Arrival is a 2016 American science fiction drama film directed by Denis Villeneuve and adapted by Eric Heisserer, who conceived the project as a spec script based on the 1998 short story "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang. The film stars Amy Adams as Louise Banks, a linguist enlisted by the United States Army to discover how to communicate with extraterrestrials who have arrived on Earth before tensions lead to war. Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, and Michael Stuhlbarg appear in supporting roles.
Arrival had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 1, 2016, and was released theatrically in the United States by Paramount Pictures on November 11, 2016. It grossed $203 million worldwide and received critical acclaim, with particular praise for Adams's performance, Villeneuve's direction, and the exploration of communication with extraterrestrial intelligence. Considered one of the best films of 2016, Arrival appeared on numerous critics' year-end lists and was selected by the American Film Institute as one of ten "Movies of the Year".[4][5]
It received eight nominations at the 89th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Adapted Screenplay, and won Best Sound Editing. For her performance, Adams received nominations for a BAFTA, SAG, Critics' Choice, and at the 74th Golden Globe Awards, Adams was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress and Jhann Jhannsson was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score.[6] The film was awarded the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation and the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 2017.[7][8] The score by Jhannsson was nominated for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media at the 60th Grammy Awards.[9]
Twelve extraterrestrial spacecraft hover over various locations around the Earth. In the ensuing widespread panic, affected nations send military and scientific experts to monitor and study them. In the United States, US Army Colonel Weber recruits Banks and physicist Ian Donnelly to study the craft above Montana. On board, Banks and Donnelly make contact with two cephalopod-like, seven-limbed aliens, whom they call "heptapods"; Donnelly nicknames them Abbott and Costello. Banks and Donnelly research the complex written language of the aliens, consisting of palindromic phrases written with circular symbols, and share the results with other nations. As Banks studies the language, she starts to have flashback-like visions of her daughter.
When Banks is able to establish sufficient shared vocabulary to ask why the aliens have come, they answer with a statement that could be translated as "offer weapon". China interprets this as "use weapon", prompting them to break off communications, and other nations follow. Banks argues that the symbol interpreted as "weapon" can be more abstractly related to the concepts of "means" or "tool"; China's translation likely results from interacting with the aliens using mahjong, a highly competitive game.
Rogue soldiers plant a bomb in the Montana craft. Unaware, Banks and Donnelly reenter the alien vessel, and the aliens give them a more complex message. Just before the bomb explodes, one of the aliens ejects Donnelly and Banks from the vessel, knocking them unconscious. When they wake, the alien craft has moved beyond reach and the US military is preparing to evacuate in case of retaliation.
China's General Shang issues an ultimatum to his local alien craft, demanding that it leave China within 24 hours. Russia, Pakistan, and Sudan follow suit; communications between the international research teams are terminated as worldwide panic sets in.
Donnelly discovers that the symbol for time is present throughout the message and that the writing occupies exactly one-twelfth of the 3D space into which it is projected. Banks suggests that the full message is split among the twelve craft and that the aliens want all the nations to share what they learn.
Banks goes alone to the Montana craft, which sends down a transport pod. Abbott has been mortally injured as a result of the explosion. Costello explains that they have come to help humanity, because in 3,000 years' time they will need humanity's help in return. Banks realizes the "weapon" is their language. Learning the language alters humans' linear perception of time, allowing them to experience memories of future events. Banks's visions of her daughter are revealed to be premonitions; her daughter will not be born until sometime in the future.
Banks returns to the camp as it is being evacuated and tells Donnelly that the aliens' language is the "tool" that was meant by the word "weapon". She has a premonition of a United Nations event celebrating newfound unity, following the alien arrival, in which General Shang of China thanks her for persuading him to stop the attack when she called his private number and recited his wife's dying words.[a] He then shows her his private number and whispers his wife's words into her ear.
In the present, Banks takes CIA agent Halpern's satellite phone from a table and calls Shang's private number to recite the words. The Chinese announce that they are standing down and releasing their twelfth of the message. The other countries follow suit, and the twelve spacecraft depart.
Based on what she has learned, she writes and publishes a book called The Universal Language, a guide to the heptapod language, which will eventually teach humanity to perceive time the same way as the heptapods.
