# Arrival (2016)

10 Hacker News commenters recommended Arrival (2016) and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Praised as a top science fiction film and a beautiful adaptation centred on motherhood, love and grief. Caveat: it largely skips how hard communication can be.

## Why people recommend it

- Beautiful, emotional story about motherhood, grief (2 comments): "The movie does not miss anything about the difficulties of communication because that is not what the movie is about: it is about motherhood/parenthood, love, grief." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48398802)) "Arrival is a beautiful adaptation that improves upon the original short story mostly by addition" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48392702))
- Ranked among the best sci-fi films (2 comments): "which I consider one of the best scifi movies of all time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49904900)) "Arrival is one of the best films ever." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47375781))

## What people warn about

- Misses how hard communication is (2 comments): "The movie doesn't focus on these aspects at all, maybe these are hard to adapt in a mainstream Hollywood movie." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48400601)) "I think the movie misses on the part on how hard communication can be" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48394394))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Blade Runner](https://hackerapproved.com/p/blade-runner.md): 54 recommend
- [Colossus: The Forbin Project](https://hackerapproved.com/p/colossus-the-forbin-project.md): 35 recommend
- [Jurassic Park (1993 film)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/jurassic-park.md): 32 recommend
- [The Fifth Element](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fifth-element.md): 24 recommend
- [Terminator 2: Judgment Day](https://hackerapproved.com/p/terminator-2-judgment-day.md): 21 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Arrival (2016)", https://hackerapproved.com/p/arrival/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).