Arrival is a science fiction film that explores the role of communication and language in our society. After the arrival of 12 alien spacecraft around the globe, the global community must work to communicate with the mysterious extraterrestrial guests to discern their purpose. Amy Adams plays an American linguist Dr. Louise Banks who is tasked with dissecting the complex circular alien language excreted in order to communicate with the voyagers and discover their intent before a global war breaks out as tensions rise internationally. Through her investigation, it is quickly discovered that the language is fundamentally different than human languages–it has no discernible beginning or end but rather is fluid and endless, much like a circle. This reminds me of a TED talk I saw years ago about the impact of the structure of our language. The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis states that your native language determines the way you think and perceive things on a fundamental level. As our native language plays such a strong role in the way we structure and organize our thoughts, nuances within any given language are theorized to impact human perception and experience. Fundamental to this movie is the structure of the alien language and the unique attributes granted to those who are able to comprehend it and thus think in a manner that normally falls beyond the bounds of the human mind constrained by any language of Earth. Overall, I greatly enjoyed Arrival, and I was pleasantly surprised at the departure from some of the standards of the genre–lasers and faster than light travel–to the different focus of diplomacy and interpersonal discovery.