CONTACT [1997]

If It's Just Us, 

It Seems Like An Awful Waste Of Space

[Young Ellie]: Dad, do you think there's people on other planets?

[Ted Arroway]: I don't know, Sparks. 

But I guess I'd say if it is just us... seems like an awful waste of space.

[David Drumlin]: I know you must think this is all very unfair. 

Maybe that's an understatement. What you don't know is I agree. 

I wish the world was a place where fair was the bottom line, 
where the kind of idealism you showed at the hearing was rewarded, 
not taken advantage of. 

Unfortunately, we don't live in that world. 

[Ellie Arroway]: Funny, I've always believed that the world is what we make of it.

[Executive]: We must confess that your proposal seems less like science and more like science fiction. 

[Ellie Arroway]: Science fiction. Well you're right, it's crazy. 
In fact, it's even worse than that, nuts. 

*angrily slams down her briefcase and marches up to the desk*

You wanna hear something really nutty? 

I heard of a couple guys who wanna build something called an "airplane," 
you know you get people to go in, and fly around like birds, it's ridiculous, right? 

And what about breaking the sound barrier, or rockets to the moon, or atomic energy, 
 or a mission to Mars? Science fiction, right? 

Look, all I'm asking, is for you to just have the tiniest bit of vision. 

You know, to just sit back for one minute and look at the big picture. 

To take a chance on something that just might end up being the most profoundly impactful moment for humanity, for the history... of history.

[Palmer Joss]: What are you studying up there? 

[Ellie Arroway]: Oh, the usual. Nebulae, quasars, pulsars, stuff like that. 

What are you writing?

[Palmer Joss]: The usual. Nouns, adverbs, adjective here and there.

[Palmer Joss, Ellie challenges Palmer to prove the existence of God]: Did you love your father?

[Ellie Arroway]: What?

[Palmer Joss]: Your dad. Did you love him? 

[Ellie Arroway]: Yes, very much. 

[Palmer Joss]: Prove it.

[Palmer Joss]: By doing this, you're willing to give your life, you're willing to die for it. Why?

[Ellie Arroway]: For as long as I can remember, I've been searching for something, 
some reason why we're here. What are we doing here? Who are we? 

If this is a chance to find out even just a little part of that answer... 
I don't know, I think it's worth a human life. 

Don't you? 

So what's more likely? 

That an all-powerful, mysterious God created the Universe, 
and decided not to give any proof of his existence? 

Or, that He simply doesn't exist at all, and that we created Him, 
so that we wouldn't have to feel so small and alone?

[Ellie Arroway]

Mathematics is the only true universal language.

[Ellie Arroway]

Is the world fundamentally a better place because of science and technology? 

We shop at home, we surf the web... 
at the same time, we feel emptier, lonelier and more cut off from each other than at any other time in human history... 

[Palmer Joss]

I'm not against technology, doctor. 

I'm against the men who deify it at the expense of human truth. 

[Palmer Joss]

As a person of faith I'm bound by a different covenant than Doctor Arroway. 

But our goal is one and the same: the pursuit of Truth. 

I for one believe her. 

[Palmer Joss]

*****