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146-525: The design of Saint Pablo Tour featured a "first-of-its-kind floating stage" which was composed of a main stage and an auxiliary stage that had an intricate system of pulleys and tracks designed to be connected to the frame of each arena. The floating main stage had lights on the edge as well as on the bottom portion, which would occasionally shine on the audience. The second stage was composed of four rectangular portions which would move and provided ambient light for each song. The stages could then be manipulated to

292-561: A Pew research poll found that 51% in the United States thought that UFOs reported by people in the military were likely to be evidence of intelligent life from beyond the Earth. In August 2021, Gallup , with a question not specific to military reports, only found that 41% of adults believed some UFOs involve alien spacecraft from other planets. This Gallup poll showed 44% of men and 38% of women believed this. This average of 41% in 2021

438-600: A meteor shower in New Jersey . At age 18, Spielberg completed the full-length science fiction film Firelight . Many scenes from Firelight were incorporated in Close Encounters on a shot-for-shot basis. In 1970, he wrote the short story "Experiences" about a lovers' lane in a Midwestern farming community and the "light show" a group of teenagers see in the night sky. In late 1973, after completing work on The Sugarland Express , Spielberg developed

584-402: A perfectionist . Douglas Trumbull was the visual effects supervisor , and Carlo Rambaldi designed the extraterrestrials. Trumbull joked that the visual effects budget of $ 3.3 million could have been used to produce an additional film. His work helped lead to advances in motion control photography . The mothership was designed by Ralph McQuarrie and built by Greg Jein . The look of

730-598: A "chariot of fire", akin to Roy boarding the UFO. Climbing Devils Tower behind the faltering Jillian, Roy exhorts Jillian to keep moving and not to look back, a contrast to Lot's wife , who looked back at Sodom and turned into a pillar of salt. Spielberg explained, "I wanted to make Close Encounters a very accessible story about the everyday individual who has a sighting that overturns his life, and throws it into complete upheaval as he starts to become more and more obsessed with this experience." Roy's wife Ronnie attempts to hide

876-517: A 1969 USAF document, known as the Bolender memo, along with later government documents, revealed that non-public U.S. government UFO investigations continued after 1970. The Bolender memo first stated that "reports of unidentified flying objects that could affect national security ... are not part of the Blue Book system," indicating that more serious UFO incidents already were handled outside

1022-428: A 1996 poll by Newsweek , 20% of Americans believed that UFOs were more likely to be proof of alien life than to have a natural scientific explanation. In December 2017, a new round of media attention started when The New York Times broke the story of the secret Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program that was funded from 2007 to 2012 with $ 22 million spent on the program. Following this story, along with

1168-481: A New Dress ," " 30 Hours ," „Gold Digger“ and " All Falls Down ." The architectural website ArchDaily stated: There are few artists, if any, who do as much for the sake of art as Kanye West. ... Kanye West has transformed Stage Design and Performance Architecture, with each live performance now redefining the way we envision and experience the medium, much in the same way his idols, Steve Jobs and Walt Disney , transformed their respective fields. The Yeezus Tour

1314-505: A UFO and reported recovered memories of their experience that became ever more elaborate as the years went by. In 1966, 5% of Americans reported to Gallup that "they had at some time seen something they thought was a 'flying saucer'", 96% said "they had heard or read about flying saucers", and 46% of these "thought they were 'something real' rather than just people's imagination". Responding to UFO enthusiasm, there have always been consistent yet less popular efforts made at debunking many of

1460-473: A daily occurrence with one particularly famous example being the Roswell incident in 1947 where remnants of a downed observation balloon were recovered by a farmer and confiscated by military personnel. UFO enthusiasts in the early 1950s started to organize local "saucer clubs" modeled after science fiction fan clubs of the 1930s and 1940s, with some growing to national and international prominence within

1606-456: A deal with Columbia Pictures for a science-fiction film. 20th Century Fox had previously turned down the offer. Julia and Michael Phillips signed on as producers. Spielberg first considered doing a documentary or low-budget feature film about people who believed in UFOs . He decided "a film that depended on state-of-the-art technology couldn't be made for $ 2.5 million." Borrowing

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1752-562: A decade. In 1950, three influential books were published— Donald Keyhoe 's The Flying Saucers Are Real , Frank Scully 's Behind the Flying Saucers , and Gerald Heard 's The Riddle of the Flying Saucers . Each guilelessly proposed that the extraterrestrial UFO hypothesis was the correct explanation and that the visits were in response to detonations of atomic weapons . These books also introduced Americans to, as Eghanian puts it, "the crusading whistleblower dedicated to breaking

1898-407: A familiar object." The regulation also said UFOBs were to be investigated as a "possible threat to the security of the United States" and "to determine technical aspects involved." The regulation went on to say that "it is permissible to inform news media representatives on UFOB's when the object is positively identified as a familiar object" but added: "For those objects which are not explainable, only

2044-522: A flawless wonder, such that it might be the first film ever made" calling it "a tribute to the richness of human imagination" and "as close to a mystical experience as a major film has come, but it's the mysticism of common sense... The movie could have been naive and sentimental—it was inspired by Disney—but Spielberg never relinquishes his practicality and his eye for everyday detail." Unidentified flying object An unidentified flying object ( UFO ), or unidentified anomalous phenomenon ( UAP ),

2190-500: A group of United States Navy Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers that went missing over the Bermuda Triangle on December 5, 1945. The planes are in perfect condition, but without any occupants. An elderly witness nearby claims "the sun came out at night, and sang to him". Near Indianapolis , air traffic controllers watch two airline flights narrowly avoid a mid-air collision with an unidentified flying object . At

2336-575: A motif for childlike innocence and openness in the face of the unknown. Spielberg also compared the theme of communication as highlighting that of tolerance: "If we can talk to extraterrestrials in Close Encounters of the Third Kind , why not with the Reds in the Cold War ?" Sleeping is the final obstacle to overcome in the ascent of Devils Tower. Roy, Jillian, and a third invitee, Larry Butler, climb

2482-581: A mountain shape, often making models of it. Jillian, meanwhile, also becomes obsessed, sketching the unique mountain image. Soon after, she is terrorized in her home by a UFO which descends from the clouds. She fights off violent attempts by the UFO and unseen beings to enter the home, but in the chaos, Barry is abducted. Lacombe, Laughlin, and a group of United Nations experts continue to investigate increasing UFO activity and strange, related occurrences. Witnesses in Dharamsala , Northern India report that

2628-459: A natural and expected outcome of human development and indication of health and growth. Other critics found a variety of Judeo-Christian analogies. Devils Tower parallels Mount Sinai , the extraterrestrials as God, and Roy Neary as Moses . Cecil B. DeMille 's The Ten Commandments is on television at the Neary household. Some found close relations between Elijah and Roy; Elijah was taken into

