CLOSE ENCOUNTER
of the First Kind
Sighting of a UFO
CLOSE ENCOUNTER
of the Second Kind
Physical Evidence
CLOSE ENCOUNTER
of the Third Kind
Contact
WE ARE NOT ALONE
The first scene is one of over a half dozen set-pieces
of 'close encounters,' all seemingly unconnected
events, which provide clues that culminate in the
extraordinary climax of the film. Through music,
images, and dialogue, the random scenes of the
storyline are masterfully coalesced together.
First Close Encounter:
The film begins in darkness following some initial
credits - as orchestral sounds build in volume, a
brilliant flash of light fills the screen.
[Communication in the form of the interplay between
music (sounds) and light (images) plays a significant
role in the film.] A jeep arrives, in the present day,
at its destination deep in the Sonora Desert, in a
sand-swept village in northern Mexico. It is difficult
for the waiting Mexican Federales Police to hear the
words of the team leader over the howling sandstorm:
"Are we the first?...Are we the first to arrive here?"
Shouting over the storm in Mexican, another of the
Federales is impossible to understand without an
interpreter. A second car arrives, and the newcomers
lean into the wind, holding onto their caps. One of
the men, identifying himself as a cartographer ("I'm a
mapmaker") and not a professional interpreter, David
Laughlin (Bob Balaban) is able to "translate French
into English and English into French." Laughlin
recognizes the French-speaking scientific team leader,
Claude Lacombe (French director Francois Truffaut,
playing a role based upon French UFO expert Jacques
Vallee) from his appearance at the Montsoreau
conference.
Lacombe: How long have you been working on this
project?
Laughlin: I've been with the American team from the
beginning. In fact, I saw you at the Montsoreau
conference which ended well, especially for you.
Especially for the French. If it isn't too late - my
congratulations.
They are summoned by one of the Americans, shouting
and pointing: "They're all there, all of them!"
Everyone runs through the sandstorm, which begins
subsiding, to a collection of vintage fighter aircraft
from World War II - in pristine condition. Lacombe
orders the serial numbers of the planes transcribed
off their engine blocks. Laughlin is confused: "What
the hell is happening here?" One of the mission
project leaders (J. Patrick McNamara) explains:
Project Leader: It's that training mission from the
Naval Air Station in Ft. Lauderdale...
Laughlin: Who flies crates like these anymore?
Project Leader: No one. These planes were reported
missing in 1945.
Laughlin: But it looks brand new. Where's the pilot? I
don't understand. Where's the crew? Hey! How the hell
did it get here?
Laughlin poses unanswerable questions, as the leader
finds personal effects in the cockpit of one of the
planes - sepia photographs and a 1945 calendar from a
bar in Pensacola, Florida. The vintage torpedo bombers
have charged batteries and full fuel tanks. One after
another, the engines of the planes are throttled up
and brought to life. Trying to figure out the enigma,
Lacombe is brought to a cantina to speak to one of the
local Mexicans who was an eyewitness to the
inexplicable events that happened the previous night.
The old derelict's half-crazed face is brightly
sunburned and he sheds tears of joy:
Old Man: El sol salio anoche y me canto!
Translator: He says the sun came out last night. He
says it sang to him.
Laughlin gazes up to an unfocused point in space and
time as the sand-swept scene shifts to the sweeping
viewer of a radar screen at Air Traffic Control,
Indianapolis Center.
Second Close Encounter:
Air traffic controllers, almost three thousand miles
away from the Mexican desert, keep watch over the
skies above Indiana. They monitor pilot's
communications, airplane locations, and general
aircraft activity to keep the skies safe:
Aireast Pilot (Roy E. Richards): Indianapolis Center,
do you have any traffic for Aireast 31?
Air Traffic Controller: Aireast 31, negative. The only
traffic I have is a TWA L-1011 in your six o'clock
position. Range - fifteen miles. There's an Allegheny
DC-9 in your twelve o'clock position, fifty miles.
Stand by one. I'll take a look at Broad Band.
Aireast Pilot: Aireast 31 has traffic two o'clock,
slightly above and descending.
Air Traffic Controller: Aireast 31, Roger. I have a
primary target about that position now. I have no
known high-altitude traffic. Stand by one. I'll check
Low [Altitude]. Over...
Aireast Pilot: Aireast 31. The traffic's not lower
than us. He's one o'clock now, still above me and
descending.
Air Traffic Controller: Aireast 31. Can you say
aircraft type?
Aireast Pilot: Negative, Center. No distinct outline.
To tell you the truth, the target is rather brilliant.
It has the brightest anti-collision lights I think
I've ever seen - alternating white to red. The colors
are a little striking.
TWA Pilot: Center, this is TWA 517. Traffic now looks
like extra bright landing lights. I thought Aireast
had his landing lights on.
As the not-so-routine communications continue, a few
of the other Traffic Controllers crowd around the
computerized radar screen as an UNK (Unknown) radar
blip in the air-position display shows up next to the
other two planes. The controllers can hardly
comprehend what they are seeing - an imminent air
collision. The controller orders evasive action by the
Aireast and Allegheny pilots to avoid a catastrophe:
Aireast Pilot: OK Center. Aireast 31. The traffic has
turned. He's heading right for my windshield. We're
turning right... [A CONFLICT ALERT sounds]
Air Traffic Controller: Aireast 31, descend and
maintain flight level three-one-zero. Break, Allegheny
triple four. Turn right thirty degrees immediately...
Aireast Pilot: Aireast 31, Roger. The traffic is quite
luminous and is exhibiting some non-ballistic motion.
Over.
Air Traffic Controller: Roger, Aireast 31. Continue to
send at your discretion, over.
Aireast Pilot: OK, Center. Center pilot's discretion
is approved. The traffic is approaching head-on...and
really moving. Went by us, right now. That was really
close.
One of the supervisors leans over the controller's
shoulder to document the unidentified flying object,
but the two pilots who witnessed the incident decline
to report the unusual circumstances:
Supervisor: Ask them if they want to report
officially.
Air Traffic Controller: TWA 517, do you want to report
a UFO? Over. [No response] TWA 517, do you want to
report a UFO? Over.
TWA Pilot: Negative. We don't want to report.
Air Traffic Controller: Aireast 31, do you wish to
report a UFO? Over.
Aireast Pilot: Negative. We don't want to report one
of those either.
Air Traffic Controller: Aireast 31, do you wish to
file a report of any kind to us?
Aireast Pilot: I wouldn't know what kind of report to
file, Center.
