Basically, Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey's characters represent the best parts of Science and Religion, and Tom Skerritt and Jake Busey represent the worst parts of them. This is such a beautiful movie. The way it explores the heavy idea of faith in both religion and science, while keeping it in the framework of an entertaining genre story. I really miss filmmaking like this. The fact that Robert Zemeckis went from Forrest Gump to this, man he was on a roll back in the '90s.
@@bad-people6510 Yeah, and it's not just movies. I recently saw a musical that had an important message, but it was so one-sided and preachy that anyone who actually needed to _hear_ that message would have walked out of the theater within 30 minutes. The writers among us who want to make a difference need to remember the subtle art of persuasion.
@@hiarhu746 My neighbors just came home from a month-long vacation with their daughter and her twins, and they felt they needed a vacation after that vacation, so you have my sympathy. :D
This movie came out prior to the International Space Station being launched and becoming operational. I just wanted to point that out because sometimes I forget it hasn’t always been up there. And also that it won’t be up there forever either.
I am very happy that you chose this movie. In his day, Carl Sagan brought the majesty of astronomy to the general public. His series on public television was titled "Cosmos" and every week's episode was mesmerizing.
From the DVD commentary, Robert Zemeckis said that his only direction to James Woods was "Be James Woods". And Woods' first line - "Where's the girl?" - was an improv by Woods and completely sums up his character.
An underrated masterpiece from Robert Zemeckis. Other films in the same vein are Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (director's cut) and James Cameron's "The Abyss" (special edition).
@@lightyagami1752 Long cuts are always better as they are the story the director wanted to portray, not the cut down version the studio wants to use to rush audiences through the theater to get more screens per day.
The movie is a great adaptation but the novel is far more than belief vs science. The ending, in particular is one of the most amazing bits that is far too hard to explain to a casual movie audience. Highly recommend reading the book. Contact was published in 1985. I'm not sure how old she was but she had a doctorate, so let's assume she's 26. Age 9 Ellie would have been in 1968. Even if we move it ahead to the timeline of the movie release (1997), it would have been 1980. In 1979 only about 26% of the US had access to a 911 service. And that was probably more concentrated in cities instead of the rural area she was in.
The movie is good but it just loses SOOOO much from the book. Years of story. There is also the HUGE fact that 5 travelers were sent which would have canceled out several of the points they raised watching the movie and to this day out of all the changes between the book and movie that is the change I understand the least. This is one of those works that should have been made into either a high budget mini series or a full length single season TV show or possibly even 2 seasons given the time spans and events covered in the book.
Since Zemeckis was Spielberg's protégé, I'm pretty sure the bigger antenna reference is an homage. (The campers and protesters also remind me of The Sugarland Express, Spielberg's first non-tv feature film.) George at 14:48, tho :D
You guys are even better in person than on split screen. The first 4 minutes convinced me to hit “pause” and sign up for the full length reaction on Patreon. See you there!
It's okay to be overwhelmed, truly. I saw this film in the theatre and remember being blown away. The arguments of faith and science and how they can work together, and the idea that not having anything else out there would be "a waste of space"... all of it really moved me.
My favorite part of this movie is the conversations it brings up. Different opinions on an issue each given respect is very admirable. One of the few times I've really enjoyed both the movie and book, even though there are differences.
I saw this in a packed theater when it came out. When that space zoom out gets to silent space, you could hear a pin drop. We were completely mesmerized.
I think it's like what Tommy Lee Jones said in Men In Black. They don't want to let the public know it recorded 18 hours of static because it might cause panic.
Partially, the novel is more explicit that the data (or the amount of data with no useful information to make sense of it) is so much not even the government knows how to deal with it, so they think it's best to keep it a secret because they can give an explanation as to what happened (and they don't want to run the risk of looking like fools if it turns out everything was a hoax anyway).
After watching Cosmos and Carl Sagan interviews, I got the feeling that this end based on a illuminating, quasi-religious experience was so unlike him, I went to buy the book. The ending on the book is different, and even less what you would expect from Carl Sagan. Also, the book has more time than the movie to explore the entire world's response to finding that there is life in other parts of the universe and the entire planet cooperating to build the machine. A new found shared sense of humanity, compassion and cooperation that in the book they call Machine-Do.
