Contact who is carl

The young Ellie Arroway is curious and skeptical, asking questions about everything. As she grows from a young girl to a mature woman, she gains a rebellious streak, asking tough questions about religious contradictions and refusing to listen to her stepfather under the pretense that he is not Ellie's true father, who passed away before Ellie reached adolescence.

After her college and graduate school years, she works as an astronomer with radio telescopes. She originally works on more 'conventional' studies, but as the years pass, she decides to follow her interests and work on the SETI project.

She is assigned to work on the Argus project, a large radio telescope array designed to search the farthest reaches of the universe. One night, the radio telescopes pick up a signal: prime numbers, which would be extremely unlikely to be created by natural phenomena. After meticulously checking for hoaxes and radio interference, the Argus scientists confirm that the message is coming from the star system of Vega, twenty-six light years away.

It is almost definitely from another civilization. Prime numbers are not the only thing being transmitted in the Message. Two additional messages are broadcast: one is a playback of the very first Earth transmission into space, replayed to the planet to show that Earth has been noticed. Unfortunately, the first transmission involves Hitler, to the embarrassment of many. The second and far more important message is a blueprint for a machine, one designed to take five people somewhere.

Nobody knows where, or if the machine will even take anyone anywhere. Speculation of doomsday devices are suggested, and many nations debate over who would build the Machine, which nations would have representatives in the Machine, or if the Machine will even be built at all. Beyond the scientists and politicians, the religious forces weigh in on the subject. Some argue that the Message is from God, others suggest Satan.

As in the movie, they were pre-dated by other civilizations that are billions of years old. After the alien contact is publicized, a newscast mentions "Health officials from around the world are concerned that the message from Vega might trigger a rash of mass suicides not unlike the recent cult deaths near San Diego. It was a last-minute addition, taking advantage the closeness of the news with the filming of the movie.

The crew built two replicas of the V. They even borrowed photos of researchers' families. Rob Lowe 's liberal politics were well-known at the time, and it was considered inspired casting.

When Ellie is about travel in the machine on Hokkaido, the rings move at incredibly high speeds, including the external ring that supports and surrounds the three-ringed system activated after the launching of two rockets. The innermost ring always stands quiet, indicating a straight point of reference for the movement of the others. At one point in the movie, David Drumlin mentions the need of an expert cryptographer, who he calls Lunacharsky.

In the novel, Vasily Gregorovich Lunacharsky, called "Vaygay," is a Soviet scientist and Ellie Arroway's friend, who helps her analyze the message received from Vega. The Argus Project, featuring over radio telescopes, is named after a monster from Greek mythology with eyes. At the time of filming, it held a certain academic counter-culture mystique, being anti-Microsoft Windows.

Robert Zemeckis always thought of Ellie and Palmer as a classic movie romance, two people who were physically attracted to one another, but separated by their ideologies. The opening of the movie is one long take, with the camera showing Earth, moving back away to show Mars, the rest of the planets, the solar system, the Milky Way, galaxies, super galaxies, and finally the entire universe, closing it with a head-shot of young Ellie.

The same idea was used in Men in Black , but the scene is changed to stop in the Milky Way, depicting it as a little marble of a gigantic alien being. In it, after showing the entire universe, galaxies were turned in atoms, DNA chains, and cells, with the camera finally exiting from Homer's head. The scene in which The Tonight Show with Jay Leno plays on a television screen was filmed after the taping of a real Tonight Show episode. Robert Zemeckis came on stage and told the audience that they were going to be in the movies, to rousing applause.

After the funeral, Ellie starts her radio call with "CQ". This is phonetic shorthand for "Seek You," and means "Please respond if you hear this. To get the zero G effect, the camera was pointing down. John Hurt was on his back hanging from wires that were erased on post production. Robert Zemeckis , learning of this tribute, planned to use the same call sign for Dr. Arroway in the movie. Gillian Anderson and Uma Thurman were considered for the role of Dr.

