Release CalendarDVD & Blu-ray ReleasesTop 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsIn TheatersComing SoonMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV NewsIndia TV Spotlight
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsBest Picture WinnersBest Picture WinnersEmmysAPA Heritage MonthSTARmeter AwardsSan Diego Comic-ConNew York Comic-ConSundance Film FestivalToronto Int'l Film FestivalAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)

Arrival

  • 20162016
  • PG-13PG-13
  • 1h 56m
IMDb RATING
7.9/10
670K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
480
80
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • IMDbPro
Forest Whitaker, Amy Adams, and Jeremy Renner in Arrival (2016)
A linguist is recruited by the military to assist in translating alien communications.
Play trailer1:01
41 Videos
99+ Photos
  • Drama
  • Sci-Fi

A linguist works with the military to communicate with alien lifeforms after twelve mysterious spacecraft appear around the world.A linguist works with the military to communicate with alien lifeforms after twelve mysterious spacecraft appear around the world.A linguist works with the military to communicate with alien lifeforms after twelve mysterious spacecraft appear around the world.

IMDb RATING
7.9/10
670K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
480
80
  • Director
    • Denis Villeneuve
  • Writers
    • Eric Heisserer(screenplay by)
    • Ted Chiang(based on the story "Story of Your Life" written by)
  • Stars
    • Amy Adams
    • Jeremy Renner
    • Forest Whitaker
Top credits
  • Director
    • Denis Villeneuve
  • Writers
    • Eric Heisserer(screenplay by)
    • Ted Chiang(based on the story "Story of Your Life" written by)
  • Stars
    • Amy Adams
    • Jeremy Renner
    • Forest Whitaker
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 2.1KUser reviews
    • 736Critic reviews
    • 81Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Won 1 Oscar
      • 70 wins & 269 nominations total

    Videos41

    Final Trailer
    Trailer 1:01
    Final Trailer
    Final Trailer
    Trailer 1:01
    Final Trailer
    Trailer #1
    Trailer 2:26
    Trailer #1
    Teaser Trailer
    Trailer 1:01
    Teaser Trailer
    Arrival
    Trailer 2:26
    Arrival
    Human
    Clip 0:50
    Human
    Human
    Clip 0:50
    Human
    They Need To See Me
    Clip 0:59
    They Need To See Me
    They Need To See Me
    Clip 0:59
    They Need To See Me
    The Recording R E V
    Clip 0:55
    The Recording R E V
    Kangaroo R E V
    Clip 1:00
    Kangaroo R E V
    Kangaroo R E V
    Clip 1:00
    Kangaroo R E V

    Photos220

    Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner in Arrival (2016)
    Amy Adams in Arrival (2016)
    Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner in Arrival (2016)
    Amy Adams in Arrival (2016)
    Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner in Arrival (2016)
    Jeremy Renner in Arrival (2016)
    Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner in Arrival (2016)
    Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner in Arrival (2016)
    Forest Whitaker in Arrival (2016)
    Amy Adams in Arrival (2016)
    Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner in Arrival (2016)
    Tzi Ma in Arrival (2016)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Amy Adams
    Amy Adams
    • Louise Banksas Louise Banks
    Jeremy Renner
    Jeremy Renner
    • Ian Donnellyas Ian Donnelly
    Forest Whitaker
    Forest Whitaker
    • Colonel Weberas Colonel Weber
    Michael Stuhlbarg
    Michael Stuhlbarg
    • Agent Halpernas Agent Halpern
    Mark O'Brien
    Mark O'Brien
    • Captain Marksas Captain Marks
    Tzi Ma
    Tzi Ma
    • General Shangas General Shang
    Abigail Pniowsky
    Abigail Pniowsky
    • 8-Year-Old-Hannahas 8-Year-Old-Hannah
    Julia Scarlett Dan
    Julia Scarlett Dan
    • 12-Year-Old-Hannahas 12-Year-Old-Hannah
    Jadyn Malone
    Jadyn Malone
    • 6-Year-Old-Hannahas 6-Year-Old-Hannah
    Frank Schorpion
    Frank Schorpion
    • Dr. Kettleras Dr. Kettler
    Lucas Chartier-Dessert
    • Private Laskyas Private Lasky
    Christian Jadah
    Christian Jadah
    • Private Combsas Private Combs
    Lucy Van Oldenbarneveld
    • CNAC Anchoras CNAC Anchor
    Andrew Shaver
    Andrew Shaver
    • Environmental Techas Environmental Tech
    Pat Kiely
    Pat Kiely
    • Environmental Techas Environmental Tech
    Sonia Vigneault
    • Dr. J. Bydwellas Dr. J. Bydwell
    Mark Camacho
    Mark Camacho
    • Richard Rileyas Richard Riley
    Sabrina Reeves
    Sabrina Reeves
    • Press Secretaryas Press Secretary
    • Director
      • Denis Villeneuve
    • Writers
      • Eric Heisserer(screenplay by)
      • Ted Chiang(based on the story "Story of Your Life" written by)
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
    • All cast & crew

