The film starts with a montage of radio transmissions of notable moments in twentieth-century Western culture, including the radio announcement of Robert Kennedy’s 1968 assassination, Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1933 inaugural pronouncement: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Onscreen images portray a journey through outer space, starting on Earth and expanding into the universe. As the narrative begins, light from distant galaxies coalesces to form a spark in the eye of the character “Young Ellie.”
       The following dedication appears onscreen before the end credits: “For Carl.” Pulitzer prize-winning astronomer Carl Sagan, who wrote the novel Contact on which the film is loosely based and is credited as co-producer with his wife, Ann Druyan, died in Dec 1996 while the film was still in production. Various contemporary sources, including a 6 Jul 1997 LAT article, reported that Sagan was also a consultant on the film until his death. LAT noted that the film’s opening sequence was written to portray radio signals moving toward Earth from outer space instead of away from it, but Sagan suggested the reverse.
       The end credits include the following acknowledgements: "Video stock footage courtesy of NBC News Archives; WPA Film Library; Video Tape Library; CBS News Archives; Wish You Were Here Film & Video; AP/World Wide Photos; Film & Video Stock Shots; Image Bank; CNBC; 'The Flying Nun' Courtesy of Columbia Pictures Television." The following text is also included in the end credits: "The producers wish to thank the following for their assistance: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's cooperation and assistance does not reflect approval of the contents of the film or the treatment of the characters depicted therein. NRAO is a facility of the National Science Foundation. The Arecibo Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation; National Park Service, National Capitol Region; United States Park Police; The United States Treasury Department; The United States Secret Service; United States Department of Defense; Cable News Network, Inc.; Space Coast Film and TV Commission; The town of Herndon, VA; The city of Washington, D.C.; The city of Los Angeles; The island of Puerto Rico."
       According to a 6 Jul 1997 NYT article, executive producer Lynda Obst began development on the story with Sagan and Druyan in 1979 while working as producer Peter Gruber’s junior executive. On 18 Feb 1981, Var reported that PolyGram Pictures, Ltd., had purchased the film rights to Contact, but a 16 Nov 1981 DV news item announced that Obst was leaving her post at PolyGram to produce feature films for the Grant Tinker-Mary Tyler Moore company, MTM Films. The deal with MTM allowed Obst to continue pursuing projects that were already in development, including Contact, which had reportedly been taken over by Columbia Pictures at the time. NYT stated that Obst and Druyan worked on the story of Contact with Sagan before he published the narrative as a novel, and when Contact became a best seller in 1985, Hollywood studios expressed renewed interest in the project.
       On 16 Dec 1993, DV announced that Warner Bros., who had owned the rights to the property for nearly ten years, decided to put the film into production after reading a revision of the story by screenwriter Michael Goldenberg. The studio negotiated a deal for George Miller to direct and principal photography was scheduled to begin in 1994. Several years earlier, Roland Joffé was attached to the project as director, but Joffé dropped out before production got underway. A 15 Sep 1994 DV news item, which referred to Miller as the film’s director, reported that Jodie Foster was “in talks” with Warner Bros. to star in the picture and, one year later, on 15 Sep 1995, DV announced that Foster agreed to a $7 million contract after reading an additional rewrite by Goldenberg.
       According to the 6 Jul 1997 NYT, director-producer Robert Zemeckis was offered the picture in early 1994 while Forrest Gump (1994, see entry) was in post-production, but he was not convinced that the unconventional story was marketable. However, after the success of Forrest Gump, Zemeckis agreed to take over Contact and on 30 Oct 1995, Var announced that Miller left the project because of “creative differences” and Zemeckis was negotiating with Warner Bros. executives. At the time, a new draft of Goldenberg’s script was reworked by James V. Hart and Ralph Fiennes was offered the male lead, a role that eventually went to Matthew McConaughey.
       Principal photography began 24 Sep 1996, according to 18 Feb 1997 HR production charts. As stated in HR and studio production notes from AMPAS library files, locations included New Mexico, Washington, D.C., Arizona, and Cape Canaveral in Florida. The crew spent five months shooting on sets and on location in Los Angeles, CA, taking over nine soundstages at the Culver Studios in Culver City, CA, and at the Warner Hollywood Studios. Twenty-five sets were constructed, including Ellie’s rainforest hut, NASA control rooms, the White House Cabinet Room, and the “Pod” spaceship, which required nearly four months to build.
