Within Saucers
The climax of Close Encounters of the Third Kind turns scale into an emotion. At Devils Tower, Steven Spielberg does not simply reveal a larger spacecraft than the audience expects; he constructs a visual hierarchy in which every human measure becomes inadequate.
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Introduction
The climax of Close Encounters of the Third Kind turns scale into an emotion. At Devils Tower, Steven Spielberg does not simply reveal a larger spacecraft than the audience expects; he constructs a visual hierarchy in which every human measure becomes inadequate. Floodlights, military equipment, scientists, vehicles and even the massive geological landmark itself are gradually reduced to reference points for something beyond ordinary experience. The result is one of cinema’s most influential UFO arrivals: a mothership that feels less like a machine and more like a visitation. Critics and audiences have long singled out the final half-hour as the film’s most powerful achievement, with Roger Ebert famously describing the ending among the most marvellous sequences he had seen on screen. [Wikipedia]WikipediaClose Encounters of the Third KindClose Encounters of the Third Kind
Within Spielberg’s broader UFO imagination, the sequence demonstrates how flying saucers become symbols of awe. The effect depends not only on light and music but on a carefully controlled experience of size.
Why the Mothership Feels So Overwhelming
The landing sequence begins with a deceptively familiar setup. Scientists have established a landing zone at the base of Devils Tower, complete with communication equipment, observation platforms and powerful lighting systems. The scene appears organised, rational and technologically advanced. Then the UFOs arrive.
What follows is a gradual destruction of human confidence in scale. Small craft appear first, allowing viewers to believe the landing site has been built for them. The scientists seem prepared. Their instruments work. Their communication system functions. Only after this expectation is established does Spielberg introduce the mothership itself. The enormous vessel emerges from darkness and descends over the site with a size that redefines everything already visible on screen. [Wikipedia]WikipediaClose Encounters of the Third KindClose Encounters of the Third Kind
The sequence works because the audience has already accepted the landing field as large. When the mothership arrives, the frame suddenly contains an object that makes the supposedly vast installation look temporary and fragile.
Human Bodies as Measuring Tools
Spielberg repeatedly places people in positions where their bodies become rulers for the impossible.
The landing field is crowded with scientists, military personnel and observers, yet individuals are rarely presented as heroic figures during the arrival. Instead, they are tiny silhouettes against walls of light. Human movement becomes insignificant compared with the smooth, deliberate motion of the craft.
This is a recurring Spielberg technique. Rather than explaining size through dialogue, he allows viewers to calculate it instinctively. A person standing beneath an object instantly communicates dimensions more effectively than a numerical measurement. At Devils Tower, every human figure serves this function.
Roy Neary’s journey culminates in a particularly revealing image. Throughout the film he has pursued an answer larger than his ordinary life. When he finally stands before the landed mothership, the composition visually confirms his insignificance. The frame no longer belongs to the protagonist. It belongs to the object he has spent the entire story seeking. [Wikipedia]WikipediaClose Encounters of the Third KindClose Encounters of the Third Kind
The emotional effect is crucial. The sequence does not make viewers feel powerful because humanity has made contact. It makes them feel small because contact has revealed a reality larger than humanity imagined.
The Landing Site Dwarfed by the Ship
Devils Tower is not an accidental location. The geological formation is already immense, rising dramatically from the surrounding landscape. In most films, such a landmark would function as the dominant visual feature. Spielberg instead uses it as a benchmark that can be surpassed. [Intermountain Histories]intermountainhistories.orgIntermountain HistoriesClose Encounters of the Third Kind and Devils Tower…Devils Tower is a National Monument situated in Wyoming an…
The landing site itself is similarly designed to suggest scale. Banks of lights, observation structures and communication equipment transform the monument into a giant outdoor stage. Before the mothership appears, viewers are encouraged to read the location as huge.
Then the visual logic changes.
The mothership arrives not as a distant point but as an object that seems to occupy an impossible amount of space. It glides above the prepared site and effectively absorbs the environment beneath it. The floodlit ground becomes a miniature set. Vehicles disappear into the composition. Even Devils Tower begins to function less as the subject of the image than as a backdrop to the spacecraft. [Wikipedia]WikipediaClose Encounters of the Third KindClose Encounters of the Third Kind
This transformation was reinforced by the visual-effects design. Under supervisor Douglas Trumbull, the production deliberately avoided a conventional metallic spacecraft aesthetic. The mothership was conceived as an enormous luminous structure whose mass was partially concealed by light itself. Ralph McQuarrie designed the vessel and Greg Jein built the famous miniature, which survives today in the Smithsonian collection. The ship’s appearance resembles a floating city or industrial complex rather than a streamlined vehicle, giving the eye countless details from which to infer enormous size. [Wikipedia]WikipediaClose Encounters of the Third KindClose Encounters of the Third Kind
Because the vessel is packed with illuminated structures, protrusions and moving points of light, viewers never perceive a simple outline. Instead, the ship feels larger than any single frame can comfortably contain.
Scale as Quasi-Religious Staging
The Devils Tower sequence often attracts religious interpretations because Spielberg stages the arrival like a revelation rather than a technological demonstration.
Film scholars and critics have frequently noted parallels between Devils Tower and sacred mountains in religious narratives, particularly Mount Sinai. The comparison is less about literal theology than about visual grammar. A remote elevated site is prepared. Chosen witnesses gather. A transcendent presence descends. Ordinary language proves insufficient. [Wikipedia]WikipediaClose Encounters of the Third KindClose Encounters of the Third Kind
Scale is central to this effect.
