Contact

Contact is a 1997 science fiction film adapted from the novel by Carl Sagan. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, it stars Jodie Foster as Dr. Eleanor Ann Arroway, Matthew McConaughey as Palmer Joss, James Woods as National Security Advisor Michael Kitz, and Tom Skerritt as Dr. David Drumlin.
The story follows the relentless efforts of the film's the main protagonist, Dr. Arroway, or "Ellie," to advance research with the SETI project and search for evidence of the existence of extra-terrestrial intelligence by listening for contact through radio telescopes and astronomy, something which she feels would be the greatest possible human achievement "for the history, of history". The film explores what might happen if such contact was made, and the enormous difficulties the human race might encounter in coming to understand that contact, with significant conflict occurring in differences over culture, religion, politics, and human perception as the story plays out. Sagan also explores what kind of message a much older alien civilization might hold for humanity in its fledging steps to join an interstellar community of sentient beings.