As the movie Contact opens, the audience sees a precocious girl named Eleanor learning how to use a ham radio. Nicknamed "Sparks" by her father, she has reached a man in Florida, and is excited that her radio lets her speak with someone so far away. In a later scene she asks her father wistfully if she can call her deceased mother on the radio. He responds sadly that no antenna is big enough.

As the movie progresses, the audience learns that Sparks' beloved father died of a heart attack when she was nine years old. She lost the man who meant the world to her. In a poignant scene, while family and friends are still at the house following the funeral, Sparks sits before her radio desperately trying to reach her father. With tears in her eyes and agony in her voice, she calls his name into …