MovieChat Forums > Contact (1997) Discussion > What was the point of the first test?

What was the point of the first test?

posted 9 years ago by deimos-13
1 reply | jump to latest

Always been curious about the first test.

It seemed like they were going to send Elmer the test dummy into the machine at 100%
But, wouldn't that render the machine inoperable? The guy in the nasa building said "We only get one shot at this"
But if so, Drumlin wouldn't have been able to go through the machine either, or were they planning to fire it up again?

[–] Bill-625 9 years ago

Drumlin has a line where he says the dummy is there to test for vibrations and the like, implying a less than full power test.