Contact (1997)

Release date: 1997-07-11
Country: USA
Language: English|Spanish|German|Russian
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Production Co: Warner Bros., South Side Amusement Company
Genre: Thriller, Drama, Science Fiction, Mystery
Rating: 7.4/10
Length: 2h 30min

Storyline

Astronomer Dr. Ellie Arroway has long been interested in contact to faraway lands, a love fostered in her childhood by her father, Ted Arroway (David Morse), who died when she was nine-years-old, leaving her orphaned. Her current work in monitoring for extraterrestrial life is based on that love and is in part an homage to her father. Ever since funding from the National Science Foundation (N.S.F.) was pulled on her work, which is referred to some, including her N.S.F. superior David Drumlin (Tom Skerritt), as more science fiction than science, Ellie, with a few of her rogue scientist colleagues, have looked for funding from where ever they could get it to continue their work. When Ellie and her colleagues hear chatter originating from the vicinity of the star Vega, Ellie feels vindicated. But that vindication is short lived when others, including politicians, the military, religious leaders, and other scientists, such as Drumlin, try to take over her work. When the messages received ...

Plot Keywords

wormhole, astronomy, science, nasa, time travel, alien contact, alien technology, space station, space travel, star gazing, telescope, scientist, father daughter relationship, zero gravity, congressional hearing, olympic games, ham radio, u.s. president, time machine, radio broadcast

Short Review

Despite its lineage and some impressive special effects, Contact is a disappointingly earthbound production, weighed down by the ballast of talking-heads dramaturgy and bloated storytelling.