    More like this

    Blade Runner 2049
    8.0
    Blade Runner 2049
    The Martian
    8.0
    The Martian
    Gravity
    7.7
    Gravity
    Ex Machina
    7.7
    Ex Machina
    Sicario
    7.6
    Sicario
    Edge of Tomorrow
    7.9
    Edge of Tomorrow
    The Revenant
    8.0
    The Revenant
    Her
    8.0
    Her
    Prisoners
    8.1
    Prisoners
    Enemy
    6.9
    Enemy
    Dunkirk
    7.8
    Dunkirk
    Incendies
    8.3
    Incendies

    Storyline

    Edit
    Linguistics professor Louise Banks leads an elite team of investigators when gigantic spaceships touchdown 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 of mankind. —Jwelch5742
    • linguistics
    • alien contact
    • nonlinear timeline
    • linguist
    • based on short story
    • 226 more
    • Plot summary
    • Plot synopsis
    • Taglines
      • Why are they here?
    • Genres
      • Drama
      • Sci-Fi
    • Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
      • Rated PG-13 for brief strong language
    • Parents guide

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Director Denis Villeneuve and screenwriter Eric Heisserer created a fully functioning, visual, alien language. Heisserer, Villeneuve and their teams managed to create a "logogram bible," which included over a hundred different completely operative logo-grams, seventy-one of which are actually featured in the movie.
    • Goofs
      In the main landings chart the Australian contact point seems to be in the Indian Ocean off Geralton in Western Australia. In a later scene there is a brief shot of an alien spacecraft with central Sydney in the distance across water. Sydney is on Australia's east coast.
    • Quotes

      Louise Banks: Despite knowing the journey... and where it leads... I embrace it... and I welcome every moment of it.

    • Crazy credits
      Denis Villeneuve's daughter, Salomé Villeneuve, is listed as "Hazmat Suit Specialist".
    • Connections
      Featured in The Graham Norton Show: Amy Adams/Jeremy Renner/Chris O'Dowd/Niall Horan (2016)
    • Soundtracks
      On the Nature of Daylight
      Written and Performed by Max Richter

      Courtesy of Deutsche Grammophon GmbH

      Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

    User reviews2.1K

    Review
    Top review
    10/10
    Wow - what a surprise
    Sometimes I can get very irritated by a trailer for giving too much away (case in point, "Room" and more recently "Passengers"). Sometimes I can get very excited by a really good teaser trailer (case in point, "10 Cloverfield Lane"). But most of the time a "ho hum" trailer typically drives the expectation of a "ho hum" film: "Jack Reacher: Never Look Back" being a good recent example. Then there is "Arrival"…

    Because the trailer for "Arrival" belies absolutely nothing about the depth and complexity of the film. At face value, it looks like a dubious "Close Encounters" wannabe, with a threat of movement towards the likes of "Independence Day" and "The 5th Wave". Actually what you get is a film that approaches the grandeur of "Close Encounters" but interlaces it with the intellectual depth of "Inception", the mystery of "Intersteller" and a heavy emotional jolt or two of "Up".

