Spoilers; This Movie Is Full of Plot Holes

Best comment ever !!

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Haha , I liked it although they didn't expound on theory part at all, Do agree with lot , drama disguised as Sci-Fi but they had interesting idea.

That's a plot hole! She talked to the Chinese General in the future and knew exactly what she had to tell him now. If she wouldn't have seen the future then she would have been able to call him.

I agree with you here. Every event is tied together and essentially gridlocked into happening. The failures have to occur along with the successes. Amy's character couldn't decide when she saw a flashback/flash forward or what that information would give her. She just had to live it to learn that it even happened or mattered.

Maybe they can't make changes because they are on our planet and have to do things within the confines of Earth's limitations?

So just because a few people in the military worked together in one instance that means that all of humanity entered a new era of cooperation? That makes no sense, it's almost like the way a child would think.

Countries cooperate together all the time, I mean we have the United Nations. The United States and the USSR worked together to bring down Nazi Germany, but that didn't mean that from then on the US and Russia would have amazing diplomatic relations.

by bugsyboo;

"The movie gave an explanation for this, whether it sounds plausible or not is a different matter.

But, in the movie it's said that human being had to work in order to understand the alien language, in particular to work together. That is why there were 12 different locations spread around, because the countries needed to overcome their mistrust and share information in order to usher in this new, cooperative era in human history.

If they had just come down and said, 'we come in peace', according to the logic of the movie this would not have been effective in getting people to work together."

It's more subtle than that especially considering the ideas from the short story.
- The cooperation in the film is not going to necessarily create a new era in world history.
- What the intervention of the space aliens did was to change the timeline in such a way that humanity will be able to help the space aliens in 3000 years.
That's it.

The space aliens know the future timeline and the effects of their actions. They act in a specific way to get a specific effect which will result in a certain event in the future.

The OP wrote;

aliens smart enough to travel through space without emitting waste and with the superpower of clairvoyance should be able to figure out a simple plan to use these powers to communicate with humans in a non-vague way like "use the weapon".

Wait. They could have used English to teach humans their language the way other people teach language. Duh.

Those aliens were dumb but they had soohisticated space crafts. How did they make those space crafts with no opposible thumbs? Or were there humans on their planet that made those space crafts for them?

Why the hell was the bird there? The damn thing was so go damn annoying. Others told me that they thought the bird could talk to the alien but when was a single time you saw the alien address the bird? The damn thing went ape *beep*

tadlockparker, first, you should use some paragraphs when you write big texts. It makes easier to read.

I agree with what you say. Yes, lucky for us, the only person on Earth who can communicate with them, was chosen to go there. No one else from 7 billion people could do it, only her. Why, what was so special about her?

Second, this was supposed to be an incident of global effect, that would affect every human. So what the f-word was so significant about her and her daughter? All these type of movies focus on ONE person, and it just doesn't make sense. Yes, of course movies can't have like 50 protagonists, but in really good written movies like "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", although you see only one man's story, the movie ends without having the feeling that the aliens came ONLY for him or he was the ONLY one who could understand them and "save the world". It wasn't only him who left at the end with the spaceship, they were others too. Plus of course, they came back to return the ones they had taken. It was't like Dreyfuss was the focus point of their visit.

But in "Arrival", it's like all these aliens came to Earth only to make contact with her, and let her know that her daughter will die from cancer. And she gives birth to her anyway! Yeah, ok, she will have about 10 good years, but she will die suffering. So what?

I won't reply to anything else you say, because I don't know what to say. You left the theatre shaking "no" at the movie, I left and I hadn't understood why this movie was made, and why did I watch it.

As for the bird, me too I was confused, but I think they say in the movie that they brought it with them to see if it would die, so to know if the spacechip was contaminated or whatever.

by tadlockparker;

"why would you choose to have this kid with the scientist when you know the genetics will lead to a rare condition resulting in death? I would not wish that on any child.
My girlfriend saw the movie with me and tried to make sense of it, saying that altering the future could have a domino effect..."

