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I think the movie ending is better. Sagan wanted some ambiguity but then copped out with the math thing. If Ellie had instead spent decades pursuing another "cr

I think the movie ending is better. Sagan wanted some ambiguity but then copped out with the math thing. If Ellie had instead spent decades pursuing another "crazy" idea (like SETI was) and found the answer much later, then it would have been more satisfying (proving life, proving creator mystery - which is somewhat a contradiction for Sagan). At around the same time, a group of religious NASA contractor folks I knew and had had faith conversations with where getting satellite imagery of Mt. Ararat. Those of us unbelievers somehow lacked "faith" but true believers like them were hunting for the Ark...

hirundo 6y ago
I think Sagan's ending is highly -- perhaps uncharacteristically -- religious. It practically proves the existence of an intelligent creator ... a watermark stamped on reality. It suggests that it was the creator that reached out to Earth, and Ellie, and cared about her feelings. The ending is Ellie the devout modern priestess of a cold clockwork universe coming face to face with an animate aware personal universe. It's the mathematical version of Palmer Joss's message. This is Sagan attempting to reconcile Ellie and Palmer, a dream of a scientific theology.
- fossuser 6y ago
  I get what you’re saying, but I’d argue it’s not “religious” in the normal way we use the word. In Sagan’s book a scientist uncovers evidence that the universe was built and she’s working to leverage the scientific method to understand it. In that universe that appears to be what’s going on, but it’s the evidence that leads them in that direction. I don’t buy that the “creator” cared about her feelings. In the book, the aliens she meets are just a more advanced inhabitant of the universe, they don’t know its origin either. Religion usually does away with evidence to rely on faith based reasoning (which is basically what the movie does). The reason I don’t like the movie is it distorts the book’s point to be the opposite of what it was.

hirundo 6y ago

I think Sagan's ending is highly -- perhaps uncharacteristically -- religious. It practically proves the existence of an intelligent creator ... a watermark stamped on reality. It suggests that it was the creator that reached out to Earth, and Ellie, and cared about her feelings. The ending is Ellie the devout modern priestess of a cold clockwork universe coming face to face with an animate aware personal universe. It's the mathematical version of Palmer Joss's message. This is Sagan attempting to reconcile Ellie and Palmer, a dream of a scientific theology.

fossuser 6y ago
I get what you’re saying, but I’d argue it’s not “religious” in the normal way we use the word. In Sagan’s book a scientist uncovers evidence that the universe was built and she’s working to leverage the scientific method to understand it. In that universe that appears to be what’s going on, but it’s the evidence that leads them in that direction. I don’t buy that the “creator” cared about her feelings. In the book, the aliens she meets are just a more advanced inhabitant of the universe, they don’t know its origin either. Religion usually does away with evidence to rely on faith based reasoning (which is basically what the movie does). The reason I don’t like the movie is it distorts the book’s point to be the opposite of what it was.