I never got Close Encounters. His choices were to run off with the aliens or to stay married to a 1970s Teri Garr. I would have stayed and worked thing out here.
He didn't really have a choice.
It was clear in the movie, he was psychologically compelled, or programmed.
“I would have stayed and worked thing out here.”
My interpretation of that part of the film is that when the aliens caught him in the pickup, and fired something through him, it effected his mind so he needed to go more than anything just the same as the overwhelming urge to identify the mountain as the Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. He just had to, period, and nothing was going to stop him.
I’ve been to Devil’s Tower and it is a fascinating place geographically. It’s not part of a mountain range. It’s just the one monolith in the middle of nowhere. Pretty country during the warm parts of the year with wild animals in the area. A lot of people climb the tower each year.
wy69