This year a very special science fiction story celebrates its 40th anniversary: Contact. Carl Sagan’s novel was published in 1985. Twelve years later, the film adaptation followed by Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis with Jodie Foster in the lead role. The film cleverly combines adventurous science fiction with exciting mystery in the search for extraterrestrial life.
You can currently buy and rent the film as a stream on Amazon *.
Science fiction masterpiece: That’s what Contact is about
The scientist Dr. Eleanor “Ellie” Arroway (Jodie Foster) is dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life. When she receives an encrypted radio signal one day, Arroway feels vindicated. In fact, an extraterrestrial life form seems to want to make contact with humans.
But not all of Earth’s inhabitants agree on how to react to the signal. Arroway is constantly faced with new obstacles as he tries to find out more about the signal and its senders. But she doesn’t give up and eventually discovers something incredible.
Contact with Jodie Foster: These aliens like things mysterious
The film elegantly plays with the audience’s perception – and also with that of its characters. Although Ellie is firmly convinced of the existence of extraterrestrial life, whether extraterrestrial life really exists or not is constantly being questioned.
Unlike other well-known representatives of the sci-fi genre, such as Steven Spielberg’s ET – The Extra-Terrestrial and War of the Worlds or Arrival by Denis Villeneuve, no intergalactic neighbor strays directly onto the blue planet.
Rather, these visitors from space prefer to wrap themselves in aristocratic silence and leave humanity guessing for a bit before the titular contact occurs for the first time. This will A successful mystery is built around the question of who or what is really behind the signal.
Contact’s sci-fi answer leads to endless distances
In the context of the story of Contact, humanity finds itself in a true crisis of meaning. Questions about faith and science are constantly raised. It will be all the more exciting when, alongside Jodie Foster, we (apparently) finally track down the origin of the mysterious signal.
The scenery designed here is absurd and ingenious at the same time – and feels like a liberation after a long search. Anyone who fears that the film could become tangled with all its secrecy can breathe a sigh of relief. because the science fiction elements are by no means neglected.
Contact still doesn’t make it easy for Ellie (and the audience), because with the final answers new questions arise. This creates an incomparable, exciting film experience, which is carried by a fantastic Jodie Foster and allows the tension to rise steeply until the last scene.
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