Richard Dreyfuss stars as cable worker Roy Neary, who experiences a close encounter of the first kind - witnessing UFOs soaring across the sky. Meanwhile, government agents have close encounters of the second kind - discovering physical evidence of extraterrestrial visitors in the form of a lost fighter aircraft from World War II and a stranded military ship that disappeared decades earlier only to suddenly reappear in an unusual place. Roy and the agents follow the clues that have drawn them to reach a site where they will have a close encounter of the third kind - contact.