2774-427: A phenomenon could, in fact, occur". The research was "being conducted with the thought that the flying objects might be a celestial phenomenon," or that "they might be a foreign body mechanically devised and controlled." Three weeks later in a preliminary defense estimate, the air force investigation decided that, "This 'flying saucer' situation is not all imaginary or seeing too much in some natural phenomenon. Something

2920-553: A phrase from the ending of The Thing from Another World , he retitled the film Watch the Skies , rewriting the premise concerning Project Blue Book and pitching the concept to Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz . Katz remembered, "It had flying saucers from outer space landing on Robertson Boulevard [in West Hollywood, California ]. I go, Steve, that's the worst idea I ever heard." Spielberg brought Paul Schrader to write

3066-622: A professor of philosophy and religion at the University of North Carolina, says that what is seen on a screen, "if it conforms to certain criteria, is interpreted as real, even if it is not real and even if one knows it is not real" and that "screen images embed themselves in one's brain and memories" in ways that "can determine how one views one's past and even determine one's future behaviors". The most notable cases of UFO sightings in France include: UFOs have been subject to investigations over

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3212-445: A rural home outside Muncie, Indiana , three-year-old Barry Guiler wakes to find his toys operating on their own. He starts to follow something outside, forcing his mother, Jillian, to chase after him. Large-scale power outages begin rolling through the area, forcing electric utility lineman Roy Neary to investigate. While he gets his bearings, Roy experiences a close encounter with a UFO, and when it flies over his truck, it lightly burns

3358-467: A series of sensationalized Pentagon UFO videos leaked by members of the program who became convinced that UFOs were genuine mysteries worth investigating, there was an increase in mainstream attention to UFO stories. In July 2021, Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb announced the creation of his Galileo Project which intended to use high-tech astronomical equipment to seek evidence of extraterrestrial artifacts in space and possibly within Earth's atmosphere. This

3504-442: A threat to national security. Officials were concerned about the "risk of false alerts", of "falsely identifying the real as phantom", and of mass hysteria caused by sightings. In 1947, Brigadier General George F. Schulgen of Army Air Corps Intelligence, warned "the first reported sightings might have been by individuals of Communist sympathies with the view to causing hysteria and fear of a secret Russian weapon." In November 2011,

3650-476: A trail, occasional formation flying, and "evasive" behavior "when sighted or contacted by friendly aircraft and radar", suggesting a controlled craft. It was therefore recommended in late September 1947 that an official Air Force investigation be set up. It was also recommended that other government agencies should assist in the investigation. Project Sign's final report, published in early 1949, stated that while some UFOs appeared to represent actual aircraft, there

3796-529: Is Halley's Comet : first recorded by Chinese astronomers in 240 BC and possibly as early as 467 BC as a strange and unknown "guest light" in the sky. As a bright comet that visits the inner solar system every 76 years, it was often identified as a unique isolated event in ancient historical documents whose authors were unaware that it was a repeating phenomenon. Such accounts in history often were treated as supernatural portents, angels , or other religious omens . While UFO enthusiasts have sometimes commented on

3942-432: Is LESS to these stories than meets the eye". People have always observed the sky and have sometimes seen what, to some, appeared to be unusual sights including phenomena as varied as comets , bright meteors , one or more of the five planets that can be readily seen with the naked eye , planetary conjunctions , and atmospheric optical phenomena such as parhelia and lenticular clouds . One particularly famous example

4088-569: Is any perceived airborne, submerged or transmedium phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. Upon investigation, most UFOs are identified as known objects or atmospheric phenomena, while a small number remain unexplained. While unusual sightings have been reported in the sky throughout history, UFOs became culturally prominent after World War II , escalating during the Space Age . Studies and investigations into UFO reports conducted by governments (such as Project Blue Book in

4234-515: Is certainly familiar to historians of religion, a domain of human existence marked by deep divisions over interpretations of belief", and science too has found itself engaged increasing amounts of "boundary work" (which is "asserting and reasserting the borders between legitimate and illegitimate scientific research and ideas, between what may and what may not refer to itself as science") with regard to UFO questions. Eghigian points out our current "stark divide did not happen overnight, and its roots lie in

4380-459: Is one of the peerless moments in movie history—spiritually reassuring, magical, and funny at the same time. Very few movies have ever hit upon this combination of fantasy and amusement— The Wizard of Oz , perhaps, in a plainer, down-home way." Jean Renoir compared Spielberg's storytelling to Jules Verne and Georges Méliès . Ray Bradbury declared it the greatest science fiction film ever made. David Thomson wrote that " Close Encounters had

4526-520: Is really flying around." A further review by the intelligence and technical divisions of the Air Materiel Command at Wright Field reached the same conclusion. It reported that "the phenomenon is something real and not visionary or fictitious," and there were disc-shaped objects, metallic in appearance, as big as man-made aircraft. They were characterized by "extreme rates of climb [and] maneuverability", general lack of noise, absence of

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4672-473: Is the longest version, combining Spielberg's favorite elements from both previous editions but removing the scenes inside the mothership. The film was later remastered in 4K and was then re-released in theaters in 2017 for its 40th anniversary. In the Sonoran Desert , French scientist Claude Lacombe, his American interpreter, cartographer David Laughlin, and other researchers discover Flight 19 ,

4818-626: The 50th Academy Awards , 32nd British Academy Film Awards , the 35th Golden Globe Awards and the 5th Saturn Awards , and has been widely acclaimed by the American Film Institute . In December 2007, it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry . A Special Edition

4964-595: The AAAS , James E. McDonald said he believed science had failed to mount adequate studies of the problem and criticized the Condon Report and earlier studies by the USAF as scientifically deficient. He also questioned the basis for Condon's conclusions and argued that the reports of UFOs have been "laughed out of scientific court". J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer who worked as a USAF consultant from 1948, sharply criticized

5110-570: The Amazon rainforest , but the idea was changed to the Sonoran Desert . Spielberg also took 7.5 minutes out from the preview. The film score was composed, conducted, and produced by John Williams , who had previously worked on Spielberg's Jaws . Williams included the ominous two note phrase of the Jaws theme delivered by the mothership. Williams wrote more than 300 examples of the iconic five-tone motif , to be used by scientists to communicate with

5256-639: The Brazilian Air Force 's 1977 Operação Prato (Operation Saucer). France has had an ongoing investigation (GEPAN/SEPRA/ GEIPAN ) within its space agency Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES) since 1977; the government of Uruguay has had a similar investigation since 1989. On October 31, 2008, the National Archives of Brazil began receiving from the Aeronautical Documentation and History Center part of

5402-867: The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), FBI , CIA, National Security Agency (NSA), as well as military intelligence agencies of the Army and U.S. Navy , in addition to the Air Force. Following the large U.S. surge in sightings in June and early July 1947, on July 9, 1947, United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) intelligence, in cooperation with the FBI, began a formal investigation into selected sightings with characteristics that could not be immediately rationalized, such as Kenneth Arnold's. The USAAF used "all of its top scientists" to determine whether "such

