American Rhetoric: Movie Speech "Contact" (1997)
Eleanor Arroway Testifies About Her Experience ; Audio mp3 of Address delivered by Jodie Foster
Michael Kitz: Please answer the question, Doctor.
Ellie Arroway: Is it possible that it didn't happen? Yes. As a scientist I must concede that. I must volunteer that. Michael Kitz: Wait a minute. Let me get this straight. You admit that you have absolutely no physical evidence to back up your story. Ellie Arroway: Yes. Michael Kitz: You admit that you very well may have hallucinated this whole thing. Ellie Arroway: Yes. Michael Kitz: You admit that if you were in our position you would respond with exactly the same degree of incredulity and skepticism. Ellie Arroway: Yes!
Michael Kitz: Then why don't you simply withdraw your testimony and concede that this journey to the center of the galaxy, in fact, never took place?! Ellie Arroway: Because I can't. I had an experience. I can't prove it. I can't even explain it.
But everything that I know as a human being, everything that I am tells me that it was real. I was given something wonderful, something that changed me forever --
-- a vision of the universe, that tells us, undeniably, how tiny and insignificant and how rare and precious we all are. A vision that tells us that we belong to something that is greater than ourselves, that we are not, that none of us are alone.
I wish I could share that. I wish that everyone, if even for one moment, could feel that awe and humility and the hope. But..... That continues to be my wish. |
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