15. Elle's Journey Through The Wormholes - Contact (1997)
This mind-bending moment takes on more of an existential tone. Ellie, played by Jodie Foster, works her whole life, or more importantly the whole film, toward understanding our place in the universe and unlocking the key to alien-human relations. After much strife she is able be the sole adventurer in the aliens pod to travel through the dimensions via various wormholes. The journey through the wormholes is very visually rewarding (which provides much needed relief from the hour of nerd fashion we just sat through), especially when it brakes for intergalactic stargazing. The journey culminates on a simulated beach where Ellie talks to an Alien representative who uses her memories to appear in the form of her father. The aliens explanation of our place in the universe and relating to Ellie personally after her taxing expedition just further drains her emotionally. The idea that one person would have to travel through space and time to learn about the universe and face the task of trying to relate it to the rest of the human race is overwhelming. The load is too much for one person to bare but it is also a privilege to alone know about the universe. She is so alone. Yet so connected to all of existence at the same time. The moment does a wonderful job at showing the blissful wondrous feeling some can have from learning about the universe. So much is packed into the one scene it is undeniably mind-bending.