:until it's realised they're three-dimensional.]]