Arrival (2016)

"If you could see your whole life from start to finish, would you change things?"

Twelve alien ships land around the world.  Linguist Dr. Louise Banks (Adams) is recruited by the U.S. Army, under the direction of Colonel Weber (Whitaker), to decipher the alien language.  She is joined by physicist Dr. Ian Donnelly (Renner).  Every day they enter the ship, along with a military team, and try to communicate with the heptapod aliens.  They name the aliens Abbott and Costello and work on finding common ground.

Their progress is monitored at the command center, which is overseen by Colonel Weber and CIA Agent Halpern (Stuhlbarg).  They also share their findings with the other 11 teams / countries via videoconference.  While diving into her work, Louise is haunted by the memory of her daughter.  Can Ian and Louise communicate with the heptapods enough to get the answers they need?


The film is based on the short story "The Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang.  The novel was published in 1998 and won the 2000 Nebula Award for Best Novella.  Chiang approved of the film.  The screenplay was written by Eric Heisserer, who also served as a producer on the film.  Director Denis Villeneuve wanted to direct a science fiction film.  He was introduced to Chiang's story and fell in love.

The story keeps you guessing, especially if you don't know the twist.  It is a meticulous film, the sounds are incredible and the visuals are stunning.  The visual language was designed by Maxine Bertrand.  They also consulted with phonetics experts to create the sound of the language, and linguists to make it believable.  Amy Adams is wonderful in the film and is not recognized enough for her work.

The film was nominated for 8 Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, and Best Production Design.  It won for Best Sound Editing.

Arrival (2016) 116 minutes
Rating: PG-13 for
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Starring: Amy Adams as Dr. Louise Banks
Jeremy Renner as Dr. Ian Donnelly
Forest Whitaker as Colonel Weber
Michael Stuhlbarg as Agent Halpern
Mark O'Brien as Captain Marks