The range of subjects that Science Fiction films can cover makes the genre a broad field. This paper examines one recognized
subgroup which features alien contact. This theme first emerged in the 1951 film "The Thing From Another World". To consider the development of feature films involving alien contact, three examples are
discussed in this paper. Firstly, Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977), secondly "Contact" (1996) and, finally, "Solaris" (2002). These films are each discussed for the purpose of showing how they fit into the
science fiction genre.