Maps of Movies
Contact (1997)
Where Contact says it takes place, and where it was really shot.
From a Virginia back porch to a desert full of dishes: where the film about hearing the stars was really made, and the places it never shot
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Scenes and places
The house where young Ellie calls out to the world
As a girl, Ellie reaches out over her radio to strangers far away, coached by her father. Her curiosity about who is out there starts here.
Set in Ellie's childhood home, Pensacola, Florida — The family home where young Ellie listens to far-off voices on her amateur radio. Google Maps · Apple Maps
The childhood home is set in Pensacola, Florida; the film shot the house in a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C.
Filmed at 755 Grace Street, Herndon, Virginia — A historic house on Grace Street in Herndon, Virginia stood in for the Florida home; the coordinates are for the town, not the house. Google Maps · Apple Maps
How to get there:
The giant dish in the jungle
Ellie works at the dish listening to space for any sign of intelligent life. A visitor, Palmer Joss, strikes up a conversation and a brief romance begins.
Set in Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico — The huge radio telescope where Ellie listens for signs of intelligent life and meets Palmer Joss. Google Maps · Apple Maps
A radio telescope built into a natural sinkhole in the hills of northern Puerto Rico.
Filmed at Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico — A second unit shot here for about a week in January 1997. Google Maps · Apple Maps
How to get there:
The dishes in the desert
Funding cut loose, Ellie moves her team to the desert array. Years later, with her access running out, she hears a signal of prime numbers from Vega, and the government rushes in to take over.
Set in Very Large Array, New Mexico — The radio-telescope array where Ellie's team moves and hears the signal from Vega. Google Maps · Apple Maps
A field of 27 radio dishes on the Plains of San Agustin, run by the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
Filmed at Very Large Array, near Socorro, New Mexico — The first location the production shot at; the crew negotiated with the National Science Foundation to move the dishes for the shots. Google Maps · Apple Maps
How to get there:
Filmed at Mojave Desert, near Amboy, California — The crowd scenes around the array were reportedly shot in the Mojave Desert with the antennas added digitally. The pin marks Roy's Motel in Amboy named by the source, not the exact crowd scene. Google Maps · Apple Maps
How to get there:
The announcement in Washington
The government goes public with the signal, and Ellie watches the credit slide to David Drumlin. The discovery stops being hers.
Set in The White House, Washington, D.C. — Where the discovery is announced and Drumlin takes the credit. Google Maps · Apple Maps
The seat of the US presidency; the film used a mix of Washington, D.C. location work and Los Angeles sound stages, with no specific building named in the sources.
Building the machine at Cape Canaveral
Nations pool money to build a machine for one traveller. Ellie, a leading candidate, watches the panel weigh science against faith.
Set in Cape Canaveral, Florida — Where the machine from the decoded plans is built, with a carnival of media around it. Google Maps · Apple Maps
The launch complex on Florida's Space Coast where the story puts the machine's construction.
Filmed at Kennedy Space Center, Florida — A film-location blog names the Kennedy Space Center as the site where the machine is built; only one source says this. Google Maps · Apple Maps
How to get there:
The second machine on Hokkaido
Ellie learns that a second machine already exists in Japan, and she is the only American candidate left to use it. In Japan she meets Palmer again.
Set in Hokkaido machine site, Japan — A coastal systems-integration site in Hokkaido where a second machine has been built; the film gives no exact spot.
An island in northern Japan; the machine site in the story is only said to be on Hokkaido Island.
The beach at the end of the journey
Ellie finds herself somewhere she knows from her own memory. What she meets there is the point of the whole film.
Set in The alien beach — A beach, modelled on Ellie's childhood drawing of Pensacola, Florida, where she finds herself after the trip through the machine.
An invented place; the film's beach has no real-world location.
Characters
- Ellie Arroway — A radio astronomer who spends her life listening for a signal from the stars.
- Palmer Joss — A Christian philosopher who meets Ellie in Puerto Rico and keeps crossing her path.
- David Drumlin — The President's science advisor, who cuts SETI funding and later takes credit for her discovery.