Opening pullaway shot from Earth into deep space from CONTACT (1997) --- Robert Zemeckis demonstrated how much can be told by visual imagery without any dialogue with this incredible opening sequence for his movie CONTACT, a film which pondered how the world would react if we received a signal from an intelligent civilization somewhere out there in the universe. In the opening shot, Zemeckis is trying to convey the sense of how vast the universe is, and how small and puny our planet Earth is in comparison to it. In addition, sound is used in a very unique and useful way to demonstrate how radio signals are transmitted through space.
The sequence opens with a shot of Earth, and a loud mixture of different radio and television signals emanating from the planet. The camera begins to pull away from Earth, past Mars, through the asteroid field, and onto the massive planet Jupiter. As we reach Jupiter, we begin to notice the radio transmissions from Earth are much older, back from the 70's. We zoom through Saturn's rings, and finally out of our solar system, where the transmissions are getting harder and harder to hear and are getting much older, the first early TV broadcasts and early radio transmissions. The radio signals and how old they get as you go out demonstrates in a visual way how long it takes for signals to get from Earth to other bodies in the solar system and beyond. Star systems outside of our solar system would just now be receiving early 1920's radio transmissions from Earth.
The scene does not end there however -- all we can see that's familiar is the small bright dot which is our sun. But the camera pulls even further back until we see the Milky Way Galaxy that we're in -- there are absolutely no sounds now, no more transmissions from Earth. Only the sounds of passing stars are all that we hear in a rare piece of cinema without sound -- everything we are experiencing is visual. The beautiful vistas of galaxy upon galaxy finally converge into one bright light within the eye of Ellie Arroway, a nine-year old girl dreaming of contacting someone, and the story begins. I couldn't think of a better way to open this important and intelligent film than with this beautifully filmed and constructed opening sequence, relaying in terms we can understand just how puny we really are.
