Why I Had A Metaphysical Crisis While Watching Arrival

Warning: This story contains major spoilers about Arrival. I don't usually burst into tears at the end of alien movies. So when my eyes started to well up during the credits of Arrival, Denis Villeneuve's beautiful film about the struggle to communicate with extraterrestrial life when 12 alien "shells" -- or UFOs -- suddenly arrive on Earth, I knew something was up. The film tells the story of Dr. Louise Brooks (Amy Adams), a linguist working at an unnamed university. She's recruited by the gove...