I love it! Your reaction was just released today and before I can finish it, more than 24,000 people have already viewed it! You two are on a roll! Thank you for watching and sharing your reaction on this amazing film.
So today I love the accidentally perfect t-shirt: Talking Heads. Naturally they were singing "we're on the road to nowhere, come on inside, taking a ride to nowhere.. " as the capsule drops through the machine.
Arecibo Puerto Rico. Did end up with structural damage to the cables that hold up the receiver, enough so that it wasn't in the plans to be repaired. In addition yes, there was a lot of SETI work done there. The book was really close to what the movie ended up portraying.
Not just John Hurt was in _Alien_ , Tom Skerrit (Dr. Drumlin) played Dallas, the _Nostromo's_ commander. The use of real news reporters from Warner's corporate siblings was controversial at the time, and led to some changes in the news networks' professional ethics policies. The digital alteration of clips from President Clinton's press conferences led to White House complaints about unauthorized use of the President's image, although he did not seek to have the film re-edited; subsequently film makers have avoided testing the legality of this again. As an aside, there was no 911 call system when Ellie was a child; you had to call the number of the service needed directly or dial 0 to get a human operator and ask for a connection. Even by the late '80s 911 had only reached 50% of the US population, and it's still not 100%.
this is one of my favorite sci fi movies but for a lot of my die-hard sci fi loving friends, it's very polarizing. i would say it's the sci fi movie with the most heart
I missed this movie in the theaters but I remember my mom rented it when it came out, saw it, and told me "You HAVE to watch this movie, you're going to love it." And she was right, it's one of my all time favorites and the ending is so heart wrenching on top of it.
This movie made me cry the first time I watched it. In my elementary school days I was already so into extra terrestrial phenomenon and all sorts, and I was mostly focused on the negative connotations of alien abductions and all the creepy stuff that you hear from The X-Files or unsolved mysteries and all that stuff. Reading about alien abduction encounters used to freak me out but this movie here shed a new positive light to me about the existence of life beyond earth. I still get the excitement chills watching this movie and although I’m not a religious person for say, I like how the story ignited a sense of faith in Dr. Arroway
I watched this movie with my much older mom when I was 27 in the Theater. It was a few days after a my father had died, in the hospital, the day after my Birthday. I’ll be 52 this Wednesday, and I can’t believe your timing! I have always LOVED this film, and your sensitive and thoughtful reaction was really great today. This movie is really special. I loved your Arrival Reaction too. I’m probably going to be a Patreon person soon. All my love from Seattle!
Besides the 18 hours of recorded static...something the screen writers missed and should of added to the findings report was that bolted on chair. It should not have broken off from just the impact into a capture net followed by the water impact. It takes a lot more force or vibrational force to break something like that off.
I Have watched this movie at the theater. When i saw the name Carl Sagan, the movie logics made sense because we used to watch the series Cosmos with Carl Sagan when kids in the 80s. This man will always be a gift to the humanity. You may not agree with his philosophy but surely can't disagree with his science. We are not alone and we are part of something bigger. Love you reactions, really.. and thank you this time for this one. 💕 This movie means a lot to me. They say knowledge is revealed from you when it syncs from within you. This is one of the moments when you cry when revelation syncs. Thank you..Much love..
Your channel is my favorite to watch for movie reactions. This is one of my favorite movies which I've watched more than once in the movie theater. Keep doing what you're doing. I can't wait til you reach 100K (honestly I can't believe you're not already there)! Also, Simone has excellent taste in band T-shirts. Soundgarden was my favorite band to listen to in the 90s (just dated myself!). Be well, eh!
I’ve been waiting for you guys to see this! Stoked! I may edit this comment lol One of the most poignant things about the movie is how much like a religious person Ellie sounds at the end. She’s describing something that is not spiritual but sounds exactly like that. She doesn’t know about the evidence, which makes it even more poignant.
