Contact (1997)

The aliens receive a signal from Planet Earth; it is a televised Hitler speech. Based upon this felicitous introduction, the aliens send the Hitler speech back to earth but now laden with the how-to plans for an interstellar gateway. Planet Earth—led by the Bill Clinton administration—is  overjoyed and agrees to build this device at great expense; Jodie Foster is selected, at the last minute, to be sent into the void to make contact. Written by arch-scientist Carl Sagan, this is essentially a religious movie with a mystical core; the alien is god but can be known by the rigorous methods of science. It even appears in the guise of Jodie Foster’s beloved dad just to make things obvious. These aliens are benevolent, patient, super-intelligent, and, apparently, cool with Hitler. Jodie Foster returns from her harrowing wormhole journey unto the extra-terrestrial gates of heaven in a blink of an eye and is interrogated by a special government council—to the witnesses on earth it appears that she did not travel anywhere. Super-creep James Woods holds her accountable for this colossal hoax and demands proof, goddammit. “I had an experience!” Jodie Foster says, crying, as if she had done mushrooms for the first time; “I can’t prove it! I can’t even explain it!” Matthew McConaughey becomes emotional.