What is the iRankMovies score for Contact?

Name: Contact
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Genre: drama, mystery, science-fiction
Released: 1997
Duration: 2 h 30 min
Rating: 7.5

Contact has an iRankMovies score of 70.7/100, based on a weighted combination of IMDb (×3.0), Rotten Tomatoes (×2.0), Metacritic (×1.5), and TMDb (×1.0).

Contact (1997)

Take a journey to the heart of the universe.

Release:1997

Runtime:2h 30m

Country:United States

Director:Robert Zemeckis

Language:English

Genre

DramaMysteryScience Fiction

See the best drama movies →

Keywords

Based On Novel Or BookNasaExtraterrestrial TechnologyNew MexicoPrime NumberRadio WaveWormholeFanatic

iRank71

Contact rating: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic

IMDb7.5/10· 309K votes

Rotten Tomatoes69%

Metacritic62%

TMDb7.443/10· 5K votes

With 69% on Rotten Tomatoes, backed by 7.5/10 on IMDb and 62/100 on Metacritic, critical reception of this film has been mixed.

About Contact

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.

Cast of Contact

Jodie Foster
as Ellie Arroway
Matthew McConaughey
as Palmer Joss
James Woods
as Michael Kitz
John Hurt
as S. R. Hadden
Tom Skerritt
as David Drumlin
William Fichtner
as Kent
David Morse
as Ted Arroway
Angela Bassett
as Rachel Constantine
Geoffrey Blake
as Fisher
Max Martini
as Willie
Rob Lowe
as Richard Rank
Jake Busey
as Joseph

Contact facts

Budget: $90M
Box office: $171.1M

Our take on Contact

Robert Zemeckis's 1997 science-fiction drama centres on a radio astronomer who intercepts the first extraterrestrial signal ever detected on Earth. As governments and scientists scramble to decode the message and decide how to respond, she is forced to weigh her convictions against evidence, faith against reason, and public spectacle against private conviction. Rather than chase spectacle, the film treats first contact as an intellectual and emotional reckoning, giving room to awe, doubt and the friction between belief and proof. It rewards viewers who like thoughtful, character-anchored science fiction over action. If you're drawn to stories that ask big questions about our place in the universe and take them seriously, Contact makes a lasting impression.

Ranked by the iRankMovies editorial teamUpdated August 2026Methodology Data sources

Audience opinions

What the audience liked

•Science fiction premise explores profound philosophical questions meaningfully
•Alien contact narrative builds anticipation through intellectual speculation
•Literary adaptation maintains source material's intellectual ambition admirably