@@conureron3792 I wonder how people’s perception of her would change if they knew about the evidence on tape. For some, she wouldn’t sound so religious in her conviction and I’d love to be a fly on the wall for that.
@Ender7j - Ellie's comments do ring of a genuine 'spirituality' based on her rationalized experiential observation. However, the same characters' earlier questions: "What's more likely - An all powerful God created the universe and decided to not to give any proof of his existence? - or - That he doesn't exist at all... and humans created him to ease their uneasiness with their unknowns?" both galactic and skeptic experiences hold a consistent rational reasoning toward her observations. Ender7j, perhaps 'spiritually' is not rooted within an omnipotent being called: 'God.' and certainly is NOT even remotely derived from within any man-made foolishness called: 'religion,' but may more purely stem from simply... being more deeply human, more in touch with one's own humanity. That humanity itself, is the root of spirituality. It's one thought that I hope might be considered. What say you?
I think it even works better in the movie than in the book. In the novel, there were five people in the machine. although their experiences after arrival differed, they at least could confirm each other they made th trip. In the movie Ellie can't even confirm with another if what she saw really happened … unless she learns about the 18h recording.
@@TerryYelmene I’d say that spirituality is based on emotions and the search for desirable ones. There isn’t any evidence that spirituality exists beyond anything like that. Put someone in a functional MRI and you can see the brain react to stimulus…I’d wager that meditation would count as stimulus. I’ve spent years working on a Zen state of mind, I’ve spent a lot of time reading about Stoicism and Existentialism. I’ve come to understand a truth about the universe that works for me. One could say it gives me a sense of spiritual well-being, even though my paradigm is the exact opposite of that.
I watch most of your reactions and you guys are great. I don’t usually comment but this is the best reaction I’ve seen in a minute. I felt just like Simone after this movie was over. Just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry over how insignificant most things are. Perfectly stated. It’s been years since I’ve seen this movie and forgot how great it is. Thanks to both of you for the hours of entertainment you’ve provided for us. Thank you for being vulnerable and honest and funny. Truly entertaining.
They left out the true books ending of this. Hadden dies and has his body put in an unused section of the space station and pushed towards Vega, prob reaching it in a few thousand years. Maybe that was "the next step".
The movie left out one of the best parts of the book, which George in particular might like: The aliens reveal that they've found a message encoded in the math constant pi. Which could only have been put there by ... y'know. Also, as XKCD put it: pi = 3.14helpi'mtrappedinauniversefactory159...
So happy to see this one! Contact is my all-time favorite movie. Simone's reaction is pretty much how I look every time I watch it. Now go read the book!
I remember watching a preview showing of this, before the official opening date and double-billed with a later showing of "Batman and Robin". Nobody stuck around for "Batman and Robin" 🤣
When I first saw this I was in my teens so I didn’t fully understand it. I’m in my early fifties now and the older I’ve gotten the more I’ve come to understand it.
Great movie. I will say I understand the James Woods character's motives. Human beings aren't ready to accept being a small drop in a universal ocean. Humans are too selfish. Look at human history. When groups come in contact with other groups there is always fighting, wars, oppression, slavery, etc, and we are all the same species!! If human beings are killing that last rhinos because their horns might contain some elixir of sex appeal, then the human race is still in its infancy. We can only move as fast as our slowest person as a species, and when people are driving their cars at 80mph while texting, we have very slow people indeed.
There's actually a physics theory that aims to unify science and religion, it's the Omega Point Theory, the Physics of Immortality. Anyway, Carl Sagan, what a great person and scientist.
James Woods' character is thinking of the destruction of the first machine and the potential irrational reaction the world could have to evidence confirming Ellie's experience. So publicly it looks like a hoax, blamed on a dead billionaire, life around the world continues as normal. Privately, give her a budget and let the research continue. He's not actually a villain!
