Trivia / Close Encounters of the Third Kind

• Auteur License: After the success of Jaws, Columbia Pictures said that Spielberg could make pretty much whatever movie he wanted, so he made this. It nearly bankrupted the studio, but ended up their highest-grossing film up to that point.
• California Doubling: Mobile, Alabama, stands in for Muncie, Indiana. Additionally, nearby Bay Minette, Alabama, stands in for Moorcroft, Wyoming. Some scenes were filmed at the real Devil's Tower, though the climax was, of course, filmed on a sound stage... an aircraft hangar in Mobile, Alabama. The Ohio state line was filmed on the approach to the Vincent Thomas Bridge, in Long Beach California.
• Cast the Expert: You know how the dialogue between the pilots and the air traffic controllers sounded so realistic? Steven Spielberg used the controllers from Los Angeles ARTCC in Palmdale, gave them the scenario, and they played it as if it were real.
  • Those are David Anderson^note often mistaken for Morgan Freeman, Richard L. Hawkins, Craig Shreeve and Bill Thurman as the controllers. That scene was the first to be shot, for tax reasons (see below). Here's an analysis of the scene as it was shot, detailing just exactly what Spielberg and Zsigmond did.
  • Also, the synthesizer player is Philip Dodds, one of the lead engineers for ARP Instruments. Dodds was brought in to install the ARP 2500, and when Spielberg saw his expert handling of the equipment, he offered Dodds the role on the spot.
  • The "voice" of the mothership was performed by legendary tubist Jim Self. Spielberg cast him and his performance because the difficulty of playing the tuba added a "human" component to the alien communication.
• Christmas Rushed: Originally intended as a Summer 1978 release, a debt-ridden Columbia Pictures ordered Spielberg to complete it for the 1977 Holiday season so the studio could stave off bankruptcy. The rushed post-production prompted Spielberg to Re-Cut the film later on.
  • In order to pay for it, Columbia needed to use tax shelter money, so production had to begin before 1976. In order to be able to truthfully say the film was officially in production, at least one scene had to be shot before December 31, 1975. That was the air traffic control scene, which required no set building or any of the (yet to be cast) principal actors.
• Deleted Scene:
  • One cut scene taking place immediately after the Indianapolis air traffic control scene showed government officials boarding a just-landed airliner and telling the passengers to hand over their cameras, tape recorders, undeveloped film, etc., followed by a brief exchange between Lacombe and Laughlin in a car.
  • Another showed Roy watching the sky from an observation platform he had constructed on the roof of his house. The platform itself can still be spotted when Ronnie backs out of the driveway in the family station wagon.
• Duelling Movies: With A New Hope, the other big science-fiction blockbuster that year. Both proved to be game-changers for the genre. As noted under Christmas Rushed, Close Encounters was not originally intended to come out the same year as A New Hope, though it wouldn't have mattered given the first Star Wars film got a major re-release in 1978 anyway so the two films would have still been in competition.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • Used with the young actor playing Barry. For example to get good reactions in the kitchen scene, where you only see his face, off camera they had a clown which Barry (Cary Guffy) smiled at. Then (same take) they brought in a man in a gorilla suit, which he looked at with a puzzled expression. Then the man in the gorilla suit took his mask off, revealing it to be a grown up he knew. Cary smiled.
  • Also, he said "Toys" because he was actually shown a bunch of toys to get him to smile.
  • According to Melinda Dillon, because it was done without rehearsal, the scene in the kitchen with all the objects flying around was truly scary, and her alarmed reactions were often quite real and spontaneous as she tried to protect herself and Cary Guffey.
  • Melinda's Oh, my God! is real, as she (and we) first see the Mothership. Spielberg told her he would speak to her as if he were D. W. Griffith and she were Lillian Gish. He kept talking, telling her she was about to see the most beautiful, wondrous thing ever — and when he finally said "turn around", all he had was a piece of paper — but she'd imagined one of her first memories, the face of her grandmother leaning over her crib.
• Executive Meddling:
  • Lots of footage was edited around and cut in the original 1977 version. Justified as the studio was on the verge of bankruptcy and needed to ship this film before they went under.
