Sooner or later, we’re going to make contact with an alien civilization. But what are we going to say to them when they show up? That’s the premise of Denis Villeneuve’s next movie, Arrival, and it promises to be a fascinating one.
Amy Adams plays a linguist, Louise, who’s called in to try and communicate with aliens. Mysterious floating rocks have appeared all over Earth and the planet is divided between people who want to see what the aliens are thinking and those who want to nuke them before they can nuke us. Needless to say, speaking to aliens is a high-pressure situation even when Earth isn’t hanging in the balance. Hopefully the aliens don’t show up with a copy of To Serve Man.
The trailer may seem to be from the same slightly ominous mold as most “prestige” science-fiction movies these days, but there’s a lot more to this movie than you might think. It’s based on a Hugo Award winning novella by Ted Chiang called Story of Your Life, which, to avoid spoilers, is essentially about using the tenses of language as a form of time travel. Let’s just say the opening shot of this trailer is a lot more important than you might realize and leave it at that. We’ll see just how important in November.
(Via First Showing)
