History Film / Arrival

* BigGood: [[spoiler:The Heptapods]].

* BenevolentAlienInvasion: The alien ships appear on Earth at twelve random sites and do nothing but attempt to communicate with the humans they encounter. It even seems that they're deliberately affecting the atmosphere in their ships to accommodate the humans. Still, the worlds' governments must remain suspicious of the aliens for fear of human extinction, and a few of the aliens' more ambiguous statements give a lot of credence to the idea that they are attempting to divide humanity before an attempt at war. [[spoiler:It turns out the aliens arrived to help humans see beyond time, as repayment for saving the aliens in the future.]]

** Early in the film, when Louise is on the phone to her mother, she tells her not to watch "that network" because the people on it are "idiots," implying that the channel has a long-standing reputation of it. Viewers can fill in [[Creator/FoxNewsChannel Fox News]] or MSNBC according to taste.

* TimeBomb: [[spoiler: Captain Marks and the escort team plant [=C4=] [[IncrediblyObviousBomb with a visible timer]] inside the alien ship. They didn't expect anyone to show up, it's facing off to the side, it looks like another piece of equipment, and [[IncrediblyObviousBomb it doesn't conspicuously beep or have a flashing red light]], so Louise and Ian fail to notice it. The Heptapods do notice, but they can't properly convey the danger to Louise and Ian until it's too late to do anything.]]

** [[spoiler: Louise learns how to sway General Shang because she already did in the future. It's strongly hinted he also knew he had to close the loop, saying he came to the conference ''specifically'' to speak to ''her'', and to show her his phone number and tell her his wife's dying words in Chinese -- which she uses in the "present" to dissuade him from launching an attack on the aliens.]]

* SequencingDeception: The scene with [[spoiler:Louise raising her daughter only for her to die at twelve years old]] doesn't actually take place at the beginning chronologically, but represents [[spoiler:the heptapods allowing her to know this will happen in the future.]]

** Did General Shang [[spoiler: also gain the ability to perceive time non-linearly?]] The film itself hints that this could be the case and the reason [[spoiler: he specifically talks to Louise to tell her the phrase she previously told him]], but doesn't directly state either way.

** [[spoiler: What "wrong decision", exactly, was Ian angry about? Was it not telling him earlier about Hannah's fate? Was it choosing to have Hannah, knowing that she'd die young? Was it marrying him in the first place, knowing how everything would turn out?]]
** On that note, [[spoiler:why did Hannah scream "I HATE YOU!" at Louise? Was it just another argument, or did Hannah learn of the predetermination of her life?]]

''Arrival'' is a 2016 science fiction drama film directed by Creator/DenisVilleneuve and written by Eric Heisserer, [[TheFilmOfTheBook based on the short story]] "Story of Your Life" by author Creator/TedChiang. The film stars Creator/AmyAdams, Creator/JeremyRenner and Creator/ForestWhitaker.

* SceneryPorn: Being a Denis Villeneuve movie, it naturally features quite a bit of this. A standout example, however, is Louise and Ian's arrival at the base camp.

* AllPlanetsAreEarthlike: Subverted. Ian speculates that the limited window in which humans can enter the ships is because of the aliens breathing an atmosphere different from Earth's and having to cycle the ship's systems

** Gary Donnelly is the name of the physicist working with Louise in the original story. His name was changed to Ian for the film.

* MeaningfulName: When Louise's daughter questions the reason for her name, "Hannah", Louise explains that her name is a palindrome, that is, it is spelled the same backwards as it is forward. This reflects the theme of the film in that [[spoiler: the story starts as it finishes, due to the story's events existing in a non-linear timeline. The opening few scenes of the film are simultaneously the beginning and the end, as is the case with the order of letters that make up Hannah's name.]]

** An angry right-wing radio host who complains that the government is mishandling the situation, accuses said government of defanging the military and ruining health care, and demands a military show of force to prove America means business. By all appearances, it's a thinly veiled portrayal of Radio/RushLimbaugh.