5548-788: The Falcon Lake incident in Manitoba and the Shag Harbour UFO incident in Nova Scotia. Early Canadian studies included Project Magnet (1950–1954) and Project Second Storey (1952–1954), supported by the Defence Research Board . U.S. investigations into UFOs include: In addition to these, thousands of documents released under FOIA also indicate that many U.S. intelligence agencies collected (and still collect) information on UFOs. These agencies include

5694-567: The Kenneth Arnold incident . "Unidentified flying object" (UFO) has been in-use since 1947. The acronym, "UFO" was coined by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt , for the USAF. He wrote, "Obviously the term 'flying saucer' is misleading when applied to objects of every conceivable shape and performance. For this reason the military prefers the more general, if less colorful, name: unidentified flying objects. UFO". The term UFO became widespread during

5840-494: The White House released an official response to two petitions asking the U.S. government to acknowledge formally that aliens have visited this planet and to disclose any intentional withholding of government interactions with extraterrestrial beings. According to the response: The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of

5986-423: The visual effects supervisor , while Carlo Rambaldi designed the extraterrestrials. Made on a production budget of US$ 19.4 million , Close Encounters was released in a limited number of cities on November 16 and 23, 1977, and expanded into wide release the following month. It was a critical and financial success, eventually grossing over $ 300 million worldwide. It received numerous awards and nominations at

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6132-443: The '80s and '90s "the floodgates opened, and with them a new generation of UFO advocates". Leaders among them were the artist Budd Hopkins , horror writer Whitley Strieber , historian David Jacobs , and Harvard psychiatrist John Mack . They all defended the "veracity of those claiming to have been kidnapped, examined, and experimented upon by beings from another world", writes Eghigian, as "new missionaries who simultaneously played

6278-409: The 1950s, at first in technical literature, but later in popular use. Unidentified aerial phenomena" (UAP) first appeared in the late 1960s. UAP has seen increasing usage in the 21st century due to negative cultural associations with "UFO". UAP is sometimes expanded as "unidentified anomalous phenomenon". While technically a UFO refers to any unidentified flying object, in modern popular culture

6424-559: The 1980s and 1990s, UFO stories featured in such pulp "true crime" serials as Unsolved Mysteries while the 33 Volume Time-Life series Mysteries of the Unknown which featured UFO stories sold some 700,000 copies. Kloor writes that by the late 1990s, "other big UFO subthemes had been prominently introduced into pop culture, such as the abduction phenomenon and government conspiracy narrative , via best-selling books and, of course, The X-Files ". Eghigian notes that, by this point,

6570-510: The Air Force issued a statement to the effect that the book was outdated and cadets instead were being informed of the Condon Report 's negative conclusion. Controversy surrounded the report, both before and after its release. It has been observed that the report was "harshly criticized by numerous scientists, particularly at the powerful AIAA ... [which] recommended moderate, but continuous scientific work on UFOs." In an address to

6716-638: The Arnold incident, reported that over 25% of the U.S. public "believed unidentified flying objects could be from outer space". The cultural phenomenon showed up within some intellectual works such as the 1959 publication of Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky by Carl Jung , a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Starting in 1947, the U.S. Air Force began to record and investigated UFO reports with Project Sign looking into "more than 250 cases" from 1947 to 1949. It

6862-536: The CIA Director (DCI) in December read that "the reports of incidents convince us that there is something going on that must have immediate attention ... Sightings of unexplained objects at great altitudes and traveling at high speeds in the vicinity of major U.S. defense installations are of such a nature that they are not attributable to natural phenomena or any known types of aerial vehicles." The matter

7008-942: The Chilean Committee for the Study of Unidentified Space Phenomena, supported even by the Chilean Scientific Society. Currently, the organization changed its denomination to SEFAA and its a department of the DGAC (Chile) which in turn depends on the Chilean Air Force . In Canada, the Department of National Defence has dealt with reports, sightings and investigations of UFOs across Canada. In addition to conducting investigations into crop circles in Duhamel, Alberta , it still considers "unsolved"

7154-530: The Condon Committee Report and later wrote two nontechnical books that set forth the case for continuing to investigate UFO reports. Ruppelt recounted his experiences with Project Blue Book, a USAF investigation that preceded Condon's. According to a 1979 New York Times report, "records from the C.I.A., the F.B.I. and other Federal agencies" ("about 900 documents—nearly 900 pages of memos, reports and correspondence") obtained in 1978 through

7300-556: The Freedom of Information Act request, indicate that "despite official pronouncements for decades that U.F.O.'s were nothing more than misidentified aerial objects and as such were no cause for alarm ... the phenomenon has aroused much serious behind‐the‐scenes concern" in the US government. In particular, officials were concerned over the "approximately 10%" of UFO sightings which remained unexplained, and whether they might be Soviet aircraft and

7446-547: The Government was opposed to the film. If NASA took the time to write me a 20-page letter, then I knew there must be something happening." Early in pre-production, Spielberg hired film title designer Dan Perri to design a logotype . Perri, who had previously worked on The Exorcist (1973) and Taxi Driver (1976), produced a logotype in Handel Gothic typeface, with only a script to work from. Delighted with

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7592-504: The Harvard Medical School initiated a review of his position which allowed him to retain tenure. However, after this review, as the review board chairman Arnold Relman later put it, Mack was "not taken seriously by his colleagues anymore". Claims of alien abduction have continued, but no other clinicians would continue to speak of them as real in any sense. Nonetheless, these ideas persisted in popular opinion. According to

7738-504: The Schrader/Hill script during post-production on Jaws , reflecting that "they wanted to make it like a James Bond adventure". David Giler performed a rewrite; Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins , friends of Spielberg, suggested the plot device of a kidnapped child . Spielberg then began to write the script. The song " When You Wish upon a Star " from Pinocchio influenced Spielberg's writing style. "I hung my story on

7884-646: The Third Kind by Steven Spielberg . West began the Saint Pablo Tour in Indianapolis , Indiana on August 25, 2016, introducing his new stage design to the public, impressing the attending audience. On October 2, 2016, West cut his performance short at Citi Field in New York City following news of his wife Kim Kardashian being robbed at gunpoint in Paris . Two tour dates were also cancelled

8030-531: The U.S. military converge on Wyoming. The United States Army evacuates the area, planting false reports in the media that a train wreck has spilled a toxic nerve gas, while actually preparing a secret landing zone for the UFOs and their occupants. Meanwhile, Roy's increasingly eccentric behavior causes Ronnie to abandon him, taking their three children with her. When a news program about a supposed train wreck near Devils Tower airs on television, Roy and Jillian recognize

