Contact Page #3

PETER:

(embarrassed but

pleased)

Keep it down, okay? Drumlin thinks

I'm enough of a flake as it is.

(then)

Look -- everyone here has their

little fetishes. Caven goes to

topless bars, Vernon's got his

carnivorous plants... mine just

happens to be extraterrestrial

intelligence.

ELLIE:

What a coincidence. It happens to

be my fetish too.

A brief but electric moment between them. They both feel

it. Drumlin calls back from the head of the group:

DRUMLIN:

You two coming along or you just

gonna do it right here in the sand?

The other students laugh good-naturedly. Ellie and Peter,

rather than being embarrassed, seem to be considering the

idea.

EXT. MOJAVE CLIFFS - LATE AFTERNOON

A dusky orange sun hangs over the mountains, the Goldstone

telescopes visible in the distance. Ellie and Peter walk

along a windswept cliff overlooking a vast desert lake.

ELLIE:

... I'm just so sick of feeling

defensive about the things I care

about! Or being lumped in with the

lunatic fringe by people like

Drumlin, when if they'd just put

aside their preconceptions for two

seconds and look at the facts...

PETER:

They can't. I think it's against

human nature to admit to that level

of... insignificance; to not see

yourself as basically the center of

the universe.

ELLIE:

It's like the pre-Copernicans who

swore the sun revolved around the

Earth, or the Victorians at the end

of the last century who concluded

that all major discoveries had now

been made. I mean... try to imagine

civilization a thousand years ahead

of us -- then imagine trying to

explain... I dunno, a microwave oven

-- to someone even a hundred years

ago -- I mean the basic concepts

didn't exist...

PETER:

(murmurs)

'Any sufficiently advanced

technology...'

ELLIE:

(finishing it with

him)

'... is indistinguishable from

magic.'

A moment... and then Peter takes her hand like it's the

most natural thing in the world.

PETER:

I dunno. I know I should be

objective, ice-cold hard-assed

scientific about it, but just on an

intuitive level -- what's the point

of a universe so vast if we're the

only ones it it? It'd just be such

a... waste of space.

Ellie stops, looks at him -- and then slowly, carefully

leans in and kisses him. A pleasantly awkward beat.

ELLIE:

Sorry.

Peter laughs.

EXT. DESERT - NIGHT

A million stares blaze overhead as Peter and Ellie make

love on an Indian blanket in the middle of the desert.

Ellie looks searchingly up into Peter's face... and then

her gaze drifts upwards to the canopy above...

SQUIRREL:

gnaws on a beechnut as two enormous pair of feet walk by.

ELLIE (V.O.)

-- but I've already submitted my

proposal!

EXT. CAL TECH CAMPUS - DAY

Ellie and Drumlin walk briskly, in heated discussion.

DRUMLIN:

I'm sorry, Miss Arroway, not only is

it too Speculative a subject for a

doctoral dissertation, at this point

in your career it'd be tantamount to

suicide.

ELLIE:

I'm willing to take that risk.

DRUMLIN:

I'm not. You're far too promising a

scientist to waste your considerable

gifts on this nonsense --

ELLIE:

Dr. Drumlin, we are talking about

what could potentially be the most

important discovery in the history

of humanity. There are over four

hundred billion stars out there --

DRUMLIN:

And only two probabilities: One:

there is intelligent life in the

universe but they're so far away

you'll never contact it in your

lifetime --

ELLIE:

You're --

DRUMLIN:

Two:
There's nothing out there but

noble gasses and carbon compounds

and you'd be wasting your time.

ELLIE:

What if you're wrong?

(as he starts to

speak)

No -- I'll grant you probabilities

but as a scientist without all the

evidence -- you can't deny the

possibility -- and I believe even

the remotest possibility of

something this profoundly...

profound is worth investigation --

and worth taking a few risks.

DRUMLIN:

I disagree.

ELLIE:

Then disagree but don't stand in my

way!

By this point they've gathered a small crowd. Drumlin

regards her for for a moment; then, softly:

DRUMLIN:

What is it that makes you so lonely,

Miss Arroway? What is it that

compels you to search the heavens

for life when there's so much of it

being neglected right here at home?

Body blow. Ellie just stares, stunned. Finally:

DRUMLIN:

I will approve a general thesis on

the detection of radio signals from

space but that's all. No E.T.I.s.

Enough?

Flushed, overwhelmed... Ellie nods. Enough.

DEEP SPACE - MESSAGE

Approaching a backwater area of the galaxy. A small,

unspectacular yellow star comes INTO VIEW.

PAIR OF HEADLIGHTS

cuts through the night. A Jeep negotiates an overgrown

mountain road.

EXT. ARECIBO, PUERTO RICO - AERIAL SHOT - PRE-DAWN

The two tiny beams from high above as we DESCEND OVER a

mountainous jungle range, a hot-house of life that drops

away to reveal an enormous white thousand-foot radio

telescope, cradled in the natural bowl of the mountain

valley.

SUPERIMPOSE:
ARECIBO, PUERTO RICO - 1992

EXT. ARECIBO - DAWN

The mud-spattered Jeep pulls up in front of the living

quarters of the primitive installation. Peter Valerian

climbs out, looks up at the crude facilities in dismay.

ELLIE:

lies asleep in bed. Peter sits quietly next to her,

gently touches her face. Her eyes slowly open. She

smiles.

SAME - FEW MINUTES LATER

Ellie is in the shower. Peter looks around her quarters;

peeling paint, a few steps down from your average dorm

room.

ELLIE (O.S.)

(calls from the

shower)

... I keep telling myself okay,

that's just the price, you have to

do your time doing shitwork before

you're allowed to get to the good

stuff... but if I have to catalog

one more quasar...

(sticks her head

out)

God, I've missed you.

PETER:

Any luck on the grant money?

ELLIE:

Please. Any chance of that died the

day David Drumlin was appointed head

of the N.S.F. I have been in

contact with a few other SETI

people; we've been trying to find

backing from private investors.

I've even managed to scrounge a

couple of hours of telescope time

here and there...

PETER:

And?

ELLIE:

I've examined over forty stars of

roughly solar spectral type but so

far nothing. Still, we've barely

started...

Peter is silent.

EXT. MT. ARECIBO (PUERTO RICO) - DAY

Ellie and Peter walk along the periphery of the vast

concave dish. A gentle breeze blows.

ELLIE:

... We've been going after some of

the big multi-nationals but without

much luck; got a donation from a New

York dowager... We've even been

thinking about selling T-shirts.

PETER:

Ellie... even if you do manage to

raise the money, have you thought

about what it would really mean to

follow through on this? I mean a

college fetish is one thing, but

we're talking about your career.

You won't be publishing. You won't

be taken seriously... and you could

spend your entire life looking and

never find anything at all.

Ellie pauses; looks out at the endless ocean of green.

Quietly:

ELLIE:

If we lived at any previous time in

human history we wouldn't even have

the option of failing -- we'd have

to wonder our whole lives, unable to

do anything about it. This time,

right now, is unique in our history,

in any civilization's history -- the

moment of the acquisition of

technology. The moment when contact

becomes possible. We've already

beaten incredible odds by being

lucky enough to be alive now.

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