A linguist recruited by the military to establish communication with the heptapods. She marries Gary, becomes a mother to the addressed daughter, and begins to experience time simultaneously after learning Heptapod B.

A physicist working alongside Louise on the alien contact project. He marries Louise, fathers her daughter, and helps decipher the heptapods' physics.

Louise and Gary's child. Her life—from conception, to infancy, childhood antics, teenage rebellion, and untimely death at twenty-five—is foreseen and directly addressed by her mother.

A pragmatic military officer overseeing the human-heptapod contact operation, cautious about information exchange and skeptical of academic methods.

A linguist from the Ft. Worth looking glass site who has also gained proficiency in Heptapod B.

A paranoid official who suspects the heptapods are using tactical maneuvers to hide tradeable information.

One of the radially symmetric heptapods interacting with the humans through the looking glass during the final exchanges.

A man Louise dates and eventually lives with in a farmhouse after her marriage to Gary ends.