Imo your girlfriend is on the right track.
For the space aliens the timeline needs to happen in a certain way so that in 3000 years humanity can help the aliens.
Dr. Banks understands that. Even though her daughter will die of cancer, she accepts her fate and focuses on the positive times she will have with her daughter. And then her actions follow the timeline as she has seen it.

"could lead her to not have talked to the Chinese diplomat. There's a problem with this theory as well, she already obtained the information and used it to calm the Chinese Military and time IS linear."

I don't see a problem.
Dr. Banks had the information from her actions in the future.
She used that in the past to affect the timeline.
But Dr. Banks still needed to play out those events at the party with the Chinese General otherwise there would be a paradox which would be this; a future event is seen but the future event does not happen.
- Anything seen by Dr. Banks from the future must happen to keep the timeline the way it needs to be.

"It seems very unlikely that she is the only person on earth, apparently, that can see the future"

The movie indicates she is the only person who has that skill.
This is not only a standard movie idea especially in hero films but it is also true in our world.
Sometimes only one scientist at the time can figure out a scientific problem whether it was Newton or Einstein.

"... but oh thankfully she is chosen to speak to the aliens"

Of course she is. The movie shows that she is the top language expert in the US.

"... and, oh, what a coinky-dink, the aliens no she can see the future too!!!"

Yes the space aliens know that she is the one who has the skills to see into the future.
The space aliens also can see into the future. They know they will meet Dr. Banks before it happens.

"Again, if she knew her actions would leave the child fatherless why not tell the scientist WAY in advance what she had been seeing and not drop that bombshell on him."

Because Dr. Banks knows that the timeline has to be preserved as she saw it for the reasons I've explained.
- It was very uncomfortable for me to see the future tragedy of her marriage and her daughter's death.
But I also also understood why she would follow the timeline.

"...our main character had fallen asleep and he figured out the 3D structure involved time seemed really ridiculous and scientifically speaking, I can't make any legitimacy of it."

Agreed. There is no scientific reason for Dr. Banks to be able to see into the future.
It's a premise of the story which seems like a superpower.
- There are other drama films that have time travel which handle the power this way, like a superpower;
Including; "Somewhere In Time" and "The Time Traveler's Wife".

"Why the hell was the bird there?"

In the past canaries were used in mines to test whether the air was safe.
If the canary died, then the workers knew there was a danger and would get out of the mine.
- tap the bird was in the movie was simply to test whether the air was safe to breathe.

Imo at least, BB ;-)

it is just in my opinion - imo - 🌈

Yes, the movie blatantly tries to trick you by inserting a future vision into a scene in which she has not developed the power to see into the future yet. They do this so that people cannot figure out the eventual, rather weak plot twist.

As for the daughter having cancer thing, this is actually one plot point that I do not have a problem with, because it seems to be one of the main themes of the movie. She chooses to still have the kid because the visions she has had make her love her future daughter already. She would rather spend 10 years that she will cherish forever than never have that daughter. It is not out of any determinism, I-cannot-alter-the-timeline thing. It is simply because she wants those few precious years with her daughter. It's supposed to come off as sweet and beautiful, it comes across as kind of crazy to me.

Anyway, most of y'alls explanations honestly do not convince me. Yes it is plausible I suppose that most of the things CAN happen if the aliens choose to act very stupidly, but it's not believable to me.

I think the reason is that this movie is an ALLEGORY. It is not meant to be a hard sci-fi portrayal of a visitation from aliens. It is first and foremost a drama. I have heard the concept that your language affects the way you perceive things. For example, an aboriginal tribe is rumored to have no concept of the word evil in their language, so they have absolutely no crime. Is this actually possible? Probably not. But the movie uses this idea that language can deeply affect the way we view the world.

It should also be noted that movies that rely to heavily on a plot twist often are constructed in a very precise and delicate way. Movies like The Village and The Sixth Sense often do not make that much sense when you really think about them. The reason is that the writer has to construct the movie in a very specific way so that the twist is impactful but at the same time unpredictable. An example would be in The Village, everyone speaks in "old timey" English despite not really having any reason to do so.