Air Traffic Controller: Aireast 31, me neither. I'll
try to track traffic and destination, over.
Third Close Encounter:
On a summer, star-lit, breezy night in Muncie,
Indiana, a young innocent child named Barry Guiler
(Cary Guffey) wakens from a dreamy sleep in his
country house. The blowing trees outside his window
cast moving shadows across his pillow and rustle the
curtains. Inexplicably but intentionally, a mechanical
toy monkey on his dresser begins moving manically - it
noisily clashes its two cymbals together. Barry sits
up from the noise and clamor, noticing that other
mechanical objects and toys in his room have also
sprung into action - his phonograph player begins to
spin, the head of a ghoulish monster turns red and the
figure moves its outstretched hands, and his play-toy
vehicles start cruising around. As the aliens
converge, a round beam of light dances on the wall of
the stairway - he follows it down as it leads him out
to the screen door of the porch. Through the door, he
can see more brilliant light, and drifting smoke.
When he hears a sound behind him, the boy turns toward
the kitchen - Coke cans drip their contents onto the
floor in front of the opened refrigerator. Grocery
items (egg cartons, raw meat, carrots, bacon, etc.)
are in a messy heap that lead toward the pet-door.
With an enchanted look on his face, as if called by an
invisible presence that only he senses, Barry
irresistibly follows the noises and is spirited away
by the aliens into a field.
Upstairs, Barry's young single mother Jillian Guiler
(Melinda Dillon) is roused from her sleep by an
invasion of her son's activated toys and the fact that
her television set has been turned on. Thinking it his
her son playing a trick on her, she calls out for him:
"Barry? Honey?" She enters her son's room, but he is
missing. Still grasping one of the moving toys, she
sees Barry running from the house toward the woods,
giggling and amused as he disappears into the night -
and she entreats him to stop, fearfully but helplessly
calling: "Barry! Barry!"
Fourth Close Encounter:
In a Muncie, Indiana suburban home in Middle America,
blue-collar lineman Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) is
playing with a toy train set in the center of his
family's living room. [A music box plays Jiminy
Cricket's theme song: "When You Wish Upon a Star" from
Disney's Pinocchio.] The television is playing the
four-hour movie, The Ten Commandments (1956) - because
of its length, Roy is going to allow his children to
see only half of it: "I told them they'd watch only
five." His wife Ronnie (Teri Garr) answers a phone
call from foreman Earl, who asks for Roy - one of his
power company technicians:
Neary, listen to me now, get over to the Gilmore
substation. We have lost the power up and down the
line. There's a drain on the primary voltage. [The
lights go out.] We've lost half the transformers at
the Kennedy substation.
Lights throughout town begin to go dark as the
progressive power failure spreads quickly across the
power grid. Soon, the entire area has been engulfed in
darkness. All the alarms blink as Roy briskly enters
the Department of Water and Power substation to
investigate the source of the power drain. Reports are
flowing in about the massive power-cut: "Crystal Lake
is dark...Tolono is completely gone." One of the
technicians recommends a strategy to deal with the
failing system: "Let it all fail. Let it all fail.
We'll pick up the pieces later after it's fallen." A
temporary supervisor thinks that's impossible: "I got
reports of vandalism on the line. I got eight
90-megawatt lines down all over." Neary is
knowledgeable about the Crystal Lake area: "There's no
wind, normal tension for the sag is 15,000 pounds per
wire." So he is appointed, without regard to
seniority, to go to Crystal Lake because he worked
there as a journeyman a few years earlier. As Neary
prepares to leave, another report shows how serious
the problems really are: "Got a fresh impedance coming
up. It's not an overload. It's a drain. Lines M-Mary
ten through M-Mary fifteen. And Municipal Lighting is
asking to be cut free." The supervisor replies: "You
tell Municipal Lighting we're going to candle power in
ten minutes."
Meanwhile, Jillian searches desperately for her son
near their home, using a flashlight to guide her way.
Distraught, she calls out: "Barry! Barry!"
In a memorable scene, Roy is lost on the road en route
to Crystal Lake when sent to investigate a power
blackout. He chuckles to himself: "Help, I'm lost."
While his face is buried in a roadmap to get his
bearings, he sees a set of bright lights approaching
from behind his truck. Without looking, he casually
waves on the car, and is reprimanded: "You're in the
middle of the road, you jack-ass." He proceeds to a
railroad crossing and pulls to a screeching stop to
once again check his map. Another set of bright lights
approaches behind him - it illuminates the interior of
his truck with brilliant light. Again, he waves it
past while engrossed in studying his map. But instead
of going around, the intense lights rise straight up
above his truck.
The first indication that something isn't right occurs
when his flashlight catches sight of a row of
rattling, jiggling mailboxes moving back and forth
like they were in an earthquake. Suddenly, his
flashlight, radio and other electrical lights shut
off. From above, his truck is bathed in blinding,
powerful rays of luminescent light. An array of
colorful lights overwhelms his sight, and a
deep-toned, thunderous vibration envelopes his truck.
There is an apparent loss of all gravitational force -
the railroad crossing signal rocks back and forth, the
electrical system indicators in the cab dashboard go
haywire and smoke, and debris flies randomly around
the interior of the cab. And then, just as suddenly as
it began, the vibrations and rockings of the
visitation cease, and the lights blink out. The
stillness is deafening - a dog barks off in the
distance.
Roy trembles, leans forward, and peers upwards through
his windshield, glancing at a gigantic, slow-moving,
flying object in the night sky. For an instant, a
narrow beam of intense light shines down on a stop
light further down the road. He nearly suffers a heart
attack when his flashlight suddenly turns back on. His
truck's engine, radio, and electrical system
instruments all begin functioning again. He tunes in
to a flood of reports about fantastic sightings and
other UFO encounters:
I don't believe this. It's big as a house.
It's crazy, shaped like a barn.
It's just off the Tolono Expressway, heading
east toward Harper Valley.
Trembling, but interested in pursuing the unidentified
phenomenon, Roy takes off in pursuit without a second
thought. The moon's light casts an ominous shadow of
the UFO over his infinitesimally-small truck as he
drives through the rural countryside. Excited by his
experience, but not knowing the meaning of his
new-found obsession, he recklessly races through the
night toward Harper Valley.
