Uniforms from the film at Stockholm International Fairs 2011.

Contact is a 1997 American science fiction drama film adapted from the Carl Sagan novel of the same name and directed by Robert Zemeckis. Both Sagan and wife Ann Druyan wrote the story outline for the film adaptation of Contact.

Jodie Foster portrays the film's protagonist, Dr. Eleanor "Ellie" Arroway, a SETI scientist who finds strong evidence of extraterrestrial life and is chosen to make first contact. The film also stars Matthew McConaughey, James Woods, Tom Skerritt, William Fichtner, John Hurt, Angela Bassett, and David Morse.

Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan began working on the film in 1979. Together, they wrote a 100+ page film treatment and set Contact up at Warner Bros. with Peter Guber and Lynda Obst as producers. When the film ended up in development hell, Sagan published Contact as a novel in 1985 and the film adaptation was rejuvenated in 1989. Roland Joffé and George Miller had planned to direct it, but Joffé dropped out in 1993 and Warner Bros. fired Miller in 1995. Robert Zemeckis was eventually hired to direct, and filming for Contact lasted from September 1996 to February 1997. Sony Pictures Imageworks handled most of the visual effects sequences.

The film was released on July 1, 1997, to mostly positive reviews. Contact grossed approximately $171 million in worldwide box office totals. The film won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and received multiple awards and nominations at the Saturn Awards. The release of Contact was publicized by controversies from the Clinton administration and CNN, as well as individual lawsuits from George Miller and Francis Ford Coppola.

Plot[link]

Encouraged to explore as a child by her late father (David Morse), Dr. Eleanor "Ellie" Arroway (Jodie Foster) is a gifted scientist, searching the stars for signs of intelligent life. She is working 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. After 13 months of soliciting funds in vain, Ellie gains backing from billionaire industrialist S. R. Hadden (John Hurt), who has been following Arroway's career and allows her to continue her studies at the Very Large Array (VLA) in Socorro County, New Mexico.

Four years later, with Drumlin pressuring to close SETI, Arroway finds a strong signal repeating a sequence of prime numbers, apparently emitting 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, 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. U.S. President Bill Clinton and Drumlin give a television address to downplay the impact of the Hitler image, while Arroway learns that a third set of data was found in the signal: more than 60,000 "pages" of what appear to be technical drawings. Government specialists unsuccessfully attempt to decode the drawings, which Hadden later decodes. He explains that the pages are meant to be interpreted in three dimensions, which 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 come together to fund the construction of the machine at Cape Canaveral on top of Launch Complex 39. An international panel is assembled to choose one of ten possible candidates to travel in the machine (including both Arroway and Drumlin). Although Ellie is one of the top selections, Palmer Joss (Matthew McConaughey), a panel member whom Arroway met in Puerto Rico and had a brief romantic encounter with, notes her lack of religious faith. Ultimately, the panel selects Drumlin. On the day of testing the machine, a religious fanatic (Jake Busey) destroys the machine in a suicide bombing, killing Drumlin and everyone else onboard.

After the destruction, however, the mysterious and secretive Hadden reveals to Arroway that a second machine is hidden in Hokkaido, Japan, and that Arroway will be the pilot.

Arroway, outfitted with several recording devices, is locked into the Japanese machine pod and dropped into the rapidly spinning and 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, as well as signs of a highly advanced civilization on an unknown planet. She finds herself in a surreal beachfront landscape similar to a picture she drew as a child 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, finding 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. She insists that she was gone for approximately 18 hours, but her recording devices show only static. Kitz resigns as national security adviser 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 Arroway's recording devices not only contained static, but contained 18 hours of it. Arroway and Joss reunite, and Arroway receives ongoing financial support for the SETI program at the Very Large Array.

Cast[link]

• Jodie Foster as Dr. Eleanor "Ellie" Ann Arroway: SETI scientist who first discovers the alien contact message
  • Jena Malone as Young Ellie Arroway
• Matthew McConaughey as Palmer Joss: Renowned Christian philosopher who becomes romantically involved with Arroway
• James Woods as Michael Kitz: National Security Advisor who also heads the Congressional investigation of Arroway
• Tom Skerritt as David Drumlin: Scientific aide to the President of the United States
• William Fichtner as Kent Clark: A blind SETI scientist who assists Arroway in her studies
• John Hurt as S.R. Hadden: An eccentric and reclusive billionaire industrialist who is fundamental in deciphering the alien's message, and eventually dies while aboard the Mir space station
• Angela Bassett as Rachel Constantine: White House Chief of Staff to President Clinton
• David Morse as Theodore Arroway: Arroway's father. He encourages his daughter to study amateur radio and the possibilities of extraterrestrial communications. He dies of a heart attack when Ellie is nine years old
• Jake Busey as Joseph: a religious fanatic responsible for the destruction of the machine and the death of David Drumlin
• Rob Lowe as Richard Rank: leader of the Conservative Coalition (a parody of Ralph Reed and the Christian Coalition^[2])
• Geoffrey Blake as Fisher: SETI scientist
• Max Martini as Willie: SETI scientist

Production[link]

Development[link]

