Close Encounters of the Third Kind
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🎬 Book or film
Contents 5
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| Type | Book, film or media |
|---|---|
| On the Timeline | 1 event, 1972 |
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a 1977 science-fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg, about ordinary people drawn to a meeting between humans and extraterrestrials. Its title comes from J. Allen Hynek's classification of UFO reports, and it drew directly on the UFO literature of the time.[1][2]
Story
![Franse regisseur Francois Truffaut voor bioscoop Cinétol, waar zijn film draait [Le Peau Douce?] tijdens Nouvelle Vague festival 15 maart 1965](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fran%C3%A7ois_Truffaut_(1965).jpg)
The film follows Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss), a blue-collar worker in Indiana who becomes obsessed with an image after a UFO encounter; Jillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon), whose young son is taken during the same event; and Claude Lacombe (François Truffaut), a French scientist leading a secret investigation. They are led to Devils Tower in Wyoming, where the government prepares a landing site and the aliens communicate through a five-note musical phrase.[1]
Links to ufology
- The title. In Hynek's scheme, a close encounter of the third kind is one in which beings are seen.
- Hynek's role. Hynek, a former consultant to Project Blue Book, was a scientific adviser on the film and appears in a brief cameo.[1][2]
- Vallée. The character Lacombe was modelled on ufologist Jacques Vallée.
Hynek said that although the film was fiction, it was mostly based on known facts of the UFO mystery.[1] According to the production history, the US Air Force and NASA declined to help.[1]
Release and reception
Made for about $19.4 million, the film was released in November 1977 and earned more than $300 million worldwide, the third-highest-grossing film of 1977 after Star Wars and Smokey and the Bandit. It received numerous award nominations.[1] Spielberg released a Special Edition in 1980 and later a director's cut.[1] In 2007 the Library of Congress selected it for the National Film Registry as culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.[1]
On the UAP Timeline
- Hynek's The UFO Experience (May 1972) — Blue Book adviser J. Allen Hynek writes that Blue Book was a cover-up and the problem was glossed over.
References
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Michigan "swamp gas" UFO reports — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 31 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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