Ellie Arroway. Curiously, Anderson starred in another movie about contact with an alien lifeform, UFO John Hurt and Tom Skerritt appeared in Alien , about a hostile extra-terrestrial intelligence. However, they don't share a scene in this film. The message is received over a longer period in the book. Scientific advisers worked out a new idea for the movie, with Carl Sagan 's approval. Jodie Foster was recorded ahead of time, so the cast members in the control room had to time their lines to fit.

The machine is a system to open a wormhole, a hypothetical method of space travel, also called a Einstein-Rosen bridge. According to Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen the wormhole should be capable of uniting two distant points in the universe, altering space-time laws to cross from one point to another in a very brief period of time.

The name "wormhole" was derived from a comparison between the universe and an apple, with a worm moving inside. It's an Australian federal government agency responsible for scientific research. It was created in and it's one of the leading organizations for science and investigation.

Hadden's private plane has 5 jet engines, and does not exist outside of the film. It was created by digitally adding outboard engines to a Boeing On December 1, the main structure of the antenna set in Arecibo where Ellie travels to work in the SETI project, meeting not only Kent Clark and the team but Palmer Joss collapsed due to the poor maintenance of the system in the last years, specially after Hurricane Maria in The steel cables that kept the platform in the air dropped and it crashed against the dish, destroying it in the fall.

Due to this poor preservation, it was decided by National Science Foundation, owner of radiotelescope since its building from its first observation was in , that all the observatory be closed and dismantled, marking the end to 57 years of active service. This was Tom Skerritt 's first movie in five years after Singles , because he was playing the main character Sheriff Jimmy Brock all along the TV series Picket Fences , from to The frequency transmission used to send data in spaced prime number packet bursts from Vega is at 4.

This movie was included on Roger Ebert 's "Great Movies" list. The succession of colors in the space tunnel match the colors of the Chakra points described in the New Age religion, starting with red materialism and reaching gold enlightenment.

In the classic tradition, Chakra is a Hindu word that it means "wheel", referring a center of energy inside human body. Despite the number of them oscillates depending of the source, it's commonly assumed to be seven chakras running all along the backbone in straight line, associated not only with colors but petals of a flower around the energy center: Muladhara, the root chakra, located in the base of the spine red, 4 petals ; Svaddhisthana, the sacral chakra, located below of the belly button orange, 6 petals ; Manipura, the solar plexus chakra, located in the stomach yellow, 10 petals ; Anahata, heart chakra, located in the heart green, 12 petals ; Vishuddha, the throat chakra, located in the neck light blue; 16 petals ; Ajna, third eye chakra, located in the frown dark blue, 2 petals ; and finally Sahasrara, the crown chakra, located in the top of the head purple or indigo, 1, petals.

Eleanor is Greek for "shining light". Ellie Arroway points the way to enlightenment. Jodie Foster failed to receive a much-anticipated Oscar nomination for her performance in this movie.

Some have speculated that this is because she was pregnant and refused to name the father, a fact viewed by many as confirming a lesbianism she never recognized to the public eye at those time.

The stigma could very well explain why she was snubbed. Foster finally came out the closet during her acceptance speech at Golden Globes ceremony where she received a Cecil B. DeMille Award by her carrier, putting end for the longtime rumors about her sexual orientation. Although the paternity of her children Charles and Kit has been attributed to casting director and producer Randy Stone , it never was confirmed nor denied officially.

George Miller was initially slated to direct. President Clinton's appearance was taken from a press conference on the White House South Lawn in His remarks were regarding the real-life discovery of an arctic meteorite determined to be from Mars.

In the book, David Drumlin dies in the first machine explosion trying to save Ellie. According to her accounts, he dives in front of her to save her life once the explosion occurs. With a runtime of two hours and 30 minutes, this is the longest movie directed by Robert Zemeckis.

In the movie, young Ellie's father affectionately calls her "Sparks. All of the beer in the Puerto Rico scenes is Medalla Light, produced by the only brewery in Puerto Rico larger than a brewpub. Medalla Light was their only beer until they released a premium beer in Steven is former president Gerald Ford 's son. In addition, during his term as president he supported Apollo-Soyuz joint mission between USA-USSR in the hope for putting end to the then Cold War that faced the two countries, as well as saluted two Viking missions for exploring Mars.