Carl Sagan conceived the idea for Contact in 1979. The same year, Lynda Obst, one of Sagan's closest friends, was hired by film producer Peter Guber to be a studio executive for his production company, Casablanca FilmWorks. She pitched Guber the idea for Contact, who commissioned a development deal.^[1] Sagan, along with wife Ann Druyan, wrote a 100+ page film treatment, finishing in November 1980.^[3][4] Druyan explained, "Carl's and my dream was to write something that would be a fictional representation of what contact would actually be like, that would convey something of the true grandeur of the universe." They added the science and religion analogies as a metaphor of philosophical and intellectual interest in searching for the truth of both humanity and alien contact.^[5]

Sagan incorporated Kip Thorne's study of wormhole space travel into the screenplay.^[6] The characterization of Dr. Ellie Arroway was inspired by Dr. Jill Tarter, head of Project Phoenix of the SETI Institute; Jodie Foster researched the lead role by meeting her.^[7] Tarter served as a consultant on the story, realistically portraying struggling careers of women scientists from the 1950s to 1970s. The writers debated whether Arroway should have a baby at the film's end.^[8] Although Guber was impressed with Sagan and Druyan's treatment, he hired various screenwriters to rewrite the script. New characters were added, one of them a Native American park ranger-turned-astronaut.^[1] Guber suggested that Arroway have an estranged teenage son, whom he believed would add more depth to the storyline. "Here was a woman consumed with the idea that there was something out there worth listening to," Guber said, "but the one thing she could never make contact with was her own child. To me, that's what the film had to be about."^[1] Sagan and Druyan disagreed with Guber's idea and it was not incorporated into the storyline. In 1982, Guber took Contact to Warner Bros. Pictures and with the film laboring in development hell, Sagan started to turn his original idea into a novel, which was published by Simon & Schuster in September 1985. The film adaptation remained in development and Guber eventually vacated his position at Warner Bros. in 1989.^[1]

Guber became the new president of Sony Pictures Entertainment and tried to purchase the film rights of Contact from Warners, but the studio refused. Coincidentally, in 1989, Obst was hired as a new executive at Warners and began to fast track the film, by hiring more writers.^[1] Roland Joffé was eventually hired to direct,^[9] using a screenplay by James V. Hart.^[10] Joffé almost commenced pre-production before he dropped out^[9] and Obst then hired Michael Goldenberg to rewrite the script, who finished his second draft^[1] in late 1993. Goldenberg's second draft rekindled Warner Bros.' interest in Contact^[9] and Robert Zemeckis was offered the chance to direct, but he turned down the opportunity^[1] in favor of making a film based on the life of Harry Houdini.^[11] "The first script [for Contact] I saw was great until the last page and a half," Zemeckis recalled. "And then it had the sky open up and these angelic aliens putting on a light show and I said, 'That's just not going to work.'"^[1]

In December 1993, Warner Bros. hired George Miller to direct^[9] and Contact commenced pre-production. Miller cast Jodie Foster in the lead role, approached Ralph Fiennes to play Palmer Joss and also considered casting Linda Hunt as the President of the United States. In addition to having aliens put on a laser lighting display around Earth, another version of the Goldenberg scripts had an alien wormhole swallow up the planet, transporting Earth to the center of the galaxy. Miller also asked Goldenberg to rewrite Contact in an attempt to portray the Pope as a key supporting character. Warner Bros. was hoping to have the film ready for release by Christmas 1996, but under Miller's direction pre-production lasted longer than expected.^[1] The studio fired the director, blaming pushed-back start dates, budget concerns, and Miller's insistence that the script needed five more weeks of rewriting. Robert Zemeckis, who previously turned down the director's position, decided to accept the offer. Warner Bros. granted Zemeckis total artistic control and the right of final cut privilege.^[1] The director cast Matthew McConaughey as Palmer Joss, who dropped out of the lead role in The Jackal to take the role in Contact.^[12] Despite being diagnosed with Myelodysplasia in 1994, Sagan continued to be involved in the production of the film. For the cast and main crew members, he conducted an academic conference that depicted a detailed history of astronomy.^[1]

During the development of Contact, the production crew simultaneously watched Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) for inspiration.^[8]

Filming[link]

Principal photography for Contact began on September 24, 1996, and ended on February 28, 1997. The first shooting took place at the Very Large Array (VLA) in Socorro, New Mexico. "Shooting at the VLA was, of course, spectacular but also one of the most difficult aspects of our filming," producer Steve Starkey said. "It is a working facility, so in order for us to accomplish shots for the movie, we had to negotiate with the National Science Foundation for 'dish control' in order to move the dishes in the direction we needed to effect the most dramatic shot for the story."^[6] After arduous first weeks of location shooting in New Mexico and Arizona, production for Contact returned to Los Angeles for five months' worth of location and sound stage shooting that used a total of nine soundstages at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, and Culver Studios. All together, the art department created more than 25 sets.^[6]

In an attempt to create a sense of realism for the storyline, principal CNN news outlet commentators were scripted into Contact. More than 25 news reporters from CNN had roles in the film and the CNN programs Larry King Live and Crossfire were also included. Ann Druyan makes a cameo appearance as herself, debating Rob Lowe's character, Richard Rank, on Crossfire. In January 1997, a second unit was sent to Puerto Rico for one week at the Arecibo Observatory.

