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Contact

film by Zemeckis [1997]

Quick Summary

"Contact" is a 1997 film directed by Robert Zemeckis, based on the 1985 science-fiction novel of the same name by Carl Sagan. The story centers on astronomer Ellie Arroway, who detects a signal from a nearby star. This signal, a sequence of prime numbers, is deduced to be from an intelligent extraterrestrial civilization.1

The message contains a blueprint for a space-traveling machine. This discovery sparks debate among religious fundamentalists, scientists, and governments about whether to build it. Ultimately, a multinational team embarks on the journey. The novel and film explore themes of extraterrestrial contact, intertwining complex mathematics with questions about religion, spirituality, and humanity's place in the universe. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI, is an ongoing effort to detect signals from space that might indicate the presence of technologically advanced beings.123

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