Director
Denis Villeneuve
Leading Actors/Actresses
Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner
Supporting Actors/Actresses
Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Mark O'Brien
Genre
Science-Fiction
Language
English
Awards
Arrival won the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing and was nominated for the following Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Production Design
Date of Release
November 11th, 2016
Producer
Shawn Levy, Dan Levine, Aaron Ryder, and David Linde
Setting and Context
Montana, the United States
Narrator and Point of View
Throughout the point of view of narrator Dr. Louise Banks
Tone and Mood
Apprehensive, Sad, Solemn, Exploratory, Revelatory, Mysterious, and Energetic
Protagonist and Antagonist
Louise vs. Communication
Major Conflict
The conflict of the film is Louise's struggle to figure out the Heptapod language before other nations (all of whom are struggling to communicate with each other and the aliens) do.
Climax
The climax of the film occurs when the bomb that was planted by rebellious soldiers goes off, thus damaging the Heptapod ship.
Foreshadowing
The soldiers' coup is foreshadowed early on in the film Ian and Louise's love interest is foreshadowed early on in the film.
Understatement
The transformative nature of the Heptapod language is understated throughout the film.
The communication issues between the countries is understated throughout the film.
Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques
While not innovative in filming or lighting or camera techniques, Arrival was incredibly well-shot and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography.
Allusions
Allusions to science (there are a wide variety of scientists throughout the film who use scientific jargon and allude to science-related things), literature (predominately the short story on which this film was based, but also Slaughterhouse Five), the Bible (the Book of Revelation and references to end of the world, specifically), science, mythology, linguistics (some of the terms/processes' used by Amy Adams' character), popular culture, other films, history (the history of supposed alien contact and of the United States, especially), and technology.
Paradox
The aliens have not attacked humans and remain peaceful yet the humans feel threatened and nearly attack the ships.
Parallelism
There are no significant instances of parallelism in Arrival.