Other second unit work took place in Fiji and Newfoundland, Canada. Also essential to the production were a host of technical consultants from the SETI Institute, the California Institute of Technology, the VLA and a former White House staff member to consult on Washington D.C. and government protocol issues.^[13] Sagan visited the set a number of times, where he also helped with last-minute rewrites. Filming was briefly delayed with the news of his death on December 20, 1996. Contact was dedicated in part to his legacy.^[1]

Cinematographer Don Burgess shot the film in anamorphic format using VistaVision cameras. The sound designers used Pro Tools software for the audio mixing, which was done at Skywalker Sound.^[14]

Visual effects[link]

Designing Contact's visual effects sequences was a joint effort among eight separate VFX companies. This team included Sony Pictures Imageworks, Peter Jackson's Weta Digital, George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic, and Effects Associates. Weta Digital, in particular, was responsible for designing the wormhole sequence.^[15] Jodie Foster admitted she had difficulty with blue screen technology because it was a first for the actress. "It was a blue room. Blue walls, blue roof. It was just blue, blue, blue," Foster explained. "And I was rotated on a Lazy Susan with the camera moving on a computerized arm. It was really tough."^[1]

News footage of then-President Bill Clinton was digitally altered to make it appear as if he is speaking about alien contact. This was not the original plan for the film;^[1] Zemeckis had initially approached Sidney Poitier to play the president, but the actor turned the role down in favor of The Jackal.^[16] Shortly after Poitier's refusal, Zemeckis saw a NASA announcement in August 1996. "Clinton gave his Mars rock speech," the director explained, "and I swear to God it was like it was scripted for this movie. When he said the line 'We will continue to listen closely to what it has to say,' I almost died. I stood there with my mouth hanging open."^[1]

One notable feature of Contact is its use of digital color correction. This approach helped solve continuity errors during the location shooting at the Very Large Array in New Mexico. "The weather killed us, so we were going back in and changing it enough so that the skies and colors and times of day all seem roughly the same," visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston commented.^[17] The opening scale view shot of the entire universe, lasting approximately three minutes, was inspired by the short documentary film Powers of Ten (1977). At the time, it was the longest continuous computer-generated effect for a live-action film, a distinction now held by the opening sequence from The Day After Tomorrow (2004).^[18]

The decoding of the extraterrestrial message, with its architectural drawings of the machine, was created by Ken Ralston and Sony Pictures Imageworks. This is the sixth film collaboration between director Zemeckis and VFX supervisor Ralston. Imageworks created more than 350 visual effects shots, using a combination of model and miniature shots and digital computer work. On designing the Machine, Zemeckis explained that "The Machine in Sagan's novel was somewhat vague, which is fine for a book. In a movie, though, if you're going to build a giant physical structure of alien design, you have to make it believable." He continued that "it had to be huge, so that the audience would feel like it was bigger than man should be tinkering with. It had to look absolutely real."^[6] The machine was then designed by concept artist Steve Burg, reusing a conceptual design he had originally created to appear as the "Time Displacement Device" in Terminator 2 in a scene that did not make the final cut.^[19]

Early conceptual designs of the Pod itself were based, as it existed in the novel, on one of the primary shapes in geometry, a dodecahedron, or a twelve-sided figure. Eventually the Pod was modified to a spherical capsule that encases the traveler. Zemeckis and the production crew also made several visits to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, where officials allowed them access to sites off-limits to most visitors. Filmmakers were also brought onto Launch Complex 39 before the launch of the space shuttle.^[6] There, they concentrated on the mechanics of the elevator and the gantry area and loading arm. The resulting photographs and research were incorporated into the design of the machine's surrounding supports and gantry. Once the concept met with the filmmakers' approval, physical construction began on the sets for the Pod itself, the interior of the elevator, and the gantry, which took almost four months to build. The rest of the effects were compiled digitally by Imageworks.^[6]

The climactic scene depicting the mysterious beach near the galactic core where Arroway makes contact, in particular, called for major visual innovations. The goal was an idyllic seashore with a sky blazing with stars that might exist near the core of the galaxy. Ralston said that "the thought was that this beach would have a heightened reality. One that might make the everyday world seem like a vague daydream."^[8] To keep the question alive whether any of it was real in Arroway's mind, elements such as ocean waves running in reverse and palm tree shadows swaying with sped-up motion were applied.^[8]

The Hitler newsreel also required digital manipulation.^[8]

Music[link]

The original score was composed by Alan Silvestri, most of which was released on August 19, 1997, by Warner Bros. Records.^[20] The full score is approximately an hour long, 44 minutes of which is on the CD, including every major cue. The CD track entitled "Good to Go" features a slightly different opening—a brief brass motif that is not in the film—but all other cues are identical in orchestration to the mix in the film.