Traditional religious art often communicates holiness through disproportion. Saints, angels or divine figures are represented as larger than ordinary humans because physical size becomes a metaphor for spiritual significance. Spielberg adapts a similar principle using cinematic tools. The mothership is not merely bigger than the people observing it. Its overwhelming dimensions imply a higher order of existence.
The landing itself resembles a ceremonial event. The illuminated runway recalls an altar. The exchange of light and sound functions almost like ritual communication. Human technology is present, but it appears less like a source of mastery than a humble attempt to participate in something greater. [Wikipedia]WikipediaClose Encounters of the Third KindClose Encounters of the Third Kind
This is why the sequence feels sacred even for viewers who do not read it in explicitly religious terms. The emotional structure mirrors experiences traditionally associated with the sublime: astonishment, humility and a sense that ordinary categories have become inadequate.
How Spielberg Makes Size Feel Emotional
Many science-fiction films feature large spacecraft. Few make size itself the emotional subject of a scene.
Spielberg achieves this by delaying revelation. The mothership is not introduced immediately. Smaller UFOs arrive first, establishing a rhythm of expectation. Only after viewers think they understand the scale of the encounter does the larger vessel appear. The emotional impact comes from revision. The audience must continually update its understanding of what is possible. [Wikipedia]WikipediaClose Encounters of the Third KindClose Encounters of the Third Kind
The director also avoids aggressive movement. The mothership does not attack, chase or explode. It descends with calm confidence. That restraint allows viewers to contemplate its enormity rather than merely react to danger.
Light further amplifies the effect. The ship often appears as an environment rather than an object. Its countless illuminated surfaces create the impression of depth and internal complexity. Instead of looking at a machine, viewers seem to be looking at an entire world suspended above the ground. [Wikipedia]WikipediaClose Encounters of the Third KindClose Encounters of the Third Kind
The result is a form of cinematic awe that became a Spielberg signature. The mothership reveal transforms a flying saucer from a science-fiction vehicle into a symbol of encounter with the unknowable. At Devils Tower, scale is not a technical detail of production design. It is the mechanism through which wonder becomes visible.
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Endnotes
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Source: Wikipedia
Title: Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_Encounters_of_the_Third_Kind -
Source: intermountainhistories.org
Link: https://www.intermountainhistories.org/items/show/226Source snippet
Intermountain HistoriesClose Encounters of the Third Kind and Devils Tower...Devils Tower is a National Monument situated in Wyoming an...
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Source: jhwikicollection-20.fandom.com
Link: https://jhwikicollection-20.fandom.com/wiki/Close_Encounters_of_the_Third_KindSource snippet
Encounters of the Third Kind | JH Wiki Collection 2.0 WikiAs Roy enters the mothership, one of the extraterrestrials pauses for a few mom...
Additional References
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Source: facebook.com
Link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/12117541695/posts/10159399119771696/Source snippet
Close Encounters of the Third KindBeautiful rendition featuring the alien mother ship approaching the lit landing site at the base of Dev...
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Source: reddit.com
Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/scifi/comments/1nfixy9/close_encounters_third_kind/Source snippet
Close encounters third kind: r/scifiLoved it. I was lucky enough to see it in the theater when it was released. The final scenes at Devi...
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Source: musingsofamiddleagedgeek.blog
Link: https://musingsofamiddleagedgeek.blog/2024/06/19/close-encounters-of-the-third-kind-introducing-steven-spielbergs-1977-ufopus-to-fresh-eyes/Source snippet
introducing Steven Spielberg's 1977 UFOpus to fresh eyes…19 Jun 2024 — “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”; introducing Steven Spielberg...
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Source: facebook.com
Link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spaceastronomyuniversesciencelovers/posts/1950444619683674/ -
Source: crittical-analysis.com
Title: close encounters and the cost of passion spielberg summer continues
Link: https://www.crittical-analysis.com/articles/close-encounters-and-the-cost-of-passion-spielberg-summer-continuesSource snippet
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Link: https://www.facebook.com/testedcom/posts/speaking-of-close-encounters-of-the-third-kind-adam-savage-got-to-examine-the-mo/10157382096900791/Source snippet
This ship came up behind Devils Tower in Wyoming (in the 1977 film). It was special to...Read more...
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Source: youtube.com
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4PYI6TzqYkSource snippet
The man who played the tuba for this scene is the man who taught my father to play the tuba. You have no idea how cool that is...
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Source: medium.com
Link: https://medium.com/sci-fi-movie-reviews/review-3-close-encounters-of-the-third-kind-a39c85179e1eSource snippet
Review #3: Close Encounters of the Third KindClose Encounters is a thought provoking and suspenseful science fiction masterpiece...
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Source: therpf.com
Title: close encounters of the third kind ufos.91831
Link: https://www.therpf.com/forums/threads/close-encounters-of-the-third-kind-ufos.91831/Source snippet
Close Encounters of the Third Kind UFOs23 Jul 2010 — Most of the model photos I've come across are of the 'mothership' at the Smithsonian...
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Source: facebook.com
Link: https://www.facebook.com/airandspace/videos/the-secrets-hiding-inside-this-filming-model-from-close-encounters-of-the-third-/1736037353979726/Source snippet
as it's flying over Devils Tower, Wyoming (not South Dakota). I can...
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