Contact (1997)

Jodie Foster: Ellie Arroway

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Quotes 

• [last lines] 

  Ellie Arroway : [to a group of children]  I'll tell you one thing about the universe, though. The universe is a pretty big place. It's bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So if it's just us... seems like an awful waste of space. Right?

• Ellie Arroway : Mathematics is the only true universal language.

• Panel member : Doctor Arroway, you come to us with no evidence, no record, no artifacts. Only a story that to put it mildly strains credibility. Over half a trillion dollars was spent, dozens of lives were lost. Are you really going to sit there and tell us we should just take this all... on faith?

  [pause, Ellie looks at Palmer] 

  Michael Kitz : Please answer the question, doctor.

  Ellie Arroway : Is it possible that it didn't happen? Yes. As a scientist, I must concede that, I must volunteer that.

  Michael Kitz : Wait a minute, let me get this straight. You admit that you have absolutely no physical evidence to back up your story.

  Ellie Arroway : Yes.

  Michael Kitz : You admit that you very well may have hallucinated this whole thing.

  Ellie Arroway : Yes.

  Michael Kitz : You admit that if you were in our position, you would respond with exactly the same degree of incredulity and skepticism!

  Ellie Arroway : Yes!

  Michael Kitz : [standing, angrily]  Then why don't you simply withdraw your testimony, and concede that this "journey to the center of the galaxy," in fact, never took place!

  Ellie Arroway : Because I can't. I... had an experience... I can't prove it, I can't even explain it, but everything that I know as a human being, everything that I am tells me that it was real! I was given something wonderful, something that changed me forever... A vision... of the universe, that tells us, undeniably, how tiny, and insignificant and how... rare, and precious we all are! A vision that tells us that we belong to something that is greater than ourselves, that we are *not*, that none of us are alone! I wish... I... could share that... I wish, that everyone, if only for one... moment, could feel... that awe, and humility, and hope. But... That continues to be my wish.

• 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.

• S.R. Hadden : [over video feed from Mir space station]  I wanna show you something.

  [shows satellite feed to Ellie] 

  S.R. Hadden : Hokkaido Island.

  Ellie Arroway : The systems integration site.

  S.R. Hadden : Look closer.

  [zooms satellite feed to reveal second machine] 

  S.R. Hadden : First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price? Only, this one can be kept secret. Controlled by Americans, built by the Japanese subcontractors. Who, also, happen to be, recently acquired, wholly-owned subsidiaries...

  Ellie Arroway : [speaks with Hadden]  ... of Hadden industries.

  S.R. Hadden : They still want an American to go, Doctor. Wanna take a ride?

• 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.

• 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] 

  Ellie Arroway : 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 : 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?

• Michael Kitz : Your having sent this announcement all over the world may well constitute a breach of national security.

  Ellie Arroway : This isn't a person-to-person call. You can't possibly think that a civilization sending this kind of message would intend it just for Americans.

  Michael Kitz : I'm saying you might have consulted us; obviously, the contents of this message could be extremely sensitive.

  Ellie Arroway : You want to classify prime numbers now?

• Ellie Arroway : Why did you do it?

  Palmer Joss : Our job was to select someone to speak for everybody. And I just couldn't in good conscience vote for a person who doesn't believe in God. Someone who honestly thinks the other ninety five percent of us suffer from some form of mass delusion.

  Ellie Arroway : I told the truth up there. And Drumlin told you exactly what you wanted to hear.

• 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.

• Ellie Arroway : You know, there are four hundred billion stars out there, just in our galaxy alone. If only one out of a million of those had planets, and just of out of a million of those had life, and just one out of a million of those had intelligent life; there would be, literally... millions of civilizations out there.

  Palmer Joss : [looking at the night sky]  Well, if there wasn't, it'd be an awful waste of space.

  Ellie Arroway : [looking at him]  Amen.

• Panel member : If you were to meet these Vegans, and were permitted only one question to ask of them, what would it be?

  Ellie Arroway : Well, I suppose it would be, how did you do it? How did you evolve, how did you survive this technological adolescence without destroying yourself?

• Ellie Arroway : [Witnessing a celestial light show up close]  Some... celestial event... no... no words, no words...

  [starts to sob] 

  Ellie Arroway : to describe it. Poetry! They should've sent a poet. So beautiful... beautiful... so beautiful, so beautiful. I had no idea.

• Rachel Constantine : [about Adolf Hitler]  Twenty million people died defeating that son of a bitch, and he's our first ambassador to outer space?

  Ellie Arroway : Actually the Hitler broadcast from the...

  David Drumlin : [interrupting]  '36 olympics was the first television transmission of any power that went in to space. That they recorded it, and sent it back, is simply their way of saying "hello, we heard you."

  Michael Kitz : Or, "Sieg Heil, you're our kind of people."

• Willie : Who are we going to call now?

  Ellie Arroway : Everybody.

• Ellie Arroway : Is this some test?

  Alien : No, no tests. You have your mother's hands.