8176-450: The UFO mystery, and it certainly catches the flavor of the phenomenon. Spielberg was under enormous pressure to make another blockbuster after Jaws , but he decided to make a UFO film. He put his career on the line." USAF and NASA declined to cooperate on the film. NASA reportedly sent a twenty-page letter to Spielberg, telling him that releasing the film was dangerous. In an interview, he said: "I really found my faith when I heard that

8322-411: The UFO problem had become "far more interesting to ponder than to actually solve." Interest was particularly fevered in the 1990s with the publicity surrounding the television broadcast of an Alien autopsy video marketed as "real footage" but later admitted to be a staged "re-enactment". Eghigian writes that "there had always been outlier abduction reports dating back to the '50s and '60s" but that in

8468-413: The UFOs make distinctive sounds: a five-tone musical phrase in a pentatonic scale. Scientists broadcast the phrase to outer space, but are mystified by the response, a seemingly meaningless series of numbers (104 44 30 40 36 10) repeated until Laughlin, with his background in cartography , recognizes it as a set of geographical coordinates, which point to Devils Tower near Moorcroft, Wyoming . Lacombe and

8614-429: The US in over 50 years. Another Congressional hearing took place on July 26, 2023, featuring the whistleblower claims of former U.S. Air Force (USAF) officer and intelligence official David Grusch. A Harris Poll in 2009 found that 32% of Americans "believe in UFOs". A National Geographic study in June 2012 found that 36% of Americans believe UFOs exist and that 10% thought that they had spotted one. In June 2021

8760-602: The United States and Project Condign in the United Kingdom ), as well as by organisations and individuals have occurred over the years without confirmation of the fantastical claims of small but vocal groups of ufologists who favour unconventional or pseudoscientific hypotheses, often claiming that UFOs are evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence , technologically advanced cryptids , demons , interdimensional contact or future time travelers . After decades of promotion of such ideas by believers and in popular media,

8906-420: The United States and Canada, and $ 171.7 million in foreign countries, for $ 288 million worldwide. It was the most successful Columbia Pictures film at that time. Released in conjunction with Close Encounters of the Third Kind was a novelization of the film, credited solely to Steven Spielberg but largely ghostwritten by Leslie Waller . Spielberg later explained to Starlog magazine, It

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9052-550: The best known government studies are the ghost rockets investigation by the Swedish military (1946–1947), Project Blue Book, previously Project Sign and Project Grudge , conducted by the USAF from 1947 until 1969, the secret U.S. Army/Air Force Project Twinkle investigation into green fireballs (1948–1951), the secret USAF Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 by the Battelle Memorial Institute , and

9198-465: The century. By most accounts, the popular UFO craze in the US began with a media frenzy surrounding the reports on June 24, 1947, of a civilian pilot named Kenneth Arnold who described seeing "a group of bat-like aircraft flying in formation at high speeds" near Mount Rainier that he said were "moving like a saucer would if skipped across water" which led to headlines about "flying saucers" and "flying discs". Only weeks after Arnold's story

9344-444: The claims, and at times the media was enlisted including a 1966 TV special, "UFO: Friend, Foe or Fantasy?", in which Walter Cronkite "patiently" explained to viewers that UFOs were fantasy. Cronkite enlisted Carl Sagan and J. Allen Hynek , who told Cronkite, "To this time, there is no valid scientific proof that we have been visited by spaceships". Such attempts to disenchant the zeitgeist were not very successful at tamping down

9490-411: The climax. On Sneak Previews , Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert highly recommended the film. Siskel praised the message of not being "afraid of the unknown", said Dreyfuss was "perfectly cast", and described the ending as "a wonderful scene, combining fantasy, adventure and mystery". However, he mentioned that the story got "bogged down" by a subplot in the middle. Ebert said "the last 30 minutes are among

9636-585: The computer", suggesting that Roy Neary's boarding the spaceship represents Spielberg's wish to be reunited with his parents. The director had not consciously intended this aspect. In a 2005 interview, Spielberg stated that he made Close Encounters when he did not have children, and if he were making it today, he would never have had Roy leave his family and board the mothership. Communication and language issues constitute additional themes as noted by Andrew Johnston in Time Out New York : "Throughout

9782-409: The cover, and I usually avoid it at bookstores. Actually, I've never bought a copy. Jonathan Rosenbaum refers to the film as "the best expression of Spielberg's benign, dreamy-eyed vision". A.D. Murphy of Variety magazine gave a positive review but wrote that Close Encounters "lacks the warmth and humanity" of George Lucas's Star Wars . Murphy found most of the film slow-paced, but praised

9928-702: The director's cut and in the special edition of the end titles on the 1998 Collector's Edition of the soundtrack. The score was recorded at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California . Williams was nominated for two Academy Awards in 1978, one for his score to Star Wars and one for his score to Close Encounters . He won for Star Wars , though he later won two Grammy Awards in 1979 for his Close Encounters score (one for Best Original Film Score and one for Best Instrumental Composition for " Theme from Close Encounters "). Film critic Charlene Engel observed: Close Encounters suggests that humankind has reached

10074-721: The distances involved." On June 25, 2021, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a report on UAPs. The report found that the UAPTF was unable to identify 143 objects spotted between 2004 and 2021. The report said that 18 of these featured unusual movement patterns or flight characteristics, adding that more analysis was needed to determine if those sightings represented "breakthrough" technology. The report said that "some of these steps are resource-intensive and would require additional investment." The report did not link

10220-597: The documentation of the Brazilian Air Force regarding the investigation of the appearance of UFOs in Brazil . Currently, this collection gathers cases between 1952 and 2016. In 1968, the SEFAA (previously CEFAA) began receiving case reports of the general public, civil aviators and the Chilean Air Force regarding the sightings or the appearance of UFOs in Chile , the initial work was an initiative of Sergio Bravo Flores who led

10366-440: The dozens, by using light and sound on a large electrical billboard. An enormous mothership eventually lands to release many abductees from different eras: World War II pilots, Cotopaxi sailors, adults, children, and animals. Barry also returns and reunites with Jillian. The government officials hastily prepare Roy for inclusion in its select group of potential visitors to the mothership. The extraterrestrials finally emerge from

10512-406: The earthlings are ready with a console, and they greet the great craft with an oboe solo variation on the five-note theme; the craft answers in deep, tuba tones. The dialogue becomes blissfully garrulous. And with light flooding out from the windows of this omniscient airship—it’s like New York’s skyscrapers all lighted up on a summer night—there is a conversational duet: the music of the spheres. This

10658-485: The effects footage would still appear clear and sharp though having lost one generation's worth of visual fidelity. A test reel using computer-generated imagery was created for the UFOs, but Spielberg found it would be too expensive and ineffective because CGI was in its infancy in the mid-1970s. The small extraterrestrials in the final scenes were played by fifty local six-year-old girls in Mobile, Alabama . That decision