In another area of the greater Muncie, Indiana
landscape, little Barry has wandered away from home
and trekked down the center of a remote country road
on a hilltop - Crescendo Summit. He comes upon four
simple folk in a family - they are peaceful and
friendly - inexplicably drawn to watch the skies. The
father is whistling in familiar anticipation: "She'll
Be Comin' Round the Mountain." The little stranger
timidly waves at them. At that moment, Jill scrambles
up from the side of the road and spots Barry - but he
is in the path of Neary's fast-moving truck speeding
around the bend. Jillian dives and tackles her
transfixed son to save him from being hit in the
truck's path. Roy races to them after braking and
fighting his truck for control - he apologizes: "I'm
sorry. I didn't even see him. He was just standing
right in the middle of the road."
Fifth Close Encounter:v
Unshaken by the incident, Barry breaks free from his
mother's arms and dashes out into the hill-top road
again - while calling out to the sky: "Hello. Come
here...Play with me." As they stand there, a squadron
of three rumbling, high-speed, multi-colored vehicles
- each with a different configuration of lights - come
over the horizon and fly low over the road - the
objects gracefully pass over them in a smooth,
sweeping motion and vanish around the bend. A smaller,
glowing red spot of light, akin to Tinker Bell, trails
the other flying objects. Jillian, Roy, and the boy
witness three of the alien spacecraft, apparently
controlled by intelligent beings. Barry yells after
them: "Ice cream!" The old man of the family
reverentially opines:
They can fly rings around the moon, but we're years
ahead of them on the highway.
The undulating wailing of police car sirens are heard
in the distance - Jillian moves off the road just in
time - three police cars scream around the bend in
pursuit of the colorful objects. Neary is astounded by
the evening's events: "This is nuts!" Unconsciously,
Roy decides to follow the caravan of police cars in
his truck, heading for the OHIO STATE LINE toll booth.
The UFO's fly through the toll booth, setting off
alarms, closely followed by the police cars and Roy's
truck.
The patrol car driver in the lead car is mesmerized by
the high-speed caravan of UFO's and their flying
lights: "Jesus...Look at that! Look at those suckers.
They're glued to the road!" At a hair-pin turn, the
objects shoot up and over the guardrail and sail off
into the heavens. The first pursuit car follows the
objects and goes airborne for a few moments before
crashing below. The other vehicles screech to a halt
at the guard rail on the cliffside. The fantastic
lights in the sky fuse to become one while they
recede, and then at a tremendous velocity, they split
into three points of light before climbing and
disappearing into the cloud cover. The clouds are
illuminated by bursts of light from within just before
the electrical lights of the city are restored across
the horizon.
Returning home at four in the morning, Roy is ecstatic
and wakens his sleepy wife, unable to calm down:
"Honey, Ronnie. Wake up. You're not gonna believe what
I saw!...I never would have believed it. There was
this, uh, in the cab, there was this...it was a red
whoosh." Sleepily, she tells him that he has been
instructed to call the power department immediately:
"I think you'd better call them." He is so excited
that he cannot find words to explain his experience to
her: "You know, those pictures in the National
Geographic about the aurora borealis. This was better
than that." He insistently begs her to get up:
"Ronnie, I need you to see something with me. It's
really important." He also awakens the kids: "Silvia
[Adrienne Campbell], come on. We're going on a little
adventure. Toby! [Justin Dreyfuss] Brad! [Shawn
Bishop] Come on. Get up. Up!...It's better than Goofy
Golf!"
As he bundles everyone into his truck, Ronnie notices
that the left side of Roy's face is sunburned and beet
red: "Roy, you're sunburned! Look at you!" At the spot
on the road on Crescendo Summit where he saw the
indescribable objects, Roy tries to describe what he
witnessed:
Ronnie: Roy, what did it look like?
Roy: It was like an ice cream cone.
Ronnie: What flavor?
Roy: Orange. It was orange - and it wasn't like an ice
cream cone. It was, it was more like a shell. You
know, it was like this.
Ronnie: Like a taco? Was it like one of those Sara
Lee, um, moon-shaped cookies? Those crescent cookies?
(trying to be supportive) Don't you think I'm taking
this really well? I remember when we used to come to
places like this just to look at each other...and
snuggle.
After many smaller kisses, Ronnie gets Roy's mind off
the skies for a few moments, and they snuggle
together. But his life-transforming experience is
foremost on his mind.
The following morning, Ronnie cuts out two articles in
THE MUNCIE STAR newspaper: "State Police See Lights
Too, Fail to Cite Sky Speeders," and "UFO's Over Five
Counties - Indiana Buzzing." Knowing that the articles
are intriguing but they confirm what Roy saw, she has
second thoughts and crumples up the clipping. Because
one half of his face is burnt red in color, one of the
family's children thinks he looks like "a 50-50 bar."
After spraying a mound of shaving cream into his hand,
Roy stares at it and begins his obsession with the
recurring, imprinted image of the shape of a huge
mountain. [This is a mysterious vision that has been
implanted in his mind.] His pre-occupation with the
late-night experience alienates and strains his family
life and drives a wedge between Roy and his wife:
Roy: Ronnie, all I wanna do is, is, is know what's
goin' on.
Ronnie: But nothin's going on. It's just one of those
things.
Roy: Which things? Which things?
Ronnie: I don't want to hear about this anymore.
Roy: Ronnie, this is very important. I'm not just
gonna let it lay here. I'm gonna call somebody about
this...I saw something last night that I can't
explain.
Ronnie: I saw something last night I can't explain.
Roy: I'm going out there again tonight, you know.
Ronnie: No, you're not.
Roy: Yes I am.
Ronnie: No, you're not.
Roy: Yes I am.
Ronnie: No, you're not. (She smashes his cupped hand
with shaving cream into his mouth)
Ronnie takes a phone call, and is told, unexpectedly,
that Roy has been fired because of his
irresponsibility - he didn't call in to the department
to report. She relates the call to him: "Well, can't
you tell him about this? [The boss hangs up] I can't
believe it. Roy. You got fired. They didn't even want
to talk to you. I mean, I don't understand this, Roy.
Roy? What is happening here? We were up all night. I'm
not getting a job you know. I'm not getting a day
job..." As Roy lies on his bed and listens to Ronnie,
he becomes more and more withdrawn into his own world.
Her voice is muted in the background as he turns his
face away and looks at an upright pillow - again
seeing the familiar shape and image of a contoured
mound. Instinctively, he reaches out toward the
outline of the shape to understand it - he tells her:
"That's not right..."
