Second Saturday Matinee: Arrival (2016)

Related Organization: Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering, and Technology

After alien spacecraft plant themselves at various locations around the globe, a linguist and a theoretical physicist must find a way to communicate with the mysterious visitors in order to learn what they want and whether they pose a threat to humanity.

Listed as Entertainment Weekly's best alien movie of all time!

Directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Mark O'Brien. Run time: 116 minutes.

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language.

Need more alien fun? Visit our Life Beyond Earth? exhibition!

About the exhibition

Life Beyond Earth? captivates visitors with a history of the scientific search for extraterrestrial life from the 16th century to today. It explores the history of listening for interstellar communications, searching for exoplanets and Earth 2.0, and probing our solar system for alien life. It examines the modern UFO phenomena, from the 1947 crash in Roswell to recent government investigations of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP). Lastly, based on our scientific research here on Earth, it imagines the strange life that could exist on other planets.

At its core, the exhibition aims to spark curiosity and explore the relentless scientific pursuit of finding answers to the challenges of detecting extraterrestrial life.

The exhibition is on view through June 2025.