Spielberg claimed the film would cost $2.7 million to make in his original 1973 pitch to Columbia, although he revealed to producer Julia Philips that he knew the budget would have to be much higher; the final budget came to $19.4 million.The small aliens in the final scenes were played by fifty local six-year-old girls in Williams was nominated for two Academy Awards in 1978, one for his score to Other critics found a variety of Judeo-Christian analogies. Taylor then set a course northeast according to their compass, which should take them to Florida if they were in Key West. Cox then transmitted; "This is FT-74, plane or boat calling 'Powers' please identify yourself so someone can help you." Taylor radioed "We'll fly 270 degrees west until landfall or running out of gas" and requested a weather check at 17:24.
Devils Tower parallels Roy's wife Ronnie attempts to hide the sunburn caused by Roy's exposure to the UFOs and wants him to forget his encounter with them. Around 18:20, Taylor's last message was received. FT-74 tried again and a man identified as FT-28 (Taylor) came on. While most of the civilians who are drawn to the site are apprehended by the Army, Roy and Jillian persist and make it to the site just as dozens of UFOs appear in the night sky. Flight 19 undertook a routine navigation and combat training exercise in The aircraft were four TBM-1Cs, BuNo 45714, 'FT3', BuNo 46094, 'FT36', BuNo 46325, 'FT81', BuNo 73209, 'FT117', and one TBM-3, BuNo 23307, 'FT28'. This report was subsequently amended "cause unknown" by the Navy after Taylor's mother contended that the Navy was unfairly blaming her son for the loss of five aircraft and 14 men, when the Navy had neither the bodies nor the airplanes as evidence.Had Flight 19 actually been where Taylor believed it to be, the flight would have made landfall with the Florida coastline within 20 minutes, depending on how far down they were. )As it became obvious the flight was lost, air bases, aircraft, and merchant ships were alerted. "FT-28, this is FT-74, what is your trouble?" The UFO, joining a group of three other UFOs, is pursued by Neary and three police cars, but the spacecraft fly off into the night sky. Following this, an enormous mother ship lands at the site, releasing animals and over a dozen long-missing adults and children, all from different past eras. The expression of his lost life is seen when he is sculpting a huge model of Devils Tower in his living room, with his family deserting him.Communication and language issues constitute additional themes as noted by The film was originally to be released in summer 1977, but was pushed back to November because of the various problems during production.The film opened overseas on February 24, 1978 and grossed $27 million internationally by the end of March from 19 countries.In 1979, Columbia gave Spielberg $1.5 million to produce what became the "Special Edition" of the film. The situation on U.S. Navy Flight 19, from which the airplanes that appear in the Mexican desert came, disappeared off Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in December 1945.
The government specialists at the site begin to communicate with the UFOs by use of light and sound on a large electrical billboard. "FT-74 informed the NAS that aircraft were lost, then advised Taylor to put the sun on his At 16:56, Taylor was again asked to turn on his transmitter for As the weather deteriorated, radio contact became intermittent, and it was believed that the five aircraft by this point were more than 200 nmi (230 mi; 370 km) out to sea east of the Florida peninsula. Roy becomes fascinated by UFOs, much to the dismay of his wife, Ronnie. "Both of my compasses are out", Taylor replied, "and I am trying to find Fort Lauderdale, Florida. What followed was a series of serious conversations between Taylor, his team and the control tower.