That night, at the bend in the hill-top country road -
Crescendo Summit - Neary, with his Kodak Instamatic,
joins a large group of sight-seers who have been
spurred on by newspaper reports of the sightings and
are waiting for another encounter. Disturbed yet
fascinated by the UFO objects like he was, Jillian is
there and introduces herself to Roy. Each of them were
burned by the vision, and Roy jokes about his uneven
facial burn: "It's better on you. You got it all over.
I've got to tan the other side tonight." When Roy
looks at Jill's son Barry playing with a pile of mud
shaped like a mound, the boy pats the wet dirt into
place to form it. Kneeling down beside the boy and the
mound, Roy realizes that the boy shares the same
imprint of the shape. In a reverie, he talks of the
significance of the visions:
I know this sounds crazy, but ever since yesterday on
the road, I've been seeing this shape. Shaving cream,
pillows...Dammit! I know this. I know what this is!
This means something. This is important.
Suddenly, a shout erupts from the crowd: "Here they
come! Out of the northwest!" Lights are spotted in the
hazy sky above the horizon.
Jillian: It's like Halloween for grownups.
Roy: Trick or treat!
As the powerful lights grow in intensity and approach
closer, a staccato, vibrating roar becomes deafening.
The brilliant lights of the UFO's are haloed by the
haze in the atmosphere. The head of the family from
the previous night's sighting holds up a sign: "Stop
and Be Friendly." Expectantly, everyone in the crowd
cranes their eyes toward the skies. Roy senses that
the lights are not UFO's when the air is suddenly
churned up into clouds of dust and debris and a loud
chopping noise breaks the silence: "Wait a minute!"
They are helicopters sent to disperse the people on
the hillside.
Sixth Close Encounter:
In remote Dharmsala in Northern India, Lacombe and a
team of foreign visitors arrive in the heat, buffeted
by a multitude of worshippers (wearing white, saffron,
and ecru robes) gathering to rhythmically chant five
notes over and over again:
Lacombe: Mais, c'est la guerre pentatonique...cinq
notes au lieu de sept. (Translation: It's the
pentatonic war. That old musical controversy between
the five and seven note scales.) Demandez-lui d'ou
viennent ces sons. (Translation: I want to
know...where are the sounds coming from?)
A group of five leaders (including Lacombe) climb to a
nearby hillside, an older Hindu man turns to the crowd
below and repeats the question: "Where did these
sounds come from?" In unison, the thousands respond
with one gesture and voice, pointing skyward.
Before an assembled group in the U.S. about one week
later, Lacombe speaks in broken English about a
"breakthrough":
I want to share with you now the breakthrough that
happened in India. We think it means something. We
think it is important. To help you learn, I am using
the hand signs created by Zoltan Kodaly. Kodaly
developed these signs to teach music to deaf children.
One by one, at Lacombe's signal, each of the five
notes in the Indian chant are played over the
auditorium's sound system for the audience. And then,
all five tones or notes in the riff are played - in
sequence. Lacombe gestures with the hand signals for
each tone. There is evidence that a certain musical
pattern can be linked with the aliens' efforts to
communicate.
Seventh Close Encounter:
At the Goldstone Radio Telescope (Station 14), a
top-security missile tracking complex, one of the
specialists excitedly shares with a colleague the
newest deep space transmissions that have been
received:
Specialist: We just received two fifteen minute
broadcasts...104 rapid pulses. After a five second
interval, 44 pulses. Another five second break and 30
pulses. Sixty seconds of silence and then an entirely
new set of numbers. 40, break five. 36, break five.
10. A hundred and four rapid pulses...Wait sixty
seconds and the whole doggone thing repeats.
Another specialist: Where are these signals coming
from?
Specialist: Right in the neighborhood. Light travel
time, roughly seven seconds. It's well within the
plane of the equipment.
Another specialist: Are these
non-random?...40...36...10...In response to that?
Specialist: No. They should be. We've been sending out
this musical combination for weeks. But all we're
getting back are numbers.
Another specialist: This could mean the Indian sounds
reached a dead end. They don't mean a thing.
Lacombe and Laughlin have already arrived at the
complex and are trying to decipher the readouts of the
two repeating number patterns, in addition to
following up on alien encounters. Suddenly, Laughlin's
training as a cartographer proves useful:
Laughlin:...Excuse me. Before I got paid to, uh, speak
French, I, uh, I used to read maps. This first number
is a longitude...Two sets of three numbers. Degrees,
minutes, and seconds. The first number has three
digits and the last two are below sixty. Obviously,
it's not in the right ascension and declination on the
sky. These have to be earth coordinates.
Other specialists: Surely, somebody has a
map...There's a globe in the county supervisor's
office.
Clumsily, the $2,500 globe is rolled up into the
mobile glass cubicle crammed with telemetry tracking
hardware, command consoles, and an ARP synthesizer. A
finger traces the longitude and latitude lines of the
coordinates, one from the south to the north, one from
the east to the west. The two fingers (and lines) meet
in the U.S. western state of Wyoming. "We're going to
need a Geodetic Survey map of Wyoming. I want this
down to the square yard." Lacombe listens at the
receiving console, shouting above all the other voices
for everyone to listen: "Ecoutez! (I'm getting some
information now.)"
Lacombe sits down at the synthesizer and plays the
five-note sequence in response. Back in Indiana at the
Guiler farmhouse, Barry repeatedly taps out the same
five notes on his rainbow-colored, toy xylophone. An
intent, serious look of concentration comes over his
face. And Jillian sketches a charcoal drawing of a
mountain, similar in shape to the one which Barry
formed of mud. Jillian's boy stares out through the
porch screen to listen to ominous rumbles of thunder,
and looks entranced at the turbulence developing in
the cloudy sky. A magnificently-beautiful, yet
disturbing light grows in the rolling sky.
Eighth Close Encounter: A Close Encounter of the Third
Kind
In one of the film's most effective special-effects
sequences, Jillian becomes fearful of being besieged
by an impending attack of moving lights approaching
the farmhouse. She grabs Barry, props a chair against
the porch door, and locks the windows and pulls down
the shades in the living room. As Jillian runs into
the kitchen to lock another door, Barry is
irresistibly drawn to the front door, where the alien
power intrudes through the keyhole with a reddish beam
of radiant light. The young boy is beckoned to open
the door. Jill dashes toward her boy as he opens the
door and reveals a blinding, sun-like light
approaching. Jillian shuts the door and snatches him
inside. Trapped and helpless inside the house that is
enveloped by the light, a deafening rumbling noise
grows in strength. Barry is unperturbed, encouraging
the unknown force: "You can come and play now." Jill
shuts the damper on the fireplace just before the
light penetrates.