The Region 2 Special Edition DVD release contains a 5.1 isolated score track,^[21] which presents the complete score (this feature, as with many isolated scores, is not mentioned in most product descriptions of the DVD).^[22][23]

Science and religion[link]

Contact often suggests that cultural conflicts between religion and science would be brought to the fore by the apparent contact with aliens that occurs in the film. A point of discussion is the existence of a god, with several different positions being portrayed.^[8] A description of an emotionally intense experience by Palmer Joss, which he describes as seeing God, is met by Arroway's suggestion that "some part of [him] needed to have it"—that it was a significant personal experience but indicative of nothing greater. Joss compares his certainty that God exists to Arroway's certainty that she loved her deceased father, despite her being unable to prove it.^[8]

Contact depicts intense debate occurring as a result of the apparent contact with aliens. Many clips of well-known debate shows such as Crossfire and Larry King Live are shown, with participants discussing the implications of the message, asking whether it is proof of the existence of alien life or of God, and whether science is encroaching upon religious ground by, as one believer puts it, "talking to your god for you."^[24] The head of a religious organization casts doubt on the morality of building the machine, noting: "We don't even know whether [the aliens] believe in God." The first machine is ultimately destroyed by a religious extremist, in the belief that building it was detrimental to humankind.^[8]

Although the revelation at the end of the film that Arroway's recording device recorded approximately 18 hours of static is arguably conclusive proof of the fact of—if not the experience of—her "journey", several coincidences and indications throughout the film cast doubt on its authenticity. Director Robert Zemeckis indicated: "The point of the movie is for there always to be a certain amount of doubt [as to whether the aliens were real]."^[24] These indications consist mostly of visual cues during the "journey" that echo Ellie's experiences earlier in the film (which Ellie believed to be the result of the aliens "downloading [her] thoughts and memories"), but the timing of the message's arrival and its eventual decoding are also highly coincidental: the message was first received shortly before Arroway and her team were to be ejected from the VLA facility and was successfully decoded only by S.R. Hadden (Arroway's only sponsor, who was close to death from cancer) after weeks of failed attempts by the team at the VLA.^[24]

At the end of the film, Arroway is put into a position that she had traditionally viewed with skepticism and contempt: that of believing something with complete certainty, despite being unable to prove it in the face of not only widespread incredulity and skepticism (which she admits that as a scientist she would normally share) but also evidence apparently to the contrary.^[24]

Zemeckis stated that he intended the message of the film to be that science and religion can coexist rather than being opposing camps,^[24] as shown by the coupling of scientist Arroway with the religious Joss, as well as his acceptance that the "journey" indeed took place. This, and scattered references throughout the film, posit that science and religion are not nominally incompatible: one interviewer, after asking Arroway whether the construction of the machine—despite not knowing what will happen when it is activated—is too dangerous, suggests that it is being built on the "faith" that the alien designers, as Arroway puts it, "know what they're doing."^[8]

Release[link]

Box office/Home video[link]

Contact had its premiere on July 1, 1997, at the Westwood Theater in Los Angeles, California.^[25] The film was released in the United States on July 11, 1997, in 1,923 theaters, earning $20,584,908 in its opening weekend. Contact eventually grossed $100.92 million in the US and $70.2 million in foreign countries, reaching a worldwide total of $171.12 million.^[26] With VHS release in early December 1997, Contact earned an additional $49 million in rental figures.^[27] Warner Home Video released Contact on DVD later that month, containing three separate audio commentaries by director Robert Zemeckis and producer Steve Starkey, another by visual effects supervisors Ken Ralston and Stephen Rosenbaum, along with one by star Jodie Foster.^[28]

The release of Contact in July 1997 rekindled public interest in Sagan's 1985 novel. The book remained on the The New York Times Best Seller list from July 27 to September 21, 1997.^[29][30]

Contact was released on Blu-ray on October 6, 2009.

Critical analysis[link]

Contact received a generally average-favorable response from critics.^[31][32] On the basis of 62 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, 63% of critics enjoyed the film, with an average score of 6.8/10.^[31] Contact was more balanced with 12 critics with the website's "Top Critics" poll, earning a 50% approval rating, with a 6.3/10 score.^[33] By comparison, Metacritic calculated an average score of 62/100, based on 22 reviews.^[32] Roger Ebert gave a largely positive review, believing that Contact was on par with Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) as Hollywood's most cinematic study of extraterrestrial life. "Movies like Contact help explain why movies like Independence Day leave me feeling empty and unsatisfied," Ebert commented.^[34] On December 21, 2011, Ebert added Contact to his Great Movies collection.^[35]

Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film carried a more philosophical portrait of the science fiction genre than did other films, but he believed that Contact still managed "to satisfy the cravings of the general public who simply want to be entertained," he said.^[36] Internet reviewer James Berardinelli called Contact "one of 1997's finest motion pictures, and is a forceful reminder that Hollywood is still capable of making magic." Berardinelli also felt that the film was on par with Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) to be one of the greatest science fiction films ever made.^[37] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle largely enjoyed the first 90 minutes of Contact but felt that director Robert Zemeckis was too obsessed with visual effects rather than cohesive storytelling for the pivotal climax.^[38] Rita Kempley, writing in The Washington Post, gave a largely negative review: she did not like the film's main premise, which Kempley described as "a preachy debate between sanctity and science."^[39]

Awards[link]

Sound designers Randy Thom, Tom Johnson, Dennis S. Sands and William B. Kaplan were nominated for the Academy Award for Sound but lost to Titanic.^[40][41] Jodie Foster was nominated the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama, but Judi Dench was awarded the category for her work in Mrs. Brown.^[42] Contact won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation over The Fifth Element, Gattaca, Men in Black and Starship Troopers.^[43] The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films awarded individual awards to Jodie Foster (Best Actress) and Jena Malone (Best Performance by a Younger Actor) at the 24th Saturn Awards. Director Robert Zemeckis, writers James V. Hart and Michael Goldenberg, film score composer Alan Silvestri and the visual effects supervisors also received Saturn Award nominations. Contact was nominated the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film, but lost to Men in Black.^[44]

