10 Best Sci-Fi Movies Of The 21st Century

Arrival is distinctive in part for being told from an engaging, female perspective. You might expect a typical close encounter narrative, but what you get is a deeply human story that will continue to cause the most common sci-fi narrative (meeting alien races) to evolve for years to come.

It's notable that the antagonists in Arrival are the US government. Unlike other alien encounter narratives such as Independence Day, here the military are framed as brash, headstrong and jumpy. Rather than wait for Amy Adams' linguistics expert Dr Louise Banks and her team to comprehend the language that the visitors speak, they instead want to jump the gun (quite literally) and issue ultimatums for them to vacate Earth immediately.

Incorporating the evolving perceptions within science on the nature of time, the alien language enables Dr Banks to experiences memories of things that have yet to occur. This makes for compelling sci-fi because the story sticks with the human experience. Rather than cheer on the military, Arrival encourages us to reflect on the development of Banks' newfound powers as analogous to how encounters with things distinct from our own culture can enrich and expand our perception now.