Knowing that she is powerless, Jill can only hug her
boy - and wait. Inexplicably, the phonograph player
starts playing a 'Johnny Mathis' record "Chances Are"
("...cause I wear that silly grin, the moment you come
into view"). A rug covering a ventilation grating on
the floor blows over. The metal screws holding the
vent grating to the wooden floor slowly turn open and
the vent cover blows off. Smoke penetrates through the
opening until Jill throws the rug over it. The vacuum
cleaner and other electrical appliances (stove,
refrigerator, washing machine) are activated by the
alien power and explosively vibrate. When she dials
for help on the phone, she hears the five-note
sequence. Barry crawls through the miniature pet door
toward the outside. She exerts all her effort to grab
his legs and pull him back, but his tiny frame is
ripped from her arms by the overwhelming force. Jill
rushes outside, yelling "Barry!" but the lights of the
glowing spaceship have already begun to recede among
the clouds - he has been invisibly kidnapped by the
extra-terrestrials and whisked away in a UFO.
Outside an Air Force press conference assembled in
Muncie to allay fears of the public following numerous
sightings, Jillian is distraught over the abduction of
her son. She refuses to answer questions for
six-o'clock news-TV reporters and cameramen. She sees
Roy in the crowd and tells him: "They got him!" Once
the conference is started, uniformed Major Benchley
(George DiCenzo) holds up a large colored photograph
of a flying saucer to demonstra
te how people have been
deceived:
Ladies and gentlemen. This is a flying saucer. It's
made of pewter, made in Japan, and thrown across the
lawn by one of my children. I just wanted to point
that out to you to show that we're not all polished
brass about these things. Also to make a point that
last year, Americans shot more than seven billion
photographs at a record of 6.6 billion dollars for
film, equipment and processing. Now with all those
shutters clicking, where is the indisputable,
photographic evidence?
One of the newsmen argues against Benchley's
reasoning: "I've been in the news business for a long
time and our cameras have never been able to take a
picture of a plane crash as it actually happened, or
an automobile accident and get it on the six o'clock
news." Another official spokesman tries to divert
suspicion of official complicity and secrecy by easy
assurances, catch-phrases and platitudes:
Spokesman: Now, there are all kinds of ideas that
would be fun to believe in. Mental telepathy, time
travel, immortality, even Santa Claus. Now I know it's
no fun to go home and say: 'Guess what happened! I was
in a shopping center. There was this tremendously
bright light and I rushed outside - and it was an
airplane.'
Roy: Excuse me, sir. I didn't want to see this.
Spokesman: I sure wish I had. You know, for fifteen
years, I've been looking for these damn silly lights
in the night sky. I've never found any. I'd like to,
because I believe in life elsewhere.
Audience member: Why don't you guys just admit that
the Air Force is conducting secret tests in the
foothills area?
Spokesman: It would be easy to say yes to that. But
I'm not going to mislead you. This is not the case. To
tell you the truth, I don't know what you saw.
Roy: You can't fool us by agreeing with us.
Another witness: I saw Bigfoot once. 1951 back in
Sequoia National Park. Had a foot on him thirty-seven
inches heel to toe. It made a sound I would not want
to hear twice in my life.
Roy knows that he saw the lights of UFOs and can't be
persuaded otherwise by official bylines. He looks down
at the latest newspaper heading:
COSMIC KIDNAPING - Indiana Woman Blames Disappearance
of Three Year-Old Son on Clouds - Guiler Says She will
Search Out of State if Indiana Police Discontinue
Their Efforts
With a pencil, he unconsciously sketches the familiar
mound-shape onto the news article - his pencil point
breaks to accentuate the improbability of the
spokesman's final platitudes: "UFO's do not represent
a direct physical threat to our national security. We
do not support them, and we encourage you not to."
In a distant, unidentified location, an official
mission to Wyoming is being executed and planned.
Faceless men wearing identical sunglasses and red
uniforms [a team chosen to go onboard the alien ship
on a space expedition] board a chartered Greyhound bus
on a highly-classified trip to the geographic focal
point (of the longitudinal and latitudinal line
crossings) of the radio transmissions in a place near
Devils Tower, a national monument: "Let's get in touch
with those Forest Service people. We're gonna end up
in a wilderness area with vehicular traffic. And
that's strictly sacred cow stuff for those folks in
Wyoming. If this mission fully develops, I get white
knuckles just thinkin' about what might be ahead for
those folks." Lacombe and Laughlin will also be flown
to the location to prepare for the visitation. To
convince the 'folks' in Wyoming - a population of
28,000 people - that they must evacuate the
quarantined top-secret area, planners discuss the
fanciful possibilities: flashfloods, forest fires,
viruses (dyptheria, unknown strains, bad water, the
plague): "Nobody's gonna believe in plague in this day
and age." Major Walsh proposes an even scarier
military alternative :
What I need is something so scary it'll clear three
hundred square miles of every living Christian soul!
Vehicles in the caravan are outfitted with
commercial-products' camouflage: Piggly Wiggly, Coca
Cola, and Baskin-Robbins.
At the Neary's home during dinnertime, Roy heaps his
plate with a large spoonful of mashed potatoes. As his
family watches him intently piling up spoonful after
spoonful of potatoes and toying with the sculpted
shape, they believe he has begun to lose all sense of
reason and sanity. His older son looks on with pain
and sadness covering his face, and Roy shame-facedly
acknowledges their strained, alienated looks: "Well, I
guess you've noticed something a little strange with
Dad. It's OK. I'm still Dad. I can't describe it -
what I'm feeling." Later that evening, Roy sculpts a
clay mountain, again striving to reproduce the
elusive, malleable shape which has possessed his mind
since the alien encounters. Sweating and troubled, he
becomes more and more frustrated because the
strange-looking mountain is still not right. He runs
outside and screams to the heavens: "What is it?"
Restless, he sleeps by his creation until awakened by
daylight and the sound of early-morning cartoons on
the television. His daughter fearfully asks: "Are you
going to yell at me?" The living room is littered with
colorful charts of the heavens and articles and other
clippings on UFOs. Determined to be cured of his
obsession and restored to normality, he rids himself
of all symbols of extra-terrestrials and space by
crumpling and tearing up all evidence. He grabs at the
clay mountain and rips off the top of the mound. He is
stunned by what is left - the flat-topped shape of
Devils Tower.
