Arrival (film)

The film was the brainchild of screenwriter Eric Heisserer conceived in order to popularize the works of Ted Chiang.

Arrival is based on the Nebula-winning science fiction novella "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang, written in 1998. The novella involves Earth's first communication with heptapods who speak in a cryptic language. Screenwriter Eric Heisserer had been introduced to the story through another of Chiang's stories, "Understand", and had begun reading through Chiang's collected works when "Story of Your Life" had a "profound emotional effect" on him. As a result, he decided to try to adapt the story into a film script as he wanted to share it with a wider audience.[11] After writing an initial spec script, Heisserer pitched it to production companies for several years without receiving any interest and nearly gave up on the project.[12] Heisserer believes it was not until he had successfully completed and produced 2013's Hours that others took interest in his work, his having proved himself capable.[11] Eventually, Dan Levine and Dan Cohen of 21 Laps Entertainment expressed interest in Heisserer's script. Shawn Levy of 21 Laps said they had become aware of "Story of Your Life" around 2011 and considered it a powerful work; when they learned of Heisserer's script adaptation, they started working closely with him, helping him refine the script before they began seeking a director and distribution studio.[13]

Director Denis Villeneuve had been seeking out a science fiction film to make prior to being approached to direct.

One of the directors that 21 Laps approached was Denis Villeneuve. Villeneuve had wanted to make a science fiction film for some time, although he "never found the right thing".[14] Cohen and Levine, however, introduced Villeneuve to the novella, which the director immediately took to, although his work on Prisoners meant that he did not have the time to properly adapt it into a screenplay with Heisserer.[14] Heisserer completed a first draft, which Villeneuve and Heisserer reworked into the final script.[14] Villeneuve changed the title, as he felt the original sounded like a romantic comedy and that the script had become very different from the short story.[14] While Villeneuve went through "hundreds" of possible titles, Arrival was the first one his team of producers and writers had suggested.[14]

Heisserer had made several changes from "Story of Your Life" between writing his original screenplays and the final script, the main one being that the heptapods actually arrived on Earth in a type of first contact situation, as he felt this helped to create the tension and conflict needed for a film.[11] Heisserer said that earlier versions of the script had a different ending: the gift from the heptapods was to have been "blueprints to an interstellar ship, like an ark of sorts", to enable humanity to help them in 3,000 years. But after the release of Interstellar in 2014, Heisserer and Villeneuve agreed that this would not work, and decided that the heptapods' gift would be what was "there in front of us … the power of their language".[15]

Amy Adams entered negotiations to star in the film in April 2014,[16] and would be confirmed by the time Jeremy Renner joined the film in March 2015.[17] Forest Whitaker signed on in April, with Michael Stuhlbarg joining soon after in June.[18][19] Adams, who was playing a linguistics professor in the film, consulted with linguist Jessica Coon to prepare for her role.[20]

The municipality of Saint-Fabien, Quebec doubled for the state of Montana.

Principal photography lasted for 56 days, beginning on June 7, 2015, after Renner had fulfilled his obligations to Captain America: Civil War.[17] Filming was done mainly in and around Montreal, Quebec, with Saint-Fabien serving as Montana.[21][22] The team took some time to find the right site to represent the landing of the spacecraft because producers wanted to avoid a mountainous site that might dwarf the scale of the ship, but thought that a barren location would be clichéd.[23] Most of the filming that did not involve the exterior of a ship was done indoors on sound stages, although a real house located in Chemin de l'Île, Vaudreuil-Dorion, was used as Banks's home.[23][24] The scenes of the university where Banks teaches were shot at HEC Montréal.[25] Bradford Young was sought out by Villeneuve as he was looking for a cinematographer with a sensibility toward natural lighting. Said Villeneuve: "I wanted the movie to have strong roots in realism. I wanted a cinematographer who would not be afraid to deal with intimacy. It’s a very specific sensibility that I felt in Bradford’s previous work."[26] Color timing was used as a means of matching Louise's state of mind at a given moment. Young stated "I went for cooler colors when I wanted Amy to feel worn down. We tried to pull back on that a little bit, but then Denis stopped me in the [color timing] and told me not to be so concerned about skin tone and let her be pasty, let her exist in that melancholy space, let us feel that visually."[27] When discussing the film with Villeneuve, Young described the director's goal of making a "dirty" science fiction film, by making the look of the film more grounded and "slightly boring" as Villeneuve put it. Additionally, Young looked towards the book Speedway by photographer Martina Hoogland Ivanow as a reference for the look of the film.[28]

Production designer Patrice Vermette discussed the film in a February 2017 interview with Popular Mechanics, stating that a big influence on the look of the film was the works of artist James Turrell, particularly the design of the meeting room aboard the alien craft. "I wanted the simplicity and the sensorial experience you feel in a room like that. That big screen was always there in the script, and I used it as an element to unite Louise's world. For me, that big screen is more than a screen—that room, which they called in the script 'the interview room,' is a classroom. That big white screen, [you see it] represented in Louise's house with the big window. You also see it in her school, in her classroom."[29]

Rodeo FX completed 60 visual shots for the film, and stated that the biggest challenge for them was the sequence in which Louise and Ian first enter the alien craft.[30]

The asteroid 15 Eunomia is the inspiration for the look of the heptapod ships.[31]