    Amy Adams ("Batman vs Superman") plays Dr Louise Banks, a language teacher at a US university facing a bunch of particularly disengaged students one morning. For good reason since world news is afoot. Twelve alien craft have positioned themselves strategically around the world, hanging a few feet from the ground in just the sort of way that bricks don't. Banks is approached by Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker) and offered the job of trying to communicate with the aliens: where did they come from? why are they here? Banks faces the biggest challenge of her academic career in trying to devise a strategy for communication without any foundation of knowledge on what level communication even works at for them. Assisted by Ian Donelly (Jeremy Renner, "Mission Impossible IV/V", "Avengers"), a theoretical physicist, the pair try to crack the code against a deadline set by the inexorable rise of international tensions – driven by China's General Chang (Tzi Ma, "Veep"; "24").

    Steven Spielberg made a rare error of judgement by adding scenes in his "Special Edition" of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" showing everyman power guy Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) entering the alien spacecraft. Some things are best left to the imagination. Here, a reprise of that mistake seems inevitable, but – perversely – seems to be pulled off with mastery and aplomb. The aliens are well rendered, and the small scale nature of the set (I'm sure I've been in similar dingy waiting rooms in UK railway stations!) is cleverly handled by the environmental conditions.

    But where the screenplay really kills it is in the emergence of the real power unleashed by the translation work. To say any more would deliver spoilers, which I won't do. But this is a masterly piece of science- fiction writing. The screenplay was by Eric Heisserer – someone with a limited scriptwriting CV of horror film reboots/sequels such as "Final Destination 5", "The Thing" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street" – so the portents were not good, which just adds to the surprise. If I were to be critical, some of the dialogue at times is a little TOO clever for its own good and smacks of Aaron Sorkin over-exposition: the comment about "They have a word for it in Hungary" for example went right over my head.

    Denis Villeneuve ("Sicario") deftly directs, leaving the pace of the story glacially slow in places to let the audience deduce what is going on at their own speed. This will NOT be to the liking of movie fans who like their films in a wham-bam of CGI, but was very much to my liking. The film in fact has very little exposition, giving you lots to think about after the credits roll: there were elements of the story (such as her book) that still generated debate with my better half on the drive home.

    Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner are first rate and an effectively moody score by Jóhann Jóhannsson ("Sicario"; "The Theory of Everything") round off the other high-point credits for me.

    An extraordinary film, this is a must see for sci-fi fans but also for lovers of good cinema and well-crafted stories.

    (Agree? Disagree? Please visit bob-the-movie-man.com for the graphical version of this review and to comment. Thanks).
    helpful•493
    209
    • bob-the-movie-man
    • Nov 8, 2016

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • November 11, 2016 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • United States
      • Canada
    • Official sites
      • Official Facebook (France)
      • Official Facebook Page
    • Languages
      • English
      • Russian
      • Mandarin
    • Also known as
      • Story of Your Life
    • Filming locations
      • Montréal, Québec, Canada
    • Production companies
      • Lava Bear Films
      • FilmNation Entertainment
      • 21 Laps Entertainment
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $47,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $100,546,139
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $24,074,047
      • Nov 13, 2016
    • Gross worldwide
      • $203,388,186
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 56 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.39 : 1

    Related news

    Tigertail's Production Was Skirting Disaster From Its Very First Scene
    Tigertail's Production Was Skirting Disaster From Its Very First Scene
    May 19Slash Film
    Searchlight Acquires Annapurna’s ‘Nightbitch’ With Amy Adams, Marielle Heller To Direct
    Searchlight Acquires Annapurna’s ‘Nightbitch’ With Amy Adams, Marielle Heller To Direct
    May 19The Playlist

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    • IMDb Answers: Help fill gaps in our data
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    View list
    List
    The 10 Most Anticipated Marvel and DC Movies
    See the full list
    Image caption not available
    2:14
    The Most Anticipated Movies and Shows to Watch in May
    Watch the video

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    • Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • IMDb Developer
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Interest-Based Ads

    © 1990-2022 by IMDb.com, Inc.