Contact (1997) | Reaction and Commentary | First Time Watching 

Absolutely, we would be arrogant to think that there isnt life out there in the galaxy among 10 billion trillion planets. Look at how much different life there is on earth. Between humans other mammals, fish, animals and birds

Be an awful waste of space if there weren't😀

Yes and they think they have seen seven different stars with Dyson Spheres around them. I heard some scientists talking about it. They’re not sure but what if it were true? Awesome ❤

Is there Life elsewhere in the Universe? The best, most honest answer we can give is, "We don't know." We have no way of knowing if there is or isn't Life elsewhere. We simply don't have enough information. All we can do is speculate and give our opinions. We have no facts. Do I believe that Life exists elsewhere in the Universe? Yes, but we may never discover it. The Universe is Vast to the Nth degree!

The shear size of just the known Universe means the probability is high but it also that size means we are unlikely to ever find out.

I do really love the 90s movies that I've seen! Makes me excited to see more

that's for dang sure

Totally agree.

Hard AGREE!

"The Accused" (1988) with Kelly McGillis. Foster won four awards for Best Actress, including the Oscar.

Panic room. Another good one.

Maybe risk "Taxi Driver"?

@@jamesalexander5623 Also a very good one. Then again, I can't really think of any movies she's done that she hasn't passed all expectations. Even in movies where she only has a very limited bit part, such as in the movie 'The Inside Man', she shines.

Very coool! RIP ❤❤

Which ultimately means she was blaming herself. She should have kept a bottle of medicine in the downstairs bathroom -- that's why her father died. Not because of fate or God. Because she didn't get the medicine fast enough.

@@zammmerjammer ... Being a child, she couldn't help but blame herself to some degree. If she had brought him the medicine faster, he may have lived or he may have died anyway. The important part of that scene was that Ellie dismissed the priest's explanation, as it was not based on facts and logic. The look she gave the priest was great. Her face said, "Get your superstitions away from me."

@@Stogie2112From my experience adults blame themselves in these situations at least as much as children- probably more so. It is a way to feel some control when there is none.

Yes,and I love that there's layers to her reaction.

Thanks for sharing that! That must feel pretty awesome seeing your work in a movie like that. Always best to ask for forgiveness than permission! Have you done some of the visual effects in other movies?

@@VerowakReacts Yes, of course, Spiderman, Matrix Revolutions, Lord of the Rings: Two towers, Stealth, Aeon Flux, Bad Boys 2, The Ghost and the Darkness and many more. I was in that business between 1996 and 2005

Januz Kaminski historically has worked with Steven Spielberg on most of his movies. Safe to say he's done some serious work!❤ Thank you Sir​@@VerowakReacts

Sounds like scientism.

it's about the pursuit of truth and how both institutions/systems have those who are genuine and true to that and those who pervert and exploit and manipulate for control/power

But oddly, the movie kinda does the opposite. Ellie didn’t believe in God like Palmer did because he could provide no “proof”… only his personal experience and belief. Once Ellie went on her journey, nobody believed her because she could offer no “proof” other than her personal experience and belief that it was real. If we are frustrated that other characters don’t believe Ellie’s story without concrete evidence, we should be open to believing Palmer’s. To me, the movie makes a decent case for faith.

@@jeffmansfield914 I like to quote Babylon 5 on this sort of thing, as one character says "Faith and reason are the shoes on your feet. You can travel further with both than you can with just one"... and given Babylon 5 was written pretty much all by one guy whos an atheist but with a respect to the concept of religion, and as an agnostic myself... each side offers a person something different, it just goes bad when either side thinks the other is irrelevant (especially when at their core they dont step on each others toes at all). Theres so much we dont know, and we wont know until we eventually know it... fighting just slows down getting to the knowing. Carl Sagan was also an Agnostic from what i gather and the movie to me at least sits that middle ground until the 'reveal' at the end.

@@NZBigfoot The thing is, if you wait until the 'reveal' at the end, it might be too late.

I love dislikable characters in movies, but they make me so mad! 🤣

She wanted him to die - I thought, just wait.

John Hurt was the last to die in "Spaceballs". 😉

We should have put them in more movies with aliens, they'd bound to have been good ones.

Carl Sagan.

@@chanceneck8072 Carl's Jr. 🌟

@@fakereality96 Idk what that means.

When I was growing up I watched/listened to his narration of "The Cosmos" series. I was LOCKED In and in awe at 9 years old grasping how huge and amazing the universe really is. 100% it shaped my future. Carl was a gift to our planet and species.

@@mikekay3313 If a science guy, late teens can have an Idol to be proud of,.......it would be him. I'm now 69 !

Baseball. really? You 'muricans 😛

@@dallesamllhals9161 ... Not baseball. The main character dealing with his/her past and missing Dad.

The movie does not do justice to the book. Originally there were six people on the trip. Having only one person justifies people’s skepticism.

