10 Sci-Fi Movies That Confused Everyone

Arrival was rightly acclaimed as one of the best films of 2016, but it was also one of the most bewildering of that year too.

Aliens have come to Earth, but we cannot communicate with them and so a Linguistic expert, Banks (played by Amy Adams), is flown in to help translate their language and vice versa.

Turns out it's not that simple as their language is incredibly complex, and if you aren't up to scratch with your mathematics or time theory, you're going to have a bad time.

After an emotional journey and complex explorations of the scientific theories, the aliens tell Banks they have come to help us as they will require our help three thousand years from now. They vanish into the atmosphere and leave behind a 'weapon'.

Throughout the movie, we are shown flashbacks of Adams and her daughter who dies from disease and the breakdown of her marriage to Jeremy Renner.

To understand the film you need to understand that these are actually flash-forwards, and the alien's 'weapon' is being able to see into the future. Banks then makes the choice to live out the life she foresaw despite knowing the pain that will be coming due to the love she has for her daughter.

The film doesn't hold your hand and gives little answers when it comes to the Aliens themselves. It's a thinking person's science fiction film. If you only mull on it a while the true heartbreaking beauty of the narrative reveals itself.