* ChekhovsGunman: One of the soldiers accompanying Louise and Ian to the shell is seen later on the phone trying to calm down his nearly hysterical wife, who's convinced he's going to be killed by the aliens. Later he is shown listening to a Rush Limbaugh-esque talk radio host demanding a preemptive strike on the aliens. He eventually [[spoiler:sets a C-4 charge in the ship trying to destroy it, mortally wounding "Abbott" in the process]].

* CloseOnTitle: The movie title only appears at the start of the end credit.

* {{Infodump}}: After the scene where Louise and Ian are able to establish who they are individually to the Heptapods, we get a montage where Ian in voiceover covers various discoveries about the Heptapods and their language over a period of several months, allowing us to skip to the point where Louise is ordered to ask what exactly the aliens want. It sticks out a bit as it's the only non-diegetic dialogue given by Ian in the entire film.

* SceneryPorn: Being a Denis Villeneuve movie, it naturally features quite a bit of this. A standout example, however, is Louise and Ian's arrival at the base camp.

** After Louise's daughter dies in the prologue, Louise is seen walking down a hallway that is clearly curving into a circle [[spoiler: indicating both the films ArcSymbol and the [[StableTimeLoop nature of the heptapods', and later her own, abilities]]]].

* {{Homage}}: The film includes a dream sequence in which Louise looks at something off-camera, and a cut reveals that it's an enormous heptapod that flexes its legs. This is a reference to the much more shocking last scene of Villeneuve's previous film ''Film/{{Enemy}}''.

* KuleshovEffect: The film received praise for its mastery of this film technique. [[spoiler: We ''assume'' that the scenes after we see Hannah die indicate that Louise is sleepwalking through life in a deep depression over her daughter's passing and trying to recover from it. However, our assumption turns out wrong.]]

* BookEnds: When Louise's daughter questions the reason for her name, "Hannah", Louise explains that her name is a palindrome, that is, it is spelled the same backwards as it is forward. This reflects the theme of the film in that [[spoiler: the story starts as it finishes, due to the story's events existing in a non-linear timeline. The opening few scenes of the film are simultaneously the beginning and the end, as is the case with the order of letters that make up Hannah's name.]]
-->'''Louise:''' I used to think this was the beginning of your story.
-->'''Louise:''' So, [[spoiler: Hannah]]...this is where your story begins.

* MeaningfulName: [[spoiler: Louise names her daughter Hannah because it's spelled as a palindrome. The choice of having it be a palindrome echoes Louise's ability to perceive memories of her daughter before experiencing their events. The film's prologue can also be interpreted as a temporal palindrome as it's the story of Hannah's existence and is book-ended with the same circumstances; Hannah's life begins and ends in a hospital bed where her mother reaches to embrace her and tells her to "Come back to me."]]

* LethallyExpensive: They play a voice recording from a secure Russian channel which we have to assume was paid for with the life of the person relaying it, judging by the machine-gun fire at the end of the transmission.

* SpiritualSuccessor: In many ways to ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'' and ''Film/{{Contact}}''.

* TooDesperateToBePicky: Col. Weber acknowledges that there are probably better suited linguists in America but Louise is an expert, already has top secret security clearance from doing some translating for military intelligence, and the government needs to get to work too quickly to clear someone else.

* TooDesperateToBePicky: Col. Weber acknowledges that there are probably better linguists in America but Louise already has top secret security clearance from doing some translating for military intelligence and the government needs to get to work too quickly to clear someone else.

* AdaptationExpansion: [[spoiler: All the other ships that landed on Earth, the Chinese plot and the events after the aliens' departure are expanded.]]

They discover the ship is inhabited by two cephalopod-like "heptapods" (after their seven limbs), who communicate by forming ink into complex circular symbols. As Louise and the heptapods slowly learn each other's languages, a geopolitical drama plays out in the background as competing governments attempt to discover the aliens' purpose.