Both Viking space probes were designed by scientist and astronomer Carl Sagan , who was the writer of original Contact novel book. Hadden tells Ellie "once upon a time, I was a hell of an engineer.

The Arroways' amateur radio station that young Ellie uses is authentic and period-appropriate. The radio is a Collins KWM-2A, generally regarded as the "Cadillac" of ham radio transceivers of its day, with matching speaker to the right. Introduced in and still being manufactured, it is notable for having a clever weight-and-spring mechanism that allows the operator to send a string of "dits" by pressing and holding the lever to the "dit" side, rather than having to press it repeatedly, allowing for faster sending of code.

However, it requires some practice and skill to fully exploit this capability. A couple of older radios are shown behind Ellie's dad when he sits in the corner and gives her the clue of "orange juice" for the location of Pensacola. The lower of the two black and silver in color is one of the Hallicrafters SX receiver series, manufactured from into the mids. Featuring frequency coverage of kHz to MHz, it was one of the earliest radios to include the ability to receive the FM Broadcast band along with AM Broadcast and shortwave bands.

The unit in the movie appears to have had its volume knob the leftmost of the five visible knobs replaced with a larger, non-standard knob. The original would match the other four knobs in size and general appearance.

When Ellie is going through the launch and wormhole, she repeats, "I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay. The line about the opening ceremony of the Berlin Olympics being the first television transmission of any strength is somewhat debatable.

The lines per second broadcasts were only of sufficient power to be receivable a few miles away on the outskirts of Berlin and surrounding areas. The Nazis had wanted the technology to make the spectacle visible throughout all of Germany but the signal strength was not sufficient. Low definition 30 lines per second experimental television broadcasts date back to in the UK and the BBC started broadcasting experimental high definition broadcasts about two weeks after the Berlin Olympics had opened, with a regular service starting the following year.

In a BBC transmission of from London of lines per second was picked up by RCA engineers in New York and recorded on film, showing that in the right weather conditions their transmissions were powerful enough to be received thousands of miles away. Philo Farnsworth in the USA also conducted experimental television broadcasts in the s alongside engineers in Japan and Russia all working independently of each other. However for narrative purposes both the film and the book it was based on chose Adolf Hitler's speech from to be the central focus of the first accidental interplanetary transmission.

When Ellie is released and dropped into the machine, she yells "Oh, God! The character S. Both characters have problems with governments around the world, lots of money, and access to high technology.

Nemo lives under the sea all the time, Hadden is always in the skies. When Ellie, Fisher, and Willie discuss the origin of the space signal, and a possible civilization in Vega, Willie jokes about laser beams and "photon torpedoes". Photon torpedoes are the main weapon in the Star Trek: The Original Series franchise, about a human spacecraft crossing outer space to meet new lifeforms and civilizations. Jodie Foster notes on her DVD commentary for this movie that the first visual effect is the changing of the younger Eleanor Arroway's eye color to match hers.

People have pointed out, that the opening CGI scene, taking the viewer from Earth to the outer cosmos, would also technically be a visual effect. Ralph Fiennes was considered for the part of Palmer Joss.

This was Jodie Foster 's first movie in three years. Her previous movie was Nell The movie features three on-screen titles on the lower third throughout the movie. The first, "Four years later" is visible after Dr.

Ellie Arroway is interviewed by executives of S. Hadden's industries, when she appears at the Very Large Array in Socorro, New Mexico, controlling some antenna radars. The second, "18 months later," appears after Arroway's trial about her interplanetary travel, talking to children at the Very Large Array. The last, "For Carl," appears on the final frame before the ending credits, a full starry night sky.

It's a dedication to Carl Sagan. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Preview — Contact by Carl Sagan.

Contact by Carl Sagan ,. William Olivier Desmond Translator. Get A Copy. Mass Market Paperback , pages. Published August 28th by Pocket first published September More Details Original Title. Eleanor "Ellie" Arroway , Dr. United States …more Paris France …less. Locus Award for Best First Novel Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Contact , please sign up.

