Arrival
November 10, 2016 in theaters
When twelve alien spacecraft appear simultaneously around the world, linguist Louise Banks is recruited by the U.S. military to decode the visitors' language before global tensions push toward armed conflict. Denis Villeneuve's science fiction film treats first contact as a puzzle about language, time, and what it means to understand something fully.
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QUOTE
"Language is the foundation of civilization. It is the glue that holds a people together."
DID YOU KNOW?
The heptapod written language was designed so that it has no connection to spoken words -- it is entirely non-linear.
THE VERDICT
Synthesized from published reviews
One of the best science fiction films of its decade and one of the most intelligent the genre has produced. Denis Villeneuve's approach to first contact as a linguistic and philosophical problem rather than a military one gives the film a conceptual seriousness that its third-act reveal rewards rather than undermines. Amy Adams' Louise Banks is one of science fiction cinema's great performances -- interior, precise, and fully inhabited. A film that respects its audience's intelligence and earns the emotion it builds toward.
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