Welcome back to the Movie Pit, this week Ryan and Seth are joined by Bobby to discuss Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Sit back, relax and enjoy the episode
In what appers to be the Sonoran Desert; in or near Mexico, a cartographer named David Laughlin (Bob Balaban) is introduced to a French-speaking man named Claude Lacombe (renowned French director François Truffaut). Though David has been hired as Mr Lacombe's interpreter, he explains that he is actually a cartographer (a mapmaker). The two men along with a crew soon find a strange sight: a circular ring of airplanes in brand-new condition, with fuel still in the tank. The planes are identified as belonging to 'Flight 19,' a group of US Naval planes that were reported missing off the coast of Florida in 1945. The men soon after find a local who reported the planes. David and Claude find the man has red sunburned marks on the side of his face. Through an interpreter, the man claims the sun came out that evening, and talked to him.
In an air traffic control tower in the US, some of the air traffic controllers receive reports of unidentified aircraft flying dangerously an commercial flight. When the tower requests that the pilots wish to report a 'UFO (unidentified flying object),' both planes decline, primarily because they're so confounded, they feel they wouldn't know what to report.
In Muncie, Indiana, a strange power outage blackens the area. This incident affects two different families of people. The first is Jillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon). When she wakes in the middle of the night and finds her son Barry (Cary Guffey) missing, she wanders off into the countryside to find him.
The second person is Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss). Roy gets a call from the power company he works for, and goes out to answer a service call. However, stopping at a railroad crossing, a number of metal objects in the vicinity (including Roy's truck) begin to act strangely. A strange craft appears overhead, and flashes bright lights at Roy before flying off. Once the craft has disappeared, Roy races off, almost hitting Barry on a hillside road.
As Jillian appears, several strangely-lit craft fly by, along with a bright red light at the tail end. Entranced by the strange objects, Roy gets back in his truck and gives chase, along with several local police cars, all of them passing through a toll booth at the border of Ohio. The strange objects fly off over the edge of a cliff, and as Roy and the officers watch, ascend into some thundering storm clouds overhead, as the darkened city underneath them regains power.
Roy returns to his family eager to tell of what he saw, but his wife Ronnie (Teri Garr) refuses to acknowledge her husband's flights of fancy. Even though Roy has red sunburns from being flashed by the craft he saw, she still doesn't 'believe.'
Some time afterward, Roy meets up with Jillian and Barry, and Jillian relates how there seems to be a melody and an image of a mountain she cannot get out of her mind. Roy soon finds himself obsessing over the same mountain image, carving it in mashed potatoes as well as sculpting it out of putty or shaving cream.
Meanwhile, Bob and Claude have gone around the world and observed other strange phenomenon: A group of people in India have been chanting a strange 5-note sequence that they claim came from the sky. A missing ship named the Coat Appoxi has appeared in another desert region. Information gleaned from the musical notation sequence and a message indicates that there appears to be plans for extraterrestrial life to descend to Earth. The military and NASA coordinate a plan to create a false scare in the landing region, northwestern Wyoming, that a toxic spill will make the area dangerous.
Back in Muncie, Jillian is shocked one evening when the same lights as before descend towards her home, and soon after abduct her son Barry. Still in a state of shock, Jillian takes her story to the news outlets.
Shortly thereafter, a person from the US Government sits down for a town hall chat with several locals in attendance (including Roy and his family), denying that there are UFO's, or that the government is covering up any such incidents.
Roy is slowly losing his mind over the strange images in his head. One morning he begins to throw dirt, plants, bricks and chicken fencing into the kitchen window. His behavior finally drives Ronnie to take their kids and leave. After they have left, Roy constructs an enormous miniature of a flat-topped mountain in his family's living room. After an argument with his wife on the phone, he sees a news report on the television, showing Devil's Tower...the same structure he's been obsessed with.
Roy heads off towards Devil's Tower, only to encounter everyone leaving in the wake of a (fake) chemical spill warning. Roy also finds Jillian there, and the two attempt to get to Devil's Tower, but are captured by some military men.
Roy and Jillian are separated, with Roy brought before Bob and Claude. The two listen to Roy's story...a story that sounds similar to several other people who have been drawn to the mountainous structure nearby. The two make an impassioned plea to the Military Director at the base, but he refuses to believe their 'theory' that these people were 'invited,' and attempts to fly the civilians out.
Jillian and Roy manage to escape with another man named Larry, making it to the other side of the mountain before night settles in. The Army sprays the area around the mountain with a sedative dust, putting Larry to sleep. Roy and Jillian evade the choppers, finding an enormous landing strip constructed on the east side of the mountain. The two secretly make their way down as several smaller lit ships appear, before a giant 'mother ship' hovers down. The scientists in the compound attempt to communicate with the aliens, first with the smaller ships and then with a much larger "mother ship" which dwarfs the mountain itself. After a few moments of musical exchange, the bottom of the ship opens and dozens of people abducted by the aliens are returned, seemingly unharmed and having not aged a day. Among them his Jillian's son. A few minutes later, the bottom of the ship opens again and the aliens reveal themselves to the scientists: they are humanoid in appearance, but very small, no larger than 3 feet, with large eyes.
When Claude sees that Roy has witnessed the exchange, he asks if Roy would be willing to join the dozen people that have been selected to leave with the aliens. Roy willingly accepts. When they line up to enter the ship, one of the aliens walks down the line of volunteers and chooses Roy. (In a deleted scene, Roy enters the ship and sees a cavernous room with 1000s of the aliens and vegetation.)
In a final exchange, one of the aliens gives the hand salute interpretation of the 5 note musical tone to Claude himself, who smiles.
After Roy and several others board the ship, it takes off for distant space.
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