MovieChat Forums > Arrival (2016) Discussion > She agreed to have a child...Other quest...

She agreed to have a child...Other questions*spoilers?*


Knowing that the girl would end up suffering from cancer? That's a pretty effed up thing to do.


She forgot what it was like to be held by Ian? So the two had a romantic past? The whole flashforward thing made me believe they fell for each other during the research. But she made it seem like they had known each other and didn't like each other so they emotionally avoided each other to keep things professional.

General Shang was in on the "I know the future" part of the story? During the formal he acted as though he knew she was thinking into the future from the past and it was his job to tell her what to do in the past. Maybe I took wrong. But that 1 scene kinda messed the movie up for me.

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She forgot what it was like to be held by Ian? So the two had a romantic past?
No, they did have romantic future. :) It was memory of her future.

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She didn't "choose" to have her daughter. Free will doesn't exist, and her life story was predetermined, even if she was aware of it all thanks to the language.

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So you are saying where was no way of denying sticking that penis in to her vagina knowing how this would end ?
Then what the purpose of knowledge if your can decide for yourself even simplest of things.

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No she did choose, even knowing she would die. It's why the father left her, she mentions something about it in a conversation with her daughter.

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How is it messed up? She could give her daughter an absolutely amazing life and you would say it's meaningless just because of how long it lasted? Should animals with short life spans just stop having babies because that's cruel? She saw her child and felt how much she loved her, how could she just refuse to have her?

Though since she is seeing the future it's possible she doesn't really even have a choice. It's all decided and she's just going along. You can't really stop something that's basically already happened.

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Has the future already happened though? This goes back to my question about Gen Shang. He talked to her at the formal like he was telling her what to do, what to tell him, in the past at the landing site. It didn't seem like, "Oh yeah. You remember, I told you blah blah blah". It seemed like that he knew he had to tell her then, at the formal, what to tell him in the past over the sat phone call. Did he see into the future as well like her? I'm sure I'm not getting it but that particular scene and the one where she told Ian that she forgot what it was like to be held by him, even though apparently they had no previous fling, just confused the crap out of me. And if she was just thinking out loud, it looks like he would have questioned what she meant.

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By learning their language her brain was rewired. Time was no longer linear, it was circular. There is no future or past.

But her brain was rewired more completely than her husband's and she agreed to have a child with him... so she knew her child's fate. The husband had a hard time processing this and that's why the marriage was strained/ended.


I'm a real kewl kat.🐈

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While watching it, I also thought it was a little messed up to have the child even though she knew the eventual outcome. When the movie ended, I thought she did it because—even with the eventual loss—the love and experience of what life there would be, would still be worth it. So while sad, it made sense.

The next morning, however, I had an entirely different take on it. It's not sad at all in the context of the movie, but it is (or could be) to the viewer.

At the start of the movie, she mentions not believing in beginnings and endings any more. The loss of her child, and loss in general, is based on time going forward, and the loss having happened in the past. That's where (I assume) we all live. Loss is sad because it's something that can no longer be experienced.

But once her perception of time altered, the loss wouldn't be a "loss" as we'd perceive it, because her past wouldn't necessarily be something that couldn't be experienced again, and her future wouldn't necessarily be something that had yet to be experienced. Once she was fully aware of this, it would free her of hesitation to do something simply because it would come to an "end" (e.g. having her child). Her perception was now circular, had no beginning and no end as we see it, and any part of that circle could be chosen to experience—with as much importance—over any other part. Just like the alien way of communicating.

So when I watched it, yes, it seemed sad to me, because that's the perception of time that I currently live in.

I'm not sure if that makes sense, or is actually what the movie is going for. It's simply what I popped into my head on a drive to work.

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It does make sense! And it expanded my thinking about the movie. Thank you!

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Life isn't measured by how many moments we breathe
But by how many moments take our breath away

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Life isn't measured by how many moments we breathe
But by how many moments take our breath away


I've always thought this unattributable (not Maya Angelou) quote was insufferably corny, yet undeniably accurate

There's something beautiful about truly realizing how temporary and fleeting life is, human included, and appreciating it because of that fact instead of despite it.

I like to think it's why the movie is called "Arrival" with no "the"; it's about the concept of arrival, specifically arrival at a kind of enlightenment

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Is a short life not worth living, I guess?

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She chose to live her life as it was unfolding before her, even though she knew how it would turn out. She should have told her husband, but she probably knew he would never consent to fathering a doomed child.

By understanding the alien language Louise unlocked memories of the future, including her future with her husband, as well as without. Her observation that she had forgotten what it was like to be held by him was from the future, but she was experiencing the emotional effect in the present.

General Shang wasn't in on anything. Louise had a premonition of the reception and took advantage of a probable temporal paradox, fulfilling his explanation of events in the future, by text-messaging him in the past.

'Tis clear as the summer's sun', to quote Shakespeare.

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