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In Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Steven Spielberg transforms the UFO encounter from a question of technology into a question of behaviour. The film’s most distinctive idea is that successful first contact depends less on superior intelligence than on the willingness to listen.
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Introduction
In Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Steven Spielberg transforms the UFO encounter from a question of technology into a question of behaviour. The film’s most distinctive idea is that successful first contact depends less on superior intelligence than on the willingness to listen. Rather than imagining humans conquering the unknown or defending themselves against it, Spielberg presents contact as a moral achievement reached through patience, pattern recognition and mutual communication. The climactic meeting at Devil’s Tower is therefore not a victory over aliens but a demonstration that understanding can emerge even when two radically different forms of life share no common language.
This approach gave Spielberg’s UFO film a notably optimistic place within the history of alien-contact stories. Drawing on the UFO classifications of astronomer and researcher J. Allen Hynek while departing from the fear-driven assumptions common in earlier science fiction, the film asks whether humans can remain open-minded when certainty is impossible.[Popular Mechanics]popularmechanics.comAllen Hynek from a government consultant and UFO skeptic into the foremost advocate for serious scientific study of unidentified flying o…
Hynek’s UFO Frame and Spielberg’s Ethical Turn
The title Close Encounters of the Third Kind comes directly from Hynek’s classification system for UFO reports. Hynek sought to organise reports of unusual aerial phenomena into categories that could be discussed systematically rather than dismissed outright. His terminology became famous largely because Spielberg adopted it for the film and worked with Hynek as a consultant. Hynek even appears briefly in the finished movie.[Popular Mechanics]popularmechanics.comAllen Hynek from a government consultant and UFO skeptic into the foremost advocate for serious scientific study of unidentified flying o…
Yet Spielberg does something unexpected with this UFO framework. Hynek’s classifications were designed to describe encounters. Spielberg uses them to explore how people respond to encounters.
The crucial shift is ethical rather than scientific. Many alien-invasion stories treat first contact as a military or political problem. Close Encounters treats it as a communication problem. The mystery surrounding the UFOs is not resolved through weapons, espionage or technological domination. Instead, the film asks whether humans can tolerate uncertainty long enough to learn from it.
This is especially visible in the final sequence. Government agencies assemble equipment, scientists gather evidence and technicians prepare elaborate systems, but the decisive moment arrives only when both sides begin exchanging signals. Knowledge alone is insufficient. Contact requires restraint and receptivity.
Why Music Becomes the Language of First Contact
The film’s most famous image of communication is the five-note musical exchange between humans and the arriving spacecraft. Rather than relying on translation devices or instant understanding, Spielberg imagines contact emerging through shared patterns.
Composer John Williams created numerous versions of the now-famous five-tone motif before selecting the final sequence used in the film. The motif functions as a simple, repeatable structure that both species can recognise and answer. It is neither a complete language nor a magical solution. Instead, it serves as evidence that communication is possible.[Wikipedia]WikipediaClose encounterClose encounter
What makes the scene significant is its refusal of force. The humans do not attempt to seize information from the visitors. The aliens do not overwhelm humanity with superior knowledge. Both parties take turns signalling, responding and adjusting. The exchange resembles a conversation more than a demonstration of power.
The sequence also reflects Spielberg’s broader belief that communication is itself a moral act. He later described the film as being concerned with tolerance and the possibility of understanding those who appear radically different. In this reading, the five notes are less important as music than as a model of behaviour. Communication begins when one side sends a message and patiently waits for a reply.[Wikipedia]WikipediaClose Encounters of the Third KindClose Encounters of the Third Kind
Communication Before Comprehension
A striking feature of the Devil’s Tower encounter is that neither side fully understands the other.
The scientists do not know the aliens’ intentions. The visitors do not share human languages. Yet the encounter succeeds because both sides accept a period of uncertainty. The exchange of tones demonstrates recognition before explanation.
This reverses a common science-fiction assumption that understanding must come first. Spielberg suggests the opposite. Cooperation begins when participants acknowledge each other’s presence and intelligence, even before complete comprehension becomes possible.
The film therefore presents listening as an active achievement. Patience is not passivity; it is the discipline required to avoid turning uncertainty into fear.
Openness Against Official Secrecy
The communication theme gains additional force because it is contrasted with secrecy throughout the film.
Government authorities spend much of the story controlling information, managing public perception and restricting access to events they do not fully understand themselves. The official response is organised around containment. Information moves downward through institutions rather than outward through open dialogue.
By the climax, however, secrecy reaches its limits. No amount of classification or control can produce genuine contact. Only communication can.
This contrast is important within Spielberg’s larger treatment of UFOs. The film does not portray scientists as villains or expertise as inherently suspect. Scientists are essential participants in the contact effort. What Spielberg questions is the assumption that knowledge can be monopolised. The breakthrough occurs when communication replaces concealment as the dominant strategy.[Popular Mechanics]popularmechanics.comAllen Hynek from a government consultant and UFO skeptic into the foremost advocate for serious scientific study of unidentified flying o…
The result is a hopeful vision of first contact. Human institutions may be tempted by control, but the encounter succeeds because individuals and organisations ultimately choose engagement over possession.
