The Arrival
Zane Zaminski (Charlie Sheen), a radio astronomer working for SETI, discovers an extraterrestrial radio signal from Wolf 336 (An F class star. These stars have from 1.0 to 1.4 times the mass of the Su…
The Arrival
Zane Zaminski (Charlie Sheen), a radio astronomer working for SETI, discovers an extraterrestrial radio signal from Wolf 336 (An F class star. These stars have from 1.0 to 1.4 times the mass of the Sun and surface temperatures between 6,000 and 7,600 K), a star 14.6 light years from Earth. Calvin (Richard Schiff) is Zane's colleague at the observatory and Char (Teri Polo) is an investment banker and his girlfriend. As soon as Zane hits the signal, he and Calvin run the entire sequence of detection protocols to confirm that the signal is genuine and from an extra-terrestrial source. Zane runs the first 2 steps of the protocol, but the signal fades away when he tries to get an independent source to verify the signal. The signal lasted 42 seconds. Zane reports this to his supervisor, Phil Gordian (Ron Silver) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, but Phil dismisses the claims. Phil says that Wolf 336 is a variable star and thus no intelligent life can thrive in such a volatile environment. Zane and Calvin say that Wolf 336 was a stable star and has only been variable for the last 50 years or so. Zane speculates that the signal might be a distress call. After Zane leaves, Phil destroys the tape of the signal that Zane brought with him. Zane soon finds that he has been fired because of supposed budget cuts, and blacklisted, preventing him from working at other telescopes. Zane finds that Phil had told the other observatories that Zane was faking signals to keep his job at JPL. When Zane confronts Phil and asks for his tape back, Phil denies any knowledge of it. Calvin tells Zane that the DOD folks have confiscated all of their original research, including the back-up data on the signal. Later the same DOD agents arrive at Calvin's home, presumably killing him. Taking a job as a television satellite installer, he creates his own telescope array using his customers' dishes in the neighborhood, operating it secretly from his attic with help of his young next-door neighbor, Kiki (Tony T. Johnson). Zane relocates the signal, but it is drowned out by a terrestrial signal from a Mexican radio station. Zane is now confused because this signal seems to be Earth based. He knows that the first signal came from space, but then he found the next signal (identical to the first one) coming from Earth. Zane speculates that this is a communication signal. Zane attempts to tell his former coworker, Calvin (Richard Schiff), but finds he has just died suspiciously from carbon monoxide poisoning. Zane travels to Mexico and finds the radio station was burnt to the ground. Searching the local area, he comes across a new power plant. There is an assassination attempt on Zane, and he survives. He runs after the assassin and corner him, but when he is distracted for one second, the assassin folds his legs in a crooked way and jumps over the roof of the nearby building to escape. Zane does not see this. Climatologist Ilana observes that the Earth's temperature has recently risen several degrees, melting the polar ice. She has discovered flower patches growing in the middle of the Arctic ice. Ilana has been trying to get her hands on the satellite data on greenhouse gas concentrations in the Earth's atmosphere to work on her hypothesis, but the data has been denied to her for several months, claiming that the satellite recording the data had a malfunction and the new satellite has not been put in place by NASA. Ilana gets her hands on some data from ground stations, weather balloons and other informal sources and finds that greenhouse trace gases concentration has increased by 700% in specific locations such as Mexico, Ecuador, and Brazil. According to projections, this would lead to 12 degrees rise in Earth's surface temperature over the next 10 years. Ilana decides to travel to Mexico to take further reading and confirm her hypothesis. There, Zane runs into Ilana and helps Ilana Green (Lindsay Crouse) protect her atmospheric analysis equipment from the plant's overzealous security forces. Ilana is investigating the power plant, which seems to be one of several recently built facilities across the world that may be responsible for the rise in temperature. The two are released, but without Ilana's equipment. Surprisingly, Zane realizes one of the guards could pass as the identical twin of his former boss, Phil, except that he is of Mexican ethnicity (whereas Phil is