Contact

UNIVERSE - EIGHT BILLION LIGHT YEARS FROM EARTH

The cosmos on the grandest scale we know. Clusters of

galaxies strewn like sea froth; whorls and smudges of

light representing hundreds of billions of stars each.

MILKY WAY GALAXY

A view from the edge. We DRIFT ABOVE the majestic,

spiraling disk, tens of thousands of light years across.

RING NEBULA (M57) - CONSTELLATION LYRA

A local group of stars, the brightest of which is a point

of hot, blue-white light...

VEGA:

Rings of glowing gas and debris surround the giant, blue-

white star... and then we notice something ahead of us in

polar orbit.

CLOSER:

An immense, world-sized construct gleams in Vega's blue

light. Far too big to be artificial, by human standards

-- but this wasn't built to human standards.

Bowl-shaped transmitters cover the quicksilver gel-like

surface of the polyhedron, forming then vanishing again.

We DESCEND INTO one vast bowl as it deepens --

-- then silently convulses. A lost chord. We SWING

AROUND, assuming a breathtaking, MOVING POV --

A message begins its journey.

DISSOLVE TO:

SUBTERRANEAN DARKNESS

Shadows appear, dark and murky. Slowly we become aware of

a MUFFLED, PULSING sound; like a DISTANT, BOOMING

HEARTBEAT.

Suddenly a bright light unzips the amniotic darkness; two

great hands reach in to assist what we now realize is a

Caesarean birth.

ELLIE ARROWAY:

age five seconds, opens her eyes wide. In the b.g., we

can see a nurse methodically giving CPR to the unseen

mother; the decor beyond tells us we are in a small-town

doctor's office. The DOCTOR holds Ellie as he calls

softly to the nurse.

DOCTOR:

You can call it, Nan. Mark time of

birth as... 12:
04 A.M.

(looking down at the

baby)

Happy New Year, little lady.

(to the nurse)

Tell Ted he has a girl.

TED ARROWAY stands watching through the window in the

office door. Numb.

BABY'S TINY HAND

clasps its mother's finger.

CUT TO:

WIDE TABLEAU:

Ted, holding his newborn daughter, sitting quietly next to

the bed where his sheet-covered wife still lies.

EXT. MAIN STREET (NEHALEM, OREGON) - DAWN

Ted, carefully holding little Ellie, walks down the empty

street, his FOOTSTEPS ECHOING...

DEEP SPACE - MESSAGE

rockets through a black dust cloud where young stars are

just beginning to glow. An icy worldlet evaporates,

releasing gasses which blow away in spectral bursts of

iridescent color...

SURFACE OF ALIEN WORLD

We are MOVING OVER an exotic, technological landscape;

strange ALIEN SQUELCHES and SQUEALS become audible --

-- and then a child's hand reaches in and twists a giant

dial on what we now see is an old shortwave RADIO.

ELLIE (V.O.)

CQ CQ WR2 GFO... WR2 GFO, come back.

INT. ARROWAY HOUSE - NIGHT

SIX-YEAR OLD ELLIE leans in towards a large microphone.

ELLIE:

CQ WR2 GFO, do you copy?

(calls)

I'm not getting anything.

Ted joins his daughter at the workbench where she sits in

front of the short-wave, her feet dangling from the stool.

He puts his hands on her shoulders.

TED:

Small moves, Captain, small moves.

ELLIE:

I can't move any smaller.

TED:

Try again between the static and

'Hey Jude'; that's where they're

hiding.

Ellie bites her lip, tries again. Her little hand slowly

turns the dial -- suddenly --

RADIO VOICE (V.O.)

(filtered)

Copy... WRS GFO...

(off STATIC)

W2P KLD talking... what's your

handle, WR2 GFO?

ELLIE:

What do I do?

TED:

Talk to him.

ELLIE:

But what do I say?

TED:

Just be yourself, Captain. Find out

where he is.