I saw this in the theater when it came out, and I remember it being a film that stayed with me for hours after I left the theater. I also remember it had a few surprising twists, and a jump scare or two. Fantastic acting by the cast. Incredible directing by, Robert Zemeckis. Such an underrated film. It deserves so much more acclaim, and many more reactions on RU-vid. Thank you Simone & George, for giving it such a great watch! "F*** you, James Woods!" is now my favorite non-line line of this movie. Lol. Jodie Foster, is so insanely talented, and such a legend. Please, consider reacting to more, Jodie Foster movies. In particular: The Brave One The Panic Room Hotel Artemis Thanks! Take care from the PNW.🌲
The book by Sagan that this was based on ends in a much better way, with the discovery in the huge amount of data passed on by the aliens of a message...no spoilers though, in case you ever read it!
George and Simone if you ever get the chance to check out Carl Sagan’s original 13 part PBS Cosmos series, you will be enthralled and enchanted by his voice, the music and his vision of the physical universe. A must see if only in part. Try out Joseph Campbell’s Power of Myth as well also a PBS 6 part series. It is in the same vain, but more the on the stories of mystical and spiritual aspects of human culture throughout human history. His voice is also astoundingly hypnotic. The series was filmed at the George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch. George Lucas was inspired by Campbell and referenced Campbell’s works into the Star Wars story.
You guys are so freaking cute! I love watching your channel! And I will say that after watching people react to Interstellar and Arrival, I started thinking about this movie, which I saw years ago when it first came out. I can definitely say that these three movies I've mentioned are definitely my most favorite of all time! Why? Because I long for knowing if we are alone or not, plus they make me cry. Now I must go because you guys mentioned burritos and I'm hungry! ❤️
Great seeing someone react to this movie. When it came out, I heard complaints about it. The main one being that people felt let down when Arroway met the aliens; the whole thing about her meeting her "father." That seemed to be why the congressional hearing scene worked, because James Woods's character was echoing in a different sense what the audience was feeling, "All this work for...that?... You met your deceased 'father'?? Come on." They were expecting something more "real", not just sentimentality. I mean, we knew that Arroway *wanted* to meet her father from the flashback scene when he passed away, with that being part of her motivation to get into radio astronomy, but what the audience expected was to have a scene where she meets the aliens as they look, and as they live. Instead, we got what seemed like a "lollipop" stuck in our mouths when we didn't expect it. I interpreted it differently, that the aliens could tell she wasn't ready to receive what they were really like, and so they used some of her memories to create a "world" she could accept. That's what I thought the whole "drop through" controversy was about. On Earth, people weren't ready to understand the new reality, and so their misunderstanding was leading to confusion and conspiracy theories (so, think about what the aliens were trying to achieve by using her memories, instead... Probably a better result). I was happy seeing the private scene between the Chief of Staff and Woods's character, because I thought, "Oh good. They're not going to just settle on their confusion, and ignore what she found. They don't understand it, but they're going to take another step." I've thought about those final scenes sometimes, and I think it was meant to convey a kind of test. The alien said, "This is the way it's been done." So, maybe there were civilizations that just thought, "Hey, our traveller didn't go anywhere, and what a crazy story. It was all fake," and just didn't pursue it any further, not understanding what happened. Maybe it was a test about how we would react to what happens when the journey is actually taken, and then what we do next.
YES. Not enough people react to this movie and I LOVE it. The weird mix of jolting shock, awe, hope and fear during the signal-received scene is absolutely perfect.
Movie is started off so good, then was so BAD.... Built a second device.... but somehow NO ONE noticed it? The people who built it no one leaked anything? Come on... and then... The Alien is her dad... sooooo stupid.
"In all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable is each other." is one of the most beautiful lines I've ever heard in a movie.
@@coolgareth101 There's a few videos out there with commentary explaining how they did it, but basically, they composite two shots together. One has a cameraman following her up the stairs, then there's a closeup shot of her opening the cabinet door. The door itself has a blue screen on it, where they superimpose an image of a mirror and the video of her opening the door. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Fxa3j8bK-c4.html and ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vEU0krH5HZI.html
@@coolgareth101 I saw it on youtube a while ago. I don't remember which video it was, but searching "contact mirror scene" will give you several to check out. :)
CONTACT is the only movie where I walked out of the theater afterward, bought another ticket and walked right back into the theater. This movie made me think of what wonders humankind could accomplish if we could get our collective beliefs to align just enough that we could work as a unified planetary community and be able to become part of a galactic community on its way to being a universal community. That continues to be MY wish. Thanks for the review, guys!
