Questions about Close Encounters

>Is Dreyfus’s character the only one to enter the ship Yes. >This implies that the aliens have already contacted Earth and arranged for people to travel with them No. It implies that the Gov't **thinks** they'll be able to send people with the aliens on purpose. >Similarly, photographs of missing/abducted people at the film’s climax would indicate that Earth were expecting at least some of the abducted people to be returned Yeah, because other people and things have been returned. They presumably have a list of "people who went missing under mysterious circumstances". >yet they do some pretty uncomfortable things I bet that pet gerbil you had didn't like it when you poked it, either. But you weren't malicious, were you?

I think the government selected a group of people to be ambassadors, but the aliens sent visions of Devil's Tower to those it wanted to bring back to their planet. As Richard Dreyfus was the only one of those to make it, he was the only one to go.

There's a semi-religious aspect of Close Encounters where people are "chosen" by the aliens to go with them. We don't know the reasons why and can't even describe their actions as benign or malicious because their powers are so God-like and beyond understanding. All that's obvious is that they're eager to contact us, but to what purpose? and why are they so persistent on "abducting" those certain people? It's also clear that Truffaut and the government knows a lot more about it than we do. Even though Spielberg shows us Truffaut's side of the story, there's a whole lot of pieces to that puzzle that are missing, like how they figured out that whole light/music setup. And interesting sequel would have been about the people who returned. What happened to them and how are they different. Are they enlightened in some way? Do they bring us knowledge? Do they take over the planet? I wish Spielberg had made that instead of War of the Worlds. Fingers crossed his new sci-fi movie will be as good as Close Encounters.

>The aliens are portrayed as being peaceful yet they do some pretty uncomfortable things, such as Barry’s abduction. Is it possible that the aliens are not as benign as we are led to believe? It might just be a Spielberg thing. Spielberg often has scenes of kids being separated from their parents, or leaving their parents. And lots of stories about bad parenting or absentee parenting. Single parents. Neglected kids. Stuff like that. He's talked about it a lot. He didn't have a great childhood and had strained relationships with his parents, especially his father, and so he puts lots of that stuff in his films.

1. Yes the "ambassadors" go into the ship, in the novelization of the film, it mentions this, it is just not shown directly. 2. Considering that an entire complex was built including with a method to communicate with the aliens next to Devil's Tower, it can be assumed that prior communication was made, not to mention the people the aliens imprinted such as Roy. 3. As seen in the film when Barry is returned so are the others that were abducted. 4. While it may seem like a sketchy move to abduct a kid to us, we aren't privy to their thought process or their sets of morals and ethics, so there is that. Edited for grammar.

Thanks everyone for the answers. I agree that all the ambassadors enter the ship: it’s not shown in the film but appears to be the case in the novel. I still wonder why Barry was abducted and in such a traumatic way. Were these “rogue” aliens who had perhaps done something that they shouldn’t have? The issue of how long the Government has been able to communicate with the aliens is still a bit of a mystery. In the closing scenes it appears that communication is still in its infancy (hence all the stuff with the music). Also the humans don’t seem to be expecting the arrival of the mothership but they still have the photos set up and the ambassadors ready to go. These are small things, I know, but I love films like this that are open to interpretation.

I always read it as the aliens close people they wanted to bring with them and they imprinted the visions of devils tower on them through their direct contact. Hence all the people with personal experi3nces being compelled to express visions of Devils Tower visually through some personal form of art expression. The government got wind of this through usual government tom foolery and tried to lock down the site and send their own "qualified people". Likely scientists and military people. Because the gov locked down devils tower none of the people who the aliens "Chose" through contact were able to make it on time except Dreyfuss. He was the only one to board the ship at the end.

been driving around at night for work and always wondered about those same inconsistencies, especially the red suit thing - like they clearly had some advance planning going on but then act surprised when the ship shows up the barry abduction always bugged me too, taking a little kid is pretty messed up even if your bringing him back later. maybe spielberg just wanted that emotional hook without thinking through the implications

I've read the novel (also penned by Spielberg) and can confirm that more information just makes it even more confusing. It's established that the human ambassadors have trained for 8 years for this mission to prepare them for anything ... and yet they just let Roy join them because, well, the more the merrier I guess. There's a handwaving explanation with one higher-up making a vague argument that "these civilians have a right to be here as much as we do", but it doesn't really gel with how meticulously the authorities have planned the rest of the encounter. There's absolutely no backstory about the photographs of missing people.

The abduction of Barry Guiler made no sense. The alien mother ship was already in Earth’s orbit and the time frame was approximately a week or two. What purpose did it serve? Also what did he eat and drink, and how did he not soil his pants? I’ve often wondered if Roy Neary regretted his decision to go with the aliens. Spielberg has said that he couldn’t imagine leaving his kids behind in that situation.