Directed by Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Sicario), the film is based on Ted Chiang’s 1998 novella Story of Your Life with a script with Eric Heisserer (The Thing (2011)). When mysterious spacecraft touch down across the globe, an elite team – lead by expert linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) – are brought together to investigate.
As mankind teeters on the verge of global war, Banks and the team race against time for answers – and to find them, she will take a chance that could threaten her life, and quite possibly humanity.
“This isn’t a graphic-novel universe or creating a new universe. This happens in our world today, as it exists,” Adams said previously of the grounded approach. “Not having to transport myself to a universe where superheroes exist, which is also fun, really helped me ground the character and the experience.”
Renner also spoke about the film’s tone, saying it’s not like a “big Michael Bay alien movie” but instead compared it to the works of Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg. “If you’re a parent, it’s going to wreck you,” he said. “It’s big and there are thriller elements and tension, but it’s going to lean much more into a thinking person’s film.”