  [he takes her hand and turns it, showing they both wear the same ring] 

  Alien : You're an interesting species. An interesting mix. You're capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone; only, you're not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable... is each other.

  Ellie Arroway : What happens now?

  Alien : Now... you go home.

  Ellie Arroway : Home? But... I have so many questions... Do we get to come back?

  Alien : This was just a first step. In time, you'll take another.

  Ellie Arroway : But other people need to see what I've seen, they need to see...

  Alien : This is the way it's been done for billions of years. Small moves, Ellie. Small moves.

• Ellie Arroway : 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?

• David Drumlin : One... there is intelligent life out there, but you'll never contact it in your lifetime, and two...

  [Ellie starts to speak, he speaks over her] 

  David Drumlin : TWO! There's nothing out there but noble gases and carbon compounds, and you're wasting your time! In the meantime, you won't be published, you won't be taken seriously and your career will be over before it's begun!

  Ellie Arroway : [angrily]  So WHAT? It's MY LIFE!

• Ellie Arroway : You're not real. None of this is real.

  Alien : [disguised as her father]  That's my scientist.

  Ellie Arroway : [looking the beach around you]  When I was unconscious, you downloaded my thoughts, my memories, even Pensacola.

  Alien : We thought this might make things easier for you.

• Ellie Arroway : I've been to Sunday school a few times.

  Palmer Joss : And?

  Ellie Arroway : I kept asking all these really annoying questions like "Where did Mrs. Cain come from?" And pretty soon they asked my dad if he wouldn't mind keeping me home from now on.

• Ellie Arroway : Occam's razor. You ever heard of it?

  Palmer Joss : Hack-em's Razor. Sounds like some slasher movie.

  Ellie Arroway : No, Occam's Razor. It's a basic scientific principle. It says all things being equal, the simplest explanation tends to be the right one.

• Dr. Kent Clark : Dr. Arroway will be spending her precious telescope time listening for... uh... listening for...

  Ellie Arroway : Little green men.

• Ellie Arroway : [listening to the message]  Those are primes! 2,3,5,7, those are all prime numbers and there's no way that's a natural phenomenon!

• Ellie Arroway : I read your book.

  Palmer Joss : Here we go.

  Ellie Arroway : You want me to quote you? "Ironically, the thing people are most hungry for - meaning - is the one thing science hasn't been able to give them."

  Palmer Joss : Yeah.

  Ellie Arroway : [humorously]  Come on! It's like you're saying that science killed God. What if science simply revealed that He never existed in the first place?

  Palmer Joss : I think we're gonna need to get some air.

  Ellie Arroway : Oh?

  Palmer Joss : [takes two champagne glasses]  And a few more of these...

• Ellie Arroway : I work for a project called SETI.

  Palmer Joss : Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence? Wow, that's out there.

• S.R. Hadden : The powers that be have been very busy lately, falling over each other to position themselves for the game of the millennium. Maybe I can help deal you back in.

  Ellie Arroway : I didn't realize that I was out.

  S.R. Hadden : Well, maybe not out... but certainly being handed your hat.

• Ellie Arroway : They all travel here through that transit system that you built?

  Alien : We didn't build it. We don't know who did. No, they were gone long before we ever got here. Maybe someday they'll come back.

• S.R. Hadden : Dr. Arroway, I presume.

  Ellie Arroway : Mr. Hadden.

  S.R. Hadden : I've had my eye on you a long time, Doctor. I consider you one of my most valuable long-term investments. And when it comes to my investments, I always do my homework. Eleanor Ann Arroway, born 25th August, 1964, De Pere, Wisconsin. Mother, Joanna, died from complications during childbirth. Early testing indicated high predisposition towards science and mathematics. Father, Theodore, advised to provide enrichment activities in these areas, .did so conscientiously until his death from myocardial infarction, November 10, 1974. You graduated from high school in 1979, almost two full years early. Awarded full scholarship, M.I.T, graduated magna cum laude. Doctoral work, Cal Tech where you worked on the lanthanide-doped ruby maser, dramatically increasing the sensitivity of radio telescopes. Subsequently offered a teaching position at Harvard University which you turned down to pursue SETI work at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Changes in NSF policy gave rise to certain funding problems, at which point you came to my attention.

• Ellie Arroway : I'm okay to go! I'm okay to go! I'm okay to go...

• Dynamics : 100% target velocity.

  Electrical : Steve, picking up tremendous E.M.I. levels around the machine. All field measurements are pegged off-scale high.

  Dynamics : Steve, we're approaching our abort limits.

  [Mission director reaches for the abort switch] 

  Ellie Arroway : Okay to go!

  [Mission director unlocks abort control and prepares to push the button] 

  Dr. Kent Clark : I hear her! I hear her. Barely, but, but she's there.

  Ellie Arroway : [weakly]  Okay to go...

  Dr. Kent Clark : She says she's okay to go.

  Dynamics : Steve, we're real close.

  Mission Director : Electrical, what's your reading on the core?

  Electrical : [puzzled]  The internal environment looks normal. Inside the core, the... weather's beautiful.

  [Mission director re-locks abort control] 

  Ellie Arroway : [softly]  I'm okay to go... okay to go... I'm okay to go...

  Mission Director : Initiate drop sequence on my mark. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three two...

  Ellie Arroway : I'm okay to go...

  [pod drops into machine] 

  Ellie Arroway : OH GOD!

• Ellie Arroway : What I meant to say is that the message was written in the language of science. Now if it had been religious in nature it should have taken form of a burning bush or a big booming voice from the sky.

  Palmer Joss : [dramatically]  But a voice from the sky... is exactly what you found, Dr. Arroway!

• Ellie Arroway : Hydrogen times pi!

• Ellie Arroway : Mrs. Constantine? May I have a word with you?

  Rachel Constantine : Certainly.

  Ellie Arroway : Um, I have a big problem.

  Rachel Constantine : Yes?

  Ellie Arroway : Uh, do you know where I can find like a really great dress?

• Ellie Arroway : I am OK to go.

• Michael Kitz : Explain this to me. If the source of the signal is so sophisticated, why the remedial math?

  Senator Valencia : Exactly, why don't they speak English?

  Ellie Arroway : Maybe because 70 percent of the planet speaks other languages.

• David Drumlin : Ellie, still waiting for E.T. to call?

  Ellie Arroway : [calling after him as he walks away]  Nice to see you too!

  [sotto voce] 

  Ellie Arroway : Asshole.

• Ellie Arroway : [sticking a thumbtack into a start chart]  One down, couple of billion to go.

• Ted Arroway : Hi, Sparks.

  Ellie Arroway : Dad?

• Ellie Arroway : [as she is flying through the wormhole]  Oh God!

• Dr. Kent Clark : Uh... These are government-owned telescopes, they can lease them to whomever they want. And they don't want the high priestess of the desert using them anymore.

  Ellie Arroway : What?

  Dr. Kent Clark : Staring at static on TV for hours at a time, listening to washing machines. Did you really think these stories wouldn't get out?

  Ellie Arroway : I was looking for patterns in the chaos, come on!

  Dr. Kent Clark : It doesn't matter anymore! We're a joke to them, they want us out.

• Panel member : Myself, I have one final question, Dr. Arroway.

  Panel member : If you should meet these Vegans... and were permitted only one question to ask of them, what would it be?

  Ellie Arroway : Well, I suppose it would be: How did you do it? How did you evolve? How did you survive this technological adolescence without destroying yourself?

• Eleanor Arroway : One down... a couple billion to go.

• Ellie Arroway : [hearing the message on her headphones]  Holy shit...

  [unplugs her equipment, jumps into her car and speeds away towards headquarters, shouting into walkie-talkie] 

  Ellie Arroway : Right ascension, eighteen hours, thirty-six minutes, fifty-six point two seconds! Declination, less thirty-six degrees, forty-six minutes, fifty-six point two seconds! Confirm! Right ascension, eighteen hours thirty-six minutes, fifty-six point two seconds! HEY! Is anybody awake in there? I'm moving the array! CONFIRM!

  Fisher : Boss has a bogey!

  [Ellie continues to shout coordinates over the walkie-talkie] 

  Willie : [into the walkie-talkie]  What? Huh? Uh, I, I can't... Fish!

  [tosses Fisher the walkie-talkie] 

  Fisher : [into walkie-talkie]  We're on it!

  Ellie Arroway : I'm moving the rest of them now and I need you to confirm the coordinates!

  Fisher : [to Willie]  Check the status of the array! She's doing all the dishes.

  Willie : All systems nominal.

  Fisher : [Looking at the pulse signal on the monitor]  Hello!

  [to Willie] 

  Fisher : I need a full systems check!

  [over walkie-talkie] 

  Fisher : Coordinates confirmed, Willie's checking the system now!

  Ellie Arroway : Stay on top of the system's diagnostics! Check the reference point offsets and I want you off axis on twenty-seven the second we get there! And tell Willie to break out the big boy!

  Willie : Copy that! Uh, Willie I -

  [Ellie is still speaking on the walkie-talkie] 

  Willie : Yeah, go, go Ellie!

  Ellie Arroway : ...'Cause I can hear it on the headphones! We've gotta be sure about this!

  Fisher : [to Willie]  Gimme another array status!

  Willie : Her four are online, the rest are tracking in!

  Fisher : [to Ellie]  Your four are online, the rest are tracking in!

  Willie : But there's a bad drive on sixteen!

  Fisher : [repeats to Ellie]  Your four are online, the rest are tracking in, but there's a bad drive on sixteen, copy that? What do you want me to do about the source cube?

  Ellie Arroway : [pulling up in her car, still over walkie-talkie as she runs inside and up the stairs]  Look, forget about it and hold the cube! Go get ready to set the target frequency to manual the second we're aligned! Do you copy? I want you to go off-axis on twenty-seven the second we're there! And leave the yellow frequency where it is! Stay on it Fish, don't let it get away, if you lose it just scan the band, run every frequency you can think of!

  [bursting into the control room] 

  Ellie Arroway : How you doin'?