Contract as Science Fiction Film that Based on Novel by Carl Sagon - Movie Review Example

Inserts His/her Inserts Inserts Grade (02, 12, Movie Reflection Paper: Contact Introduction Contact is a famous science fiction film that is based on a novel by Carl Sagon. The movie was a blockbuster and is considered one of the best alien movies till today. There are many theological themes that can be identified in the movie as the main characters set out to find new specie in universe. The religious consequences of such a discovery and the doubt of the scientist involved in the expedition make the movie ever so interesting. We will provide a brief summary of the plot and then the film will be analyzed with regards to the themes found in out text book ‘In the Presence of Mystery’. Plot The movie is about a young scientist who is obsessed with finding some kind of extra terrestrial being. She, Judie Foster, eventually become aware of signals that seems to be coming from the some non human living entities residing far in space on a planet called Vega. This discovery shocks the world and everyone is panicked to a certain extent. The message sent by the space being is decoded with the help of a rich billionaire, but eccentric, inventor. The message is about building a machine that can take a single person to the planet. After a long process one person is selected to take seat in the machine but after a blast the main character (Judie Foster) gets an opportunity to take the most important journey ever taken by a human being. The journey is quite eventful for the scientist (Judies Foster) but NASA could not verify anything she says to have experienced. Finally the whole world realizes that this was a hoax by the eccentric inventor who helped decipher the message of the space beings. But top government officials of USA found, in the end, that there was little proof for the experience of the scientist who travelled in the machine. Analysis In Contact we find many themes that are explained in our text book. When the world becomes aware of the existence of an extra terrestrial entity, a mass religious hysteria breaks out and many people come out with their own interpretation. Scientists attempt to explain the phenomenon by objective facts while others think that this journey should not be taken as it will be a step against God. The reason behind the suicide bomb attack in the movie was also to stop the ‘ungodly’ actions of human beings. Other educated theologians believed that discovery of an intelligent species would straighten the idea of God. The Second Chapter of our text books talks about the non religious explanations of religion or religious beliefs. In the film too we can identify some of the explanations that are given in the text book. There seems to be an intellectual motivation for the theologian to believe in God because he thought that the discovery of a new intelligent being further ensures that a God exists. He was actually trying to explain and indentify the cause of the new being and in turn satisfying his intellectual thirst of inquisition. Many people do the same when encountering with complex phenomena that cannot have a rational justification. In the case of the movie Contact there was no rational explanation of how the intelligent specie came into existence and how did it acquire intelligence superior to human beings. When there seems no explanation then people associate it with supernatural beings, and this is what the theologian in the movie is doing. He is rationalizing the cause of existence of the nonhuman living species. There is another religious side in the movie. A religious extremist group’s leader argues that building of the machine is not moral because we are not sure whether the aliens believe in God or not. This may sound nonsensical to educated people but it is an extremely important dimension of the film. In the text book author explain that primitive people believed in rituals that had important social functions like sustaining peaceful family life, and preventing fights (37). Now the same idea is working behind the belief that the machine should not be built. Religious extremist are actually afraid of what might come out when a contact has been made with the aliens and therefore are not willing to allow building of such a machine. People in general do not like rapid change. Religion is just a tool through which people attempt to maintain the social status quo. It helps societies to avoid chaos and protect themselves from external threats. People of a religion are close to each other as they are instructed to do so by their religion. They are told by God not to harm each other and protect each other. All these religious instructions are nothing more than just instructions. They are tools for a protecting the balance of the society and this is why religious beliefs are so ubiquitous in our world. They help us live in a peaceful environment and provide us with rules and regulations that help us maintain harmony in our worlds. This is why established authority like religion is often not challenged and change, especially rapid change, is not accepted by the society easily. This was an important theme identified in the movie. Also in the end when NASA fails to find hardcore evidence that the aliens does exist, people do not believe in the story of the scientist (Jody Foster). This is why people do not tend to believe the account of the scientist who knows that she experienced something real. Here the scientist asks everyone to believe in her story by “taking a leap of faith”, but people do not believe her. This is another example of how unrealistic but valid scientific claims are rejected by people only to maintain their previous religious beliefs. Believing in a supernatural entity is not something normal and that is why people were skeptical. People are always fearful of the believing is something that is out of this world. The genetic explanation of religion is also behind the rejection of everyone that scientist is telling the right story. We feel fearful of outsiders because we think that they can hurt us. This is why existence of extra terrestrial is not believed by everyone in the film. The fear is also visible in the immediate reaction of the government when some people of the government argue that aliens might be dangerous to human beings. This fear is genetic and that is why people were fearful of aliens in the movie. Conclusion The film Contact has many theological themes in it. People do not like to meet the aliens as they are fearful. This is similar to the genetic explanation of religion because genes force us to behave in a way that is fit with our survival. Also we identified intellectual explanation of religion and social reasons behind the religious beliefs in the movie. Works Cited Page Barnes, Michael, H. In The Presence Of Mystery: An Introduction to the Story of Human Religiousness. New York: Twenty-Third Publications, 2003. Print Contact. Dir. Robert Zemeckis. Perf. Jody Foster and Matthew McConaughey. Warner Bros, 1997. Film. Read More