Same! Alien contact stories are a barometer of how we feel about the Other. The earlier shows from the 1960s - 80s, _E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 2001, Contact, Starman, Star Trek: the Original Series, Cocoon_ portrayed contact with aliens as a wonderful adventure, promising advancement for the human race. These were from a time when America was more confident, optimistic, idealistic, adventurous, humanitarian. Today America is meaner, more self centered, scared, tribal, racist, and nativist. Current alien SF shows reflect these attitudes: _Independence Day, Aliens, Predator, Annihilation, Oblivion, Star Trek: Discovery_ , Signs, Starship Troopers.

Arrival, and The Abyss the aliens were helpful. America was healing the racial divide until the most decisive President in our lifetime split the nation. The year was 2009, and Hussien Obama told us colonialism was all that set us apart from the rest of the world, that and a lot of of leftist /communist tripe. Obamas third term is a cess pool of high crime, inflation,, and turmoil caused by a wide open southern border. If Nationalist pride means shutting the border, no more funding for new wars in Europe, law and order, energy independence, and an end to runaway spending and inflation... sign me up!

I don't mind that theory. I'll think about it next time I watch again.

@@srahhh Thanks. Now you're doing more than most people. 👍🤝

At that time that fantastic shot had never been filmed.

I keep hoping reactors will do Nell. Everybody already loves Liam Neeson and Jodie, and I'd love for people to rediscover Natasha Richardson.

good performance, poor movie Flightplan is pretty good, Panic Room, Maverick, Somersby - probably her best along with Contact Foxes, Hotel New Hampshire

​@@user-ih5jr8rt5qNot a poor movie. Just not to your taste.

@@ronfehr7899 no, don't tell me what my taste is, that'sjust you being fragile-egod and not being able to handle I'd elaborate on why it is poor but I will refrain so Vera doesn't get spoiled

Oh please don't watch Nell. It does NOT hold up. Embarrassing to watch.

It seems Jodie is a terrible mother: all her children are in Foster care.

The opening is just beautiful! I love space and the universe so I'm perhaps biased

Forrest Gump had the most SFX shots in a movie at the time, and its so seamless that its completely unnoticed.

🤣

And when the signal is discovered and she runs from outside to the control room

A plothole deeper than crater lake.

Thank you!!! 😁

I agree with everything you said although I'm more a Joss than an Ellie now.. but if it all happened in real life like in the movie, I'd be a little skeptical of the idea that it was a hoax given the complexity and seemingly hyper-advanced technology evident in the actual machine that was built. also did we just like build the machine and not figure out at all that there was some kind of wormhole-creating technology built into it, or what? like did the specs call for superheavy elements and cyclotrons to create antimatter or something? seems like that would be the biggest evidence for whether it's a hoax or not. but the thing which bugged me as a kid and bugs me even more as an adult is.. as spectacular and warm-and-fuzzy as the ending was, there were no real answers. It's almost like someone had some spiritual or psychedelic experience that blew their mind but was unable to properly verbalize it and it offered little in the way of real meaning. the big answer of the movie is "we're not alone" but what good does that information do if that's all there is? great, these uber-advanced aliens brought one earthling across the universe to just say hello and that they didn't have any big answers either? ..they promise us that in time we'll take the "next step" but everyone alive will be dead by then so I guess tough luck for ellie and all of them. and their confidence (foreknowledge?) that we won't destroy ourselves and/or the planet before then is kinda optimistic isn't it? ..still one of my favorite scifi movies of all time though

I love being able to geek out 😂

Alan Silvestri has quickly become one of my favourite composers... I love the avengers music!!

A very sad ending :( :(

...and to promote his own political ambitions.

The Covid Relief package was 3 trillion if memory serves. 333 billion would be a bargain (even in 1990s dollars) for a program that makes first contact.

He is a director that I really enjoy, I'll have to watch his other movies that I haven't seen yet :D And that you!!

@@VerowakReacts You should see Forest Gump down the road, you'll love it

i can suggest many excellent sci-fi films. don't put too much faith in silly on-line polls. some people just have horrible taste. "colossus: the forbin project" (1970) is a perfect example of sci-fi predicting the dystopian future in which we now find ourselves. check it out. its EXCELLENT!

I'm amazed that you have films from every year from 1896 to 2007, that's very impressive! Do you have a favourite decade for movies?

@@VerowakReacts ... i have more films from 1939 and 1967 than any other single years. so i guess the 30s and the 60s would be my favorite decades for film. hitchcock, spielberg, capra and ford are the directors, in order, of whom i have the most films. bogart is the actor of whom i have the most films and jimmy stewart is a close 2nd. i try to promote older films as much as i can. sadly silent films are never viewed by reactors and there's some GREAT, absolutely remarkable silent films out there. some are EPICS and some are "small," charming films. all my dvds from 1896 to about 1912 are from one film maker named georges méliès. i have his complete works. his films range in length from 10 to 30 minutes. he created some fantastic special effects techniques still used today. sorry for the length of my reply.

She doesn't see clearly because she loses a contact lens at some point before she wakes up and sees her father/the alien. That's why the film's name is "Contact".

@@pistonburner6448 Spoilers!!!

That shape looks like the constellation Corona Borealis, never figured out the meaning of it. Wonder if it is in the book.

@@ronbeck201 The repeating pattern is there to suggest a higher intelligence or design at work, which is funny considering Sagan was an atheist. In the book, he does it by finding a pattern in the number Pi.