After Roy Neary witnesses UFOs soaring across the sky, he becomes haunted by the vision of a strange, mountain-like formation. Meanwhile, government agents discover long-lost war vessels are reappearing in perfect condition. Roy and the agents follow clues in the hope of contacting alien life.

Familial agonies are dissolved by the rhapsodies of first contact in this neurotic masterpiece of suburban discontent. As Richard Dreyfuss’s zealous protagonist finds domestic liberation in a deus ex machina sculpted out of light, Steven Spielberg summons a symphony of ecstatic cinematic rapture.