Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

1 answered question since 29 Feb '24, 11:55

(4 votes)

Question: A couple of questions that I hope someone can answer. First, what was the name of the ship that was found in the Mongolian desert? And second, was it a real-life vessel or something created for the movie? I've heard about the 5 real-life planes that were uncovered in Mexico, but the ship is a mystery to me. If so, where can I find info on it?

Answer: The ship that was found in the Gobi desert is called the "Cotopaxi." It was a real tramp steamer, named after a stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains. The ship and its entire crew disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle sometime in December, 1925 while en route to Havana, Cuba. You can find more information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Cotopaxi.

raywest

Answer: It didn't disappear in the Bermuda Triangle. It lies 40 miles from St. Augustine, Florida, which is 314 miles from Miami.

Amy Emerick Tice

Other mistake: One visual that has always bothered me that I could not find in your list were the scenes when the mother ship first appears. It's enormous scale appears to dwarf Devil's Tower and the whole surrounding area actually, but when it moves over to the "landing strip" area and begins to rotate 180° (right-side up?), it suddenly seems to shrink to a much smaller size and mass during the slow revolution. On its originally-seen scale above/behind the tower, one would think that either the great ship's outer prongs would have been torn off, or more likely the impromptu landing site and most of Devil's Tower would have been destroyed as the huge craft rotated itself. The visual scales just do not stay consistent throughout the film's climactic final act.

More mistakes in Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Project Leader: He says the sun came out last night. He says it sang to him.

More quotes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Trivia: After this movie, young Cary Guffey got to play the part of an alien himself - in the Italian movies "Uno Sceriffo extraterrestre - poco extra e molto terrestre" (English title: "The Sheriff and the Satellite Kid", 1979) and its sequel "Chissà perché. capitano tutte a me" ("Everything Happens To Me", 1980); both with the Italian actor Bud Spencer.

More trivia for Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Question: Why were the aliens abducting people and why did they bring them back?

Answer: It wasn't definitively answered, but it appears the aliens took people in order to learn more about humans. It's unclear if all those who were returned had originally gone willingly, but the intent was not to keep them indefinitely or harm them, and they were returned to Earth, albeit many decades later. At the end, after the aliens had made contact, a new group of humans, including Roy, went with them voluntarily.

raywest

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