Must-Watch Sci Fi Movies: Ongoing series of posts looking at sci fi and fantasy films that best represent the genre and that should be on your must-watch list.
What Is It?
Several unexplained events occur around the globe as a squadron of fighters lost since World War II mysteriously reappears, the lost ship SS Cotopaxi shows up in a desert, and two airliners nearly collide with an unidentified flying object. Also, a small boy is awakened in the middle of the night as his toys come alive, and he ultimately gets abducted by the aliens who are causing the commotion. Not far from where the boy is abducted, electrical worker Roy Neary is buzzed by a U.F.O. while investigating a power outage. Following this, Roy becomes obsessed with images he sees in his mind of a large mountain, and he tries to recreate it in some manifest form, much to the dismay of his family. Jillian, the mother of the abducted boy, also succumbs to these mental images, which eventually draw her and Roy to Devil’s Tower in Wyoming (which is the mountain they have been envisioning). They are uncertain what has brought them there, and despite all attempts by the government to stop them, they are determined to learn the truth of their apparent alien encounters.
Crew: Steven Spielberg (Writer/Director), John Williams (Music)
Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban
Original Release: November 16, 1977
Why Is It a Must-Watch Movie?
This early entry in the Blockbuster Era delivered a grand tale with mind-blowing (for the time) special effects, but it also had its intimate, more human moments. In addition, it gave us a rather hopeful look at first contact with alien beings.
A Closer Look:
Close Encounters of the Third Kind was the third of the trio of genre films that sealed the deal and led the charge for the new wave of sfx-heavy blockbusters that would dominate Hollywood from the 1970s forward (the other two were, of course, Jaws and Star Wars). This film offered yet another box office-friendly spectacle that delivered a striking visual realization of sci-fi and fantasy themes that fans could have only previously dreamed about. Far from the painted paper-plate flying saucers of B-movies or the brief, budget-conscious glimpses of aliens and their hardware in more accomplished earlier films like The Day the Earth Stood Still or This Island Earth, CE3K delivered big-time on its aliens and their spaceships. It gave audiences a phantasmagoria of special effects that wowed them and finally delivered on the visuals that the genre had teased us with for so many years.
But this movie does have its flaws, often forgotten by those caught up in its onscreen magic years ago and who still look back on it with fond memories. The movie starts very strong with the early mysterious appearances of craft long thought gone and with the initial alien encounters. But then it derails in its middle section as we see Dreyfuss’s character Roy descend into near hysteria. I understand that Spielberg wanted to convey the powerful draw that the aliens had on him, and it was actually a fairly accurate portrayal of PTSD (more on that below). But this whole sequence is far too cringy, and the way his actions impact his family nearly causes the audience to divest from the character. And it doesn’t help that Spielberg parades television commercials across the screen (Roy has the TV on in the background, but the director puts it in our faces) in a blatant and gratuitous early example of product placement. To make matters worse, when Roy meets up with Jillian, the romantic connection between the two seems just thrown in and superfluous. Sure, you could say they were just caught up in the emotion of the moment, but it didn’t fit.
The film gets saved by its ending, though, and this is where Spielberg really shines and commits to celluloid some of his best moments ever as a filmmaker. Even though early on the aliens are given somewhat of a threatening demeanor, in truth they are a peaceful species that just wants to make contact with us (or at least that is what we take away from the ending). This movie gives us a very rare example of peaceful contact with extraterrestrials, and it does so with at least some scientific plausibility along with plenty of cinematic grandeur (all from practical effects, by the way).
The idea of bridging the communication gap with a universal constant like musical tones is brilliant and a great touch of speculative fiction. True, Spielberg handled this with grand cinematic flourishes, but he does not take it to excess, and this time around he also avoids the smarminess that later weighed down his film E.T. In fact, the ending is one of the most poetic moments in cinematic history and a must-see for all fans of good filmmaking. Too often genre films parade an excess of violence to resolve their stories, sometimes justified, sometimes not so much. So it’s nice to have a movie once in a while that wraps up its story while still engrossing the audience without having to resort to battles, fight scenes, or excess carnage. And the way that John Williams works the musical score in with the story makes it an integral part of the film experience as well.
If you have not seen this movie, or have not seen it in a long time, go in knowing that it has a bit of a schizophrenic nature about it. Don’t let the middle section detract from it, though, and feel free to fast-forward through much of that part as well as the commercials (just like when watching regular TV). But the ending brings it all together and ultimately delivers a satisfying movie experience and a must-watch entry for the sci-fi genre.
Why Was There No Sequel?
As mentioned above, this was one of the early entries in the Blockbuster Era, but unlike Jaws and Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind did not deliver any sequels even though it was a huge success at the Box Office. Columbia Pictures likely wanted more from this property, but Steven Spielberg did not believe the film needed a sequel, intending it as a complete story about humanity’s first positive contact with extraterrestrials. Despite that, he and writer Melissa Mathison did develop some ideas about a possible continuation, but those ultimately morphed into E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Some consider that a spiritual successor to CE3K, and there are also rumors that Spielberg’s new movie Disclosure Day has ties to his 1977 film as well.
Should It Be Rebooted?
While Close Encounters of the Third Kind has its flaws, particularly the middle part that nearly derails the film, that still does not justify a reboot. The special effects from the film were absolutely amazing, some of the best ever for a sci-fi entry. And those were done without CGI and without the in-your-face approach so common to modern-day moviemaking. And the entire Devil’s Tower sequence is so perfect that there is no way to improve upon that with a reboot. It would not bother me if Spielberg were to explore more of this universe, and perhaps he will with Disclosure Day, but a reboot of CE3K would likely do nothing to improve on the original.
Interesting Facts:
Spielberg was rushed to finish Close Encounters of the Third Kind to get it to theaters by the end of 1977, and he was unsatisfied with the final product. The studio later agreed to give him a director’s cut (one of the first of its kind) that would get a brief theatrical release in 1980, and they wanted to add a scene where the audience got a look inside the mothership. He agreed to that because it allowed him to make some of the other edits, but he preferred to keep the alien ship as a mystery and later took the scene out in home video releases.
Roy Neary’s erratic behavior during the middle of the movie was actually considered an accurate portrayal of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)—something that was not widely known about at the time—from his encounter with the UFOs. Steven Spielberg later said in 2007 that if he were to have made the movie at that time, he never would have had Roy leave his family behind and head into space with the aliens.
Where Can You Watch It?
The movie has been released on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K UHD, and you can purchase it VOD. It is currently streaming on Peacock, but it will be leaving that service at the end of June 2026.