American Film Institute lists

• AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills – Nominated^[45]
• AFI's 10 Top 10 – Nominated Science Fiction Film^[46]

In popular culture[link]

Because of the movie's notability, South Park's creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker are well known for poking fun at the movie for its twists and turns. In the episode "Tom's Rhinoplasty" where Mr. Garrison is waking up from his nose job operation, the doctor asks whether he has seen the movie. Garrison, in response, vomits in disgust of the movie. The film was also referred to in the episode "Cancelled".^[47] It is also briefly mentioned in the Family Guy episode "Three Kings" by Stewie, who exclaims it is hard to believe nobody noticed the construction of the other machine in Japan.

Controversies[link]

Bill Clinton and CNN[link]

On July 14, 1997, three days after Contact's opening day release in the United States, Warner Bros. received a letter from White House Counsel Charles Ruff protesting the use of then-President Bill Clinton's digitally composited appearance. The letter made no demands to director Robert Zemeckis or Warner Bros in terms of pulling release prints, film trailers or other marketing, but called the duration and manner of Clinton's appearance "inappropriate". No legal action was planned; the White House Counsel simply wanted to send a message to Hollywood to avoid unauthorized uses of the President's image. Zemeckis was reminded that official White House policy "prohibits the use of the President in any way ... (that) implies a direct ... connection between the President and a commercial product or service."^[48]

A Warner Bros. spokeswoman explained that "we feel we have been completely frank and upfront with the White House on this issue. They saw scripts, they were notified when the film was completed, they were sent a print well in advance of the film's July 11 opening, and we have confirmation that a print was received there July 2." However, Warner Bros. did concede that they never pursued or received formal release from the White House for the use of Clinton's image. While the Counsel commented that parody and satire are protected under the First Amendment, press secretary Mike McCurry believed that "there is a difference when the President's image, which is his alone to control, is used in a way that would lead the viewer to believe he has said something he really didn't say."^[48]

Shortly after the White House's complaint, CNN chairman, president, and CEO Tom Johnson announced he believed that in hindsight it was a mistake to allow 13 members of CNN's on-air staff (including Larry King and Bernard Shaw) to appear in the film, even though both CNN and Warner Bros. are owned by Time Warner. Johnson added that, for Contact, the CNN presence "creates the impression that we're manipulated by Time Warner, and it blurs the line." CNN then changed their policies for future films, which now requires potential appearances to be cleared through their ethics group.^[48]

Lawsuits[link]

Director George Miller, who had developed Contact with Warner Bros. before Zemeckis' hiring, unsuccessfully sued the studio over breach of contract policies.^[1]

During the filming of Contact on December 28, 1996, filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola filed a posthumous lawsuit against Carl Sagan and Warner Bros. Pictures. Sagan had died that December 20, six days before Coppola filed his lawsuit.^[49][50] Ann Druyan, widow of Sagan, stated, "All I can say is, when a man writes a complaint with his lawyer while your husband is dying after a third bone-marrow transplant, and then waits for him to die so he can file it—it's outrageous." Producer Lynda Obst commented: "Ann and Carl made up this idea from scratch, piece by piece. I sat in the room watching them do it. Of course Carl had been thinking about alien encounters all his life. He's the one who made the subject credible in science. And for Coppola to file a lawsuit within days after he died—it's appalling."^[1]

Scott Edelman, who represented Druyan, added, " . . . It exceeds all bounds of decency that after waiting over 20 years, he chose to sue Sagan six days after he died."^[50] Coppola claimed that Sagan's novel was actually based on a story the pair had developed for a television special^[51] back in 1975,^[49] titled First Contact. Under their development agreement,^[51] Coppola and Sagan were to split proceeds from the project with American Zoetrope and Children's Television Workshop Productions, as well as any novel Sagan would write. The TV program was never produced, but in 1985, Simon & Schuster published Contact and Warner Bros. moved forward with development of a film adaptation. Coppola sought at least $250,000 in compensatory damages and an injunction against production or distribution of the film.^[49]

In February 1998, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ricardo Torres dismissed Coppola's claim. Although Torres agreed that Sagan violated some terms of the contract, he explained that Coppola waited too long to file his lawsuit, and that the contract might not be enforceable as it was written. Coppola then appealed his suit,^[51] taking it to The California Courts of Appeal (CCA). In April 2000, the CCA dismissed his suit, finding that Coppola’s claims were barred because they were brought too late. The court noted that it was not until 1994 that the filmmaker thought about suing over Contact.^[50]

Cyanide[link]

The scene where the NASA scientists give Arroway the "cyanide pill" caused some controversy during production and also when the film came out. Gerald D. Griffin, the film's NASA advisor, insisted that NASA has never given any astronaut a cyanide pill "just in case," and that if an astronaut truly wished to commit suicide in space, all he or she would have to do is cut off their oxygen supply.^[24] However, Carl Sagan insisted that NASA did indeed give out cyanide pills and they did it for every mission an astronaut has ever flown. Zemeckis said that because of the two radically different assertions, the truth is unknown, but he left the suicide pill scene in the movie as it seemed more suspenseful that way and it was also in line with Sagan's beliefs and vision of the film.^[24]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Keay Davidson (1999). Carl Sagan: A Life. New York City: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-25286-7. 

