Contact (film)/Fridge

For the video game, Contact

Fridge Brilliance

• I didn't understand the Gainax Ending to Contact until I read a critique of Flower, Sun, and Rain. The point is this: All the characters in the game are stuck playing the roles that the game forced upon them. The "villains" and "heroes" aren't really enemies, or even heroes and villains at all. Like actors in a play, now that the game is over, they stop fighting and go back to their normal lives.

For the 1997 film, Contact

Fridge Logic

• Due to the parallax effect and doppler effect it would have been impossible to fake a signal from Vega, thus rendering the You Imagined It ruse laughably bad. Of course, Ellie does say it's impossible. Kitz insists it could happen, but then, he is a politician. He believes that Hadden had the resources to pull such an "elaborate hoax".
• Another example (from the movie): why can't they just run the machine again and send another trustworthy person? The machine in Japan was undamaged, the pod was undamaged, they know it's (relatively) safe... it just needed refueling. Hell, it would have been cheaper than the international tribunal they end up with!
  • It's explained at least in the book that the aliens were closing the wormhole link for a while, so they can't send someone else for some time. Inevitably they'll keep researching into it and eventually make another trip; that part is just not in the story.