Ellie tentatively reaches out and grasps the microphone.

ELLIE:

Where are you calling from, W2P KLD,

come back.

RADIO VOICE (V.O.)

(filtered)

Pensacola, over.

ELLIE:

Pensacola -- !

(beat)

Where's Pensacola?

TED:

Give you a hint:
orange juice.

MAP OF WORLD:

above the work area is dotted with colored pins; Ellie's

finger traces the Gulf of Mexico, stopping at Pensacola.

Ellie, breathless with wonder. Contact.

EXT. ARROWAY BEDROOM - NIGHT

The house in the woods dwarfed under the immense dome of

night.

INT. ELLIE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

Now in her pajamas, Ellie sits hunched over in bed,

working intently on her latest masterpiece. A crayon

behind her ear.

ELLIE:

Could we hear to China?

TED:

On that old shortwave? Maybe on a

clear night. Come on now, under the

covers.

ELLIE:

Could we hear to the moon?

TED:

Big enough radio, I don't see why

not.

ELLIE:

Could we hear God?

TED:

Mmm, that's a good one. Maybe his

echo...

(then)

Okay, no more stalling.

ELLIE:

(coloring frantically)

Okay, okay... there.

She hands Ted the drawing. As he holds it up to the lamp

we see it shows an idealized beach, palm trees. It glows

in the light.

ELLIE:

Pensacola.

TED:

That's a beauty, Captain.

(kisses her on the

forehead)

Now get some sleep.

He carefully pins the drawing on the wall, turns out the

light. As he starts out she says softly --

ELLIE:

Do you think there're people on

other planets?

Ted pauses, smiles at his daughter's inexhaustible

curiosity. He returns, sits on the edge of her bed, now

lit by starlight.

TED:

Well let's see... the Universe is a

pretty big place... And the one

thing I know about nature is it

hates to waste anything. So I guess

I'd say if it is just us, an awful

lot of space is going to waste.

He tenderly brushes a stray lock of her hair behind her

ear.

TED:

Time to sleep now, Captain. But you

can ask more questions in the

morning, okay?

ELLIE:

(sighs)

Okay.

He kisses her again, rises, goes to leave, stopping at the

door to watch her. Ellie looks out the window at the

stars...

DEEP SPACE - MESSAGE

A comet blows by. We chase it, riding its luminous tail

of evaporating ice...

TED'S CALLUSED HAND

careful as a safecracker, slowly TURNS the DIAL on an

ancient A.M. RADIO -- finally landing on an old HANK

WILLIAMS TUNE.

INT. TED'S TRUCK - MOVING - DAY

Ted sits up, smiles in satisfaction.

EXT. TRUCK - DAY

The old red Ford trundles through the pines along a

mountain road.

INT. ARROWAY KITCHEN - DAY

NINE-YEAR OLD ELLIE throws her schoolbooks on the table

and goes to the refrigerator. As she starts to take out

items we see her hand-drawn chart taped to the side of the

fridge; Mondays and Thursdays say "Ellie Cooks!"

EXT. MOUNTAINS - DAY

A fawn is feeding. CUT WIDE to reveal it standing in the

middle of an empty road, nibbling at the grass growing out

of the old blacktop. The TWITTER of a BIRD; the wind in

the trees... and then, far in the distance, we hear an

ENGINE STRAINING.

LOGGING TRUCK:

heads up the mountain road, its driver humming along to

the same HANK WILLIAMS TUNE.

INT. ARROWAY KITCHEN - DAY

A stew of some sort bubbles on the stove. Ellie hums as

she experiments with every spice on the rack.

SERIES OF SHOTS:

A) Ted sings to the RADIO as he eases off the gas to

take a bend in the road --

B) The fawn continues to graze, oblivious. We can now

hear the RADIO in the DISTANCE.

C) Ted look up as he rounds the bend -- sees the deer --

D) The logging TRUCK ROARS around a blind curve --

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