Heartwarming / Contact

• Why did Arroway get into science?
  Arroway: When I was about 8 years old, I was watching the sunset and I asked my dad, "What's that bright star over there? And he said that it wasn't really a star at all. It was actually a whole planet called Venus. He said, "You know why they called it Venus? Because they thought it was so beautiful and glowing. But what they didn't know is that it's filled with deadly gases and sulfuric acid rain." "Wow," I thought, "This is it! I'm hooked."
• Arroway's meeting with the Vegan. In an age where so many films depict aliens as beings who want to destroy/enslave us, or take all our resources, it's heartwarming to find a movie where the aliens are benevolent, and offer a message of hope to humanity.
  Vegan: You are an interesting species, an interesting mix. You are capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you're not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other.
  • As well as being a film filled with hope and optimism for what else lies out in the universe:
  ''If we are alone in the Universe, it sure seems like an awful waste of space."^note This was a direct quote from Carl Sagan.
  • It helps that the Vegan takes the form of her father, knowing how much she missed him. They may have read her mind about her desperate attempt to contact him.
  • Her meeting ends with a meteor shower. Which is poignant since she and her father were supposed to watch one together the night of his sudden death.
• Palmer stating to the media circus at the end that he believes Ellie.
• For Carl