not). As Zane and Ilana regroup, Phil instructs some agents, posing as gardeners, to release an alien device in Zane's attic that creates a miniature black hole, consuming all of Zane's equipment. Zane leaves Ilana to again investigate the power plant and she is soon killed by a deadly scorpion planted in her room. Zane discovers the plant is a front for an underground alien base. The very different looking aliens are able to disguise themselves with an external skin to infiltrate our society. Zane finds that all of the bases expel large amounts of emissions into the atmosphere. Zane is discovered but escapes back into the nearby town and attempts to convince the local sheriff of the situation. However, alien agents bring Ilana's body to the police station, making Zane a suspect in her death, Zane escapes and sneaks back into the United States. Zane accosts Phil on the JPL grounds, forcing him to admit that the aliens are trying to raise the Earth's temperature to not only kill off humans but make the planet hospitable for themselves. Zane secretly records the conversation and once Phil discovers the recording, he sends agents to stop Zane. Zane returns home to find his attic devoid of equipment. He figures out the only way to broadcast the tape is to go to a nearby telescope and beam the signal directly to a television satellite, broadcasting it worldwide. With the help of his girlfriend Char (Teri Polo) and Kiki, he travels to the telescope. Phil and his agents soon disable the telescope controls from the main building. Zane leaves the tape with Kiki and instructs him to transmit it when he gives the order and then he and Char sneak over to the telescope's base and barricade themselves in the control room. Zane makes the necessary adjustments and tells Kiki to active the tape, but Kiki reveals himself to be an alien agent, and opens the door to allow Phil inside and confiscate the tape himself. Phil and his agents ram down the door to the telescope room with a van, but Zane freezes them with cryogenic gases. As he works to free the tape stuck in Phil's frozen jacket, one of the agents drops a sphere which starts to form another singularity in the room. Zane and Char escape through the telescope's optical path before the device implodes most of the telescope base, exiting safely onto on the collapsed dish. In the distance they see Kiki, and Zane tells him to tell the aliens that he will soon broadcast this tape; they watch as Kiki runs off. In the film's epilogue, Zane's conversation with Phil is broadcast across the globe.
The Arrival
Mystery,Sci-Fi,Thriller
Film Details
Zane Zaminski (Charlie Sheen), a radio astronomer working for SETI, discovers an extraterrestrial radio signal from Wolf 336 (An F class star. These stars have from 1.0 to 1.4 times the mass of the Sun and surface temperatures between 6,000 and 7,600 K), a star 14.6 light years from Earth. Calvin (Richard Schiff) is Zane's colleague at the observatory and Char (Teri Polo) is an investment banker and his girlfriend.
As soon as Zane hits the signal, he and Calvin run the entire sequence of detection protocols to confirm that the signal is genuine and from an extra-terrestrial source. Zane runs the first 2 steps of the protocol, but the signal fades away when he tries to get an independent source to verify the signal. The signal lasted 42 seconds.
Zane reports this to his supervisor, Phil Gordian (Ron Silver) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, but Phil dismisses the claims. Phil says that Wolf 336 is a variable star and thus no intelligent life can thrive in such a volatile environment. Zane and Calvin say that Wolf 336 was a stable star and has only been variable for the last 50 years or so.
Zane speculates that the signal might be a distress call. After Zane leaves, Phil destroys the tape of the signal that Zane brought with him. Zane soon finds that he has been fired because of supposed budget cuts, and blacklisted, preventing him from working at other telescopes.
Zane finds that Phil had told the other observatories that Zane was faking signals to keep his job at JPL. When Zane confronts Phil and asks for his tape back, Phil denies any knowledge of it. Calvin tells Zane that the DOD folks have confiscated all of their original research, including the back-up data on the signal.
Later the same DOD agents arrive at Calvin's home, presumably killing him. Taking a job as a television satellite installer, he creates his own telescope array using his customers' dishes in the neighborhood, operating it secretly from his attic with help of his young next-door neighbor, Kiki (Tony T. Johnson).