Both the book and the screenwriting required the invention of a form of alien linguistics which recurs in the plot. The film uses a script designed by the artist Martine Bertrand (wife of the production designer Patrice Vermette), based on scriptwriter Heisserer's original concept. Computer scientists Stephen and Christopher Wolfram analyzed it to provide the basis for Banks's work in the film.[32][33] Their works are summarized in a GitHub repository.[34] Three linguists from McGill University were consulted. The sound files for the alien language were created with consultation from Morgan Sonderegger, a phonetics expert. Lisa Travis was consulted for set design during the construction of the scientist's workplaces. Jessica Coon, a Canada Research Chair in Syntax and Indigenous Languages, was consulted for her linguistics expertise during the review of the script.[35] Heisserer said at the Alamo Drafthouse's Fantastic Fest premiere of Arrival at the end of September 2016[36] that Shang's wife's last words, translated into English, were "In war, there are no winners, only widows".[37] Villeneuve decided not to include subtitles for the line; Heisserer said he would have preferred it not be kept secret, and was happy to reveal the translation.[38]

Jóhann Jóhannsson began writing the score as the shooting started, drawing on the screenplay and concept art for inspiration. He developed one of the main themes in the first week using vocals and experimental piano loops.[39] The original soundtrack was released by Deutsche Grammophon on November 11, 2016.[40]

Max Richter's pre-existing piece "On the Nature of Daylight" is featured in the film's opening and closing scenes. Due to the prominent use of Richter's music, which had also featured in Martin Scorsese's film Shutter Island, Jóhannsson's score was deemed ineligible for the Academy Award for Best Original Score, the rationale being that voters would be influenced by the use of pre-existing music when judging the merits of the score.[41]

Arrival was released on Digital HD on January 31, 2017[54] and on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD on February 14, 2017.[55][56]

Arrival grossed $100.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $102.8 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $203.4 million, against a production budget of $47 million.[3]

In the United States and Canada, Arrival was released alongside Almost Christmas and Shut In, and was originally expected to gross around $17 million from 2,317 theaters in its opening weekend, with the studio projecting a more conservative debut of $12–15 million.[2] The film made $1.4 million from Thursday night previews at 1,944 theaters and $9.4 million on its first day, pushing projections up to $24 million. It ended up grossing $24.1 million over the weekend, finishing third at the box office.[57] In its second weekend, the film grossed $12.1 million (a drop of 49.6%), and in its third made $11.5 million (dropping just 5.6%).[58] Following its eight Oscar nominations, the film returned to 1,221 theaters on January 27, 2017 (an increase of 1,041 from the week before) and grossed $1.5 million (up 357.4% from its previous week's $321,411).[59]

Amy Adams's performance as Louise Banks garnered widespread critical acclaim.[60]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 94% based on 439 reviews, with an average rating of 8.40/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Arrival delivers a must-see experience for fans of thinking person's sci-fi that anchors its heady themes with genuinely affecting emotion and a terrific performance from Amy Adams."[61] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 81 out of 100, based on 52 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[62] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[57]

Robbie Collin of The Telegraph praised the film, calling it "introspective, philosophical and existentially inclined—yet [it] unfolds in an unwavering tenor of chest-tightening excitement. And there is a mid-film revelation—less a sudden twist than sleek unwinding of everything you think you know—that feels, when it hits you like your seat is tipping back."[63] Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave the film three out of four: "It's a movie designed to simultaneously challenge viewers, move them and get them talking. For the most part, it succeeds."[64] For Time, Sam Lansky described it as "sophisticated, grownup sci-fi: a movie about aliens for people who don't like movies about aliens".[65] IGN reviewer Chris Tilly gave it a score of 8.5 out of 10, saying: "Arrival is a language lesson masquerading as a blockbuster, though much more entertaining than that sounds… it's smart, sophisticated sci-fi that asks big questions, and does a pretty good job of answering them".[66] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times praised Adams's performance, stating "Arrival is really Adams’ film, a showcase for her ability to quietly and effectively meld intelligence, empathy, and reserve".[60] Writing for USA Today, Brian Truitt referred to Adams as a "definite Oscar contender", and credited Adams as "spectacular in giving Louise the right emotional balance".[67]

Conversely, Forrest Wickman of Slate had a more mixed opinion of the film, praising the cinematography and musical score, but stating that he thought it was similar to Christopher Nolan's "only intermittently stellar" Interstellar, and criticizing the dialogue as "clunky".[68]

Rex Reed, writing for the New York Observer, gave the film one out of four, calling it Villeneuve's "latest exercise in pretentious poopery"[69] and referring to a lack of action in the storyline.

The Guardian rated it as the third-best film of 2016.[70] Critic Catherine Shoard said that it "amounts to something transcendent; something to reignite your excitement for cinema, for life".[71] Numerous other publications and websites, including io9,[72] Den of Geek,[73] Mir Fantastiki,[74] The Atlantic,[75] Blastr,[76] and Digital Trends[77] named Arrival the best film of 2016.

David Adger, a linguistics professor who teaches at Queen Mary University of London, had a favorable view of the accuracy of the linguistics in Arrival, saying that "the portrayal of trying different hypotheses about the language, coming up with generalizations, and testing them out was spot on."[78]

Similarly, Jessica Coon, a linguistics professor who teaches at McGill University and helped with the film's linguistics, stated that "what the film gets exactly right is both the interactive nature but also that you really have to start small." She noted that the creators had not invented a complete language.[79]

Linguistics professor Betty Birner, who teaches at Northern Illinois University, said that the film's use of the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis went "beyond anything that is plausible". She also felt the film oversimplified the process of translating the aliens' language, skipping straight from Banks establishing the basic vocabulary of the language, to her being able to understand abstract concepts such as "weapon".[80]

Arrival received numerous nominations and awards. At the 89th Academy Awards, it won the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing, and had received nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Production Design and Best Sound Mixing.[81] Additionally, at the 74th Golden Globes, Adams had received a nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, and composer Jóhann Jóhannsson had received a nomination for Best Original Score.[82]