An Oscar-Winning Sci-fi Movie Just Landed on Tubi

Tubi’s streaming service just gained one of the most critically acclaimed Oscar-winning movies ever, so you can now stream it online at your leisure. In the last decade, some of the most original, imaginative, and exciting science fiction movies have been developed. Thanks to the likes of 2015’s The Martian, 2016’s 10 Cloverfield Lane, 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water, and many more, sci-fi has excelled in recent years. One of director Denis Villeneuve’s best sci-fi movies played an important role in this expansion, and you can now catch 2016’s Arrival on Tubi.

Based on Ted Chiang’s 1998 short story, Story of Your Life, Arrival originally premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September 2016 before getting a theatrical release in the United States on November 11, 2016. The movie has been available on a number of streaming platforms in the years since its release, and it has now found a new home on Tubi as of July 22, 2025. Arrival is considered to be not only one of the best movies of 2016, but one of the most memorable and poignant movies in history, and a gem in Villeneuve’s filmography.

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Arrival sees linguist world-renowned Louise Banks (Amy Adams) hired by the United States Army to learn how to communicate with mysterious extraterrestrials who arrive on Earth without warning. It’s up to Louise and physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) to work out the aliens’ language before rising tensions turn to a global war, but they soon realize that the aliens – dubbed Heptapods because of their seven limbs – experience time non-linearly. As Louise gets a hold of the Heptapods’ language, she begins to experience time as they do, so we, too, see past, present, and future in non-chronological order.

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Prior to Arrival’s release, Villeneuve hadn’t really dabbled in the world of science fiction, having developed celebrated projects such as Prisoners, Enemy, and Sicario. Since 2016, however, Villeneuve has become a sci-fi icon, with movies including Blade Runner 2049 and the Dune remake franchise under his belt. Arrival marked a huge turning point in Villeneuve’s career and the landscape of sci-fi in cinema as a whole, and it continues to have an impact to this day, making Arrival’s arrival on Tubi even more exciting.

While it was nominated for eight Academy Awards, Arrival only brought home the award for Best Sound Editing – though it certainly deserved more. Adams, Renner, Villeneuve, and the movie itself brought home many more accolades, making Arrival one of the most celebrated and acclaimed movies of its generation. It’s well deserve a watch on Tubi if you haven’t already seen it – Arrival is essential viewing for any sci-fi fan.

What did you make of Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival? Let us know in the comments!