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Contact (film)

• Contact at the Internet Movie Database
• Contact at AllRovi
• Contact at Rotten Tomatoes
• Contact at Box Office Mojo
• Cinematography analysis
• Visual effects analysis
• September 8, 1995 screenplay
• In-depth analysis of the realism of the film and novel
• SETI Institute - Contact the Movie

v t e Carl Sagan Books Mars and the Mind of Man The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science Cosmos The Nuclear Winter: The World After Nuclear War Contact Comet A Path Where No Man Thought: Nuclear Winter and the End of the Arms Race Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God Media Cosmos: A Personal Voyage Contact See also SETI Pioneer plaque Voyager Golden Record Pale Blue Dot Linda Salzman Sagan Nick Sagan Ann Druyan

Jodie Foster
Foster in Paris at the César Awards 2011
Born	Alicia Christian Foster (1962-11-19) November 19, 1962 (age 49) Los Angeles, California, United States
Education	Bachelor's degree (magna cum laude)
Alma mater	Yale University
Occupation	Actress, Producer, Director
Years active	1966–present

Jodie Foster (born Alicia Christian Foster; November 19, 1962) is an American actress, film director, and producer.

Foster began acting in commercials at three years of age,^[1] and her first significant role came at age 13 in the 1976 film Taxi Driver as the preteen prostitute Iris, for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Also that year, she starred in the cult film The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1989, for playing a rape victim in The Accused. In 1991, she starred in The Silence of the Lambs as Clarice Starling, a gifted FBI trainee, assisting in a hunt for a serial killer. This performance received international acclaim and her second Academy Award for Best Actress. She received her fourth Academy Award nomination for playing a hermit in Nell (1994). Other popular films include Bugsy Malone (1976); Freaky Friday (1976); Candleshoe (1977) Maverick (1994); Contact (1997); Panic Room (2002); Flightplan (2005); Inside Man (2006); The Brave One (2007); Nim's Island (2008) and Carnage (2011), for which she received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy.

Foster's films have spanned a wide variety of genres, from family films to horror. In addition to her two Academy Awards, she has won three BAFTA Awards for two films, two Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a People's Choice Award, and has received two Emmy nominations.

Early life[link]

Foster was born in Los Angeles, California. She is the youngest of four children born to Evelyn Ella "Brandy" (née Almond) and Lucius Fisher Foster II. Her father, a decorated U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel turned real estate broker, came from a wealthy background and left his wife before Jodie was born.^[2] Evelyn supported Jodie by working as a film producer.^[3] Jodie has an older brother, Buddy, and two older sisters, Lucinda and Constance.^[4] After appearing as a child in several commercials, Foster made her first credited TV appearance on The Doris Day Show. Her first film role was in the 1970 television movie Menace on the Mountain, which was followed by several Disney productions.

Foster attended a French-language prep school, the Lycée Français de Los Angeles, and graduated in 1980, as the valedictorian.^[5] She frequently stayed and worked in France as a teenager, and still speaks the language fluently.^[6] She attended Yale University, and was a member of Calhoun College and Manuscript Society.^[7] She graduated magna cum laude,^[8] earning a bachelor's degree in literature in 1985. She was scheduled to graduate in 1984, but the shooting of then-President Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley, Jr., in which Hinckley's fascination with Foster created unwanted adverse publicity for her,^[9] caused her to take a semester's leave of absence from Yale.^[10][11] She later gave the Class Day speech at her alma mater in 1993, and received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the university in 1997.^[8]

Fluent in French, Foster has dubbed herself in French-language versions of most of her films.^[12][13] In 2004, she took a minor role in the French WWI film, A Very Long Engagement. She also understands German,^[14][15] Spanish and can converse in Italian.^[16]

^[17]

Career[link]

Child star[link]

Jodie Foster with Christopher Connelly in Paper Moon, 1974.

Foster made nearly 50 film and television appearances before she attended college. She began her career at age three as a Coppertone Girl in a television commercial and debuted as a television actress in a 1968 episode of Mayberry R.F.D.^[18] She was managed by her mother.^[19] In 1969, she appeared in an episode of Gunsmoke, where she was credited as "Jody Foster". She is also credited as "Jodi Foster" for her 1970 Daniel Boone role and credited as "Jodie Foster" for her 1970 Adam-12 role. Although not a regular on The Courtship of Eddie's Father, she appeared from time to time as Eddie's friend Joey Kelly.^[20] She made her film debut in the 1970 TV movie Menace on the Mountain and was featured as Tallulah in Bugsy Malone in 1976. As a child, Foster made a number of Disney movies, including Napoleon and Samantha (1972) and One Little Indian (1973), and she continued to star in Disney films into her early teens. On television, she appeared in an episode of The Partridge Family titled "The Eleven-Year Itch", co-starred with Christopher Connelly in the 1974 TV series Paper Moon and alongside Martin Sheen in the 1976 cult film The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane. As a teenager, Foster made several appearances on the French pop music circuit as a singer. Commenting on her years as a child actress, which she describes as an "actor's career", Foster has said that "it was very clear to me at a young age that I had to fight for my life and that if I didn't, my life would get gobbled up and taken away from me."^[21] She hosted Saturday Night Live at age 14, making her the youngest person to host at that time until Drew Barrymore hosted at the age of seven.^{[citation needed]} She also said,

