What the heck is going on?

ere is a list of carefully compiled spoiler questions to ask yourself after you've seen The Arrival.

• Why doesn't Zane make a copy of the tape before he gives it to his boss, Gordian? He's certainly paranoid enough.
  
  
• Why does Gordian fire Zane and then make sure Zane doesn't get another job? All that free time's only going to make him dangerous.
  
  
• How does Zane manage to get into the seminar about terraforming Mars -- aren't the aliens watching the door? Don't the aliens know he's only going to piece together their plot later?
  
  
• Why doesn't Gordian have Zane killed and replaced (of course, then it would be a really short movie)?
  
  
• Why does Zane's girlfriend, Char, dump him as soon as he gets fired since they've been together for two years?
  
  
• Isn't the little black boy conveniently cute?
  
  
• Why don't the aliens kill Zane before he can take off to Mexico, like they do with his co-worker?
  
  
• Since the Mexican taxi driver is an alien, why doesn't he kill Zane?
  
  
• Why doesn't the alien in the Mexican alley kill Zane?
  
  
• Isn't it amazingly convenient that Zane and Ilana Green find each other in Mexico at the same time and then get together to figure out enough of the puzzle to give Zane the final answers?
  
  
• Why do the aliens have such bad security at their underground installation?
  
  
• How did they build that thing anyway? What did they do with all the dirt?
  
  
• Where does Sheen's beard go when he uses the alien's machine to change his face?
  
  
• Isn't it an amazing coincidence that Char comes to Zane's house just after he shows up? He's been in Mexico for weeks.
  
  
• Since Zane was working installing television satellite dishes to make ends meet after losing his job with NASA, how could he afford to go to Mexico for weeks?
  
  
• Why does the little black boy leave a note for his grandmother when he's really an alien?
  
  
• Why doesn't the little black boy who's really an alien kill Zane and Char when he's with them in the house? The car? The satellite building?
  
  
• Where do I get one of those alien ball things that whirls around and sucks everything out of a room? It looks like a great way to clean house.
  
  
• Since they look the same size, why does one alien ball thing only clean out a room and the other one completely destroy a building (except, perhaps, that the second one happens to be used at the end of the movie and the director is looking for big special effects)?
  
  
• To get out of the satellite building, why don't Zane and Char climb through the car instead climbing up to the satellite dish to escape (except, perhaps, that it happens to be the end of the movie and the director is looking for a really cool shot of the girl on the satellite dish)?
  
  
• Why doesn't the the little black boy who's really an alien leap up on the satellite dish (those aliens can really jump) and kill Zane and Char (except, perhaps, that it happens to be the end of the movie and it would be a bummer of an ending)?
  
  
• How do Zane and Char get off the huge satellite dish at the end of the movie?
  
  
• Would anyone get any kind of a clue by watching the tape that Zane and Gordian were actually talking about alien invasion? Would anyone believe it?
  
  
• Why doesn't anyone kill Zane?
  
  

ack to On Screen.