Steven Spielberg · 1977 · global

Steven Spielberg's 1977 film. A squadron of aircraft missing since 1945 turns up intact in the Mexican desert, a crowd in India chants five notes out of the sky, and an Indiana lineman who sees something over a level crossing becomes obsessed with a shape he cannot name. All of it converges on a butte in Wyoming that the government is busy evacuating.

1. 1
   The Sonoran Desert

   In the Mexican desert, researchers find Flight 19 - five US Navy aircraft missing since 1945 - sitting in the sand in working order and with no crews, the first sign that something has begun returning what it took.

2. 2
   Dharmsala

   In India a great crowd is recorded chanting a five-note phrase and pointing upward when asked where it came from - the sequence that will turn out to be the whole basis of the conversation.

3. 3
   Muncie

   Outside Muncie, the power fails across the county and lineman Roy Neary is stopped at a level crossing by lights from above - and afterwards cannot stop sculpting a shape he has no name for, in shaving foam and mashed potato.

4. 4
   Devils Tower

   The shape is Devils Tower in Wyoming, evacuated on a false pretext of nerve gas - and on the far side of the mountain a landing site waits, where five notes are played back and forth until the two sides are talking.