Now completely crazed, Roy begins tearing plants out
of the ground in the garden and heaving them through
the kitchen window into his suburban home. After
throwing more shovelfuls of dirt through the window
and gathering bricks and chicken wire scavenged from
his neighbor and the garbage, he excitedly explains:
I figured it out, that's all. Will you just
listen?...Have you ever looked at something and it's
crazy and then you looked at it in another way and
it's not crazy at all?...Don't be scared. Just don't
be scared. I feel really good. Everything's gonna be
all right. I haven't felt this good in years.
Ronnie pulls the children with her to the car to get
away from him and take them to her sister's place,
thinking that he has become dangerous. Left alone
during the day, Roy works feverishly to construct a
man-made, ceiling-high replica of Devils Tower. The
model of the visions he has seen of a flat-topped
mountain fills his entire living room and is built of
mud, shrubbery, chicken wire, rocks and other
materials. The television's soap operas and
advertisements provide background during his obsessed
work on the artistic creation. After a long day's
efforts, an ABC-News bulletin broadcast interrupts
programming and fills the TV screen - he is first
distracted by an overlapping, pleading phone call to
Ronnie and doesn't pay attention:
At the top of the news tonight, a rail disaster. At
Devils Tower, Wyoming, a train loaded with a dangerous
chemical gas went off the rails and has forced the
widest area evacuation in the history of these
controversial, Army rail shipments. The surrounding
area has been closed to the public for three weeks for
renovation to the national park there. The Army and
National Guard units are supervising the evacuation.
It is estimated that from 35 to 50 thousand people are
affected. The families that have been dislocated have
been assured that the danger will be over within
seventy-two hours. We've seen the Army here, the Corps
of Engineers, and the Chemical Engineers. Once the
toxic concentration is down to fifty parts per
million, then the danger will be past. This means the
park's residents will be back in their own homes
..Devils Tower, Wyoming was the first National
Monument erected in this country by Theodore Roosevelt
in 1915...
Jillian is listening to the same news broadcast
several miles away: "Thousands of civilian refugees
are fleeing the area, spurred on by rumors that the
seven tanker cars that overturned ...were filled to
capacity with GM nerve gas...." In a living room
decorated with watercolor paintings of the mountain,
she is awakened by the familiar mound - she etches its
outline with her finger on her TV screen. Roy has the
same awakening when he focuses on the broadcast: "And
fortunately during this mishap, there have been no
fatalities...In a few minutes, it's going to be known
as the hot zone depending on the prevailing winds. But
as it is, this is as close to the disaster as we've
been allowed to get...the Army's Chemical Engineers
and the Wyoming National Guard are making every effort
to contain the leaking toxins and evacuate an area of
almost 200 square miles. Everyone is being warned -
stay out of the area. Everyone please, stay out of the
area. "
Ignoring the restrictions, Roy frantically drives in a
rented station wagon [with Wyoming plates] through
Moorcroft, Wyoming while again fiddling with road
maps, as the radio broadcasts warnings of more road
closures: "...and thousands of others are homeless.
The United States Army Material Command has issued
these new area restrictions: All roadways north of ...
on Interstate 25, all roads leading into the Grand
Tetons..., all multi-lane undivided full traffic
interchanges, rail, local and historic stage routes
south of Cody..." Roy mutters to himself about the map
markings, just avoiding a collision with vehicles
streaming away from the quarantined area: "Why aren't
there any fat lines instead of these thin ones?"
At a rural train depot where thousands are departing
in a chaotic, crowded scene under Army control, street
vendors take advantage of the crisis by hawking live
birds in cages to detect the "odorless and colorless"
GM nerve gas:
These canary birds are guaranteed to fall off of their
perch one hour before the gas does anything to ya.
Considered suspicious when he invents a missing sister
and gives his name as Smith, Roy is threatened by an
intimidating Army relocation guard (Carl Weathers):
"We got orders to shoot anybody lootin' around here."
Completely foolish, Roy nonetheless purchases three
gas masks and two birds in a cage. Roy hears his name
called out by Jillian through the deafening din of the
train depot. Instinctively, they have both come for
the same reasons - the two locate each other amidst
the crowd and rush to each other's comfort. After
driving out of town together, Roy turns off the main
highway and drives through fence after fence and open
fields because of multiple road closures: "Look, the
only way we're gonna get back in there is to go
cross-country...We gotta break through the fence."
Jillian shares one of the questions she was asked
about her son's disappearance:
They asked me if I'd seen any strangers in the
neighborhood.
And then, they both see the familiar shape at the same
instant - Devils Tower. It looms up from behind a
hillside as the camera makes a slow pan upward.
Jillian: I don't believe it's real. I don't believe
it's real.
Roy: It's real. Let's get down there. Get some gas and
get down in there.
As they drive further toward the monument, they
encounter bodies of dead animals - three dead horses
and then three dead cattle. Jillian checks to see that
the caged birds are still alive. Roy is confident that
it's all a hoax, a simulated nerve-gas scare:
Look, I guarantee you that this whole thing is a
put-on.
Wordlessly however, after an exchange of glances, they
both don gas masks and roll up the car windows. They
pass more bodies of sheep littering the side of the
road. After rounding a curve, they are blocked by
vehicles peopled by white-uniformed men in gas masks,
and Roy is belligerent: "The only bad air around here
is you guys fartin' around." The two unwelcome humans,
Roy and Jill are separated into two different vehicles
and firmly taken into custody. He is questioned in a
small holding room [in the decontamination camp] by
Laughlin and Lacombe:
Laughlin: We need answers from you that are honest,
direct, and to the point.
Roy: Where's Jillian?
Laughlin: (translating for Lacombe) Do you realize the
danger that you and your friend have risked? By coming
here, you've exposed yourself to toxic gas...
Roy: There's nothing wrong with the air.
Laughlin: What makes you say that?
Roy: I just know. There's nothing wrong with it.
Lacombe: Go outside and make me a liar.
Roy: Uh, look, I want to talk to the man in charge.
Laughlin: Mr. Lacombe is the highest authority.
Roy: He isn't even an American.
Roy is asked if he has any physical symptoms: a
persistent ringing in his ears, any headaches,
migraines, an irritation in his eyes and sinuses,
hives, allergies, a burning on his face and body. He
is becoming exasperated with them after being shown a
drawing of Devils Tower: "Yeah, I got one just like it
in my living room. Who are you people?" His question
remains unanswered. Their final question is all
revealing: "Have you recently had a close encounter -
a close encounter with something very unusual?" As he
is shown about a dozen snapshots of individuals who
have also come on a pilgrimage to Devils Tower [prior
'chosen' witnesses of UFOs], he can identify only one
who isn't a stranger - Jillian.
Laughlin: The two of you felt compelled to be here?
Roy: Yeah, you might say that.
Laughlin (translating): What did you expect to find?
Roy: An answer. That's not crazy, is it? (Laughlin and
Lacombe speak to each other in French)...Hold it, hold
it, hold it! Is that it? Is that all you're gonna ask
me? Well, I got a couple of thousand, god-damn
questions, you know. I want to speak to someone in
charge. I want to lodge a complaint. You have no right
to make people crazy...If this is nerve gas, how come
I know everything in such detail? I've never been here
before. How come I know so much? (raising his voice)
WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON AROUND HERE?! WHO THE HELL
ARE YOU PEOPLE?!
Wearing a gas mask and flanked by guards, Roy
complains vehemently as he is led from the compound at
the base of Devils Tower to a waiting transport
helicopter filled with like souls: "I didn't come this
far just to be taken on any bus ride home." As he
anxiously looks around at other gas-masked faces
inside the copter, he finds Jillian's familiar face.
The military leader of the project, Major Walsh
reprimands Lacombe for disobeying proper evacuation
procedures:
Walsh: You brought in twelve people to the
decontamination camp instead of the evacuation center
where they belong. I'd like to know why.
Lacombe (and Laughlin): Because this means something.
These people have come from all over their country to
a place they have been told will endanger their lives.
Why?
Walsh: Because somebody could be trying to subvert
this whole operation by sending in fanatics and
cultists and Christ knows what all.
Walsh: (while showing sketches drawn of Devils Tower
by all the captives) This is a small group of people
who have shared a vision in common. Look. (He pulls up
the shade to reveal the Tower in the window) It's
still a mystery to me why they are here. Even they do
not know why.
Taking a chance, Roy removes his gas mask because he
doesn't accept the poison gas ruse. He encourages
Jillian to follow his lead: "Listen, there's nothing
wrong with the air around here. The army is getting us
out of here because they don't want any witnesses."
One of the women obediently objects: "But if the army
doesn't want us here, then it's none of our business."
A few more remove their masks - one comically jokes:
"The air here is better than it is in Los Angeles."
Roy encourages everyone to escape their captors: "How
many of you people are for getting out of here?"
Back inside, Lacombe wants to discover why so many
people inexplicably came together at Devils Tower:
Lacombe (and Laughlin): I believe that for everyone of
these anxious, anguished people who have come here
this evening, there must be hundreds of others also
touched by the implanted vision who never made it this
far. It's simply because they never watched the
television. Or perhaps they watched it, but never made
the psychic connection.
Walsh: It's a coincidence. It's not scientific.
Lacombe: Listen to me, Major Walsh, it is an event
sociological.
Roy, Jillian, and another man, Larry Butler (Josef
Sommer) decide to escape from the copter. At the same
moment, in an artfully-composed image, Lacombe glances
outside through a window (that reflects the image of
Devils Tower), joyfully suppressing any word of alarm
that they are running through the command post and
toward the slopes of the mountainous area of the
tower. One of the evacuation plans is to dust the
quarantined area with "sleep aerosol - same stuff that
we use with the livestock. Comes out of riot control.
They'll sleep for six hours and wake up with a hell of
a headache." As Walsh walks away after ignoring
Lacombe's request not to use riot control methods,
Laughlin yells after him that the people he questioned
were hypnotically compelled to travel there - they
were mysteriously drawn there in their quest for
something they couldn't fully comprehend:
We didn't choose this place. We didn't choose these
people. THEY WERE INVITED!
Roy, Jill, and Larry climb up the steep incline on the
side of Devils Tower. In a Spielberg scene that evokes
Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959), helicopters
buzz by with loudspeakers blaring a warning: "..this
park has been superseded by the United States
Government...You are entering a military reservation."
Roy cautions about climbing up the steep face toward
the top: "It's a three hundred foot drop straight
down," and instead proposes taking a gradual incline
trail to the right which leads to a box canyon.
Jillian and Larry both realize their perspectives were
inaccurate in their drawings:
Jillian: I never imagined that in my paintings. I only
painted one side.
Larry: There was no canyon in the doodles that I made.
Roy: Next time, try sculpturing.
Ground troops search behind them on foot with "nothing
to report at mid-station. It looks up ahead that
there's thousands of places to hide. We're gonna need
at least three times the men if you want this covered
in one hour." The searchers are ordered "off the
northern face" so that helicopters can begin dusting
the area with sleep aerosol. As night begins to fall,
they press on and scramble for hiding places when
another helicopter approaches. Larry falls behind and
pauses to rest in the open, exhausted by the climb.
The sleep-inducing helicopter, one with nightmarish
sand, passes over him and releases a cloud of dust.
Like so many other fallen birds, he quickly drifts off
to sleep after inhaling the dust.
As they near their goal, they can see spot lights
shining into the evening sky. After an exciting
pursuit scene as they crawl and pull each other along
to avoid another spraying by the dusting helicopter,
they emerge through a notch at the pinnacle of the
tower. There, they are rewarded with the discovery of
a colossal runway. The huge extinct volcano with its
incredible mountain formation has been transformed
into a secret landing site for UFOs. All of Roy's and
Jillian's premonitions, obsessions, and implants now
make clear sense.
The Final Close Encounter:
The film concludes with the climactic sequence at the
base of Devils Tower National Monument. The extended
scene is filmed with breathtaking special effects and
a sense of awe and wonder. At the landing site, the
first maximum-publicity meeting and physical contact
between the alien visitors [the unknown and imagined
world] and scientists [the known and real world] is
experienced. A loudspeaker announcement prepares the
scientific crew awaiting the aliens' visit:
Gentlemen, ladies, take your positions, please. This
is not a drill. I repeat. This is not a drill. Could
we have the lights in the arena down sixty percent
please? Sixty percent. I don't think we could ask for
a more beautiful evening, do you? OK, watch the skies
please. We now show uncorrelated targets approaching
from the north northwest.
In the sky above them, streaking objects resembling
comets whoosh through the blackness. Roy whispers
expectantly to Jillian: "We're the only ones who know.
