Arrival

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Arrival

PG-13

2016

1h 56m

Sci-Fi

Mystery & Thriller

Drama

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Popcornmeter

94%

Tomatometer

441 Reviews

83%

Popcornmeter

50,000+ Ratings

Linguistics professor Louise Banks leads an elite team of investigators when gigantic spaceships touch down in 12 locations around the world. As nations teeter on the verge of global war, Banks and her crew must race against time to find a way to communicate with the extraterrestrial visitors. Hoping to unravel the mystery, she takes a chance that could threaten her life and quite possibly all mankind.

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Critics Consensus

Arrival delivers a must-see experience for fans of thinking person's sci-fi that anchors its heady themes with genuinely affecting emotion and a terrific performance from Amy Adams.

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Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

The Blue Lenses

08/25/2018

Arrival transcends the limitations that so often govern the less creative examples of the subgenre, instead using it as a loose conceptual foundation upon which to build a theoretically-informed examination of what precisely ... makes us human.

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Kristen Lopez

Culturess

11/20/2017

Arrival couldn't have arrived (pun intended) at a better time.

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K. Austin Collins

The Ringer

08/10/2017

I think of Arrival in terms of color: the milky grays of the clouds rolling over the Montana plain; the bright blue of computer screens bouncing off the gray tents on the makeshift army compound.

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Jonathon Wilson

Ready Steady Cut

May 30

3/5

This is atypical science fiction that, ironically, only knows how to communicate in a language we already understand.

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JD Duran

InSession Film

08/08/2024

The film works as a powerful allegory for how we try to decode and interpret the tragedies of our lives.

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Ankit Ojha

Cinema Elite

07/09/2024

4.5/5

Without spoiling too much, let’s just say Villeneuve and Heisserer use the Kuleshov effect to turn the non-linear storytelling of “Arrival” from a gimmick to an indispensable part of the film.

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Jonathan F

02/05/2022

Extremely short-paced, felt like most of the movie was empty without a real driving story. I would have hoped for more action.

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Katie D

03/15/2021

An amazing film! very well-done, thought-provoking, entertaining and unpredictable. my only complaint is about the loud horn blasts that accompany so many science fiction movie scenes - unnecessary, unrealistic and distracting! other than that it was awesome!

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JN B

@JNBridges 14h

A beautiful movie. It's two overlapping stories superimposed on each other. The surface story is the science-fiction story about a linguist (Amy Adams) who is recruited to help communicate with extra-terrestrials whose arrival (simultaneously at twelve different locations on earth) causes a worldwide crisis. The second story - more intimate, sad, and thought provoking - emerges gradually as the first story progresses - though pieces of this second story are there right from the very beginning. It is only as the mystery of the first story is solved that the pieces of the second story fall into place. And Amy Adams's performance is very moving.

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rick T

@Guntherxxx 17h

I really dont understand the high ratings for this movie. Tedious and slow, with no action, and the plot twist is hardly worth sitting through this movie. It seems that most movies that are nominated for academy awards might appeal to the judges but fail to be entertaining.

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Lee C

@RT20156729 1d

the concept of this movie sent me down an absolute rabbit hole of how language can impact experience, I really like the story and it’s well done, I’ve watched it a few times and always enjoyed it

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Carly T

@CarlyTucker43 Aug 24

Great movie overall. Great actors involved. I do wish we had more to the ending. It seemed like there needed to be a longer ending to come together. However still such a great watch!!

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Denis Villeneuve

Director

Amy Adams

Louise Banks

Jeremy Renner

Ian Donnelly

Forest Whitaker

Colonel Weber

Michael Stuhlbarg

Agent Halpern

Mark O'Brien

Captain Marks

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Synopsis

Linguistics professor Louise Banks leads an elite team of investigators when gigantic spaceships touch down in 12 locations around the world. As nations teeter on the verge of global war, Banks and her crew must race against time to find a way to communicate with the extraterrestrial visitors. Hoping to unravel the mystery, she takes a chance that could threaten her life and quite possibly all mankind.

Director: Denis Villeneuve
Producer: Shawn Levy, Dan Levine, Aaron Ryder, David Linde
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Production Co: 21 Laps Entertainment, Lava Bear Films, FilmNation
Rating: PG-13 (Brief Strong Language)
Genre: Sci-Fi, Mystery & Thriller, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 11, 2016, Wide
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Jan 27, 2017
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 31, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $100.5M
Runtime: 1h 56m
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital

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