I think all of us when we look back on our childhood, we always think of it as somebody else. It's just a completely different place. But I was lucky to be around in the '70s and to really be making movies in the '70s with some great filmmakers – the most exciting time, for me, in American Cinema. I learned a lot from some very interesting artists – and I learned a lot about the business at a young age, because, for whatever reason, I was paying attention; so it was kind of invaluable in my career.^[22]

Foster made her debut (and only official) musical recordings in France in 1977: two seven-inch singles, "Je T'attends Depuis la Nuit des Temps" b/w "La Vie C'est Chouette"^[23] and "When I Looked at Your Face" backed with "La Vie C'est Chouette". The A-side of the former is sung in French, the A-side of the latter in English. The B-side of both is mostly spoken word and is performed in both French and English. These three recordings were included on the soundtrack to Foster's 1977 French film Moi, fleur bleue.

Foster starred in three films in 1976: Taxi Driver, Bugsy Malone, and Freaky Friday. She was nominated for the Academy Award For Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Taxi Driver. She won two British Academy Film Awards in 1977: the BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performances in Bugsy Malone opposite Scott Baio and Taxi Driver opposite Robert De Niro. She received a nomination for Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance in Freaky Friday. As a teenager, she also starred in the Disney adventure Candleshoe (1977) and the coming-of-age drama Foxes (1980).

Target of fan obsession[link]

John Hinckley, Jr., became obsessed with Foster after watching Taxi Driver a number of times,^[24][25] and stalked her while she attended Yale, sending her love letters to her campus mail box and even talking to her on the phone. On March 30, 1981, he attempted to assassinate U.S. President Ronald Reagan (shooting and wounding Reagan and three others) and claimed his motive was to impress Foster, then a Yale freshman. The media stormed the Yale campus in April "like a cavalry invasion," and followed Foster relentlessly.^[26][27]

Another man, Edward Richardson, followed Foster around Yale and planned to shoot her, but decided against it because she "was too pretty."^[28] This all caused intense discomfort to Foster and reporters have constantly been warned in advance not to bring up the subject in front of her, as she has been known to walk out of interviews if Hinckley's name is even mentioned.^[28] In 1991, Foster canceled an interview with NBC's Today Show when she discovered Hinckley would be mentioned in the introduction.^[28] Foster's only public reactions to this were a press conference afterwards and an article titled "Why Me?" that she wrote for Esquire in December 1982. In that article she wrote that returning to work on the film Svengali with Peter O'Toole "made me fall in love with acting again"^[29] after the assassination attempt had shaken her confidence. In 1999, she discussed the experience with Charlie Rose of 60 Minutes II.^[30]

Adult career[link]

At the 61st Academy Awards Governor's Ball, March 29, 1989.

Unlike other child stars such as Shirley Temple or Tatum O'Neal, Foster successfully made the transition to adult roles, but it was not without initial difficulty, as several of the films in her early adult career were financially unsuccessful. These included The Hotel New Hampshire,^[31] Five Corners,^[32] and Stealing Home.^[33] She had to audition for her role in The Accused. She won the part and the first of her two Golden Globes and Academy Awards and a nomination for a BAFTA Award as Best Actress for her role as a rape survivor. She starred as FBI trainee Clarice Starling in the 1991 thriller The Silence of the Lambs, for which she won her second Academy Award and Golden Globe, and won her first BAFTA Award for Best Actress. This is the film for which Foster has won the most awards. This "sleeper" film marked a breakthrough in her career, grossing nearly $273 million in theaters^[34] and becoming her first blockbuster.^[35]

Foster made her directorial debut in 1991, with Little Man Tate, a critically acclaimed^[36] drama about a child prodigy, in which she also co-starred as the child's mother. She also directed Home for the Holidays (1995), a black comedy starring Holly Hunter and Robert Downey Jr.^[22] In 1992, Foster founded a production company called Egg Pictures in Los Angeles. It primarily produced independent films for distribution by other companies until it was closed in 2001. Foster said that she did not have the ambition to produce "big mainstream popcorn" movies and, as a child, independent films had made her more interested in the movie business than mainstream ones.^[22] She played Laurel Sommersby in Sommersby opposite Richard Gere, who would comment that "She's very much a close-up actress, because her thoughts are clear."^[37]

Foster starred in two films in 1994, first in the hugely successful western spoof Maverick^[38] and later in Nell, in which she starred as an isolated woman who speaks an invented language and must return to civilization. Her performance earned her nominations for her fourth Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and an MTV Movie Award, and won her a Screen Actors Guild Award and a People's Choice Award. In 1996, Women in Film awarded her the Crystal Award for outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry.^[39] In the same year, Foster was awarded with the Berlinale Camera award at the 46th Berlin International Film Festival.^[40]

In 1997, she starred alongside Matthew McConaughey in the science-fiction movie Contact, based on the novel by scientist Carl Sagan. She portrayed a scientist searching for extraterrestrial life in the SETI project. She commented on the script that "I have to have some acute personal connection with the material. And that's pretty hard for me to find."^{[citation needed]} Contact was her first sci-fi film, and her first experience with a bluescreen. She commented, "Blue walls, blue roof. It was just blue, blue, blue. And I was rotated on a lazy Susan with the camera moving on a computerized arm. It was really tough."^[41]

The film was another commercial success^[42] and earned Foster nominations for numerous awards, including a Golden Globe. In 1998, an asteroid, 17744 Jodiefoster, was named in her honor.^[43] In 1999, she starred in the non-musical remake of The King and I titled Anna and the King, which became an international commercial success.^[44]

Foster at the 62nd Academy Awards ceremonies in 1990.

