Q 01/05

In Contact, which historical figure appears in the video hidden in the alien signal, from an early TV broadcast?

A) Adolf Hitler

B) Benito Mussolini

C) Joseph Stalin

D) Winston Churchill

Answer · why

A) Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler opening the 1936 Berlin Olympics is the image sent back: in the story it was the first broadcast strong enough to pass beyond Earth's ion...

Q 02/05

Which real US president appears in Contact through digitally altered news footage, prompting a White House complaint?

A) George H. W. Bush

B) Ronald Reagan

C) Bill Clinton

D) Jimmy Carter

Answer · why

C) Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton's real remarks on an unrelated scientific discovery were edited in so that he seemed to address alien contact, and the White House counse...

Q 03/05

Ellie Arroway's pod seems to drop straight through the Machine in Contact, yet how much static did the recorder log?

A) 18 seconds

B) 18 minutes

C) 18 hours

D) 18 days

Answer · why

C) 18 hours

18 hours of static is the detail officials keep confidential: it backs Arroway's claim that she was gone far longer than the moment observers saw the ...

Q 04/05

In the film Contact, the alien signal comes from which star, the brightest in the constellation Lyra?

A) Sirius

B) Vega

C) Altair

D) Deneb

Answer · why

B) Vega

Vega is only about 25 light-years from Earth, so in the story a television broadcast from the 1930s has had time to reach it and be sent back.

Q 05/05

On the alien beach in Contact, whose appearance does the extraterrestrial borrow to speak with Ellie Arroway?

A) Her mother

B) Her father

C) Her brother

D) Her former boss

Answer · why

B) Her father

Her father died when Ellie was young, and the alien wearing his face says humanity's radio emissions have earned it a first step into the wider univer...