What's the highest point in the book? Robert Goodman It was in the last few paragraphs. That bit of suspense, broken unexpectedly, changed the meaning of the book. This question contains spoilers Cecilia Teixeira Yes so much i would love for us to be friends with the Elien beautys, wich they are massive impressing beautys. See all 8 questions about Contact…. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4.

Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of Contact. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space. When I read this book, back then in , I did it like a couple of months before of being able to watch the film adaptation. And I am truly glad that I was able to get the movie in blu-ray, a few months ago in this year, This is truly great novel and it's written by one of the most respected scientist in the field about science of outer space, Carl Sagan.

Readers who enjoy techno-thrillers in the style of Michael Chrichton, I am sure that they will find this book the same as enjoyable. Sagan is able to merge all his factual science knowledge with strong theories and very possible science fiction. If you want to read about a "first contact" with an alien intelligence in a form as "real" as possible, this is your novel. Sagan never compromised his credibility as a real scientist just to sell cheap action in this novel.

This is a smart tale with many hard science, but also it contains great characters with exceptional developing. Since after all, only science can't tell a story, there must be people, and people has feelings, and you will perceive them. He knows what he is doing and you get a very realistic aproach of how you could expect the human civilization can deal with the impact of knowing that we are not alone in the universe anymore.

If you are looking for flying saucers blasting lasers and the army fighting bravely against them, this is NOT your book. I have nothing against that approach, don't get me wrong.

I like that kind of stories too. But, I think that it's fair to have once in a while a mature angle to craft a story about the first meeting with an alien intelligence. You have here a very intelligent story with a strong scientific background. Nevertheless, Sagan knows that a novel must entertain, and you will be entertained but in a very adult and plausible way. View all 19 comments. This book is all about Vegans Just not the kind you're thinking about!

View all 5 comments. Dec 30, Manny rated it really liked it Shelves: science-fiction , transcendent-experiences. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I was quite shocked when I saw the movie version, and discovered that they had twisted the message degrees.

In the book, the heroine meets the aliens and is told that they have indisputable proof that the Universe was created by a Higher Power. When she returns to Earth, she has no immediate way to support her story - but she has been given enough of a clue that she knows how to find objective evidence, which she duly does. She also makes another surprising discovery. In the movie, she comes I was quite shocked when I saw the movie version, and discovered that they had twisted the message degrees.

In the movie, she comes back and can't justify her story in any way So she is forced to tell people that they need Faith. This is the opposite of what Sagan was saying. View all 17 comments. Jan 23, Lisa rated it liked it Shelves: nice-try-but-no-cigars , books-to-read-before-you-die.

No… To make a long story short: this is probably an excellent book, but I failed to make contact, to connect to the characters. The problem I had with the novel was similar to my experience with A Space Odyssey , but on a bigger scale. But that was part of the problem. I never once had the impression that he was telling me a story, but rather that he was explaining his fictional findings.

Dialogues especially the philosophical, scientific and theological discussions were polite exchanges of positions and information. There was absolutely no sense of humour involved. Neither historical fiction, nor speculative science fiction interest me as a rule, mainly because I prefer to read the nonfiction they are based on and make up my own mind on the topic. I have yet to discover his nonfiction, which I have heard is based on solid research and well-written.

The exception to the rule is if science or historical fiction is written not with the purpose of explaining science history , but to show certain character and plot developments that are relevant in our society, to tell me something about human interaction and behaviour, or to poke fun at our way of perceiving the future or past. I would count Douglas Adams or John Wyndham into that category, for example.

Many authors of dystopian fiction appeal to me for that reason as well, such as Margaret Atwood, Kurt Vonnegut, George Orwell and so on. I have a few science fiction novels waiting. I might change my mind. In the face of new evidence, that is what scientists would do. That much I learned from the novel! View all 16 comments. Mar 12, Adrian rated it it was amazing Shelves: sci-fi , zz-i-book , read-again.

I have the DVD of this book, and know that I have seen it at least once, as my reading of this book was accompanied by visual snippets of Jodie Foster as Dr Arroway. Visual snippets apart this is a wonderful "First Contact" novel, and I have to say it always leaves me positive about the future of the human race.

