Back to trending
Arrival

Arrival

Drama · Science Fiction · Mystery · 2016

Taking place after alien crafts land around the world, an expert linguist is recruited by the military to determine whether they come in peace or are a threat.

Movie details

Arrival

“Why are they here?”

2016 Drama · Science Fiction · Mystery 1h 56m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

7.6 / 10

Community rating

Taking place after alien crafts land around the world, an expert linguist is recruited by the military to determine whether they come in peace or are a threat.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Arrival?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

K-PAX

K-PAX

Sci-fi · 2001

Prot is a patient at a mental hospital who claims to be from a far away planet. His psychiatrist tries to help him, only to begin to doubt his own explanations.

Moon

Moon

Sci-fi · 2009

With only three weeks left in his three-year contract, Sam Bell is eager to return to Earth. Stationed alone at a Moon-based facility with his computer assistant GERTY, an unexpected accident sets off a series of unsettling events that shake his isolation.

THX 1138

THX 1138

Sci-fi · 1971

People in the future live in a totalitarian society. A technician named THX 1138 lives a mundane life between work and taking a controlled consumption of drugs that the government uses to make puppets out of people. As THX is without drugs for the first time he has feelings for a woman and they start a secret relationship.

The Vast of Night

The Vast of Night

Drama · 2019

At the dawn of the space-race, two radio-obsessed teens discover a strange frequency over the airwaves in what becomes the most important night of their lives and in the history of their small town.

Enemy Mine

Enemy Mine

Drama · 1985

A soldier from Earth crashlands on an alien world after sustaining battle damage. Eventually he encounters another survivor, but from the enemy species he was fighting; they band together to survive on this hostile world. In the end the human finds himself caring for his enemy in a completely unexpected way.

Ad Astra

Ad Astra

Sci-fi · 2019

The near future, a time when both hope and hardships drive humanity to look to the stars and beyond. While a mysterious phenomenon menaces to destroy life on planet Earth, astronaut Roy McBride undertakes a mission across the immensity of space and its many perils to uncover the truth about a lost expedition that decades before boldly faced emptiness and silence in search of the unknown.

Inseparable

Inseparable

Drama · 2012

A troubled engineer faces pressure at work and problems at home with his moody wife. American expat Chuck, rescues him from the brink of despair and becomes an unlikely mentor.

Primer

Primer

Sci-fi · 2004

A group of fledgling inventors discover a complex method to manipulate reality. At first, they successfully game the stock market with it, but the consequences of the invention start to catch up with them.

Solaris

Solaris

Drama · 2002

A troubled psychologist is sent to investigate the crew of an isolated research station orbiting a bizarre planet.

Gravity

Gravity

Sci-fi · 2013

Dr Ryan Stone, an engineer on her first space mission, and Matt Kowalski, an astronaut on his final expedition, have to survive in space after they are hit by debris while spacewalking.

Where it lives

Watch in your region.

Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.

Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Denis Villeneuve

Written by

Eric Heisserer

Amy Adams

Amy Adams

Louise Banks

Jeremy Renner

Jeremy Renner

Ian Donnelly

Forest Whitaker

Forest Whitaker

Colonel Weber

Michael Stuhlbarg

Michael Stuhlbarg

Agent Halpern

Mark O'Brien

Mark O'Brien

Captain Marks

Tzi Ma

Tzi Ma

General Shang

Abigail Pniowsky

Abigail Pniowsky

8-Year-Old Hannah

Court is in session

Put Arrival on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Auteur Devotee

“Form is the argument.”

Every composed frame and deliberate cut is evidence that control can be thrilling in its own right.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Technique in search of a pulse.”

Immaculate construction is still construction. The film may be too busy proving its craft to feel alive.