A droid tucked beneath the mothership
In the final sequence of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the enormous alien spacecraft arrives at Devils Tower. Look closely at the miniature used to depict it, and a familiar shape appears on its underside: R2-D2, the small astromech droid from Star Wars.
The cameo works because the ship is shown as a model, not a full-size object. Its surface is packed with mechanical-looking detail, so a tiny figure can sit among the shapes without calling attention to itself. The audience sees the vast craft first; the droid becomes a reward for anyone who studies the image.
A miniature with room for a movie joke
The effect belongs to an era when filmmakers often built detailed physical miniatures and photographed them to create spaceships too large or fantastical to construct at full scale. Those models invited close inspection: seams, protrusions, and layered surfaces helped sell the illusion of a massive machine. Here, one of those details crosses from one science-fiction world into another.
The sight also links two films released in the same decade and made by directors who were friends. Rather than interrupting the scene with an explanation, the hidden droid leaves the connection for viewers to discover. On a ship meant to seem alien and monumental, R2-D2 is barely more than a speck—small enough to miss, but recognizable once spotted.
