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

Question: If the government/military went through so much trouble keeping the aliens' visit at Devil's Tower a secret (the supposed nerve gas spill), then how would they expect all the "returnees" to stay quiet about their experience (some had been gone for decades)?

Answer: First, the returnees would have been detained and interrogated about what happened to them. Second, the government would threaten to throw them into a C.I.A. black site if they talked. Third, most would realise if they did talk, it would cause worldwide panic.

Question: Could someone tell me when Gillian got her sunburn?

Answer: It wasn't shown on camera, but it happened the same night that Roy was also "sunburned." Jillian and other local residents had been going out after dark watching the UFOs as they were buzzing around the county.

raywest

Question: When the tanker ship is discovered in the middle of the Gobi desert they are led to it by - seemingly - Mongolian herdsmen on camel-back; the camels seem to be dromedaries, not bactrians as should be in that region. Are they Bactrian or Dromedary camels?

Answer: According to IMDb, they used dromedaries but the correct camels should have been bactrian.

raywest

Continuity mistake: The film starts in Muncie Indiana. There is a scene in the hills near the town. There are NO hills near Muncie, it's flat as a board. (00:24:30)

More mistakes in Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Project Leader: If everything's ready here on the Dark Side of the Moon... play the five tones.

More quotes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Trivia: If you have a trained eye you can see Darth Vader's ship and R2D2 from Star Wars, and several other bits of Spielberg-Lucas memorabilia.

More trivia for Close Encounters of the Third Kind

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