Movie Substrate · Film
Contact (1997)
★ 7.4 · 4,957 ratings on TMDB
Take a journey to the heart of the universe.
A radio astronomer receives the first extraterrestrial radio signal ever picked up on Earth. As the world powers scramble to decipher the message and decide upon a course of action, she must make some difficult decisions between her beliefs, the truth, and reality.
DirectorRobert Zemeckis
The emergence reading
Contact keeps every mind human — it fights its subject at zero distance. The story fights on E8/E9/E10 of the E0–E14 reality ladder.
zero-distanceUS
⇄ Parameter shift — the dial this world turnsrigor: loose
E0wormholespacetime permits engineered single‑person wormholes for instantaneous travel (technology · universal)
Same rung, same subject
Films fighting at the same level of reality, about the same things.
Same subject, different rung
The same preoccupations examined at another scale — one mind versus a nation.
Don't Look Up (2021)E14 · Drama, Science Fiction
War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)E6/E11 · Drama, Science Fiction
Contagion (2011)E4/E14 · Drama, Science Fiction
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)E12/E13 · Drama, Science Fiction
WarGames (1983)E12/E14 · Drama, Science Fiction
Sahara (2005)E14 · Drama, MysteryAlso bends a rule of reality
Other films that change a standing rule of their world — ranked first by those bending it at the same rung.
Doctor Strange (2016)alters at E0 · same rung · rigorous
Interstellar (2014)alters at E0 · same rung · rigorous
The Matrix (1999)alters at E0 · same rung · rigorous
Avengers: Endgame (2019)alters at E0 · same rung · loose
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)alters at E0 · same rung · rigorous
Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012)alters at E0 · same rung · loose
