Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) on Netflix
Roy Neary, a lineman, sees a UFO over an Indiana road, and the mountain shape it leaves in his head will not let go. Scientist Claude Lacombe examines aircraft in a desert.
- Netflix4.1/5
- IMDb7.6/10238,682 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes90%
Trailer
Plot summary
A power failure sends Roy Neary, an electrical lineman in Indiana, out on a call, and on the road his truck is caught in the lights of an unidentified craft that burns the side of his face as it passes overhead. Back home he can think of nothing else: a mountainlike shape forms in his mind, he builds models of it, and his wife Ronnie and their children find his behavior harder to live with. Outside Muncie, three-year-old Barry Guiler wakes to toys moving on their own, and his mother Jillian begins sketching the same mountain. In the Sonoran Desert, French scientist Claude Lacombe and his interpreter David Laughlin examine Flight 19, a navy squadron that vanished in 1945 and is recovered intact with no crew aboard.
Cast
- Phil Doddsas ARP Musician
- Shawn Bishopas Brad Neary
- Adrienne Campbellas Silvia Neary
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Steve McQueen was Spielberg's first choice for Roy Neary and was impressed by the script, but said he was not right for the role as he was unable to cry on cue; James Caan, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino and Gene Hackman also turned down the part.
- The USAF and NASA declined to cooperate on the film, and NASA reportedly sent Spielberg a twenty-page letter telling him that releasing it was dangerous. Spielberg said he really found his faith when he heard the government was opposed to the film.
- John Williams wrote more than 300 examples of the five-tone motif that the scientists use to communicate with the visiting spaceship before Spielberg chose the one incorporated into the film's signature theme.
- Richard Dreyfuss campaigned for the lead while filming Jaws, walking by Spielberg's office saying things like "Al Pacino has no sense of humor" or "Jack Nicholson is too crazy"; as Spielberg put it, "Dreyfuss talked me into casting him."
- Gérard Depardieu, Philippe Noiret, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Lino Ventura were considered for Claude Lacombe before François Truffaut took it. Internationally renowned as a film director, it is Truffaut's only acting role in a film he did not direct, and his only role in an English-language film.
- Teri Garr wanted to portray Jillian but was cast as Ronnie; Hal Ashby, who had worked with Melinda Dillon on Bound for Glory, suggested her to Spielberg for the part, and Dillon was cast three days before filming began.
- Claude Lacombe, the French government scientist in charge of UFO-related activities in the film, was modeled on a real man: the UFO expert Jacques Vallée.
- The 1976 Atlantic hurricane season brought tropical storms to Alabama during the production, and a large portion of the sound stage in Alabama was damaged because of a lightning strike.
