Which 1977 film directed by Steven Spielberg features a man who has a close encounter with aliens?

The 1977 film directed by Steven Spielberg that features a man who has a close encounter with aliens is Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

The film centers on Roy Neary, an Indiana electrical utility worker played by Richard Dreyfuss, whose life changes after he encounters an unidentified flying object. At the same time, scientists investigate mysterious events, including missing aircraft and strange signals, while a mother searches for her child after an extraordinary UFO manifestation.

The title comes from J. Allen Hynek’s classification of close encounters with extraterrestrial phenomena. A “third kind” involves observing extraterrestrial beings, making the title more specific than a general reference to UFO sightings. The film’s climactic communication sequence uses five musical notes as a universal language between humans and the visitors.

Spielberg’s film is often mixed up with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, another Spielberg alien story, but E.T. focuses on a stranded extraterrestrial and a child’s friendship. Close Encounters is broader in scale, emphasizing wonder, obsession, scientific investigation, and humanity’s first open contact.