  • When Steven Spielberg pitched a special edition featuring scenes that had to be cut from the original shooting due to budget and schedule issues, Columbia allowed him to produce it under the condition that he also shoot an ending scene taking place inside the space ship, which Spielberg didn't want to show. Naturally, for the film's 20th anniversary, Spielberg released a director's cut of the special edition that didn't include the executive-mandated spaceship scene.
• Flip-Flop of God: Steven Spielberg said in 2005, that he made that movie when he didn't have kids, and if he was making it today, he'd never have Neary leaving his family.
  • The younger Spielberg made authentic statements about:
    • The plastic emptiness of nice suburban family life in the '70s.
    • Mental Illness and what it can do to nice suburban people. Lots of men do in fact leave their families. One parent losing his or her mind is a common cause of divorce. In this case Neary's craziness is literally the result of alien mind control and his family wisely flees from him to avoid further exposure to his psychotic behavior.
    • And specifically, what has happened to thousands of people who believe, in all sincerity, that they truly are alien contactees. MUFON meetings are full of people who left/were left by their families because of an Experience.
• Multiple Languages, Same Voice Actor: François Truffaut re-dubbed his own character for the French releases.
• Never Work with Children or Animals: The aliens were played by young girls, who were hyperactive and incredibly difficult to control. In Bob Balaban's production diary, he said that Steven Spielberg often began takes by yelling "Girls, stop disco-dancing!".
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: The Special Edition poster included the line "director Stephen Spielberg has filmed additional scenes, designed to expand the total experience of the original film", to which a cheeky graffiti artist added, "And we still don't understand it!"
• Real-Life Relative: Richard Dreyfuss's father was an extra in the film and spent six months on location; however, the scenes in which he appeared never made the final cut. Meanwhile, Roy's son Toby was played by his nephew Justin.
• Throw It In!: During the dinner scene just before Roy piles on the mashed potatoes, you can hear the little girl say, "There's a fly in my potatoes." This was unscripted and almost caused the rest of the cast to laugh. The scene was kept as-is.
• Uncredited Role: Due to their work largely being cut from the movie due to dissatisfaction, makeup artist Tom Burnan and puppet builder Bob Baker are uncredited in the final film for their contributions to the alien effects. As per Spielberg in Cinemafantastique, he would apologize for leaving out Baker.
• What Could Have Been:
  • One early concept for interpreting the aliens included an orangutan on roller skates. The idea did not work, because the orangutan became very frightened the second its roller skates touched the ground, and it kept grabbing onto the arms of its caretaker. This would have cost the film a No Animals Were Harmed in any case, and wouldn't sit well with sensitive adult or child viewers. Marionettes were also considered, but the time, expense and practicalities of having almost 70 puppeteers manipulating the 7 puppets required for the scene caused them to nix the idea. The People in Rubber Suits concept was originally going to be the way they'd do things after both failed, but it too wound up mostly on the cutting room floor in flavor of Carlo Rambaldi's puppet due to Spielberg despising the way the heads looked. The idea would be revisited in the Special Edition, with new costumes by Robert Short made for the release.
  • The film originally ended with the version of "When You Wish Upon a Star", but it tested negatively in previews and was cut (this detail remains on the novelization, though, with Roy remembering the lyrics in an inner monologue). That is why Roy Neary was trying to convince his family to see that film together just before the blackout. The song remains incorporated in the score, though. A toy can also be heard playing the song's melody right before Roy rips off the top off his sculpture.
  • Spielberg approached Steve McQueen (actor) about playing Roy Neary. McQueen declined, as he couldn't cry on cue. Gene Hackman turned it down because he was going through a divorce at the time and Jack Nicholson turned it down because he feared that the effects would upstage the actors. Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino also passed on it.
  • Meryl Streep auditioned for Veronica.
  • Gérard Depardieu, Philippe Noiret, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Lino Ventura were considered for the role of Claude Lacombe. The role instead went to film director François Truffaut in one of his only acting roles.
  • Paul Schrader wrote an early draft of the script, which would have involved a police officer and skeptic of flying saucers until he has an encounter, at which point he becomes a believer and works with the government to try and make contact. Spielberg hated the draft and it was never used.
• Working Title: Watch the Skies.
• Write What You Know: The scene where Brad repeatedly shouts "CRYBABY!" at Roy in the tub is based on a real-life incident where a young Steven Spielberg shouted the same thing at his father, who, unbeknownst to him, was having marital troubles.

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