Billions and Billions of Ideas

Rating: 9/10 (13 February 2005)

Some people disliked this movie because it's an alien movie without aliens. And that's why I loved it. Based on the book of the same title by noted astronomer Carl Sagan, Contact is the story of how we, humans, will most likely find out that we are not alone. It stars Jodie Foster as a faithless scientist who learns a lot about herself and fellow man when she finds a ratio signal coming from the star Vega. The movie speculates that humans will have to communicate with other life forms via radio waves first, not by getting on the Spaceship Enterprise and zig-zag through the universe or coming across a crashed UFO. It's no surprise that a scientist wrote a story that contains the most likely scenario of first contact, and makes other science fiction movies look like science fantasy. The ending of the movie contains a powerful message of where science and religion can find middle ground, of course after the infamous "non-alien alien" scenes. I loved that scene. You don't have to have little green men to know that you are seeing something not from this world, but some people felt cheated by this outcome. I didn't. I felt it made the movie stronger, yet another likeliest scenario, not what we hope will happen. Smart movies like Contact do not come along often, and I wish they would.