Ok, so first contact technically took place (as we find out from a crazy-haired Brent Spiner) at Roswell in the 40’s. But for most of the six billion people in the world, the first sign they get of extraterrestrial life is a fleet of massive UFOs positioning themselves over major cities and blacking out the sun.
ID4 pretty much abuses fear of the unknown by making the aliens two-dimensional and evil. It doesn’t so much focus on the question of whether or not they are friendly (we get that answer in the preview) but instead on how the human race responds.
Leave it to the good old Americans to save the day. And does anyone else feel like Bill Pullman’s character was one of the greatest American presidents, even though he isn’t a real person?
No, this movie wasn’t a masterpiece, but it kicked some serious ass.
Yes, Star Trek. Rest assured that you don’t need to know much about the series to appreciate this movie, and if you dismiss it simply because of its title – well, you’re loss I suppose.
So much of science fiction is concerned with the question, “What if humans made contact with aliens?” Every other movie on this list has that question at its core. First Contact flips that question on its head and asks, “What would happen if humans didn’t make contact?”
With the future at stake, Captain Picard travels back in time to ensure that history stays on course while fighting a menacing enemy intent on altering the timeline. This is a five star movie, whether you like Star Trek or not.
2.) Close Encounters of the Third Kind
A missing ship turns up in the desert. Thousands of people hear noises in the skies. A strange chemical leak may or may not have to do with a government conspiracy. And Richard Dreyfus’ mashed potatoes lead him to the ominously named Devil’s Tower.
A master of mystery, Steven Spielberg strings these things and many others together to draw the viewer closer and closer to a big secret – but he leaves us just enough in the dark to keep us on the edge of our seats.
This one jockeyed back and forth for first on my list, and I’m not entirely convinced that I made the right decision. Either way, Close Encounters is nothing short of awe-inspiring, magical, and utterly brilliant.
1.) 2001
As a movie about first contact, this one is probably equal to Close Encounters. But 2001 ended up at the top of my list because it might also be the best movie of all time.
I could write volumes about 2001, and after Arthur C. Clarke died a few weeks back, I scrapped a blog entry about the movie because I couldn’t make it concise enough.
But as far as first contact is concerned, Kubrick and Clarke use it as a device to explore human nature, history, and the divine. Very little is ever revealed about the aliens. They are never seen, but evidence of their existence and influence is everywhere.
When first contact is finally made in the film’s third act, astronaut Dave Bowman is left appropriately speechless after declaring, “My God! It’s full of stars!” The final twenty minutes are silently mystical, and they leave the viewer wondering whether salvation might actually lie at the edge of the galaxy rather than in heaven.
Does the first “Alien” movie count as first contact? I guess “Signs” does.
I also enjoyed the appropriately titled “Contact” starring Jodie Foster.
It was tough not to have “Contact” on the list. I love that movie, and also “Signs.”
I did think about “Alien,” but that is more of a monster movie so I discounted it.
Alien is not a monster movie at all, it’s an ALIEN movie.
Hence the FUCKING TITLE.
Stupid ass, it definitely deserves a place MUCH MORE than the freemason/illuminati agenda forced down our throats in “2001: A Space Odyssey”.
That movie is so chock-full of false religion it is SICKENING, I literally get ill thinking of it, and how many people don’t even realize the symbology of that movie!
It’s PURE propaganda, just look at the Isis Osiris Horus myth. (believed to be FACT by modern day Satanists and Luciferians (Kubrick worships Lucifer).
Anyways, you suck at reviewing, oh and learn the difference between ‘your’ and ‘you’re’ please.