Arrival (II) (2016)

Forest Whitaker: Colonel Weber

Photos 

Quotes 

• Colonel Weber : Mornin'.

  Louise Banks : Colonel.

  Colonel Weber : [answering a previous question about the Sanskrit word for war and it's meaning]  Gravisti. He says it means an argument. What do you say it means?

  Louise Banks : A desire for more cows.

• Louise Banks : If all I ever gave you was a hammer...

  Colonel Weber : Everything's a nail...

• Louise Banks : Let's say that I taught them Chess instead of English. Every conversation would be a game. Every idea expressed through opposition, victory, defeat. You see the problem? If all I ever gave you was a hammer...

  Colonel Weber : Everything's a nail.

• Colonel Weber : And remember what happened to the Aborigines. A more advanced race nearly wiped 'em out.

• Ian Donnelly : [upon first meeting]  Priority one: What do they want and where are they from? And beyond that, how did they get here? Are they capable of faster-than-light travel? I've prepared a list of questions to go over, starting with a series of "handshake" binary sequences...

  Louise Banks : How about we just talk to them before we start throwing math problems at them?

  Colonel Weber : This is why you're both here. I'll bring the coffee...

  Ian Donnelly : Coffee with some aliens...

• Louise Banks : The weapon is their language. They gave it all to us. Do you understand what that means?

  Colonel Weber : So we can learn heptapod. If we survive.

  Louise Banks : If you learn it, when you really learn it, you begin to perceive time the way that they do. So you can see what's to come. But time, it isn't the same for them. It's non-linear.

• Louise Banks : [after confronting the aliens for the first time]  Am I fired?

  Colonel Weber : You're better than the last guy.

  Louise Banks : That doesn't make me feel any better.