Koko Lists
Start a new list
Log in
Sign up
← New random battle
Koko Battle
Tap your pick.
Contact
"Contact" (1997), starring Jodie Foster and based on Carl Sagan's 1985 novel, follows a SETI scientist who discovers an extraterrestrial signal containing instructions for building a machine capable of transporting a single human passenger, treating first contact as a genuinely scientific and philosophical event rather than a spectacle-driven threat. Its unusually serious, science-grounded approach to the first contact premise, developed with direct input from Sagan himself before his death shortly before the film's release, distinguished it clearly from the action-oriented alien films that dominated much of 1990s science fiction cinema. The film's central tension between scientific rationalism and religious faith, embodied in the relationship between Foster's atheist scientist character and a spiritually minded advisor, gave "Contact" a philosophical depth uncommon in mainstream first contact filmmaking of its era. Its combination of its rigorously science-grounded premise and its genuine philosophical engagement with faith and rationalism has made "Contact" one of the most intellectually significant first contact films ever produced.
VS
Paul
"Paul" (2011), starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, follows two British science fiction fans on a road trip across the American Southwest who encounter a wisecracking, foul-mouthed alien named Paul who has escaped from a secret government facility, treating first contact as a comedic buddy-road-trip premise. Its affectionate parody of decades of science fiction and first contact film conventions, including direct references to "E.T.," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," and numerous other genre touchstones, reflected writers Pegg and Frost's genuine affection for the genre they were simultaneously spoofing. The film's alien character Paul, rendered through motion-capture performance and voiced by Seth Rogen, combined convincing visual effects with a deliberately crude, irreverent personality that subverted the more reverent or menacing alien characterizations typical of the genre's more serious entries. Its combination of its affectionate genre parody and its subversively irreverent alien protagonist has made "Paul" one of the most distinctly comedic entries in the first contact film tradition.
Next battle
Full comparison
About Contact
About Paul
Popular Battles
1984 vs. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
1 votes
Friends vs. Curb Your Enthusiasm
1 votes
Ideogram vs. Sora
1 votes
Navy Pier vs. Bishop Museum
1 votes
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree vs. Skittles
1 votes
George Carlin vs. Oprah Winfrey
1 votes
