What will it be like the first time that the human race makes 'Contact' with extraterrestrial existence? This is the question, in the movie based on Carl Sagan's novel, when a mysterious signal is received at a SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) research project by Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster) in Arecibo, Argentina. While she is their studying this message and attempting to solve the riddle that is in the message she meets Palmer Joss (Matthew McConaughey), a theology student, and begins a relationship with him that soon goes bad. After the message has been deciphered and determined to contain instructions on building a space travel device, all of the human race becomes involved in what happens next. There is a great deal of interest as to what will become of the human race if we make contact with extraterrestrials, and many people are taken under consideration to man the first mission. Ellie is in the running but many, like her former boyfriend Palmer Joss, are against Ellie as the choice because of her lack of belief. Ellie only gets the opportunity when the original machine is destroyed and a second one built by a reclusive billionaire is found and she is asked to man the mission. After the mission no one believes Ellie's account of what happened, but Ellie knows that she has made 'Contact'.