10804-449: The end of the second week of national release it had grossed $ 24,695,317. It made a record $ 3,026,558 on December 26, 1977, and set a one-week record of $ 17,393,654 from December 26 to January 1. The film opened internationally on February 24, 1978, and grossed $ 27 million by the end of March from 19 countries. Close Encounters received mostly positive reviews and became a certified box office success, grossing $ 116.39 million in

10950-473: The existential terror of nuclear war to foreign enslavement to loss of bodily control". American entertainment has explored both "hostile aliens" as well as the "benevolent, world-expanding encounters" seen in films such as Steven Spielberg 's Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial . In her research on the relationship of media to UFO beliefs, Diana Walsh Pasulka ,

11096-416: The extraterrestrial mothership. Spielberg initially included Cliff Edwards 's original "When You Wish upon a Star" from Pinocchio in the closing credits , but after a Dallas preview where several members of the audience audibly snickered at the inclusion, the song was dropped and replaced with Williams's orchestral version. Phrases from "When You Wish Upon a Star" are included in the final sequence in

11242-445: The extraterrestrial that communicates via hand signals near the end of the film. Close Encounters is the first collaboration between film editor Michael Kahn and Spielberg. Their working relationship has continued for the rest of Spielberg's films. Spielberg said that no film he has ever made since has been as hard to edit as the last 25 minutes of Close Encounters and that he and Kahn went through thousands of feet of film to find

11388-506: The fact that ATIC [Air Technical Intelligence Center] will analyze the data is worthy of release, due to many unknowns involved." A public research effort conducted by the Condon Committee for the USAF and published as the Condon Report arrived at a negative conclusion in 1968. Blue Book closed down in 1970, using the Condon Committee's negative conclusion as a rationale, thus ending official Air Force UFO investigations. However,

11534-436: The film, there are many scenes that anticipate themes Spielberg would explore in subsequent projects, but his execution of these ideas here is usually more interesting and subtle. In Amistad , for example, he devotes much time to illustrating the language barrier separating Africans from both their captors and their potential saviors. It's an essential plot point, but it's so belabored that the story gets bogged down. In CE3K ,

11680-692: The following week. Kanye's returning concert following Kim Kardashian's incident was performed in his hometown of Chicago at the United Center on October 7, 2016, where he arrived on stage an hour and a half past schedule and "made no mention of his wife or the incident, in a show in which he barely spoke to the crowd at all". In San Jose, California during his November 17 performance, West spoke about American politics and stated "If I would have voted, I would have voted for Trump ", with some fans booing and throwing items on stage. In Sacramento on November 19, 2016, West performed three songs before he diverted

11826-731: The former toll booth at the Vincent Thomas Bridge , San Pedro , California. The Sonora Desert sequence was photographed at the Dumont Dunes , California, and the Dharmsala-India exteriors were filmed at the small village of Hal near Khalapur , 35 kilometres (22 mi) outside Mumbai , India. The hangars in Alabama were six times larger than the biggest sound stage in the world. Various technical and budgetary problems occurred during filming. Spielberg called

11972-529: The government is to ridicule and debunk flying saucers." Schrader continued: "One day he has an encounter. He goes to the government, threatening to blow the lid off to the public. Instead, he and the government spend 15 years trying to make contact." Spielberg and Schrader experienced creative differences, hiring John Hill to rewrite. At one point, the main character was a police officer . Spielberg "[found] it hard to identify with men in uniform. I wanted to have Mr. Everyday Regular Fella ." Spielberg rejected

12118-467: The human race...no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public's eye.... The response further noted that efforts, like SETI and NASA's Kepler space telescope and Mars Science Laboratory , continue looking for signs of life . The response noted "odds are pretty high" that there may be life on other planets but "the odds of us making contact with any of them—especially any intelligent ones —are extremely small, given

12264-437: The hypothesis that UFOs are extraterrestrial spacecraft and responded to the "onslaught of credulous coverage" in books, films and entertainment by teaching his students to apply critical thinking to such claims, advising them that "being a good scientist is not unlike being a good detective". According to Fraknoi, UFO reports "might at first seem mysterious", but "the more you investigate, the more likely you are to find that there

12410-672: The idea. Filming took place in Burbank, California ; Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming ; two abandoned World War II airship hangars at the former Brookley Air Force Base in Mobile, Alabama ; and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad depot in Bay Minette, Alabama . The home where Barry is abducted is located outside the town of Fairhope, Alabama . Roy Neary's home is on Carlisle Drive East in Mobile. The UFOs fly through

12556-468: The kind of evidence required to solidly support such claims has not been forthcoming. Scientists and skeptic organizations such as the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry have provided prosaic explanations for UFOs, namely that they are caused by natural phenomena, human technology, delusions, and hoaxes. Beliefs surrounding UFOs have inspired parts of new religions even as social scientists have identified

12702-415: The language problem is illustrated concisely by a quick scene in which an interpreter translates Spanish into English for Laughlin so he can turn around and translate it into French for Lacombe. Since Spielberg doesn't ram the language problem down our throats, the extraterrestrials' solution—using music to communicate with humanity—seems more elegant and natural." The film was to be released in mid-1977 but

12848-505: The last fifty years, the mutual antagonism between paranormal believers and skeptics has largely framed discussion about unidentified flying objects" and that "it often gets personal" with those taking seriously the prospect that UFOs are extraterrestrial in origin dismissing those who consider UFOs to be worth studying as "narrow-minded, biased, obstinate, and cruel" while the skeptics brushed off "devotees" as "naïve, ignorant, gullible, and downright dangerous". Such "mudslinging over convictions

12994-504: The longest ongoing government-sponsored investigation. About 22% of the 6,000 cases studied remain unexplained. The official opinion of GEPAN/SEPRA/GEIPAN has been neutral, stating on their FAQ page that their mission is fact-finding for the scientific community, not rendering an opinion. They add they can neither prove nor disprove the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis (ETH), but their Steering Committee's clear position

13140-537: The mania. Keith Kloor notes that the "allure of flying saucers" remained popular with the public into the 1970s, spurring production of such sci-fi films, as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Alien , which "continued to stoke public fascination". Meanwhile, Leonard Nimoy narrated a popular occult and mystery TV series In Search of... while daytime talk shows of Mike Douglas , Merv Griffin , and Phil Donahue featured interviews with alien abductees and people who credulously reported stories about UFOs . In

13286-691: The material and the mental dimensions [of UFOs] are incredibly important to get a sense of the full picture". As Adrian Horton writes "from The X-Files to Men in Black , Close Encounters of the Third Kind to Star Wars to Marvel , Hollywood has for decades provided an engrossing feedback loop for interest in the extraterrestrial: a reflection of our fears and capaciousness, whose ubiquitous popularity has in turn fueled more interest in UFOs as perennially compelling entertainment tropes not to be taken seriously". Horton observes that these "alien movies have generally reflected shifting cultural anxieties, from

