How do you communicate with someone who doesn’t speak the same language as you? Arrival was awarded the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (2017) and Grande Prêmio do Cinema Brasileiro for Best International Feature Film (2017). Directed by Denis Villeneuve, who also directed films such as Dune and Blade Runner. Starred by Amy Adams with Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, and Micheal Stuhlbarg. Arrival has a talented staff that has created this must see film.

Arrival is a science fiction film that goes on the take of an alien invasion, where 12 extraterrestrial spaceships have shown up around the world. Instead of being tyrants that are trying to dominate the cosmos, they are a peaceful species that is asking for help. While the aliens are trying to communicate with the main character, Louise Banks, is a linguistics professor that is hired by the government to make an attempt to understand the aliens. The film becomes a race of understanding the aliens before other nations attack the alien spaceships, resulting in a global war.

The character that stood out to me was Hannah, Louise’s daughter. She plays a huge part in the film, despite the little screen time she gets. Without getting into spoilers, Hannah is the key part in understanding what happened in the film as to why the film ended the way it did. At the end, the first time I saw it, I didn’t understand what happened. As I watched it a second time, I got parts of the film I ignored or thought was irrelevant and was able to fill in the gaps and understand what had happened.

Overall, Arrival is definitely one of the best science fiction films. With a thought provocting that makes you question how language can be used. A film that I would recommend to translators or linguists as they have a better understanding of Louise’s perspective throughout the film. Even if you aren’t a translator or a linguist, I would still recommend Arrival to any Sci-Fi enjoyer as how can you understand what happened in the film without seeing it?