The Moral Test at Devil’s Tower
Within Spielberg’s UFO cinema, the aliens in Close Encounters function less as invaders than as examiners of human character. The final test is not whether humanity can defend itself. It is whether humanity can respond appropriately to the unknown.
Several qualities are rewarded:
- Curiosity rather than panic.
- Patience rather than immediate judgement.
- Dialogue rather than coercion.
- Openness rather than secrecy.
The film’s enduring power comes from presenting these qualities as practical necessities rather than abstract virtues. The visitors are not understood because humans become smarter. They are understood because humans become better listeners.
That ethical turn distinguishes Close Encounters of the Third Kind from many UFO narratives before and after it. At Devil’s Tower, first contact is not a conquest, a revelation or a battle. It is a conversation conducted under conditions of profound uncertainty. Spielberg’s lasting suggestion is that the greatest challenge of meeting an alien intelligence may not be learning how to speak to it, but learning how to listen.
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Further Reading
Books and field guides related to Close Encounters' first contact as patient communication. Use these as the next step if you want deeper reading beyond the article.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Directly relates to communication, patience and mutual understanding in Close Encounters.
Contact
Shares the theme of first contact achieved through understanding rather than conflict.
The Close Encounters Man
Explains the real-world roots of Spielberg's contact narrative.
The UFO Experience
Provides the classification system and intellectual background behind the film.
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Endnotes
1.
Source: Wikipedia
Title: Close encounter
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_encounter
2.
Source: Wikipedia
Title: Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_Encounters_of_the_Third_Kind
3.
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Title: Project Blue Book
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Blue_Book
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Project Blue BookProject Blue Book was the code name for the systematic study of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) by the United Stat...
4.
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Title: Meet J
Link:https://www.history.com/articles/j-allen-hynek-ufos-project-blue-book
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Allen Hynek, the Astronomer Who First Classified...19 Nov 2018 — UFO expert Dr. J. Allen Hynek holds a pipe and one of his magazine edit...
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Link:https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a70995826/j-allen-hynek-project-blue-book-ufo-investigation-truth/
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Allen Hynek from a government consultant and UFO skeptic into the foremost advocate for serious scientific study of unidentified flying o...
6.
Source: sbiff.org
Title: close encounters of the third kind
Link:https://sbiff.org/close-encounters-of-the-third-kind/
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16 Apr 2020 — Richard Dreyfuss stars as cable worker [Roy Neary]({{ 'roy-neary/' | relative_url }}), who along with several other stunned bystanders experience a close encoun...
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encounters - Weekends in Paradelle - WordPress.com...
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rd Kind? It has been re-released in theaters this month to...
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Title: Discovery Of A WWII Plane (Opening Scene) | Close Encounters of the Third
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Steven Spielberg - Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1977...Close Encounters of the Third Kind: He leaves Earth with the aliens...
10.
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Title: close encounters
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of the Nonfiction Kind12 Sept 2022 — In 1972, astronomer J. Allen Hynek published The UFO Experience, which included a classification sys...
11.
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Title: Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Link:https://johnloomis.org/ece303L/notes/music/Close_Encounters.html
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The aliens communicate though lights, colours and notes. The...Read more...
12.
Source: groups.google.com
Title: Hbo Ukzg KA44
Link:https://groups.google.com/g/rec.arts.sf.movies/c/HboUkzgKA44
Source snippet
Encounters? - Hand signalThe hand gestures a simply the corresponding hand signs for each note, says so in the movie, and they are real...
Additional References
13.
Source: universalcompendium.com
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Classification of UFO SightingsClose Encounter of the First Kind, CE1, UFO sighted at close range with no interaction with environment. C...
14.
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Link:https://enigmalabs.io/library/6483dd0f-9d12-41fa-842b-c064d636c3bb
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Hynek's Close Encounters ScaleAllen Hynek devised a sixfold classification for UFO sightings, ranked by proximity to the event. Populariz...
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Source: pagesix.com
Link:https://pagesix.com/2026/06/11/hollywood/as-steven-spielberg-releases-[disclosure-day
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Since the release of Spielberg’s 1977 classic "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," public and cinematic perspectives on UAPs have signif...
16.
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Link:https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/close_encounters_of_the_third_kind
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Link:https://medium.com/sci-fi-movie-reviews/review-3-close-encounters-of-the-third-kind-a39c85179e1e
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Title: five musical tones are the key to understanding aliens in close encounters of th
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Five musical tones are the key to understanding aliens in...Nov 17, 2022 — Five musical tones are the key to understanding aliens in Clo...
19.
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Title: the meaning of the five music tones close encounters of the third kind
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Meaning of the Five Music Tones [Close Encounters of...May 4, 2020 — And the movie ends with them finding out that there is something gr...
Published: May 4, 2020
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It also has to do with "solfege" which is a method for teaching music and demonstrating the...Read more...
22.
Source: sfcrowsnest.info
Title: steven spielberg close encounters ufo documentary explained
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Source snippet
Close Encounters Of The Fact Kind: Spielberg's UFO...4 Jun 2026 — New documentary reveals the UFO cases, researchers and real-world myst...
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