WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for Elio.
The main character inEliolistens to several snippets of real-life audio from one of the most important minds in astronomy and planetary science who ever lived. Elio, voiced by Yonas Kibreab, has dreams of venturing to space to meet aliens after finding himself alienated on his home planet of Earth. After a tragic accident makes Elio an orphan, his aunt Olga Solis steps in to take guardianship, but struggles to balance her time between Elio and her space military job. Elio struggles with loneliness and aims to find a new home among the leaders of an intergalactic federation known as the Communiverse.
Eliois the latest movie from Disney and Pixar, who have created classic animated favorites such asToy Story,The Incredibles,Inside Out, andWALL-E. Afterreleasing in theaters on July 16, 2025,Eliodebuted with a Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes scoreof 85% paired with an impressive 90% audience score. It’s one of the few Pixar movies that are true sci-fi films, placing it in the same category asWALL-E, often considered one of thebest Pixar movies of all time, andLightyear, based on the iconicToy Storycharacter Buzz Lightyear. Because of its sci-fi theme,Eliofeatures the voice recordings of a prolific scientist, Carl Sagan.
Elio Listens To Carl Sagan While Trying To Make Contact With Aliens
Sagan’s Words Echo Elio’s Biggest Themes
Through an archival audio recording, the voice of Carl Sagan is heard several times in Elio.He initially speaks about the significance of Voyager Iand how it was, among many things, the first spacecraft that was specifically designed to send out and receive messages from extraterrestrial life. It is also the furthest manmade object ever sent out into space, collecting data on distant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, before entering interstellar space, where it continues to send back data to this day. Sagan thought of the idea of attaching cameras to Voyager I, which took the famous “Pale Blue Dot” photo of Earth in 1990.
Later, when Elio is sitting on the roof after fighting with Olga, a voice recording of Carl Sagan is also heard.Sagan’s voice comes back at the end of the movie, creating a significant and powerful moment for Elio and Olga, speaking about how the possibility of alien life touches on the deepest of human concerns. In the context of the film, Elio is clearly deeply inspired by Sagan’s inquisitive words about alien life, which is what drives his hopes and passion to one day become an ambassador of Earth – which is exactly what ends up happening.
Elio Draws From Sagan’s Real-Life History
Image via Disney+
SinceSagan had a hand in the creation of the Voyager 1 probe and the Golden Record, it makes sense that he is featured so prominently in Elio’s initial story. According toNASA, the record consists of 115 imprinted images and various sounds, including “musical selections from different cultures and eras, and spoken greetings from Earth-people in fifty-five languages, and printed messages from President Carter and U.N. Secretary General Waldheim.”
The Golden Record symbolizes the first attempt at contact with alien life using various sounds from across human history, which is at the heart ofElio’sstory.
The Golden Record symbolizes the first attempt at contact with alien life using various sounds from across human history, which is at the heart ofElio’sstory. Furthermore, the record “contains the spoken greetings, beginning with Akkadian, which was spoken in Sumer about six thousand years ago, and ending with Wu, a modern Chinese dialect.“Elio essentially becomes a human version of the Golden Recordby making the first recorded contact with extraterrestrial life.
Sagan’s Role In Elio Goes Beyond His Voice & History
He Helped Inspire More Of The Story
Elioco-director Domee Shi, who was also behind 2022’sTurning Red, revealed in an interview withEWthat she is a huge sci-fi fan and usedSagan’s most famous fictional works,ContactandCosmos, as inspiration. “I just love how in Contact, they show aliens in such an aspirational and positive way, and not something really scary that’s coming to get us or coming to replace us.” This approach toward alien life, compared to countless other movies in which aliens are dangerous and pose a threat to humanity, is at the core ofElioand ends the film on a high note.
