MOVIES LIKE
Movies like Arrival
People often look for movies like Arrival for different reasons: the first-contact premise, the quiet tone, the language focus, the nonlinear experience of time or the emotional use of science fiction. These picks are grouped by that intent.
Pick by what you liked most
First contact and science
Contact is the strongest companion if evidence, institutions and communication interested you most.
Time and emotion
Interstellar is larger and more spectacular, but it also makes time a direct emotional problem.
Communication with nonhuman intelligence
Her turns that idea inward through intimacy rather than first contact.
Quiet, controlled science fiction
Ex Machina offers a smaller setting with language, intelligence and trust at the center.
Recommended next watches
Quick recommendation
Start with Contact for the closest thematic match. Choose Interstellar if you want more scale, Her if the emotional communication interested you most, or Ex Machina if you want a more suspicious and claustrophobic tone.