The Arrival (1996 film)

The Arrival is a 1996 science fiction thriller film written and directed by David Twohy and starring Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Crouse, Ron Silver, Teri Polo, and Richard Schiff. Sheen stars as Zane Zaminsky, a radio astronomer who discovers evidence of intelligent alien life and quickly finds himself in the middle of a conspiracy with global consequences. The film is an international co-production between the United States and Mexico. A sequel, Arrival II, was released direct-to-video in 1998.

Plot

Zane Zaminsky and Calvin, radio astronomers employed by SETI, detect and record an extraterrestrial radio signal from Wolf 336, a star located 14 light-years away from Earth. Zane reports his discovery to his supervisor, Phil "Gordi" Gordian, at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), but Gordi dismisses the findings and later destroys the tape. Zane is terminated due to alleged budget cuts and blacklisted, which prevents him from working at other telescopes. While having troubles with his girlfriend Char, Zane takes up a job as a television satellite dish installer and secretly creates his own telescope array with the aid of his customers' dishes in the neighborhood. He operates it covertly from his attic with the assistance of his young next-door neighbor, Kiki.

Plot

After again locating the extraterrestrial radio signal, Zane realizes that it is being drowned out by a terrestrial signal originating from a Mexican radio station. He attempts to seek the help of Calvin but finds that he has died, supposedly due to carbon monoxide poisoning (though he was actually murdered). Zane travels to Mexico and discovers that the radio station has just been destroyed by fire. Exploring the area, he stumbles upon a recently constructed power plant where he meets Ilana Green, a climatologist from NCAR, whose atmospheric analysis equipment is confiscated by the plant's aggressive security forces. Before they are released from the plant, Zane notices that one of the guards resembles Gordi. Ilana explains that the Earth's temperature has rapidly increased by a few degrees, leading to the melting of polar ice and a shift in the ecosystem. She 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. As Zane and Ilana regroup, Gordi dispatches agents disguised as gardeners to release a device in Zane's attic that makes his equipment vanish. Zane leaves Ilana at the hotel and goes to investigate the power plant, but scorpions planted in her room kill her.

The Arrival (1996 film)