Arrival

Unspooled

Paul Scheer & Amy Nicholson

Tv & Film, Film Reviews

4.5 • 5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2026

⏱️ 79 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Paul and Amy make first contact with Denis Villeneuve’s quietly mind-bending sci-fi about language, time, and the choices that shape a life. They trace the film’s journey from Ted Chiang’s Story of Your Life to the screen, unpacking how screenwriter Eric Heisserer turned a cerebral short story into a $200M hit and why Amy Adams’ performance still feels criminally underrated a decade later. You can join the Unspooled conversation on Paul’s Discord at https://discord.gg/ZwtygZGTa6 Follow Paul and Amy on Letterboxd for more of their movie hot takes! https://letterboxd.com/paulscheer/ https://letterboxd.com/theamynicholson/ Paul’s book Joyful Recollections of Trauma is out now! Find it at https://www.harpercollins.com/products/joyful-recollections-of-trauma-paul-scheer Check out more of Paul's writing on his Substack https://substack.com/@paulscheer Episodic Art by Kim Troxall: https://www.unspooledart.com/ Learn more about the show at Unspooledpod.com, follow us on Twitter @unspooled and on Instagram @unspooledpod, and don’t forget to rate, review & subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or where you listen to podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The year is 2016.
0:04.0	Are they scientists or tourists?
0:07.0	If they're scientists, they don't seem to ask a lot of questions.
0:13.0	Why did they park where they did?
0:15.0	The world's most decorated experts can't crack that one.
0:19.0	The most plausible theory is that they chose places on Earth with the lowest incidence
0:23.4	of lightning strikes.
0:25.0	But there are exceptions.
0:27.0	The next most plausible theory is that Sheena Easton had a hit song at each of these sites in 1980,
0:32.6	so we just don't know.
0:34.7	The film.
0:36.0	Arrival.
0:37.5	Oh, I, and welcome.
0:50.3	Unspooled.
0:53.7	Yes, welcome to Unspooled. This is a podcast about good movies, critical hits, fan favorites, mustsies, and in case you missed them.
1:00.7	We have covered the AFI top 100, and now we are checking off movies from three major lists.
1:06.5	The Letterbox top 250 films with the most fans. The IMDB top 250.
1:11.8	And the New York Times, 1,000 essential films.
1:15.4	And actually, strange fun fact about the letterbox top 250.
1:18.8	They just recalibrated it, and one of the films we did dropped off.
1:22.7	Whoa, which one?
1:23.8	Saw.
	...

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