It view spoiler [ may not turn out as positive as it could have done, and that is probably the black side of humanity, the politics, but it still leaves me feeling that just maybe, we will not destroy ourselves, that we will go on and reach the stars hide spoiler ].

For a man who was first and foremost a scientist, an astronomer, a tv presenter of science similar to our Brian Cox , this was an excellent novel, with some great characters and a story of truly galactic proportions.

In my quest to de-clutter my library of films I may not ever want to watch again, I shall have to watch the DVD and decide, does it truly represent the book, and would I want to watch it again. As for the book, although I have I think now only read this twice, it is such an uplifting-ly good sci-fi novel that I am sure I will be reading it again.

View all 13 comments. Mar 26, Bradley rated it it was amazing Shelves: sci-fi , shelf. I really hate it when I lose reviews. Okay, take two. I was just reminiscing on my younger self's condemnation or at least his valid annoyances at the plot holes and some of the straight story elements , or the fact that I was trying to compare this classic SF work with other classic SF works that I was making my way through at the time and comparing them unfavorably because I wanted a lot more of the psychedelic naked singularity stuff and aliens, not just a long-winded optimistic synthesis of I really hate it when I lose reviews.

I was just reminiscing on my younger self's condemnation or at least his valid annoyances at the plot holes and some of the straight story elements , or the fact that I was trying to compare this classic SF work with other classic SF works that I was making my way through at the time and comparing them unfavorably because I wanted a lot more of the psychedelic naked singularity stuff and aliens, not just a long-winded optimistic synthesis of science, religion, politics, and philosophy.

But now, after having read a lot of so-so average SF, I can easily bump this one up because it balances everything on a good tightrope, including the story elements and the characterizations And I'm gonna face it I rocked to all the good science.

I jammed to the intelligent discussions, whether they were religious, political, or even the ethics of science. Of course, the novel is about aliens and whether or not we're grown up, too, but that's all part of the big package, and what a huge package! Sagan is rightly considered a god.

So if I ever get the chance to travel back in time and slap around my younger self, I'll do it joyfully. Sure, the novel has a few plot and element faults, but overall, I'm rather amazed that so much was able to come out of the text.

As a whole, the book itself is a synthesis, and not only its message. Oh, and other than that, I've seen the movie like a 10x24 times, as if each iteration was a point in pi, so it was also fun as hell picking out all the divergences between the book and the movie.

I was always pretty amazed that not only the spirit was intact, but so was most of the pieces. Sure, she wasn't alone on her little trip in the book, but both ways were pretty great. Want visual? Or do you want extrapolation and discussion and theory? Pick one. Watch or Read. View all 50 comments.

Jul 09, J. Sagan was a lucid and impassioned defender of rationality and clear thought. Unfortunately, his foray into fiction did little to increase the understanding of his philosophies, and much to muddy the waters of once clear thought.

Inspired by Asimov and Heinlein, he decided that fiction was as good a place as any to explore his ideas on science, belief, and wonder. While we expect long, in-depth explanations from non-fiction, fiction readers want more than just a lecture from the author.

They expec Sagan was a lucid and impassioned defender of rationality and clear thought. They expect that the characterization, plot, and themes will build the author's case for them, and in a way that will engage the reader without getting bogged down in rhetoric. Sagan's characterization and plotting are unrefined, and he builds no suspense. His characters often fall into cliche, mere mouthpieces for Sagan to explore this or that view. While Heinlein and Card are known and sometimes reviled for lecturing the reader, they still returned to the story at hand, and Heinlein at least made sure his asides were directed to his text.

The more complex the idea, the more difficult it is to show through character interaction and symbolism. Anyone familiar with Sagan's non-fiction work will immediately recognize the same arguments in Contact. Without this foreknowledge, the ideas become lost and muddled. Many religious readers come away from this book with the sense that Sagan is condoning faith. Sagan struggled in 'Contact' with the themes of 'wonderment' and 'the unknown'.

They became so intermingled and vague that they do seem to suggest spirituality. In non-fiction, Sagan differentiated the minute points that separate his brand of rationality from religious faith, but floundered when he found himself in unfamiliar waters. When presenting an explanation for an idea, he can warn against pitfalls and refine specific points. Contrarily, presenting such ideas through a story requires that the symbolism of the story be extremely precise. The examples in the text must elegantly illustrate the point without leaving leeway for alternative interpretations.

This is one of the hardest tasks any writer can set himself, and Sagan's inexperience with fictional construction showed through here. Sagan hoped to widen his audience, to increase discussion and the understanding of his philosophy. He wanted to ensnare the non-scientific reader by couching scientific ideas in an entertaining story, but in his inexperience, he chose ideas much grander than his story could support. This book is much more accessible than most of Sagan, simply because it is genre fiction.

It is then doubly unfortunate that most readers will know Sagan primarily from this work, since it fails to communicate his ideas to new readers. This book is more likely to cause confusion and misunderstanding than to impart knowledge.

The vagueness of the book leaves it so open for interpretation that both the rational and irrational can grasp onto it to support their own ideas. Sagan should have looked at the conflicts caused by similarly confusing symbolic books like the bible and stuck with the clear and concise writing that so often served him well. Sagan was a visionary beyond time. He understood the beauty of the universe by the laws of physics and how everything converged for them. And how human beings are part of this vast scenario, perhaps the only ones for whom the cosmos exists.

He continues with this idea in Contact, although this is a work of fiction, more specifically, of science fiction. This work is science fiction of a different genre without laser beams or flying saucers, or little green men. Eleanor Ellie Arroway is a uniqu Sagan was a visionary beyond time. Eleanor Ellie Arroway is a unique child who understood the time when she was three. Her mother is sympathetic to her, but her father, Ted, was the one who structured her personality.

When he dies, a piece of Ellie seems to die with him. To become a renowned physicist, she focuses all her efforts on being a brilliant student. So it is surprising to have started a relationship with Palmer Joss, a preacher of Christian renewal, whose religious views are entirely different from Ellie's coherent world vision.

That's when she discovers something that can shake the world. Contacts with aliens have been establishing, and now the world needs to prepare for something unexpected. Ellie's journey out there, as well as her inner journey, begins here.

She will not only travel through the stars but to the deepest recesses of her heart, her memory and her existence. She also needs to understand the hidden message of God in the order of the universe. And the only thing that makes sense in the vast cosmos and its millions of stars is the message: for creatures so tiny that we are, is immensity endurable only through love?

Jul 02, L Greyfort rated it really liked it Shelves: religion , science , science-fiction , philosophy. She is trying to get across the idea that, if your god cannot encompass the knowlege which humans have so laboriously amassed over the millenia which is only about two teaspoons worth in comparison to the enormity of the universe!

A lot of what is going on in Sagan's book, it seems to me, is the attempt to explore and express the "Your god is too small.

A lot of what is going on in Sagan's book, it seems to me, is the attempt to explore and express the wonder that is offered by scientific investigation and knowledge. Sagan spends a lot of time in this book giving us an idea of the humongous extent of the universe, and thereby offering his own vision of the transformative possibility inherent in that investigation.

The film of this novel cops out, of course; the film industry is too scared of organized religion to relay the story Sagan is actually telling: belief in something larger than yourself is easy - just look up, around, down, in. View 2 comments. Mar 09, Apatt rated it it was amazing Shelves: sci-fi. As far as I know Contact is Carl Sagan's only novel.

This makes him almost the Harper Lee of sci-fi though he did write boatloads of sci-fact books. Not being much of a nonfiction reader this is my first encounter with Carl Sagan's writing, I already feel like it is a shame that he only wrote the one novel; though I am sure the world is more than compensated by his other output.

Contact piqued my interest immediately with a vivid portrayal of Ellie Arrowway, a two years old genius, figuring ou As far as I know Contact is Carl Sagan's only novel. Contact piqued my interest immediately with a vivid portrayal of Ellie Arrowway, a two years old genius, figuring out how a radio works and fixing a tube by straightening a bent prong.

One day a message ostensibly from the Vega system, 25 light-years from Earth is received. Initially, it seems like just a looping series of prime numbers, remarkable in itself but of no practical value. Later a careful analysis of the modulations in the transmission reveals hidden messages, making the broadcast a kind of space palimpsest.