Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a 1977 science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg. Paul Schrader, John Hill, David Giler, Jerry Belson, Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins collaborated with Spielberg on the screenplay. The film stars Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Bob Balaban, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr and Cary Guffey. The film focuses on a man's obsession and encounter with unidentified flying objects.

Close Encounters is a landmark science fiction film, not only for its special effects, but also for its portrayal of UFO occupants as benign, even kind, which was a sharp departure from the evil monster style of most earlier films. It popularized a number of UFO motifs, many of which had earlier been reported in conjunction with UFO sightings, such as alien abduction, small and thin aliens (Greys), and UFOs covered in lights rather than the disc shapes popular in the 1950s and 1960s.

In 2007, Close Encounters of the Third Kind was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Roy Neary sets out to investigate a power outage when his truck stalls and he is bathed in light from above. After this, strange visions and five musical notes keep running through his mind. Will he find the meaning of the visions, and who - or what - placed them in his mind ? Written by Colin Tinto

Planes reported missing in 1945 suddenly appear in the Mojave desert. A commercial flight is buzzed by a 'bright' object that the pilot 'wouldn't know how to describe'. Roy Neary, while working one night, has a Close Encounter... The US Government determine where the visitors plan to land and create an elaborate cover-up to keep people away. However, a group of people, including Neary, share a vision which draws them to the place and a meeting with new, and old, friends. Written by Mark Harding

Cableman Roy Neary is one of several people who experience a close encounter of the first kind, witnessing UFOs flying through the night sky. He is subsequently haunted by a mountainlike image in his head and becomes obsessed with discovering what it represents, putting severe strain on his marriage. Meanwhile, government agents around the world have a close encounter of the second kind, discovering physical evidence of otherworldly visitors in the form of military vehicles that went missing decades ago suddenly appearing in the middle of nowhere. Roy and the agents both follow the clues they have been given to reach a site where they will have a close encounter of the third kind: contact. Written by rmlohner