MovieChat Forums > Contact (1997) Discussion > Part that actually scared me

Part that actually scared me


Forgive me because it’s been a while, but when the scientists receive a transmission back from the aliens and they zoom out to show a picture of Hitler, for some reason physically startled me. I guess I just wasn’t expecting that to be the transmission and wasn’t sure if it meant the aliens were hostile at that point in the movie. Just sort of a WTF moment for me. Not a bad movie at all. Was fun seeing it in theaters.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-Ngqhe3y-Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dyns367ExE

https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2013/09/will-hitler-be-the-first-person-that-aliens-see.html


I'm kinda curious what the world would be like with Nazi Germany in charge. Probably won't be as today with the slow decline of societies as a whole.

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Humanity would have become Terrans as portrayed in Star Trek Discovery. We would be united and out roaming the Cosmos. Searching to pick a fight with everybody and enslave whoever along the way. I think there was an episode of Star Trek Voyager where Janeway had a warship? I vaguely remember it, hmmm.

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The film uses the video purely for dramatic purposes, and to embolden the characters in the story that have reason to supress or nay-say the event. There would have been radio broadcasts many decades prior to 1936. Perhaps the interval of time between radio and TV was a 'tipping point' prompting the sending back of the message, along with the plans for the IPV.

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The 1936 Olympics video is in the novel too. The explanation given is that it was the first TV broadcast with a strong enough signal to be received a long distance away from the Earth. But I agree it serves a dramatic purpose too.

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