Plot
Encouraged to explore as a child by her late father (David Morse), Dr. Eleanor "Ellie" Arroway (Jodie Foster) works for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. She listens to radio transmissions in hope of finding signals sent by extraterrestrial life. Government scientist David Drumlin (Tom Skerritt) pulls the funding from SETI because he believes the endeavor is futile. Arroway gains backing from mysterious and secretive billionaire industrialist S. R. Hadden (John Hurt), who has been following her career and allows her to continue her studies at the Very Large Array (VLA) in Socorro County, New Mexico.
Four years later, with Drumlin seeking to close SETI, Arroway finds a strong signal repeating a sequence of prime numbers, apparently sent from the star Vega. This announcement causes both Drumlin and the National Security Council, led by National Security Advisor Michael Kitz (James Woods), to attempt to take control of the facility. As Arroway, Drumlin, and Kitz argue, members of the team at the VLA discover a video source buried in the signal: Adolf Hitler's welcoming address at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. Arroway and her team postulate that this would have been the first significantly strong television signal to leave Earth's atmosphere, which was then transmitted back from Vega, 26 light years away.
The project is put under tight security and its progress followed fervently worldwide. Arroway learns that the signal contains more than 60,000 "pages" of what appear to be technical drawings. Hadden succeeds in decoding the pages; he explains that the drawings are meant to be interpreted in three dimensions. This reveals a complex machine allowing for one human occupant inside a pod to be dropped into three rapidly spinning rings.
The nations of the world fund the construction of the machine in Cape Canaveral at the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39. An international panel is assembled to choose one of ten possible candidates to travel in the machine. Although Arroway is one of the top selections, Christian philosopher Palmer Joss (Matthew McConaughey), a panel member whom Arroway met in Puerto Rico and with whom she had a brief romantic encounter, brings attention to her lack of religious faith. As this differentiates her from most humans, the panel selects Drumlin as more representative. On the day the machine is tested, a religious fanatic (Jake Busey) destroys the machine in a suicide bombing, killing Drumlin and many others.
After the destruction, however, Hadden reveals to Arroway that a second machine is hidden in Hokkaido, Japan, and that Arroway will be its pilot. Arroway, outfitted with several recording devices, is locked into the pod of the Japanese machine, dropped into the rapidly spinning, rotating rings, and disappears. When the pod travels through a series of wormholes, she experiences displacement and can observe the outside environment. This environment includes a radio array–like structure at Vega and signs of a highly advanced civilization on an unknown planet. Arroway finds herself in a surreal beachfront landscape similar to a childhood picture she drew of Pensacola, Florida, and a blurry figure approaches that becomes her deceased father. Arroway recognizes him as an alien taking her father's form and she attempts to ask numerous questions. The alien deflects her inquiries, explaining that this journey was just humanity's first step to joining other spacefaring species.
Arroway considers these answers and falls unconscious. She later awakens to find herself on the floor of the pod; the machine's control team is repeatedly calling for her. She learns that from outside the machine it appears the pod merely dropped through the machine's spinning rings and landed in the safety net. Arroway insists that she was gone for approximately 18 hours, but her recording devices show only static. Kitz resigns as national security advisor to lead a congressional committee to determine whether the machine was an elaborate hoax designed by Hadden, who has since died. Arroway is described as an unwitting accomplice in the hoax; she asks them to accept her testimony on faith. Kitz and White House Chief of Staff Rachel Constantine (Angela Bassett) together reflect on the fact that while Arroway's recording device only recorded static, it recorded 18 hours of it. Arroway and Joss reunite, and Arroway receives ongoing financial support for the SETI program at the Very Large Array.
Read more about this topic: Contact (film)
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