Best fiction movie

Rating: 10/10 (30 January 2017)

Last night I saw Arrival at TIFF and my mind was blown. This is by far Villeneuve's biggest film he has tackled yet with so many strong universal themes but yet also feels very emotional and intimate from the perspective of Amy Adams's character. Arrival is unlike any movie I've ever seen. It's about love, loss, tolerance, language and non-linear time, wrapped in a science fiction story about our first encounter with extraterrestrials. This movie is the best movie.
Louise is lecturing at a university; twelve extraterrestrial spacecraft appear across the planet. U.S. Army Colonel Weber asks her to join a team, with physicist Ian Donnelly, to decipher their language and find out why they have come to Earth. The team is brought to a U.S. military camp in Montana near one of the spacecraft. They call two alien which is nicknames them Abbott and Costello. Louise discovers that they have a written language of complicated circular symbols, and begins to learn the symbols that correspond to a basic vocabulary. As she becomes more proficient, she starts to see and dream vivid images of herself with her daughter.
When Louise is able to ask what the aliens want, they answer: "offer weapon". A similar translation "use weapon" is received by one of the other sites. Fear of a potential threat from the aliens leads other nations to close down communications on the project, and some prepare their military for attack. However, Louise thinks that the symbol interpreted as "weapon" might have an alternative translation, such as "tool" or "technology".
Rogue soldiers plant explosives in the spacecraft. Unaware, Louise and Ian re-enter to communicate with Abbott and Costello again. The aliens give them a much larger and more complex message. Abbott ejects Ian and Louise from the craft as the explosion occurs, which leaves them unconscious.
After Lan and Louise wake up, Ian works out that the symbols relate to the concept of time, and that it is one-twelfth of the whole "gift"; they conclude that the aliens must want nations to cooperate.
Louise rushes back to the spacecraft, which sends down a shuttle to take her inside. She meets Costello, who communicates that Abbott is dying. Louise asks about her visions of a daughter, and Costello explains that she is seeing the future, revealing to her that her "visions" were not flashbacks but flash forwards. Costello also communicates that they have come to help humanity by sharing their language, which is the "weapon" or "tool" because it changes the mind's perception of time. The aliens know that 3000 years into the future they will need humanity's help in return. They ask her to use her "weapon" - her ability to see into the future.
Louise returns as the camp is being evacuated. Louise use her future power to know Shang's wife last words and she use to that to stop Shang's military power (China power). The planned Chinese attack is called off and the other nations resume contact with each other, as the spacecraft disappear from Earth.
When packing to leave the camp, Ian admits his love for Louise. They discuss life choices, and whether they would change them if they knew the future. Louise foresees that Ian will father her daughter Hannah, whose name is an intentional palindrome, and leave her after discovering that she knew their daughter would die before adulthood. Despite also seeing that Ian will leave her when she eventually reveals their daughter's future, when Ian asks her if she wants to have a baby, Louise agrees.