Am I the only one who thought SR Hadden...

Maybe he could have been but to what end? I could understand an alien civilization trying to bring humans into the fold slowly by adding in their own element, disguised as a human, to move humanity in a direction that makes sense to the aliens. This is kind of the basis of They Live with somewhat a darker edge. But why bring on a great engineer and titan of industry then suddenly spring the alien signal on humanity? I guess it would make more sense if it were made apparent that SR had a direct hand in the kinds of communications technology that lead to the discovery instead of just sponsoring a project that may or may not come across the signal.

If there was a Vegan plant on Earth somewhere it's more likely it was the crazy preacher, since by his efforts Drumlin was thwarted and Arroway ended up making the journey. But Hadden's motivations were never really fleshed out, and we are left to conclude that he is either the altruist he presents himself as, or he is interested in the subsidiary benefits that Vegan transport technology might have to his empire.

I never considered it.

"Captains of Industry" space ambitions are now widely known. I find it prophetic and just smart writing by C. Sagan to put the character in. (Wonderfully played by John Hurt)

I wonder if J. Bezos and E. Musk were influenced at all by this film?