13432-411: The model, and his gradual loss of contact with his wife, mimic the events in the short story " Dulcie and Decorum " (1955) by Damon Knight . Close Encounters studies the form of "youth spiritual yearning". Barry Guiler, the unfearing child who refers to the UFOs and their paraphernalia as "toys" (although that was unscripted, with the child being drawn to smile by being shown toys offstage), serves as

13578-476: The mood the song created, the way it affected me personally." During pre-production , the title was changed from Kingdom Come to Close Encounters of the Third Kind . J. Allen Hynek , who worked with the United States Air Force on Project Blue Book , was hired as a scientific consultant. Hynek said that "even though the film is fiction, it's based for the most part on the known facts of

13724-456: The most marvelous things I've ever seen on the screen" and that the film was "like a kid's picture...in its innocence". Pauline Kael similarly called it "a kid's film in the best sense". Kael wrote that "Spielberg is the son of an electrical-engineer, sci-fi-addict father and a classical-pianist mother, and in the climax of the film he does justice to both. Under the French scientist’s direction,

13870-466: The mothership and select Roy to join their travels. As Roy enters the mothership, one of the extraterrestrials pauses for a few moments with the humans. Lacombe uses Curwen hand signs that correspond to the five-note extraterrestrial tonal phrase. The extraterrestrial replies with the same gestures, smiles, and returns to its ship, which takes to the sky. The film's inspiration arose in director Steven Spielberg 's childhood, when he and his father watched

14016-484: The mountain pursued by government helicopters spraying sleeping gas. Larry stops to rest, is gassed, and falls into a deep sleep. In his interview with Spielberg on Inside the Actors Studio , James Lipton suggested Close Encounters has another, more personal theme for Spielberg: "Your father was a computer engineer; your mother was a concert pianist, and when the spaceship lands, they make music together on

14162-612: The narrative similarities between certain religious symbols in medieval paintings and UFO reports, the canonical and symbolic character of such images is documented by art historians placing more conventional religious interpretations on such images. Some examples of pre-contemporary reports about unusual aerial phenomena include: In the Pacific and European theatres during World War II , round, glowing fireballs known as " foo fighters " were reported by Allied and Axis pilots. Some explanations for these sightings included St. Elmo's fire ,

14308-422: The needs of the tour, incorporating the audience into the experience at each concert as visitors would be able to engage with Kanye West. Each show had three sections separated by two intermissions, with uses of light increasing as the performance progresses. Some of the portions appeared to be influenced by various themes in popular culture, such as the show's intermissions which were similar to Close Encounters of

14454-518: The new moniker "unexplained aerial phenomenon" (UAP) to avoid associations with past sensationalism . On 17 May 2022, members of the United States House Intelligence Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence and Counterproliferation held congressional hearings with top military officials to discuss military reports of UAPs. It was the first public congressional hearing into UFO sightings in

14600-557: The ongoing interest and storytelling surrounding UFOs as a modern example of folklore and mythology understandable with psychosocial explanations . The U.S. government currently has two entities dedicated to UFO data collection and analysis: NASA's UAP independent study team and the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office . During the late 1940s and through the 1950s, UFOs were often called " flying saucers " or "flying discs" based on reporting of

14746-484: The performance and spoke about Facebook , Jay Z , Hillary Clinton , Beyoncé , and then proceeded to walk off stage, later cancelling further dates of the tour due to stress and exhaustion while ticketholders were given a refund. This set list is an example of one typically performed from the Boston show onwards. Songs included in the five prior shows' setlists not included further include " FML ," " Amazing ," " Devil in

14892-522: The phenomenon include the MUFON , a grassroots organization whose investigator's handbooks go into great detail on the documentation of alleged UFO sightings. Air Force Regulation 200-2 , issued in 1953 and 1954, defined an Unidentified Flying Object ("UFOB") as "any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as

15038-489: The planet Venus , hallucinations from oxygen deprivation , and German secret weapons (specifically rockets ). In 1946, more than 2,000 reports were collected, primarily by the Swedish military, of unidentified aerial objects over the Scandinavian nations, along with isolated reports from France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece. The objects were referred to as "Russian hail" (and later as " ghost rockets ") because it

15184-497: The point where it is ready to enter the community of the cosmos. While it is a computer which makes the final musical conversation with the extraterrestrial guests possible, the characteristics bringing Neary to make his way to Devils Tower have little to do with technical expertise or computer literacy. These are virtues taught in schools that will be evolved in the 21st century. The film also evokes typical science fiction archetypes and motifs. The film portrays new technologies as

15330-479: The postwar decades, in a series of events that—with their news coverage, grainy images, celebrity crusaders, exasperated skeptics, unsatisfying military statements, and accusations of a government cover-up—foreshadow our present moment". UFOs have been taken up by religious studies scholars in various scholarly books. Jeffrey Kripal, chair of the Department of Religion at Rice University , has said that "both

15476-476: The production of Close Encounters "twice as bad and twice as expensive [as Jaws ]". Matters worsened when Columbia Pictures experienced financial difficulties. In his original 1973 pitch to Columbia, Spielberg claimed production would cost $ 2.7 million, although he revealed to producer Julia Philips that he knew the budget would have to be much higher; the final budget came to $ 19.4 million. Columbia studio executive John Veich remembered, "If we knew it

15622-470: The production schedule because he was continually adding new scenes. Zsigmond previously turned down the chance to work on Jaws . In her 1991 book You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again , producer Julia Phillips wrote highly profane remarks about Spielberg, Zsigmond, and Truffaut, because she was fired during post-production due to a cocaine addiction . Phillips blamed it on Spielberg being

15768-491: The public Blue Book investigation. The memo then added, "reports of UFOs which could affect national security would continue to be handled through the standard Air Force procedures designed for this purpose." In the late 1960s, a chapter on UFOs in the Space Sciences course at the U.S. Air Force Academy gave serious consideration to possible extraterrestrial origins. When word of the curriculum became public, in 1970,

15914-412: The publishers that unless it was cleaned up I wouldn't let my name go out with the book. So I sat down and spent less than a week – I wouldn't say rewriting the novel – but polishing it, and taking a lot of the plot and twisting it back into the direction of the screenplay. All told, there's about 20 percent of me in the book. I wish I could say there was more, but there's not. I cringe when I see my name on

16060-841: The result, Spielberg applied the logo to all production stationery and crew shirts. Unusual in filmmaking, Spielberg carried enough influence to maintain creative control over the film's entire branding and asked Perri to design the advertising campaign and title sequence based on his logo. Perri later designed titles for many other major Hollywood pictures, including Star Wars (1977), Raging Bull (1980), and Airplane! (1980). Principal photography began on May 16, 1976, though an Associated Press report in August 1975 had suggested filming would start in late 1975. Spielberg did not want to do any location shooting because of his negative experience on Jaws and wanted to shoot Close Encounters entirely on sound stages , but eventually dropped

