TIFF 2016: AMY ADAMS AND JEREMY RENNER TALK ABOUT ENCOUNTERING ALIEN LIFE IN “ARRIVAL” MOVIE

Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner star in the sci-fi thriller “Arrival,” directed by Denis Villeneuve.

When 12 alien spacecraft land around the world, linguistics expert Dr. Louise Banks (Adams) and theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly (Renner) are recruited by the US military to obtain the answer to one question: “What do they want?”

Arriving in Montana, working under the leadership of Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker), Louise and Ian are only remotely aware that their lives and the future of humanity are about to become inextricably linked.

As the unlikely pair wort to solve what the extraterrestrial “heptapods” want, 11 other teams around the world are attempting to do the same.

“There is something really fascinating that the film touches on,” said Renner and the movie’s TIFF press conference. “When humanity is at its worst it allows itself to find itself at its best with compassion.”

So if real aliens were to land on earth, Adams said that she would “like to imagine that they would be as patient as the heptapods.”

Arrival premieres during TIFF 2016.