CONTACT
Beautifully produced science fiction that reduces faith and attacks Christianity.
Should You Watch It?
CONTACT is polished and ambitious, but its central vision is spiritually empty. It presents the search for extraterrestrial life as a substitute for belief in God, while taking broad swipes at Christianity and treating faith in aliens as a kind of salvation.
The film also includes sex, language, nudity, a deadly explosion, smoking, alcohol use, and other concerns. Its ideas may give some viewers material for discussion, but the source review finds the result sophomoric, vacuous, and disappointing to average moviegoers. Christian viewers may find its treatment of faith especially offensive.
The practical answer is simple: despite its production quality and four-star entertainment rating, skip CONTACT.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESEllie Arroway, a Harvard-trained radio astronomer, has devoted her life to searching for intelligent life beyond Earth. Her work brings her into conflict with Dr. Drummel, a presidential scientific advisor who seems determined to stop her research.
When Ellie detects an ordered signal from the Vega system, governments, scientists, religious leaders, and the public all become involved. The signal appears to contain instructions for building a machine that may allow a human being to travel far beyond Earth.
Is It Any Good?
The source gives CONTACT four stars for entertainment quality, chiefly because it is beautifully produced and built around an ambitious science-fiction premise. The film offers large ideas about faith, science, human purpose, and life beyond Earth.
But the source’s overall judgment is sharply negative. It calls the film sophomoric and vacuous, says it lets down the average moviegoer, and criticizes the acting: Jodie Foster seems constantly anguished, while Matthew McConaughey is too mellow.
The Worldview
CONTACT presents evolutionary scientific materialism as its governing vision. It asks viewers to reject the need for a Creator and replaces the Gospel’s promise of redemption with the possibility that advanced extraterrestrials seeded life or can explain humanity’s place in the universe.
The film tries to honor faith in general, but the faith it finally embraces is faith in aliens and a pseudo-scientific theory. It suggests that there is no supreme being, no grand design, no ultimate purpose, and no life beyond the material system. At the same time, Christianity is mocked through hostile Christian characters and imagery.
The source review sees this as a reduction of faith. Instead of God coming to earth to give eternal life, salvation becomes the discovery that other intelligent but limited beings exist. The film also contains a corporate and political undercurrent in which a powerful world leader knows more than the governments he manipulates.
A biblical worldview affirms that creation points beyond itself to its Creator: “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). CONTACT’s longing to know whether humanity is alone is real, but Scripture directs that longing toward the God who made the heavens, not toward fallible creatures among the stars.
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
Evolutionary scientific materialism worldview with many scenes bashing Christians although a major character purportedly represents a man of faith; 13 obscenities & 6 profanities; violent trips through the imagined worm holes of space & deadly explosion; upper female & upper male nudity; implied fornication; alcohol use; smoking; and, fraud
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
The film searches the heavens for meaning and salvation. Where does Scripture say true knowledge and life are found?
John 17:3 · Colossians 1:16–17CONTACT treats belief in extraterrestrial intelligence as a substitute for belief in God. Why is the existence of other creatures not the same as the existence of a Creator?
Romans 1:20 · Acts 17:24–25The film attacks Christian faith while trying to praise faith in another form. How should Christians respond when faith is mocked or misrepresented?
1 Peter 3:15–16 · Colossians 4:5–6What does it mean to be intellectually curious without surrendering biblical truth?
Proverbs 18:15 · 1 Thessalonians 5:21The Final Word
CONTACT is polished and ambitious, but its materialist worldview, attacks on Christianity, sexual content, language, and other concerns overwhelm its strengths. The source review finds a film crying out for true faith and a real God. Our answer is SKIP IT. For better options, see.