In 2002, Foster took over the lead role in the thriller Panic Room after Nicole Kidman dropped out due to a previous injury.^[45] The film costarred Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, Dwight Yoakam and Kristen Stewart and was directed by David Fincher. It grossed over $30 million in its opening weekend in the United States, Foster's biggest box office opening success of her career so far.^[22] She then performed in the French-language film Un long dimanche de fiançailles (A Very Long Engagement) (2004), speaking French fluently throughout. She returned to English-language films with the 2005 thriller Flightplan, which opened once again in the top position at the U.S. box office and was a worldwide hit.^[46] She portrayed a woman whose daughter disappears on an airplane that her character, an engineer, helped to design.^[47]

In 2006, Foster co-starred in Inside Man, a thriller directed by Spike Lee and starring Denzel Washington and Clive Owen, which again opened at the top of the U.S. box office and became another international hit.^[48] In 2007, she starred in The Brave One directed by Neil Jordan and co-starring Terrence Howard, another urban thriller that opened at No.1 at the U.S. box office.^[49] Her performance in the film earned her a sixth Golden Globe for Best Actress nomination and another People's Choice nomination, for Favorite Female Action Star. Commenting on her latest roles, she has said she enjoys appearing in mainstream genre films that have a "real heart to them."^[50]

In 2008, Foster starred in Nim's Island alongside Gerard Butler and Abigail Breslin, portraying a reclusive writer who is contacted by a young girl after her father goes missing at sea. The film was the first comedy that Foster has starred in since Maverick in 1994, and was also a commercial success.^[51]

Foster was set to direct, as well as reunite with actor Robert De Niro, for the film Sugarland; however, the film was shelved indefinitely in 2007. Foster is developing a biographical film of Leni Riefenstahl. She directs and stars opposite her Maverick co-star Mel Gibson in a black comedy titled The Beaver, out in April 2011.^[52]

Foster provided her voice for Maggie in a tetralogy episode of The Simpsons titled "Four Great Women and a Manicure."^[53]

In March 2011, Foster said she planned to direct a family-oriented science-fiction thriller. At that point, she said, the project remained in the scripting stage.^[54]

Personal life[link]

Foster has two older sisters, Lucinda "Cindy" Foster (b. 1954) and Constance "Connie" Foster (b. 1955), and an older brother, Lucius Fisher "Buddy" Foster^[55] (b. 1957). During the filming of both Taxi Driver and The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, Connie was her stand-in. Buddy Foster had his own career for several years appearing in regular spots on television shows such as Hondo and Mayberry, R.F.D. Foster and her brother have been estranged for many years. In 1997, he wrote a book titled Foster Child in which he stated, "I have always assumed Jodie was gay or bisexual."^[55] In the book, he writes that she was conceived in her father's office three years after their parents divorced, when their mother went to him for child support. He also claims that her name was changed from "Alicia" to "Jodie" because it was a code "Jo D" for their mother's partner, Josephina Dominguez. Jodie Foster called the book "[a] cheap cry for attention and money filled with hazy recollections, fantasies and borrowed press releases. Buddy has done nothing but break our mother's heart his whole life."^[56]

Foster has two sons: Charles "Charlie" Foster (b. July 20, 1998) and Christopher "Kit" Foster (b. September 29, 2001).^[57] Foster gave birth to both children, but has not revealed the identity of the children's father(s) or the method(s) by which they were conceived.^[58]

Foster is intensely private about certain aspects of her personal life, notably her sexual orientation, which has been the subject of speculation.^[59] In December 2007, she made headlines when, during an acceptance speech at Hollywood Reporter's "Women in Entertainment" event, she paid tribute to film producer Cydney Bernard,^[60] referring to her as "my beautiful Cydney, who sticks with me through the rotten and the bliss." Some media interpreted this as Foster coming out, as Bernard was believed to be her girlfriend since the two had met in 1992, during the filming of Sommersby.^[60][61][62] Foster and Bernard never attended premieres or award ceremonies together, nor did they ever appear to be affectionate with each other, though Bernard has been seen in public with Foster's children on many occasions. On May 15, 2008, several news outlets reported that Foster and Bernard had "called it quits."^[63][64]

Foster is an atheist ^[65] and does not follow any "traditional religion." She has discussed the god of the gaps.^[66][67] Foster has "great respect for all religions" and spends "a lot of time studying divine texts, whether it's Eastern religion or Western religion."^[37][68] She and her children celebrate both Christmas and Hannukah.^[69] Some sources claim that Foster is a member of Mensa,^[70][71] but Foster stated that she is not a member during an interview on Italian TV network RAI.^[72]

Filmography[link]