During the evacuation, Donnelly expresses his love for Banks. They talk about life choices and whether he would change them if he could see his life from beginning to end. Banks knows that she will agree to have a child with him despite knowing their fate: that Hannah will die from an incurable disease and that Donnelly will leave them both as a result of her revealing that she knew this.
Arrival is based on the Nebula-winning 1998 science fiction novella "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang. The novella involves Earth's first communication with heptapods who speak in a cryptic language. Screenwriter Eric Heisserer had been introduced to the story through another of Chiang's stories, "Understand", and had begun reading Chiang's collected works when "Story of Your Life" had a "profound emotional effect" on him. As a result, he tried to adapt the story into a film script as he wanted to share it with a wider audience.[11] After writing an initial spec script, Heisserer pitched it to production companies for several years without receiving any interest and nearly gave up on the project.[12] Heisserer believes it was not until he had successfully completed and produced 2013's Hours that others took interest in his work, his having proved himself capable.[11] Eventually, Dan Levine and Dan Cohen of 21 Laps Entertainment expressed interest in Heisserer's script. Shawn Levy of 21 Laps said they had become aware of "Story of Your Life" around 2011 and considered it a powerful work; when they learned of Heisserer's script adaptation, they started working closely with him, helping him refine the script before they began seeking a director and distribution studio.[13]
One of the directors that 21 Laps approached was Denis Villeneuve. Villeneuve had wanted to make a science fiction film for some time, although he "never found the right thing".[14] Cohen and Levine introduced Villeneuve to the novella, which he immediately took to, although his work on Prisoners meant that he did not have the time to properly adapt it into a screenplay with Heisserer.[14] Heisserer completed a first draft, which he and Villeneuve reworked into the final script.[14] Villeneuve changed the title, as he felt the original sounded like a romantic comedy and that the script had become very different from the short story.[14] While Villeneuve went through "hundreds" of possible titles, Arrival was the first one his team of producers and writers had suggested.[14]
Heisserer made several changes to "Story of Your Life" between writing his original screenplays and the final script, the main one being that the heptapods actually arrived on Earth in a type of first contact situation, as he felt this helped to create the tension and conflict needed for a film.[11] Heisserer said that earlier versions of the script had a different ending: the gift from the heptapods was to have been "blueprints to an interstellar ship, like an ark of sorts", to enable humanity to help them in 3,000 years. But after the release of Interstellar in 2014, Heisserer and Villeneuve agreed that this would not work, and decided that the heptapods' gift would be what was "there in front of us ... the power of their language".[15]
Amy Adams entered negotiations to star in the film in April 2014,[16] and was confirmed by the time Jeremy Renner joined the film in March 2015.[17] Forest Whitaker signed on in April, with Michael Stuhlbarg joining in June.[18][19] Adams consulted with linguist Jessica Coon to prepare for her role.[20]
Principal photography lasted for 56 days, beginning on June 7, 2015, after Renner had fulfilled his obligations to Captain America: Civil War.[17] Filming was done mainly in and around Montreal, Quebec, with Saint-Fabien serving as Montana.[21][22] The team took some time to find the right site to represent the landing of the spacecraft because producers wanted to avoid a mountainous site that might dwarf the scale of the ship, but thought a barren location would be clich.[23] Most of the filming that did not involve the exterior of a ship was done indoors on sound stages, although a real house in Chemin de l'le, Vaudreuil-Dorion, was used as Banks's home.[23][24] The scenes of the university where Banks teaches were shot on the main campus of Universit de Montral, including HEC Montral's auditorium and cafeteria.[25] Bradford Young was sought out by Villeneuve as he was looking for a cinematographer with a sensibility toward natural lighting. Said Villeneuve: "I wanted the movie to have strong roots in realism. I wanted a cinematographer who would not be afraid to deal with intimacy. It's a very specific sensibility that I felt in Bradford's previous work."[26] Color timing was used as a means of matching Louise's state of mind at a given moment. Young said, "I went for cooler colors when I wanted Amy to feel worn down. We tried to pull back on that a little bit, but then Denis stopped me in the [color timing] and told me not to be so concerned about skin tone and let her be pasty, let her exist in that melancholy space, let us feel that visually."[27] When discussing the film with Villeneuve, Young described the director's goal of making a "dirty" science fiction film by making it look more grounded and "slightly boring", as Villeneuve put it. Young also used the book Speedway by photographer Martina Hoogland Ivanow as a reference for the film's look.[28]
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