5 Surprisingly Realistic Depictions Of Aliens In Movies

1. The Heptapods - Arrival

Arrival Aliens
Paramount Pictures

What distinguishes the Heptapods from the other entries on this list is their utter alien-ness, and that’s not a joke.

Look, while The Ocean and The Shimmer may be faceless, formless entities, they have the capability to merge with our minds and bodies.

And where Ellie’s father and the Draags, similarly, may operate on different plains of existence, they’re still reflections of us.

But the aliens of Denis Villeneuve’s 2016 sci-fi puzzle box are neither part of us nor an extension of ourselves.

As higher-dimensional beings, the Heptapods are able to perceive time in its totality, rather than from moment to moment like we do, and this little detail affects not only the way they communicate, but the way they think.

In fact, the Heptapods are so different from us that it took an entire movie just to figure out what they are, and for that reason alone they take the number one spot.

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Tim Brinkhof hasn't written a bio just yet, but if they had... it would appear here.