The only ones." Three tiny, neon-lit scout ships
appear with the tiny red orb following in their wake -
they hover over the end of the runway. Audio analysis
personnel ready themselves to communicate with the
sparkling, illuminated objects at the rendezvous
point. A giant electronic board covered with colored
strips and a powerful synthesized musical keyboard
have been constructed at the site. The Air Force
scientists duplicate the electronic sounds that they
have heard in transmissions, mixing them with light
sequences (on colored strips) to communicate. The
computer and audio specialists play the loud clear
sounds of the five-note sequence after the signal:
"Sunset":
Start with the tone. (Pinkish-red)
Up a full tone. (Orange)
Down a major third. (Purple)
Now drop an octave. (Yellow)
Up a perfect fifth. (White)
Lacombe suggests that the organist play the sequence
with an increased tempo and try different frequencies
for the five notes, as he marches out to the end of
the runway. The three ships dance above the runway and
respond with their own duplicate tones - they emit the
musical sounds in the specific combination of five
notes. And then they fly off, separating and soaring
heavenward. Applause exuberantly erupts through the
audience.
The show appears to be over - but it isn't. Lacombe
looks into the skies, commenting on what's happening:
"I don't know, but it is beautiful." A magnificent
cloud formation erupts all around the Tower in the
moonlight, creating a radiant halo. More colored
flashing lights in the cloud cover signal the arrival
of many more spacecraft. The squadron of neon shapes
and lights encircles the entire area and buzzes the
runway, causing panic and fear among the humans. One
of the brilliant and bedazzling ships, looking like a
galactic version of the Goodyear blimp, makes a slow,
close pass over the base, drifting by and shining its
underside of luminescent, sparkling colors.
Roy wishes to mke his way down to the base itself, so
he can experience the light show of spacecraft
firsthand, but Jillian is not ready to join him:
Roy: Want to see better?
Jillian: I can see fine.
Roy: We can't stay here.
Jillian: I can.
Roy: Why?
Jillian: Because, Barry's not here. I'm just not
ready.
Roy (impatiently): I can't stay here. I've got to get
down there.
Jillian: I know. (They kiss quickly and impulsively)
Another loudspeaker announcement: "This is data
control to all personnel: We monitor no biologic
hazards. Range: Safety clear." Everything is very
quiet until a deep rumbling, low-pitched vibration
begins to build and increase in volume and intensity,
suggesting the appearance of something awesome,
incredulous, and frightening.
The three craft are followed by an immense alien
mother ship, a circular object double the size of
Devils Tower itself, with hundreds of glittering,
illuminated windows. Everyone shares the mass communal
experience - they gaze with mouths agape up into the
sky as the enormous vessel dwarfs the Tower and
revolves and slowly descends toward them. It is
staggeringly beautiful as it draws near for a landing.
The light from the ship is so bright that dark glasses
must be worn. The great space vessel touches down at
the end of the runway. The loudspeaker presents
another safety warning: "There is a safety hazard zone
extending twenty-five meters from the ship. Special
teams are exempt and should be aware of low gravity.
Expect some dizziness and look out for static charge.
All departments that are operational during this
phase, signify by beeping twice."
One of the mission commanders directs other audio
specialists to communicate with the craft by playing
the five mystical notes: "If everything is ready here
on the dark side of the moon, play the five tones."
The speakers and flashing lights play the familiar
tonal sequence toward the ship. The large ship answers
with a deep, bass vibration played in coordination
with flashing lights around the lower rim of the
vessel. There is a back-and-forth musical duet as the
conversational light/sound show-contact continues:
Give her six quavers, then pause.
She sent us four quavers, a group of five quavers, a
group of four semi-quavers...
What are we saying to each other?
It seems they're trying to teach us a basic tonal
vocabulary.
It's the first day of school, fellas.
Take everything from the lady. Follow her pattern note
for note.
Jill is drawn forward and hurries toward the runway
and the ship. One of the audio specialists realizes
that they are actually communicating (or interlocked)
in a joyful mood with the alien ship: "We have a
translation interlock on their audio signal. We're
taking over this conversation now." After the notes of
the ship slowly die out, a large cargo door in the
belly of the ship slides open - a blinding, brilliant
white light emanates from within. The panel slides
down and becomes a ramp.
From inside the ship and the ramp, uniformed figures
emerge - the US Navy pilots missing for decades:
Frank Taylor, Lieutenant J.G., United States
Naval Reserve, 064199
Harry Ward Craig, Captain United States Navy,
043431
Matthew McMichael, Lieutenant, United States
Naval Reserve, 0909411
As the long-missing military men step off the ramp,
their names are checked off against lists of missing:
"Records indicate Harry Ward Craig disappeared off
Chicken Shoals, Flight 19."
- They haven't even aged. Einstein was right.
- Einstein was probably one of them.
Many other soldiers, as well as ordinary folks, are
released from onboard the ship. Jillian's small son
Barry also appears on the ramp - he breaks into a run
into his mother's arms.
Lacombe: Monsieur Neary, what do you want?
Roy: I just want to know that it's, it's really
happening.
Barry describes his abduction during his reunion with
Jillian:
Barry: I went into the air and I saw our house.
Jillian: I saw you going up in the air. Did you see me
running after you?
Lacombe turns to Roy and tells him: "I envy you." The
ramp opens up a second time and a small, frail,
undeveloped, spindly, pale alien with big eyes
gracefully debarks. The vulnerable being with superior
intelligence, a messianic figure of sorts, gestures
with a message of love and peace to investigating
scientists via sign language - he raises both his arms
in a good-will gesture. Other small, childlike
humanoid aliens, obviously harmless, emerge and stand
on Earth's soil to face the humans. Having been
cleared by Lacombe and Laughlin of official
formalities, Roy is invited to join the red-uniformed
team of "pilgrims" for a space journey in the alien
ship:
Scientist: Mr. Neary, I'm told that we can count on
your complete cooperation. What type of blood do you
have?
Neary: I don't have the slightest idea.
Scientist: What is your date of birth?
Neary: Uh, December 4, 1944.
Scientist: Have you been inoculated against smallpox,
diptheria - is there any history of liver disease in
your family?
Roy Neary is last in the line of red-uniformed space
travelers. One of the little aliens senses Roy's
oneness with them, draws him out of the line and takes
his hand. After being surrounded and 'adopted' by the
beings, Roy is led up to the ramp. He briefly pauses
and turns back at Earth with a look of calm on his
face. Lacombe nods assurance and approval. Roy
disappears into the brilliance of the Mother Ship.
One extra-terrestrial alien remains. Lacombe gestures
to the alien with the Zoltan Kodaly hand signals for
the five-tone sequence. The alien responds,
pleasingly, to the hand-to-hand communication with a
repetition of the same signals. The extraterrestrial
turns. After entering the giant spacecraft, the
massive object lifts and gracefully heads starward.
