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Arrival (2016)
In director Denis Villeneueve's thoughtful,
intelligent alien invasion and dramatic, suspenseful mystery-thriller
- the transcendent film was based on co-scripter Ted Chiang's 1998
short story "Story of Your Life." The
tagline was composed of a simple question that needed answers - what
was the purpose of the aliens' visit in the film?: "Why
Are They Here?"
The film's complex themes include linguistics, space-time theory, communication
with an alien species, the Saphir-Whorf Hypothesis (that the perception
of reality is either altered or determined by the language spoken),
and the revelation that although humans think and/or act linearly,
there can also be non-linear timelines. In the latter instance, all
events are predetermined (knowledge of the future is incompatible
with free will - and the universe is deterministic). Questions were
raised, such as: "Do humans really have free will or are their destinies pre-determined?"
and "Would you proceed with your life if you knew how it was all going to end?"
- in the prologue, linguistics (language) professor Louise Banks (Amy Adams) narrated
a foreshadowing statement that provided a substantial clue about
the film: "I used to think this was
the beginning of your story. Memory is a strange thing. It doesn't
work like I thought it did. We are so bound by time, by its order...I
remember moments in the middle...And this was the end... But
now I'm not so sure I believe in beginnings and endings. There
are days that define your story beyond your life. Like the day they arrived"
- in a montage, Louise interacted and played with
her young 6 year-old daughter Hannah, who then died in adolescence
at 12 years of age from a fatal disease (presumably cancer).
(As the film progressed, Louise had an intensifying number of
'flashbacks' or 'memories' of her daughter)
- while she was in the midst of teaching a class
of students, Louise was interrupted by news of extra-terrestrial
aliens who had arrived in gigantic spaceships (at least 1,500
feet tall) in twelve locations around the world; she was contacted
in her office by US Army Colonel G.T. Weber (Forest Whitaker),
to use her language skills to understand and communicate with
the alien visitors at the only US UFO invasion site - in Montana
- on their way to the site, she was introduced to theoretical physicist
Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), whose first words to her were: "Language
is the foundation of civilization. It is the glue that holds a people
together. It is the first weapon drawn in a conflict"
- she had her first encounter at the giant spaceship egg with the aliens emerging
in a mist, portrayed as large tentacled creatures (dubbed "heptapods")
with seven octopus-like legs; the two main aliens were nicknamed
Abbott and Costello; to communicate with the humans, the aliens
emitted circular 'word' symbols of misty, inky black smoke, that
Louise began to interpret and understand: (narrated)
"Like their ship or their bodies, their written language has no forward
or backward direction. Linguists call this 'nonlinear orthography,'
which raises the question, 'Is this how they think?'"
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Alien 'Arrival' - 12 Oval, Egg Shell-Like Spaceships
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12 Landing Sites of the Aliens
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Communicating with Aliens (Circular Mist Symbols)
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- during her interactions and as she learned more
of the aliens' language, Louise began to have more and more haunting
visions and 'memories' of Hannah as a child. [Note: Hannah's
name was deliberately chosen as a palindrome - there was no beginning
or end to her name. It could be read the same, forwards or backwards.]
The film was misleading, tricking viewers into believing that
Louise's grieving pain was due to her daughter's past death
- there were threats of military
action against the aliens when there were misinterpretations of
the alien's word for "weapon" (that could have also been
translated as "tool"); fear of the aliens led to rogue
soldiers planting a bomb inside the spaceship that only drastically
damaged the relationship that Louise had established with the aliens,
and mortally wounded Abbott, one of the heptapods
- a global international crisis was threatened when China delivered an ultimatum to the
aliens - that they leave Earth within 24 hours or else they would
be attacked. Forces seeking war with the aliens (considering
them a threat) were in competition with Louise and Donnelly who discovered
that each of the 12 spacecraft had part of a message-puzzle. (In the
film's conclusion, Louise 'time-traveled' to the future, conversed
with General Shang (Tzi Ma), and was able to have China and other
countries agree to disarm and work together.)
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Alien's Mission: "We help humanity..."
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The Aliens' Gift of Language
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- the film's plot twist was
revealed when Louise intervened by entering the ship alone and
spoke to the surviving alien, Costello; the alien explained their
true intentions - the aliens were sent to give humans the gift
of their language (their "weapon" or
"tool"), so that in exchange, they could understand the
aliens and help them in 3,000 years time ("In three thousand
years, we need humanity help") when the heptapods faced extinction;
their offer of a "weapon" was their language - a language
that opened time ("Weapon opens time"), changed humans'
linear perception of time and allowed them to experience 'memories'
of future events: "The weapon is their
language. They gave it all to us...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"
- through Louise's understanding of the alien language,
she was actually able to see into the future; the 'memories'
that Louise was having of Hannah were NOT flashbacks, but premonitions
or flash-forwards; for Louise, that meant that her visions
of Hannah were premonitions of her future birth
- the new perception and ability of Louise,
with a rewiring of her brain and its perceptions, included the
ability to travel through non-linear time - in other words, mental
time-travel, with access to future times. A conversation between
Ian and Louise confirmed this:
Ian: "I was doing some reading, uhm, about this
idea that if you immerse yourself into a foreign language,
then you can actually rewire your brain."
Louise: "Yeah, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis....the theory that,
uh, it-it's the theory that, uh, the language you speak determines
how you think and.."
Ian: "Yeah, it affects how you see everything"
- one of Louise's shocking 'memories'
was of Hannah showing her a school drawing she had made of an imagined
TV show involving two people; Hannah explained: "That's you
and dad. The show is called 'Mommy and Daddy talk to animals'" -
it was a premonition of Louise speaking to the heptapods in the
future! This was conclusive evidence that Hannah was born after
the arrival of the heptapods - including the fact that Hannah's
death, due to illness, was going to be fateful and inevitable
- in the film's final lines (spoken without seeing
their lips move), Louise and Ian realized that they had purposely
been brought together; Ian would become her husband, and they
would become the parents of Hannah; and even though Louise knew what
would happen to Hannah (terminal illness), she still chose to
bring forth a new life:
Louise: If you could see your whole life from
start to finish, would you change things?
Ian: Maybe I'd say what I feel more often. But I-I don't know.
You know, I've had my head tilted up to the stars for as long
as I can remember. You know what surprised me the most? It wasn't
meeting them. It was meeting you. (They hugged)
Louise: I forgot how good it felt to be held by you.
Ian: You wanna make a baby?
Louise: Yes. Yeah.
[Note: After Hannah's birth, Ian left Louise because
she didn't initially tell him about her knowledge of their daughter's
fate.]
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Prologue: Louise's Daughter Hannah - Diagnosed with Terminal
Illness
US Army Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker)
Linguistics Professor Louise Banks (Amy Adams) Communicating
with Aliens
"China Delivers Ultimatum" - General Shang of the People's
Liberation Army Threatening Aliens
One 'Flashback' of Louise's Daughter Hannah
Revelation: Hannah's 'Flashbacks' Were Images of Louise's
Future
Hannah's School Drawing of Her Mommy and Daddy Talking
to Animals
Louise's Future Book: "The Universal Language - Translating
Heptapod"
Ian's and Louise's Final Conversation (with their backs
turned to each other)
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