With fall upon us, now is the time of year when the days start to get shorter and audiences start looking for movies to curl up with, be it for an idle afternoon watch or a cozy night in. Fall also means that we’re entering spooky season, but not everyone wants thrills, chills, and scares. For some, a sci-fi movie is just the ticket, preferably something more thought-provoking than unsettling and this September, Paramount+ has brought back a movie that fits that bill perfectly — and just so happens to be an absolute masterpiece of the sci-fi genre.
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As of September 1st, 2016’s Arrival is once again available to stream on Paramount+. The film, which comes from Dune filmmaker Denis Villeneuve and stars Marvel Cinematic Universe favorite Jeremy Renner along with Amy Adams, was available on the platform earlier this year before being removed. It’s now back, so audiences have a fresh opportunity to take in what might just be one of the very best alien arrival movies ever made.
Arrival Is The Perfect First Contact Movie
Based on the 1998 short story “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang, Arrival stars Adams as Louise Banks, a linguist who has been enlisted by the United States Army to figure out how to communicate with mysterious extraterrestrials who have come to Earth with technology and ships far more advanced than what the human scientists can comprehend. Louise’s help is critical, as the aliens also do not speak human language or have any real similarities with human beings and their arrival has caused major tension as, without communication, humans can only assume they mean to invade. Renner also stars in the film as physicist Ian Donnelly.
But while the film, on the surface, sounds like another potential alien invasion movie, Arrival is much more. Rather than focusing on the aliens themselves, Arrival’s real story is centered around the humans and humanity at the film’s core. By using a complex, non-linear timeline, viewers are taken on a journey about love, grief, destiny, and the very concept of time. Central to these big themes is the story of Louise and her young daughter who viewers are initially led to believe she is grieving for following losing her to a rare illness, but it soon is revealed that it is much more nuanced than that and posits the deep question of would you still choose something if you knew the outcome going into it is a story that is haunting and tragic, but thanks to Villeneuve’s guiding hand and stellar performances from both Adams and Renner, it’s a story that is deeply beautiful — and only grows more so on repeat watch.
Arrival Isn’t The Only Great Movie Arriving on Paramount+ This Month
While Arrival is among the very best sci-fi movies ever made, it’s also not alone in terms of great movies coming to Paramount+ this month. The streaming platform has added a wide range of movie content so that fans of nearly every genre will be able to find something good to watch — even if they aren’t feeling particularly intellectual about first contact. With Halloween just around the corner, Paramount+’s new additions are particularly great for horror fans with a number of horror and horror-adjacent titles, including The Crow, I Know What you Did Last Summer, the first eight Friday the 13th films, and so much more. There’s even something for Marvel fans if seeing MCU star Renner in Arrival isn’t enough. All three original live-action Blade films are also streaming. You can check out the full list of what’s been added for September here.
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