It took renowned public science advocate Carl Sagan and his wife Ann Druyan almost 20 years to realize their dream to make an intellectual science fiction film with a woman scientist as the hero. 2022 marks the 25th anniversary of the release of Contact, directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Jodie Foster. It remains one of the best, most realistic, and emotional alien movies ever made. And the audience never gets to see the aliens.

The idea for Contact began poolside as Druyan and Sagan considered what to do after Cosmos. They always planned for it to be a film, yet the movie got stuck in development hell. In the 1980s, producers and directors simply couldn't handle the idea of a woman protagonist who didn't have a husband or a child. Ideas were floated to have her son go missing or even tag along secretly on the journey to space. They couldn't see the character outside the traditional societal roles for women. So, Sagan wrote the novel Contact in 1985, based on his and Druyan's story. The book was a massive hit, and Warner Bros. then started listening to Sagan.

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Contact 25th Anniversary Jodie Foster Matthew McConaughey

Eventually, George Miller was brought in to direct. He worked closely with Sagan, Druyan, and uncredited writer Menno Meyjes to craft a film that was less expositional and more tone poem. Sagan's book was fantastic, but it did lack some of the emotional heart that Druyan and later storytellers brought to the movie. Sagan understood the science and how it stood in conflict with faith, but it was the others who filled in the good and bad reactions of humanity. The book also had to contend with the Cold War; the movie did not. While his film is one any fan of movies or sci-fi wants to see, he ultimately left the project because he couldn't pin down an ending, according to an oral history published by Vulture. Then the singular Robert Zemeckis came aboard, delivering the kind of film two lifelong public science advocates could be proud of.

Contact begins with a three-minute tracking shot through the entire solar system. It tracks the broadcasts humans have sent out into space until we get to the one that kicks off the story. Of course, it was done with CGI. The visual effects in this film are extensive and involved almost every major effects house at the time, from newbies like Sony Imageworks to the old guard innovators at Industrial Light & Magic. The most controversial effect was a technique pioneered on Forrest Gump to insert real-life footage into this fiction movie. Several shots of President Bill Clinton were used, including a speech in which he discussed the impact of a suspected meteorite from Mars that nicely doubled for a "first contact" speech. The most notorious sequence, however, is the one at the end of the film.

Jodie Foster and David Morse, playing a manifestation of her late father created by the aliens, filmed the scene in front of a green screen with a pile of sand between them. The rest of the sequence was a digitally-created backdrop of Pensacola, Florida, and a vast galaxy in the sky. Zemeckis and visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston deliberately placed this sequence squarely in the uncanny valley. Even though the film barely shows anything extraterrestrial, it was important that this sequence feel "alien." The experience is ultimately the same as the one Matthew McConaughey's Palmer Joss described when he "saw" God. Foster's Dr. Ellie Arroway dismisses it, saying it was an experience he "needed" to have. It's a nice bit of foreshadowing about how the film lands squarely down the middle on the question of science and faith.

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Perhaps more revolutionary than the hard science fiction plot or the high-end VFX employed was the Ellie character. She was not a sympathetic woman, who stayed confident in the face of bigoted men. She was prickly and emotional and made decisions that frustrated the viewer. Added for the film was the focus on Ellie and her father, Ted. In the book, Ellie's mother is alive for most of it, but in the film, she's already gone. Then, Ted dies and Ellie races to get his medicine in one of the coolest Robert Zemeckis shots ever done. Ellie's search for alien life is reflective of her desire to reconnect with those she lost. It's why the aliens ultimately choose Ted's form for their conversation.

The core conflict between faith and science is one that Sagan understood and still wrestled with. At some point in any scientific endeavor, faith comes into play when the science is theoretical. While Palmer and Ellie represent that personal philosophical conflict, the reaction of the public to the message is his critique of faith and science literacy in society. Nearly three years into a global pandemic, it seems that Sagan and the other storytellers underestimated just how far people might go when fear-fueled faith intersects with fact. The news coverage mostly served to deliver exposition, but it also was a way to highlight that divide in society without taking a position. Yet, outside of Busey's bomber, the faith side of the fight is treated sympathetically.

If Contact has any villains, it's Tom Skerritt's David Drumlin and James Woods' Mike Kitz, impeccable casting for an overly militant, anti-science political opportunist. Drumlin is both Ellie's mentor and adversary. He represents the patriarchy in STEM and how it closes doors as easily as it "opens" them. While not as craven as Kitz -- Drumlin does care about the science -- he does lie about his belief in God to win the political fight with Ellie. The audience may not mourn him when he dies, but Ellie certainly does. He's yet another in a series of human losses that pushes Ellie to make a connection more lasting, one that extends through the universe.

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Contact 25th Anniversary Jodie Foster Radio Telescopes

Contact deserves to be revisited in its 25th anniversary because it is still the most realistic alien encounter film ever made. Yet, what makes it worth watching is its view of the human race. It shows people at their best and worst, and these vastly more advanced creatures still want to get to know us. Contact may also be the most optimistic alien encounter movie, as well. It's also prescient, if only for its bald, mostly-reviled billionaire eccentric who likes to go to space: S.R. Hadden, played by the late John Hurt.

Ellie Arroway's real legacy is shown at the end of the film when she's teaching kids about the joys of radio telescopes. Jodie Foster says that she's met so many women in STEM who credit Ellie Arroway as their inspiration, similar to how women in the 1970s saw Nichelle Nichols' Uhura. Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan spent their partnership trying to get the public interested in science. On the 25th anniversary of Contact, it might just be their greatest success in that mission.