Roy Neary is a cable worker who, along with several others, become stunned bystanders who have experienced a close encounter of the first kind - witnessing UFOs soar across the sky. After this life-changing event, the inexplicable vision of a strange, mountain-like formation haunts him. He becomes obsessed with discovering what it represents. Meanwhile, bizarre occurrences are happening around the world. Government agents have close encounters of a 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 unusual places. Roy continues to chase his vision to a remote area where he 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.