When Robert Zemeckis was hired to direct Contact, he was at the height of his career. The filmmaker had recently won several Oscars for his feel-good 1994 hit Forrest Gump, and had earned the goodwill and Hollywood funding from making several classics (including Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit) to get a chance at his big blank-check movie. The result was Contact, one of the most ambitious and sprawling alien blockbusters ever.
