Contact (1997)

James Woods: Michael Kitz

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Quotes 

• Panel member : Doctor Arroway, you come to us with no evidence, no record, no artifacts. Only a story that to put it mildly strains credibility. Over half a trillion dollars was spent, dozens of lives were lost. Are you really going to sit there and tell us we should just take this all... on faith?

  [pause, Ellie looks at Palmer] 

  Michael Kitz : Please answer the question, doctor.

  Ellie Arroway : Is it possible that it didn't happen? Yes. As a scientist, I must concede that, I must volunteer that.

  Michael Kitz : Wait a minute, let me get this straight. You admit that you have absolutely no physical evidence to back up your story.

  Ellie Arroway : Yes.

  Michael Kitz : You admit that you very well may have hallucinated this whole thing.

  Ellie Arroway : Yes.

  Michael Kitz : You admit that if you were in our position, you would respond with exactly the same degree of incredulity and skepticism!

  Ellie Arroway : Yes!

  Michael Kitz : [standing, angrily]  Then why don't you simply withdraw your testimony, and concede that this "journey to the center of the galaxy," in fact, never took place!

  Ellie Arroway : Because I can't. I... had an experience... I can't prove it, I can't even explain it, but everything that I know as a human being, everything that I am tells me that it was real! I was given something wonderful, something that changed me forever... A vision... of the universe, that tells us, undeniably, how tiny, and insignificant and how... rare, and precious we all are! A vision that tells us that we belong to something that is greater than ourselves, that we are *not*, that none of us are alone! I wish... I... could share that... I wish, that everyone, if only for one... moment, could feel... that awe, and humility, and hope. But... That continues to be my wish.

• Rachel Constantine : I assume you read the confidential findings report from the investigating committee.

  Michael Kitz : I flipped through it.

  Rachel Constantine : I was especially interested in the section on Arroway's video unit. The one that recorded the static?

  Michael Kitz : Continue.

  Rachel Constantine : The fact that it recorded static isn't what interests me.

  Michael Kitz : [pauses]  Continue.

  Rachel Constantine : What interests me is that it recorded approximately eighteen hours of it.

  Michael Kitz : [leans forward so he is looking directly in the camera]  That is interesting, isn't it?

• Michael Kitz : Your having sent this announcement all over the world may well constitute a breach of national security.

  Ellie Arroway : This isn't a person-to-person call. You can't possibly think that a civilization sending this kind of message would intend it just for Americans.

  Michael Kitz : I'm saying you might have consulted us; obviously, the contents of this message could be extremely sensitive.

  Ellie Arroway : You want to classify prime numbers now?

• Rachel Constantine : [about Adolf Hitler]  Twenty million people died defeating that son of a bitch, and he's our first ambassador to outer space?

  Ellie Arroway : Actually the Hitler broadcast from the...

  David Drumlin : [interrupting]  '36 olympics was the first television transmission of any power that went in to space. That they recorded it, and sent it back, is simply their way of saying "hello, we heard you."

  Michael Kitz : Or, "Sieg Heil, you're our kind of people."

• Dr. Kent Clark : [Kent is blind]  Nice to smell you again, Mr. Kitz.

  Michael Kitz : You too.

  Dr. Kent Clark : [aside]  Wouldn't have pegged him as a Polo man.

• Michael Kitz : Explain this to me. If the source of the signal is so sophisticated, why the remedial math?

  Senator Valencia : Exactly, why don't they speak English?

  Ellie Arroway : Maybe because 70 percent of the planet speaks other languages.