An epic sci-fi adventure from Steven Spielberg, Close Encounters of the Third Kind stars Richard Dreyfuss as Roy Neary, an electrical lineman in Indiana. Out on a routine job one night, Roy witnesses an unidentified flying object flying over his truck, so close that the heat of its lights burn the side of his face. After it disappears, Roy becomes obsessed with UFOs, and has visions of a mountain like shape, much to the chagrin of his wife, Ronnie (Teri Garr). Over time, Roy makes contact with two others who have also had close encounters – French scientist Claude Lacombe (filmmaker François Truffaut), and Jillian (Melinda Dillon), mother of a young, abducted boy – and together they are drawn to a specific site where something big is about to happen.

After the success of Jaws, Steven Spielberg thew himself into Close Encounters, his passion project. Originally inspired by a time in his adolescence when he experienced a meteor shower in New Jersey, this film was preceded by Firelight, which Spielberg made as a teenager. Initially, he did not want to cast Dreyfuss again in the lead role but Dreyfuss successfully campaigned for it, after Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino and Gene Hackman all turned it down (McQueen reportedly turned it down because he couldn't cry on cue).