Contact Page #8

KENT:

Um... I've got an auxiliary sideband

channel here. I think it's audio.

An otherworldly RUMBLING GLISSANDO of sounds joins the

image, sliding up and down the spectrum... and then the

faint SWELLING MUSIC is heard. Ellie reaches over Willie

and type more commands. The picture rotates, rectifies,

focuses --

KITZ:

What in the hell...?

DRUMLIN:

It's a hoax. I knew it!

KENT:

Um, excuse me, but would someone

mind telling me what the hell is

going on?

Other reactions range from astonishment to nervous

laughter. Ellie and Peter stare in utter amazement.

ON SCREEN:

A grainy black and white image of a massive reviewing

stand adorned with an immense Art Deco eagle.

Clutched in the eagle's concrete talons is a swastika.

Adolph Hitler salutes a rhythmically chanting crowd.

The deep baritone voice of an ANNOUNCER, scratchy but

unmistakably GERMAN, BOOMS through the room. The dark

absurdity of the moment plays over Ellie's face; helpless:

ELLIE:

Anybody know German?

Kent tilts his head, closes his eyes.

KENT:

The Fuhrer... welcomes the world to

the German Fatherland... for the

opening of the 1936 Olympic Games.

Hitler's face fills the screen. The crowd roars its

approval.

CUT TO:

TELEVISED RIOT:

in Berlin. Police with hoses try to keep a mob of

skinheads under control.

GERMAN ANNOUNCER (V.O.)

(in German)

... the signal from the American

observatory depicting Adolph Hitler

has brought about chaos in the

streets of Berlin, where hundreds of

neo-Nazis gathered to swear eternal

fealty...

Slowly WIDEN to reveal a monitor wall.

A kaleidoscopic display of global news coverage of the

event. Demonstrations in a dozen cities, commentary from

pundits, Aryan leaders and Auschwitz survivors. A single

figure sits before the monitors, taking in the cacophony.

INT. VLA CORRIDOR - DAY

A huddle of figures sweeps down a dark corridor, charged

with power and purpose.

FEMALE VOICE (O.S.)

Forty million people die defeating

that sonofabitch and he becomes our

first ambassador to another

civilization? It makes me sick.

DRUMLIN (O.S.)

With all due respect, the Hitler

broadcast from the '36 Olympics was

the first television transmission of

any power that went into space.

That they recorded it and sent it

back is simply a way of saying

'Hello, we heard you --'

KITZ (O.S.)

-- Or 'you're our kind of people --'

DRUMLIN (O.S.)

-- It's extremely unlikely that they

had any idea what they were looking

at.

FEMALE VOICE (O.S.)

I can't believe that everything on

TV is automatically broadcast all

over the universe. 'Hard Copy'...

Rickie Lake'...

(paling)

Oh God, the '60 Minutes' interview.

The huddle bursts through a door and out into the dazzling

New Mexico morning, revealing the PRESIDENT and her

entourage:
Drumlin, Kitz, Secret Service, and fighting to

keep up, Ellie.

A sea of press awaits them as they move toward the podium,

which has been set up with the 31 enormous radio antennas

in the b.g. As the CHIEF OF STAFF takes the podium Ellie

looks over her note cards, then nervously out at the

crowd.

CHIEF OF STAFF:

Ladies and gentlemen, the President

of the United States.

President Helen Lasker addresses the crowd. She's an

American version of Margaret Thatcher.

PRESIDENT LASKER (FEMALE VOICE)

My fellow Americans, citizens of the

world, ladies and gentlemen of the

press. At 7:
09 A.M. Eastern

Standard Time yesterday morning,

American scientists detected a radio

signal from space. This message was

largely mathematical, and in spite

of some of the headlines I've seen

today, so far seems to be completely

benign in nature. To better explain

the extraordinary events of the last

24 hours, I'm turning you over to...

Doctor David Drumlin.

Ellie looks up in surprise. Drumlin doesn't miss a beat

as he strides to the podium.

DRUMLIN:

Good morning. In 1936 a very faint

television signal transmitted the

opening ceremonies of the Olympic

games as a show of German superior

technology. That signal left Earth

at the speed of light and twenty-six

years later arrived on Vega, which

they then sent back to us hugely

amplified. As evidence of

intelligence this is indisputable --

As Drumlin continues we see Fisher ease onto the dais from

behind, approach Ellie and surreptitiously hand her a

note.

DRUMLIN:

Whoever or whatever they are,

they're clearly move advanced than

we...

Ellie reads it, looks up at Fisher in surprise -- then

quietly slips away. A murmur among the press as they

notice; the President and then Drumlin as well --

DRUMLIN:

... maybe only decades or centuries,

maybe much further along than

that...

INT. VLA CONTROL ROOM - DAY

Ellie hurries into the control room -- then stops dead.

POV - MAIN MONITOR

The incredibly complex geometric pattern we see flashing

on the screen will be referred to as hieroglyphics -- but

they are like no hieroglyphics ever seen before;

chillingly otherworldly, they are the first visual

artifact of an alien civilization. The scientists stand

stunned and silent.

BACK TO SCENE:

ELLIE:

What...

LUNACHARSKY:

(softly)

In ancient times when parchment was

in short supply people would write

over old writing... it was called a

palimpsest.

ELLIE:

A third layer.

A phalanx of officials led by Drumlin, Kitz and the

President hurry in... and also stop at the sight of the

hieroglyphs.

PRESIDENT LASKER

Oh my God...

KITZ:

What is it?

ELLIE:

I think we just hit the cosmic

jackpot.

KENT:

It's incredibly rich. We've been

cataloging it in frames or 'pages';

right now we're on 10,413.

PRESIDENT LASKER

What does it say?

ELLIE:

It could be anything. The first

volume of some Encyclopedia

Galactica...

KITZ:

... instructions to acquaint us with

their colonization procedures.

KENT:

Moses with a few billion new

commandments...

KITZ:

Ms. President, in the interest of

national security, I strongly

recommend we militarize this project

immediately --

ELLIE:

Pardon me, but you can't do -- !

KITZ:

If at some later date the message

proves harmless, we can discuss

sharing it with the rest of the

world, but until then --

ELLIE:

That's terrific, but there's one

problem:
we don't have the means to

receive all the data on our own.

PRESIDENT LASKER

Is that true?

DRUMLIN:

The only way would be if we had a

radio telescope in orbit.

PRESIDENT LASKER

We don't? Why don't we?

ELLIE:

Because you cut it from the budget

three years running.

PRESIDENT LASKER

How soon will you be able to decode

it?

LUNACHARSKY:

There's no way of knowing. Without

a key -- a primer, to help us, maybe

never.

ELLIE:

Maybe it'll be at the end of the

data when the message recycles.

PRESIDENT LASKER

Well. That would seem to decide it.

Like it or not, for the moment,

anyway, it looks like we're all in

this together.

KITZ:

But --

PRESIDENT LASKER

That's it, Mike. Last time I

checked, I was still running the

country. Although it seems that for

the moment, Dr. Arroway is running

the planet.

The President looks up at the screen and involuntarily

shivers.

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