Cixin Liu’s epic “Three-Body Problem” science fiction trilogy is a mind-expanding read. It has to be, in order to prepare you for the first contact that occurs between humanity and the Trisolaran people.

But even then, words fail. Filmmaker Ren Wang felt the same, and assembled “Waterdrop,” a short tribute that captures the aural, visual, scientific, and historical weight behind this moment from Cixin Liu’s The Dark Forest, depicting how everything we know, everything we can perceive, can become but a shadow cast by the light of an alien intelligence.

Watch…and listen…to Ren Wang’s “Waterdrop.” (Don’t worry. The film doesn’t spoil any of the plot from the book.)

W A T E R D R O P from Ren Wang on Vimeo.