References to Speilberg All Over This...

Opening scenes with Mathew Broderick very similarly paced/plotted to opening sequence from *Close Encounters*...even to the ship (beached) on the sand! Also, here Broderick's character is a low-level researcher who gets swept up in the events and saves the day, much as the cartographer gets swept up in events and is pressed into duty as a French interpreter and ends up interpreting the code in Close Encounters.

*Jaws*-inspired scenes: the fishing ships dragged backward through water and pulled under...a nod to the barrel sequences.
The geezer fishing off the dock with his friends calling out to him is a nod to the dock pull-down in Jaws.

Mayor Ebert character here is greedy and his appearance and mannerisms are very similar to...Wayne Knight's character in *Jurassic Park!* [edit] (Thought I was gonna say the Mayor of Amity, didn't ya? Works either way.)