10 Most Heartbreaking Sci-Fi Movie Moments

This entry comes with a pretty big spoiler alert because there's no way to discuss this one without giving away the film's entire plot, so consider yourself warned.

2016's Arrival follows the work of linguist Louise Banks and details her attempts to decipher the language of extraterrestrial beings after first contact.

The film opens with scenes depicting the relationship between Louise and her daughter, who died aged 12 of a terminal illness.

This experience seems to define Banks, a quiet and hardworking woman, and when the dangerous opportunity to make contact with the aliens arises, she takes to it with enthusiasm. They build an incredibly close bond as they learn to communicate with one another.

However, it's later revealed that the creatures have actually come to offer humanity the ability to perceive time differently, and we learn that the death of Louise's daughter is actually a glimpse into her future. The knowledge that her future relationship with then-friend/colleague Ian Donnelly is doomed, and that their future daughter will inevitably die, does nothing to dissuade her from pursuing her own future in an ending as poetic as it is upsetting.