       One month before principal photography was complete in Los Angeles, the production moved to Arecibo, Puerto Rico, for one week of filming at the world’s largest radio telescope at the time. Footage from the National Science Foundation’s Very Large Array (VLA) field of twenty-seven dish radio telescopes was shot on location in Socorro, New Mexico, in late Sep 1996. Although the fall season corresponded to the time of year at which the telescopes were directed closest to one another, the crew had to work with the facility’s staff to move the dishes for dramatic effect.
       Second unit photography was conducted in Newfoundland and Fiji.
       In a 9 Mar 1998 HR news item, director of photography Don Burgess stated that the film was shot in “35 anamorphic Panavision… VistaVision for visual effects work… and Panavision 65mm for visual effects work,” and, as noted in a 20 May 1997 HR brief, Sony Pictures Imageworks spent four months in post-production, retouching 350 shots and adding effects. The 6 Jul 1997 LAT reported that Zemeckis was editing sound at George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch just two weeks before the film was scheduled for release on 11 Jul 1997, and that he “farmed out” visual effects work to six studios, including companies in New Zealand and France, because Imageworks was overloaded by the approximately 400 effects in the picture.
       According to an 18 Jul 1997 Screen International article, the production cost $90 million. Zemeckis told the 6 Jul 1997 LAT that Sagan lobbied for “scientific authenticity,” but Zemeckis admitted that he often imposed his artistic license at a cost to the film’s realism. However, a 20 Jul 1997 NYT article reported that astronomers were impressed by the picture’s accuracy in the first half of the narrative. A scientist from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) noted that SETI researchers did not use antennas such as those at VLA and do not detect sounds in outer space wearing headphones, as was depicted in the film, but he remarked on the picture’s overall authenticity.
       Noting the “blurring line between fact [and] fiction” in Contact, a 28 Jul 1997 LAT article reported that Cable News Network (CNN) President Tom Johnson lifted a six-year ban on permitting correspondents to portray themselves in movies and allowed Zemeckis to cast thirteen CNN staff members. Although the picture provided product placement for CNN, Johnson reportedly regretted his decision, fearing that CNN’s involvement in a Hollywood film would encourage the public perception that CNN news was not legitimate. Furthermore, Johnson was concerned that the association between Warner Bros. and CNN, who shared Time Warner as their parent company, would mislead audiences into believing that CNN journalism was “for rent” and that the brand represented entertainment rather than authentic news.
       Similarly, President Bill Clinton’s administration complained about Zemeckis’s manipulation of newsreel footage in order to portray the president as a cast member. Articles in LAT on 15 Jul 1997 and NYT on 16 Jul 1997 reported that the president’s comments about aliens in the film were taken out of context; the footage had been lifted from the president’s statement to the press about “possible life-forms on Mars” and his reaction to conflicts in Iraq. Former White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers, who served as a consultant on the film, said that she was never “uncomfortable” with the use of the president’s image and noted that Zemeckis was “on safe legal ground.” Although Myers did not report to the president about the film until two weeks before its release and the administration wrote a letter of complaint to Zemeckis, no action was taken to prevent exhibition.
       As noted in various contemporary sources, including the 6 Jul 1997 LAT, Warner Bros. banked on Zemeckis’s prestige by making the risky decision to release Contact during the summer, positioning the picture to compete against conventional blockbusters. While most summer films at the time opened at over 2,500 theaters, Contact was released on 1,500 screens nationwide, but Warner Bros. planned to increase the number of venues in the second week. Despite receiving mixed reviews, the picture grossed $20.5 million its opening weekend.
       According to a 26 Jan 1997 LAT article, director Francis Ford Coppola filed a lawsuit against the estate of Carl Sagan just one week after the scientist’s death, claiming that the production of Contact violated his contractual rights over Sagan’s novel. Coppola stated that he initiated the idea for Contact in 1975, when he negotiated with Children’s Television Workshop Productions to create a show about extraterrestrial life called First Contact. The suit alleged that Sagan began writing Contact only after he had contractually joined the television project in Mar 1975 and that he had formally requested permission from Coppola to use his story. Although Coppola named Zemeckis in his complaint and attempted to prevent the film’s release with charges of contract violations and copyright infringement, Ann Druyan contended that Coppola and Sagan only discussed the subject in 1975 and Coppola had no rights to either the film or the novel. On 17 Feb 1998, HR announced that the Los Angeles Superior Court had dismissed the lawsuit because Coppola was unable to produce a contract between himself and Sagan and the case was “barred by the statute of limitations.”
       Contact was nominated for one Academy Award in the category of Best Sound.