Arrival(2016)

Ratings

IMDb- 8.5/10

Rotten tomatoes- 93%

My Reviewal- 4.3/5

Arrival is a 2016 American science fiction drama film directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Eric Heisserer, based on the short story "Story of Your Life" by author Ted Chiang. The film stars Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg and Tzi Ma.

Arrival had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 1, 2016, and was released in the United States on November 11, 2016, in IMAX by Paramount Pictures. The film received critical acclaim, with its story, direction, and Amy Adams' performance receiving praise, and has grossed $28 million.

Plot

Twelve mysterious extraterrestrial spacecraft, nicknamed "Shells" by the U.S. military, touch down across Earth. Their purpose in arriving, as well as whether there is logic behind the specific landing sites, is unclear. Linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is selected to lead a special team created to enter one of the Shells which touched down in Montana, due to her skills in translationand her pre-existing Top Secret security clearance. Also on the team are theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), and US Army Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker). Louise is haunted by memories of her deceased daughter, with each memory serving a purpose in helping her decode the aliens' language.

After first contact with two cephalopod-like aliens, called Heptapods for their radial seven arm symmetry and whom Ian nicknames Abbott and Costello, they conclude that two-way communication in the aliens' spoken language is impossible. However, Louise and Ian discover they are able to communicate with them using their written language. The language proves to be extremely complicated, with all of the components of each circular symbol depending on each other. The complexity proves to be an issue when the aliens produce a message that translates to "offer weapon" in English and similar phrases in other languages. As each nation translates its version of the message, international forces scramble into action, as they believe it to be a threat. Louise believes that due to the language's complex structure, "weapon" could possibly have a double meaning, such as "tool", as if the aliens are trying to trade something.

Louise and Ian independently go into the Shell as soldiers are leaving and communicate with Abbott and Costello once more. Costello is able to guide Louise in writing one of their symbols on the barrier, and writes a complex sentence with hundreds of symbols. The two suddenly withdraw as a firefight breaks out below the Shell between a group of fearful soldiers and base security. A C4 explosive that was placed in the Shell by the soldiers explodes, but the aliens prevent Louise and Ian from being injured and they wake up in the base camp. The Shell rises higher into the sky, now inaccessible. When China makes preparations to destroy their Shell, the other international forces ready themselves to do the same out of fear of retaliation and the Montana base is ordered to evacuate.

Ian decodes that the complex sentence relates to the concept of time, and that what they received was only one twelfth of the intended whole. When General Shang (Tzi Ma) of China announces that the Chinese military will destroy their Shell, Louise rushes to the ship, which sends down a small shuttle that takes her back into the Shell. However, this time she is in their atmosphere. There she is greeted by Costello, who tells her that Abbott is dying. When Louise starts remembering her dead daughter, Costello tells her that she can see the future, revealing that all the visions of her daughter aren't flashbacks, but flash-forwards. The Heptapods' language structure allows for the speaker to be in all times at once—a strong extension of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis—instead of experiencing time linearly like most humans. Costello tells Louise that their purpose on Earth is to help humanity, by gifting their language and its supplemental abilities, so that in return, humanity can help them in 3000 years.

Louise returns to the camp and has another vision, of being at a party to commemorate 18 months since the events at the end of the film, where she receives thanks from General Shang for convincing him to change his mind about destroying the Shell in China. When she asks how she convinced him, Shang replies that she called him on his personal number and relayed a message. Confused, she says that she doesn't have his personal number, and Shang produces a phone with his number on it. Louise steals a satellite phone from the base and calls Shang using the number she received from him in the vision. While she is unsure of what to say if he answers in the present, Shang, in the vision, tells her that she convinced him by repeating his late wife's last words to him, which he repeats. Banks repeats the words to Shang in the present in Mandarin Chinese. She succeeds in changing his mind, and China's withdrawal convinces the other international forces to back down as well. The Shells all dematerialize into thin air, as China arranges to share all the information they had learned from their own shell with the world, and the rest of the nations follow suit.

When packing to leave the base, Ian admits his love for Louise. Another vision reveals Ian to be the father of her daughter. In her vision, Ian asks if they can have a child, and Louise enthusiastically replies "Yes."