Who are they?

Where did they come from?

What do they want?

In “Arrival” the world is confronted with an alarming occurrence: 12 alien spaceships, resembling an elongated oval bearing the texture of what looked to be a planetary surface, arrive in different locations on Earth. The military recruit the assistance of Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams), a linguistics professor and highly regarded translator, and military physicist Ian Donnelley (Jeremy Renner) to make contact with the aliens aboard the spacecraft in Montana to get answers to these questions. The other countries — China, Denmark, Venezuela, Russia, Japan, Siberia, the Sudan, Sierra Leone, Pakistan, the Black Sea and Australia — are all attempting to find out the same intel.

Louise is as unnerved by the news as the rest of the world. She is in the middle of a lecture when the news is broadcast in the classroom. Students leave the college and Louise returns to her office to continue watching events on her laptop. Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker) enters her office and tells her she needs to come with them to help the military find out why the aliens are here. She declines. Louise goes home but in the wee hours of the morning the military comes to pick her up anyway. To say she is reticent — and scared silly is an understatement. Her hands shake, and as the camera comes in for a closeup you can see her skin prickling, and the tension on her face. Adams is amazing.

The beings aboard the 1,500-foot spacecrafts are called hepatods. Their “speech” sounds a bit like whales, a bit vibrational, and a bit like, well, those recorded sounds of outer space. The two hepatods Louise and Ian are asked to communicate with are available every 18 hours when the spacecraft opens permitting them and a crew to enter for two hours. The scene in which they first rise up into the ship is excellent. At first, just a glimpse of light appears far above them. The further up they go, they begin to levitate off the riser they're on — gravity giving way.

When the team reaches the top, a swirling gray and white mist is their first sight of the inside of the craft, separated from where they are by a glass-like wall. As they and the audience wait for their first glimpse of the creatures there is shared anticipation. When the hepatods are approaching the wall to meet them they are quite the vision – tall, very tall, tree-like with seven tentacle-like legs.

Louise has brought a sign that says “human.” She speaks the word. Then she decides they need to see her. Louise removes her Hazmat suit (but not before making sure the caged bird they have brought with them is still breathing) against the crew and Colonel Weber's advice. This scene is so, so wonderful. She approaches the glass and raises her hand, placing it on the glass. In a few seconds one of the hepatods lifts a tentacle and places it on the glass next to hers. The bottom of the spread tentacle resembles a starfish. Louise then says, “Now that's an introduction” — and begins to have visions of her daughter Hannah, who died of cancer as a teenager. Ian follows suit by removing his Hazmat gear and introduces himself as well. As they descend out of the craft Ian suggests they call the hepatods Abbott and Costello.

To respond to Louise, one of the hepatods raises a tentacle that then shoots out an an ink-like substance (think squids) onto the window barrier forming an incomplete or open circle. Etched round the circles are different formations (think Rorschach ink blots or Roman crowns of laurel). Each circle, or logogram, is a word — or expresses an emotion. Eventually Louise works this out — and communication really takes off. And, as Louise becomes well-versed (sort of ) in their language she begins to have visions … more of Hannah from babyhood, to visions of Ian, visions of … The visions increase as Louise nails down the hepatods' language.

Louise is making great progress, but that progress isn't quite fast enough. Certainly not fast enough for Colonel Weber or Washington. Rioting has been ongoing around the world as people freak out scared out of their wits. The National Guard was called into Montana. The world over media broadcasts remind people that the spacecrafts have been on earth for days, weeks. Why?

Being pressured to move forward with the questions that need to be answered, Louise asks Costello why they are there. The hepatod responds to the question why are you here with “use weapon.”

It seems that the world over, humankind has reached the same level of communication in different ways, for example, China is communicating through the use of Mahjong symbols — some translating the “use weapon” answer a bit differently, but weapon is the word that stands out. Communication between the countries shuts down. China is threatening to annihilate the craft visiting them. Time is of the essence. What can Louise do to stop this from happening? Ian tells her that their base camp has been given orders to leave. They have to go. Now. Tick-tock. Where is the world's collective humanity?

Louise is the embodiment of all that is humanity in every gesture, every word; and every emotion she experiences, fully and movingly portrayed by Amy Adams. She starts out fearful — anyone would if they were preparing to meet beings from another planet, perhaps another galaxy — but after that first meeting, her interactions with Abbott and Costello grow into a sort of friendship, a bond of mutual respect.

This is a thinking film that explores the properties of time — particularly non-linear time, temporal paradoxes; and humanity. “Arrival” is flawlessly directed by Denis Villeneuve with gorgeous cinematography by Bradford Young, and set to a moving musical score by Johann Johannsson.

“Arrival” is playing at The Harbor Theatre in Boothbay Harbor now through Wednesday, Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. with an additional 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday.