“Language is the first weapon drawn in a conflict.” So says the first teaser for Arrival, the alien drama from director Denis Villeneuve that follows a linguist (Amy Adams) assigned to communicate with extra-terrestrials who have landed on Earth. Forest Whitaker and Jeremy Renner co-star as members of the team sent to make contact with the mysterious creatures.
Villeneuve has proven himself a master at building suspense in films like Prisoners and Sicario, and this first look suggests that Arrival will take the same approach, with humanity’s first alien encounter relying on words, rather than guns, blazing, at least to start. (The spot’s title, intriguingly, is “Global War.”) As for the aliens themselves, the teaser lives up to its name—though we see the outside of an intimidating, podlike ship, its passengers are nowhere in sight. “You’ll see soon enough,” a military official warns ominously.
The film makes its own arrival in theaters Nov. 11.