16206-425: The right shots for the end sequence. When Kahn and Spielberg completed the first cut of the film, Spielberg was dissatisfied because "there wasn't enough wow-ness". Pick-ups were commissioned but cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond could not participate due to other commitments. John A. Alonzo , László Kovács , and Douglas Slocombe worked on the pick-ups. Lacombe was originally intended to find Flight 19 hidden in

16352-426: The right to make the film any way he wanted. Schrader submitted his script, which Spielberg called "one of the most embarrassing screenplays ever professionally turned in to a major film studio or director" and "a terribly guilt-ridden story not about UFOs at all". Titled Kingdom Come , the script's protagonist was a 45-year-old Air Force officer named Paul Van Owen who worked with Project Blue Book. "[His] job for

16498-415: The role of investigator, therapist, and advocate to their vulnerable charges". Eghigian says that Mack "signaled both the culmination and end of the headiest days of alien abduction". When Mack began working with and publishing accounts of abductees—or "experiencers", as he called them—in the early 1990s, he brought a sense of legitimacy to "the study of extraterrestrial captivity". By the late 1990s, however,

16644-409: The same mountain they have been visualizing. They, along with other travelers experiencing similar visions, set out for Devils Tower in spite of the public warnings about toxic gas. Most of the travelers are apprehended by the Army, but Roy and Jillian reach the site just as UFOs appear in the night sky. The government specialists at the site begin to communicate with the UFOs, which gradually appear by

16790-403: The script in December 1973 with principal photography to begin in late 1974. To discuss the script, Spielberg visited the home where Schrader lived with his brother Leonard. However, Spielberg started work on Jaws in 1974, delaying Watch the Skies . With the financial and critical success of Jaws , Spielberg was able to negotiate a high degree of creative control from Columbia, including

16936-431: The script, he was assisted by Paul Schrader , John Hill , David Giler , Hal Barwood , Matthew Robbins , and Jerry Belson , all of whom contributed to the screenplay in varying degrees. The title is derived from Ufologist J. Allen Hynek 's classification of close encounters with extraterrestrials, in which the third kind denotes human observations of extraterrestrials or "animate beings". Douglas Trumbull served as

17082-453: The ship was inspired by an oil refinery Spielberg saw at night in India. Instead of the metallic hardware look of Star Wars , the emphasis was on luminescence of the UFOs. One of the UFO models was an oxygen mask with lights attached to it, used because of its irregular shape. As a subtle in-joke, Dennis Muren (who had just finished working on Star Wars ) put a small R2-D2 model onto

17228-580: The side of his face with its lights. The UFO takes off with three others in the sky, as Roy and three police cars give chase. The spacecraft fly off into the night sky but the metaphysical experience leaves Roy mesmerized. The researchers are similarly baffled to find the SS ; Cotopaxi in the middle of the Gobi Desert , intact and completely empty. Roy becomes fascinated by UFOs to the dismay of his wife, Ronnie. He obsesses over subliminal images of

17374-459: The sightings to extraterrestrial life. The Uruguayan Air Force has conducted UFO investigations since 1989 and reportedly analyzed 2,100 cases of which they regard approximately 2% as lacking explanation. In March 2007, the French space agency CNES published an archive of UFO sightings and other phenomena online. French studies include GEPAN/SEPRA/ GEIPAN within CNES (French space agency),

17520-419: The signature melody into the score at Spielberg's behest, just before Roy Neary turns to board the mothership. The synthesizer playing the five notes is an ARP 2500 . Vice President of Engineering at ARP Instruments , Phillip Dodds , was sent to install the unit on the film set and was subsequently cast as Jean Claude, the musician who plays the sequence on the huge synthesizer in an attempt to communicate with

17666-509: The silence over the alien origins of unidentified flying objects". Media accounts and speculation ran rampant in the U.S., especially in connection to the 1952 UFO scare in Washington, D.C. so that, by 1953, the intelligence officials ( Robertson Panel ) worried that "genuine incursions" by enemy aircraft "over U.S. territory could be lost in a maelstrom of kooky hallucination" of UFO reports. A Trendex survey in August 1957, ten years after

17812-600: The space shuttle orbiter Discovery in the Smithsonian Institution 's Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Annex at Washington Dulles Airport in Chantilly, Virginia . Close Encounters was filmed anamorphically and the visual effects sequences were shot on 70 mm film , which has greater resolution than the 35 mm film used for the rest of the production, so that when the miniature effects were combined with full-sized elements through an optical printer ,

17958-481: The story of Roy Neary, an everyday blue-collar worker in Indiana , whose life changes after an encounter with an unidentified flying object ; and of Jillian, a single mother whose three-year-old son was also abducted by a UFO. Close Encounters was a long-cherished project for Spielberg. In late 1973, he developed a deal with Columbia Pictures for a science-fiction film. Though Spielberg received sole credit for

18104-402: The study of UFOs in the past 21 years that has added to scientific knowledge" and that further time investigating UFO reports "cannot be justified". From the 1960s to 1990s, UFOs were part of American popular culture's obsession with the supernatural and paranormal . In 1961, the first alien abduction account was sensationalized when Barney and Betty Hill underwent hypnosis after seeing

18250-443: The sunburn caused by Roy's exposure to the UFOs and wants him to forget his encounter with them. She is embarrassed and bewildered by what has happened to him and desperately wants her ordinary life back. The expression of his lost life is seen when he is sculpting a huge model of Devils Tower in his living room, with his family deserting him. Roy's obsession with an idea implanted by an extraterrestrial intelligence, his construction of

18396-962: The term UFO has generally become synonymous with alien spacecraft . The term "extra-terrestrial vehicle" (ETV) is sometimes used to separate this explanation of UFOs from totally earthbound explanations. Studies show that after careful investigation, the majority of UFOs can be identified as ordinary objects or phenomena. The 1952–1955 study for the USAF used the following categories: "Balloon; Astronomical; Aircraft; Light phenomenon; Birds, Clouds, dust, etc.; Insufficient information; Psychological manifestations; Unknown; and Other". The most commonly found identified sources of UFO reports are: An individual 1979 study by CUFOS researcher Allan Hendry found, as did other investigations, that fewer than one percent of cases he investigated were hoaxes and most sightings were actually honest misidentifications of prosaic phenomena. Hendry attributed most of these to inexperience or misperception. Astronomer Andrew Fraknoi rejected

18542-412: The underside of the mothership and a pea-sized TIE fighter to the end of one of the structures extending from the mothership. Model makers also included a mailbox, great-white shark, Volkswagen bus, and a small graveyard. The model also included alien figures moving in the windows of the miniature, though were not very visible in the final film. The mothership model is on permanent display steps away from

18688-458: The visiting spaceship as a mathematical language , before Spielberg chose the one incorporated into the film's signature theme. Williams decided on five notes because "it has to be somewhere between a fragment ... which is four notes, and a song ... which is seven notes, so he decided, mathematically, it would be five notes" Spielberg called Williams's work " When You Wish Upon a Star meets science fiction". Incidentally, Williams briefly included

18834-618: The years that varied widely in scope and scientific rigor. Governments or independent academics in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, Peru, France, Belgium, Sweden, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, Spain, and the Soviet Union are known to have investigated UFO reports at various times. No official government investigation has ever publicly concluded that UFOs are indisputably real, physical objects, extraterrestrial in origin, or of concern to national defense. Among

18980-615: Was a feat in terms of design and production, but the Saint Pablo Tour is a feat in terms of engineering—and few artists can say they’ve created a transcendent experience that goes beyond what is expected of a “concert.” Close Encounters of the Third Kind Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a 1977 American science fiction drama film written and directed by Steven Spielberg , starring Richard Dreyfuss , Melinda Dillon , Teri Garr , Bob Balaban , Cary Guffey , and François Truffaut . The film depicts

19126-615: Was called off after the Robertson Panel's negative conclusions in January 1953. Project Sign was dismantled and became Project Grudge at the end of 1948. Angered by the low quality of investigations by Grudge, the Air Force Director of Intelligence reorganized it as Project Blue Book in late 1951, placing Ruppelt in charge. J. Allen Hynek , a trained astronomer who served as a scientific advisor for Project Blue Book,

19272-514: Was considered so urgent that OS/I drafted a memorandum from the DCI to the NSC proposing that the NSC establish an investigation of UFOs as a priority project throughout the intelligence and the defense research and development community. It also urged the DCI to establish an external research project of top-level scientists, now known as the Robertson Panel to analyze the problem of UFOs. The OS/I investigation

19418-616: Was delayed to November because of the various production problems. Close Encounters premiered at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City on November 16, 1977, and continued there and at the Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles, grossing $ 1,077,000. Its national release was December 14, in 270 theaters and grossing $ 10,115,000 in one week with a per-screen average of $ 37,460. On December 21, 301 more theaters were added. By

19564-432: Was followed closely by the publication of Loeb's book Extraterrestrial , in which he argued that the first interstellar comet ever observed, 'Oumuamua , might be an artificial light sail made by an alien civilization. Two government sponsored programs, NASA's UAP independent study team and the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office were charged in part by Congressional fiat to investigate UFO claims more fully, adopting

19710-599: Was going to cost that much, we wouldn't have greenlighted it because we didn't have the money." Spielberg hired Joe Alves , his collaborator on Jaws , as production designer . In addition, the 1976 Atlantic hurricane season brought tropical storms to Alabama. A large portion of the sound stage in Alabama was damaged because of a lightning strike . Columbia raised $ 7 million from three sources: Time Inc. , EMI , and German tax shelters. Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond said that, during shooting, Spielberg got more ideas by watching films every night, which in turn extended

19856-418: Was initially skeptical of UFO reports, but eventually came to the conclusion that many of them could not be satisfactorily explained and was highly critical of what he described as "the cavalier disregard by Project Blue Book of the principles of scientific investigation". Leaving government work, he founded the privately funded CUFOS , to whose work he devoted the rest of his life. Other private groups studying

20002-477: Was not enough data to determine their origin. The Air Force's Project Sign was created at the end of 1947, and was one of the earliest government studies to come to a secret extraterrestrial conclusion. In August 1948, Sign investigators wrote a top-secret intelligence estimate to that effect, but the Air Force Chief of Staff Hoyt Vandenberg ordered it destroyed. The existence of this suppressed report

20148-467: Was not universal in the CIA, however, as fellow NICAP official Donald E. Keyhoe wrote that Vice Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter , the first director of the CIA, "wanted public disclosure of UFO evidence". Official U.S. Air Force interest in UFO reports went on hiatus in 1969 after a study by the University of Colorado led by Edward U. Condon and known as the Condon Report concluded "that nothing has come from

20294-488: Was released theatrically in 1980. Spielberg agreed to create this edition to add more scenes that they had been unable to include in the original release, with the studio demanding a controversial scene depicting the interior of the extraterrestrial mothership. Spielberg's dissatisfaction with the altered ending scene led to a third version, the Director's Cut on VHS and LaserDisc in 1998 (and later DVD and Blu-ray ). It

20440-407: Was replaced by Project Grudge up through 1951. In the third U.S. Air Force program, from March 1952 to its termination in December 1969, "the U.S. Air Force cataloged 12,618 sightings of UFOs as part of what is now known as Project Blue Book ". In the late 1950s, public pressure mounted for a full declassification of all UFO records, but the CIA played a role in refusing to allow this. This sense

20586-515: Was reported in 1947, Gallup published a poll asking people in the United States what the "flying saucers" might be. Already, 90% had heard of the new term. However, as reported by historian Greg Eghanian, "a majority either had no idea what they could be or thought that witnesses were mistaken" while "visitors from space were not initially among the options that anyone had in mind, and Gallup didn't even mention if anyone surveyed brought up aliens. Within weeks, reports of flying saucer sightings became

20732-406: Was requested by Spielberg because "girls move more gracefully than boys". Puppetry was attempted for the extraterrestrials, but the idea failed. However, Rambaldi successfully used puppetry to depict two of the extraterrestrials, starting with a marionette (for the tall extraterrestrial that is the first emerging from the mothership in what was originally a test shot) and an articulated puppet for

20878-572: Was revealed by several insiders who had read it, such as astronomer and USAF consultant J. Allen Hynek and Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, the first head of the USAF's Project Blue Book. Another highly classified U.S. study was conducted by the CIA's Office of Scientific Investigation (OS/I) in the latter half of 1952 in response to orders from the National Security Council (NSC). This study concluded UFOs were real physical objects of potential threat to national security. One OS/I memo to

21024-427: Was thought the mysterious objects were possibly Russian tests of captured German V1 or V2 rockets , but most were identified as natural phenomena as meteors. Many scholars, especially those arguing for the psychosocial UFO hypothesis , have noted that UFO characteristics reported after the first widely publicized modern sighting by Kenneth Arnold in 1947 resembled a host of science fiction tropes from earlier in

21170-433: Was up from 33% in a 2019 Gallup poll with the same question. Gallup further found that college graduates went in 2019 from being the least likely educational group to believe this to being on par in 2021 with adults who have no college education. An October 2022 poll by YouGov only found that 34% of Americans believe that UFOs are likely to involve alien life forms. Historian Greg Eghigian wrote in August 2021 that "over

21316-424: Was very early on when we made the deal with Dell ... It included an advance with a promise that I was going to have direct writing input into the book. But post-production on the movie became so impossible that I had to get somebody else to write it. I didn't write the first, second, or third drafts. Those were written, based on my screenplay, by Leslie Waller, a very good writer. When I read his drafts, though, I told

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