Agent Halpern: “We have to consider the idea that our visitors are prodding us to fight among ourselves until only one faction prevails.”

Dr. Louise Banks: “There’s no evidence of that.”

Agent Halpern: “Sure there is. Just grab a history book. The British with India, the German with Rwanda.”

Director Denis Villeneuve gets the emotional balance right.  Where there’s fascination, there’s confusion.  Where there’s curiosity, there’s the unknown.  Where there’s possibility, there’s anarchy.  The film presents this momentous event as a contemplation that we’re not alone in the universe.  A higher power exists and it’s a daunting prospect.  Taking a page out of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the ships are strange yet monolithic in design, appearing mysteriously all over the globe in locations that won’t distract you.  Just like 2001, we could be on the cusp of greater intelligence or the next phase of evolution.

It’s the fear of what we don’t understand that drives Arrival.

We see the contrasting effects on how people respond to the event.  Some are calm and rational like Dr. Louise Banks (played by the brilliant Amy Adams) and Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner).  They take a logical approach using their background knowledge of linguistics and physics to analyse the ever-changing situation.  Others take a self-destructive path – there’s panic on the streets, looting and finger-pointing, upholding and justifying the blame culture.  We’ve become obsessed and gripped by 24 hour news networks trying to determine any bit of factual nugget that we can reassure our existence by.  In a battle of self-preservation, we use what we know.  We respond by force as a method of expression and Louise and Ian have to battle against those with trigger happy urges in order to understand the true purpose of the aliens.

But here’s the best part about Arrival.  It conveys something deeper than a simple alien invasion tale.  It uses a religious allegory to cement its core theme and idea – the story of Babylon.

Ironically, the story of Babylon was used in a recent X-Files episode (titled Babylon) and while Chris Carter’s intent was there, the execution was sadly rushed.  Arrival gets a better handle on the subject.

It’s the idea on how languages were born in the first place.  As described in the book of Genesis, “everyone on Earth spoke the same language” and yet the human race was punished for building a structure that could be “tall enough to reach Heaven”.  God, angered by this act then scattered humans all over the world.  As a final task, God removed our ability to understand each other.

The story of Babylon and the Tower of Babel seems so relevant.  Arrival takes the great effort to demonstrate how communication can be a simple way of engaging with others.  To rebuild or establish relationships and to view a different opinion.  What Dr. Louise Banks showcases is empathy and understanding to accomplish her goal.  Yet as she goes through struggles (both professionally and personally), it’s evidently clear as to why the path is not easy.

Our planet has become Babylon.  Everyone is talking and yet there’s not enough listening.  We’ve seen it all around us in 2016 in our political debates and our media.  Whether it’s Brexit or the US Presidential Election, an insensitive ugliness has emerged.  Our necessity to put our point across whether its true or not (because no one seems to fact check anything any more), outweighs what others are saying.  Whoever shouts the loudest is given a bigger platform to dominate over sense and reason.  All this helps to spread fear and misunderstanding and Arrival makes that point known very clearly.  Military soldiers decide to take action into their own hands against the needs of the scientists.  Global nations react like dominoes over the political repercussions on the alien discovery.

It’s a scary world we live in and you wonder to yourself who’s the biggest threat – the aliens or ourselves?

That’s why characters like Louise Banks is so important from a narrative perspective.  Even during the darkest moments of the film, she still manages to find hope through the questionable madness.  There is a simple purpose that we could all learn from.  We need to find a common language again. In Close Encounters of the Third Kind, it was the iconic five tone notes that brought people together.  The common language was music.  But whatever our common, universal language is, it is only then that humanity could have a chance to progress, move forward, unite and evolve.  Arrival introduces that concept with a very clever twist which goes beyond any realms of predictability.

Arrival is only let down by its ending, sadly the weakest part of the film.  The last few lines of the film was not needed.  Visually Arrival is a fantastic and beautifully looking film, thanks to the work of cinematographer, Bradford Young.  The film spoon-feeds you the answer when it was evidently clear what was happening.  Secondly, Arrival is wrapped up like a neat bow to conclude things.  It does leaves some mystery for you to take away but in terms of resolution of the characters, the film didn’t need to be a closed book.

But in all honesty, they were trivial.  As I’ve learnt from watching a great deal of sci-fi films, to summarise is always the hardest thing to do.  Films like this gets a pass because you ultimately remember the journey and film’s intent rather than the conclusion.

Arrival showcases the best performance you’ll see by Amy Adams.  Her poise and nuance is perfect to counter-balance an obvious male-dominated arena.

But Arrival also showcases that by working together in a collaborative manner can show the possibilities humanity can achieve.  Not in the Tower of Babel circumstances but certainly better versions of ourselves.

Maybe that is something we can all strive for and that’s what makes Arrival outstanding.

But let’s take comfort that humanity didn’t release a white dove into the sky like Mars Attacks.  We all know how Earth ended up…