If only we would stop fighting over imaginary lines on a sphere, religious beliefs and colors of skin, the wonders a joined humanity could accomplish. But we are a short sighted species who seems bent on its small minded destruction. It's so sad.
@hendrsb33 - That is the single greatest 'positive' movie review comment I've ever seen. And, 'Contact,' is a personal favorite, so this comment means even more!
It seems strange today, but EMTs/Paramedics and Emergency Rooms are a relatively new idea. Ambulances were just transportation, not treatment. Even in the 1970s "Emergency Medicine" was still pretty new, much less the 60s.
@@andrewcharles459 Yes! I loved watching "Emergency " as a kid. Our whole family enjoyed it. I remember a family member asking why they were called "paramedics" and my brother joked that it was because there were two of them: a pair of medics. 🙂
There was a whole episode of the show, "ER" devoted to Dr. Peter Benton working in a very rural part of Mississippi ("Middle of Nowhere"). He gets frustrated transitioning from working in Chicago which has modern equipment everywhere to working in a clinic with limited resources to treat patients who can't see a doctor in the city.
@@kenfreeman8888 The Pilot Episode was named after the CA State Amendment that gave Paramedics the ability to administer IV's and other Medications to patients under supervision of a qualified MD. It was the 'birth' of the EMT and the concept of Emergency Medicine.
This is far and away my favorite Jodie Foster film of all time. I cry my eyes out every time I watch this. Tnanks, Simone and George for reacting to this. This isn't covered enough by your contemporaries on RU-vid.
@LameDuck...Were you disputing the OPs statement that Contact was their FAVORITE Jody Foster film? Or are you struggling to differentiate between FAVORITE and BEST?
Carl Sagan was a remarkable human being, and we certainly need more like him. In many ways, the world evolved into his most dire projections and warnings. But Contact was one of his most optimistic works, a testament to science and human faith in something greater than ourselves.
It is reminiscent of the way since mystics expressed their visions, powerful. Like Saint Theresa of Jesus, Saint John of the Cross or Hildegard von Bingen.
Man, the opening scene... you could hear a pin drop in the Cinema. Also, weird coincidence that there are not one but two castmembers from "Alien" in this: Tom Skerrit and John Hurt.
It was a neat concept that just our normal every day transmissions would "leak" out into space, and would "announce" our presence to aliens (and that they would announce their presence by sending the earliest transmission back). Not too long ago, it was found through what we got back from the Voyager probes that this actually doesn't work. The radiation from our Sun eventually interferes with these normal everyday transmissions in space, and so they don't escape our solar system. Sagan didn't know that when this movie was made, though.
You guys should definitely watch “the frighteners” with Michael J Fox. The guy who blew up the first station in this movie, plays a serial killer in that movie and looks even creepier 🤣
For whatever reason I just love the sound of that signal. I saw this in the theater with the powerful speakers and it just cut right into me. It's beautiful and scary at the same time. I kinda want that sound as my alarm to wake up in the morning. And if no one has mentioned it, the girl who played young Ellie is Jena Malone who became much more popular later on.
I remember when this first came out my mom and I went yo see it in the theater multiple times and each consecutive time, we would get real quiet at the end and when she mentions the 18hrs of static, a collective gasp went up around the theater every time. It was awesome! 💗
I remember when I saw this in the theater, people laughed at that moment. But not like you would laugh at a joke, it was more of a satisfied laugh, like "haha, in your face!"
My favorite memory from seeing it in the theater was the opening shot, one of the best jobs I've seen of conveying the true scale of the cosmos. There was the usual background noises in the theater, people talking to each other, coughing, the rattling of candy wrappers, etc. Everybody jumped at the sudden blast of sound, but once the radio signals died out and the shot just kept going, everyone in the theater had gone dead silent.
