French scientist, Claude Lacombe (legendary auteur François Truffaut), investigates a mystery in the desert while in a nearby town a young boy awakes to find his toys operating of their own accord; large-scale power outages spread mayhem and dishevelled everyman, Roy (Richard Dreyfuss, Jaws), sees an unidentified flying object that leaves him mesmerised, sparking a trail of obsession that leads beyond the limits of this world.
Spielberg delivers an influential sci-fi classic that balances wonder with trepidation in a film that manages to combine the domestic reality of a family under pressure with the inter-galactic scale of questioning our place in the universe.