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Contact turns 20. Contact Is More Than a Movie About Science vs. Religion

B

badb0y

Member
I saw this like 2 years ago after Neil DeGrasse Tyson mentioned it in an interview as one of his favorite sci-fi movies. I was pleasantly surprised.
 
T

thebeeks

Banned
JettDash said:
The movie, as usual, sucks compared to the book.
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Slightly disagree. The book is great but I think the movie is pretty good too.

The ending of the book is extra maddening.
I see how you can do the "what, no way, nothing happened, you're crazy lady" thing with one pilot. But with multiple people in a pod, all with the same story of what happened? Doesn't one of them even have a little bit of sand leftover in their pocket? Correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a while since I read it, but aren't the bigwigs right on the verge of believing their story when someone comes along to convince them otherwise?
 
D

DonShula

Member
Surprised to see the generally favorable impression of the movie here. My experience talking about this movie with people has been half glowing praise, half "it's too on the nose to even be taken seriously." I had a college prof take time to belittle it as "simple."

I liked it at the time but haven't seen it in years. Might need to watch again sometime.
 
D

Despera

Banned
As spectacular some of the visuals and sound effects were for the time, this trick mirror scene blew my mind as a kid.

CRummmM.gif
 
M

Madness

Member
TAJ said:
Yep. Interstellar was like they remade Contact and said "How can we make this dumb?".
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For what it is worth, Interstellar in theatres was a maaterpiece. Watching it on IMAX with full sound was perhaps the best theatre experience I had in 15 years. Got ten more to watch with me a second time. The ohhhhs and almost screams at the waves, the teary eyes when the time has changed looking at the messages, the music blasting during the spin dock.

I love Contact too. But as a kid I was hopeful we would make contact. As an adult I now believe even as infinite as the universe is, we are singularly alone as sentient beings. We will find life, maybe even advanced and evolved life, but anything on the scale of humanity, nah. Her trip was the best part of Contact for me. And James Woods hiding her hours of static as interesting really made me distrust politicians as a kid.
 
S

sphinx

the piano man
Today I was bored and inspired by this thread, I took the bluray and watched this film again.

It's aged like fine wine, it's great, no nonsense, the clear and smart debate between faith and science.

not sure why but I nearly cried as the pod fell into the wormhole, It's so inspiring,

it also made me realize that it's very sad I was born waaaaay too early in the history of mankind to get to see anything like this in my liftetime happen.

my only hope is that I don't die before they put the James Web telescope up there. That's all I can look forward too, anything else is too far in the future.
 
G

ginger ninja

Banned
There was already a sequel last year and it's called Arrival. Thematically, they are similar kind of Alien Sci-fi movies. The kind that focuses on other aspects of our interactions with alien life beside.

Also for me, both the movies can be summarized as nothing.gif
 
M

MattKeil

BIGTIME TV MOGUL #2
Epsilon-delta said:
Read the book if you haven't already.

The ending is much better imo.
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Yup. Movie's decent but blows it in the end by basically trying to make evidenceless belief somehow equal to science. Not Sagan's point at all, and pretty insulting as an adaptation. Also the digital static is proof of time spent, even if it didn't record, so the dismissal of her testimony is flat out wrong. As a result she seems foolish to back down and the film settles on a mealy mouthed "both sides" reconciliation instead of coming down on the side of science as the only valid tool for properly exploring the universe.

Yeah, really not a fan of this movie.
 
N

Nappuccino

Member
MattKeil said:
Yup. Movie's decent but blows it in the end by basically trying to make evidenceless belief somehow equal to science. Not Sagan's point at all, and pretty insulting as an adaptation. Also the digital static is proof of time spent, even if it didn't record, so the dismissal of her testimony is flat out wrong. As a result she seems foolish to back down and the film settles on a mealy mouthed "both sides" reconciliation instead of coming down on the side of science as the only valid tool for properly exploring the universe.

Yeah, really not a fan of this movie.
Click to expand...

Yeah . . . you put the finger on my issues with the movie. I generally like the movie ok, but the ending is . . . not what it could/should be.
 
E

Epsilon-delta

Banned
MattKeil said:
Yup. Movie's decent but blows it in the end by basically trying to make evidenceless belief somehow equal to science. Not Sagan's point at all, and pretty insulting as an adaptation. Also the digital static is proof of time spent, even if it didn't record, so the dismissal of her testimony is flat out wrong. As a result she seems foolish to back down and the film settles on a mealy mouthed "both sides" reconciliation instead of coming down on the side of science as the only valid tool for properly exploring the universe.

Yeah, really not a fan of this movie.
Click to expand...
Yea, the ending in the movie always bothered me.

She was portrayed to be incredibly brilliant but never bothered to ask about the tapes.

18 hours of static proves Ellie went somewhere.
 
J

jmood88

Member
PuppetMaster said:
The movie is just ok. But the book is amazing and changed my life quite honestly. I was 18 when I first read it.


The movie does not even have one of the biggest plot twists from the book. Which I thought was hugely meaningful and added extra depth. Spoiler:
In the end she learns her father she loves so much is not her biological father. And the step father she is so resentful to is her actual father, because her mom had an affair or something.
Click to expand...
I guess I'll have to read the book to get it but that doesn't sound very interesting.
 
S

sphinx

the piano man
Beside the fact that she could have asked to see the 18 hour tape, why didn't she suggest they drop someone else from the pod??
 
M

MotionBlue

Member
One of the best SciFi movies. Does Justice to the novel too, as both did things slightly better than the other. In particular, I liked
how the movie had only one scientist travel. The book had a small group go.

Epsilon-delta said:
Yea, the ending in the movie always bothered me.

She was portrayed to be incredibly brilliant but never bothered to ask about the tapes.

18 hours of static proves Ellie went somewhere.
Click to expand...

She does ask about the tapes. The Government shows her it only had static, purposefully omitting that it had 18 hours of static.
 
M

mantidor

Member
sphinx said:
Beside the fact that she could have asked to see the 18 hour tape, why didn't she suggest they drop someone else from the pod??
Click to expand...

This is what is so annoying about the ending, because in the book
five people go, and they all have similar experiences, the aliens do not give anyone any kind of proof
.

The movie settling for "see? Science is the same as religion!" is without a doubt it's biggest flaw, and it would have pissed Sagan had he been alive to see it :(
 
J

Jimrpg

Member
I love the themes it explores especially considering it was Carl Sagan who wrote it, and how it wraps it all up.

Where Interstellar gets it wrong is that it couldn't come to an adequate conclusion and just left with a Love conquers all answer, not a very compelling conclusion.

It's probably a Top 10 movie for me.
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
I maintain that this movie is immensely frustrating in the way Foster's character is kinda thrown under the bus in the end. Between the government cover-up and her becoming a flustered mess who can't poke holes in the politician's alternative theories (even though she did it with ease earlier in the film), it's infuriating. A bunch of shitty contrivances conspire to make her look like a fool, just to force her to ask people to have faith. Ugh.
 
Vestal

Vestal

Junior Member
One of my favorite Science meets fiction movies of all time. I don’t call it sci-fi because the way it is presented it is more of real world science meeting up with alien technology.

Her deposition at the end of the movie is such a powerful moment. One that I think most of us can relate in a sense with.
 
Hulk_Smash

Hulk_Smash

Banned
Trey said:
The point the movie was driving toward didn't sway me either way (not to mention that the real ending destroys the analogy entirely, robbing it of any practical impact), but I found the actual moment moment progression of the movie entertaining.
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Your therapy session today is $250. Please make checks payable Hulk_Smash and get the hell out of my office.
 
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