Aliens, Friendship, and the Drake Equation: How Elio Brings SETI Science to the Big Screen

A new documentary film, recently released, celebrates first contact with aliens and highlights the importance of SETI research in promoting peaceful coexistence in our galaxy. OK, it’s not quite a documentary, but Pixar’s Elio is a fun, fascinating and fabulous adventure story. The film tells the tale of our first encounter with aliens, lots of them, and how that contact will change our perception of the cosmos.

In the early days of production, Pixar asked the SETI Institute for advice on how scientists search for extraterrestrial life.. Jill Tarter, whose brush with the silver screen helped make the movie Contact such a believable and scientifically accurate imagining of First Contact, led the conversation with the Pixar storytellers about key concepts in SETI research. The Drake Equation, technosignature searches using radio telescopes, and humanity’s most profound attempt at METI (Messaging ETI): the Voyager Golden Record, designed by Frank Drake and Carl Sagan. All these cornerstone concepts appear in the final movie – who says learning science isn’t fun?!

At its heart, Elio is a touching story of family, friendship and belonging that resulted in some very moist eyes from the usually steadfast and tough SETI Institute team who attended a private screening at Pixar on June 24. The astrobiologists were also thrilled to see such a diversity of alien species represented in the Communiverse. There’s a silicon-based rock creature, psychic cuttlefish, sentient liquid supercomputer and creatures that have adapted to extreme environments by wearing artificial exoskeletons (yes, these were the bad guys). And we are convinced that Elio’s best friend, Glordon, is a distant relative of the Institute’s own Dr. Tardy, the world’s first tardigrade astrophysicist.

While not permitted to endorse any commercial product, we at the SETI Institute strongly advise a trip to the movies to see Elio purely for scientific reasons. Any fun, laughter and tears are purely at the discretion of the viewer 😉. You’ll be swept along on an epic journey where Elio and his aunt Olga get to experience what we are all hoping for, and we at the SETI Institute are working towards: a chance to answer the greatest science question of all. Are We Alone?