Zane relocates the signal, but it is drowned out by a terrestrial signal from a Mexican radio station. Zane is now confused because this signal seems to be Earth based. He knows that the first signal came from space, but then he found the next signal (identical to the first one) coming from Earth.
Zane speculates that this is a communication signal. Zane attempts to tell his former coworker, Calvin (Richard Schiff), but finds he has just died suspiciously from carbon monoxide poisoning. Zane travels to Mexico and finds the radio station was burnt to the ground.
Searching the local area, he comes across a new power plant. There is an assassination attempt on Zane, and he survives. He runs after the assassin and corner him, but when he is distracted for one second, the assassin folds his legs in a crooked way and jumps over the roof of the nearby building to escape.
Zane does not see this. Climatologist Ilana observes that the Earth's temperature has recently risen several degrees, melting the polar ice. She has discovered flower patches growing in the middle of the Arctic ice.
Ilana has been trying to get her hands on the satellite data on greenhouse gas concentrations in the Earth's atmosphere to work on her hypothesis, but the data has been denied to her for several months, claiming that the satellite recording the data had a malfunction and the new satellite has not been put in place by NASA. Ilana gets her hands on some data from ground stations, weather balloons and other informal sources and finds that greenhouse trace gases concentration has increased by 700% in specific locations such as Mexico, Ecuador, and Brazil. According to projections, this would lead to 12 degrees rise in Earth's surface temperature over the next 10 years.
Ilana decides to travel to Mexico to take further reading and confirm her hypothesis. There, Zane runs into Ilana and helps Ilana Green (Lindsay Crouse) protect her atmospheric analysis equipment from the plant's overzealous security forces. Ilana is investigating the power plant, which seems to be one of several recently built facilities across the world that may be responsible for the rise in temperature.
The two are released, but without Ilana's equipment. Surprisingly, Zane realizes one of the guards could pass as the identical twin of his former boss, Phil, except that he is of Mexican ethnicity (whereas Phil is not). As Zane and Ilana regroup, Phil instructs some agents, posing as gardeners, to release an alien device in Zane's attic that creates a miniature black hole, consuming all of Zane's equipment.
Zane leaves Ilana to again investigate the power plant and she is soon killed by a deadly scorpion planted in her room. Zane discovers the plant is a front for an underground alien base. The very different looking aliens are able to disguise themselves with an external skin to infiltrate our society.
Zane finds that all of the bases expel large amounts of emissions into the atmosphere. Zane is discovered but escapes back into the nearby town and attempts to convince the local sheriff of the situation. However, alien agents bring Ilana's body to the police station, making Zane a suspect in her death, Zane escapes and sneaks back into the United States.
Zane accosts Phil on the JPL grounds, forcing him to admit that the aliens are trying to raise the Earth's temperature to not only kill off humans but make the planet hospitable for themselves. Zane secretly records the conversation and once Phil discovers the recording, he sends agents to stop Zane. Zane returns home to find his attic devoid of equipment.
He figures out the only way to broadcast the tape is to go to a nearby telescope and beam the signal directly to a television satellite, broadcasting it worldwide. With the help of his girlfriend Char (Teri Polo) and Kiki, he travels to the telescope. Phil and his agents soon disable the telescope controls from the main building.
Zane leaves the tape with Kiki and instructs him to transmit it when he gives the order and then he and Char sneak over to the telescope's base and barricade themselves in the control room. Zane makes the necessary adjustments and tells Kiki to active the tape, but Kiki reveals himself to be an alien agent, and opens the door to allow Phil inside and confiscate the tape himself. Phil and his agents ram down the door to the telescope room with a van, but Zane freezes them with cryogenic gases.
As he works to free the tape stuck in Phil's frozen jacket, one of the agents drops a sphere which starts to form another singularity in the room. Zane and Char escape through the telescope's optical path before the device implodes most of the telescope base, exiting safely onto on the collapsed dish. In the distance they see Kiki, and Zane tells him to tell the aliens that he will soon broadcast this tape; they watch as Kiki runs off.
In the film's epilogue, Zane's conversation with Phil is broadcast across the globe..