Two New Clips For Arrival Ask The Question: Why Are They Here?

Picture the scene: Humanity is going about its daily business when all of a sudden, vast, elliptical, and decidedly alien ships enter the atmosphere without any forewarning, placing the governments of the world on red alert as they attempt to make first contact.

That is, in a nutshell, the sci-fi story coursing through the veins of Arrival, Denis Villeneuve’s imminent genre piece that tees up something of a Mexican stand-off between human and other. At the crux of the story, though, is Amy Adams as expert linguist Dr. Louise Banks. She’s drafted in by the Powers That Be in a last-ditch attempt to establish a dialog with the extra-terrestrials, though if anything, today’s pair of clips act as a pointed reminder that such communication can prove difficult when countries have their proverbial fingers dangerously close to the button.

Embedded below, you’ll also get a glimpse of Jeremy Renner’s Ian Donnelly, a mathematician who is recruited to the cause. Each snippet is lifted from very different points of the film, so we’d actually advise against watching both if you’re wanting to experience Arrival in three weeks’ time with a relatively blank slate.

Inspired by Ted Chiang’s “Story of Your Life,” Eric Heisserer is the screenwriter that fleshed out Chiang’s short into a feature-length movie, one which also stars Rogue One alum Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg and Tzi Ma.

Buoyed by strong reception coming out of both TIFF and Venice, audiences will finally get to see what all the fuss is about when Arrival descends into theaters on November 11.