MovieChat Forums > Arrival (2016) Discussion > Two Questions (Spoilers)

Two Questions (Spoilers)

posted 8 years ago by SimonBond1701
3 replies | jump to latest

Sorry for the vague title but I couldn't think of another title that didn't give away spoilers.

Spoilers below:

1. So, all the flashbacks that Louise experienced of her daughter were actually visions of the future which is an ability gifted to her by the aliens. However, I'm pretty sure she experienced those flashbacks before coming into contact with them. I understand that the opening montage of her with her daughter could just be a framing device by the director but I'm pretty sure there were other visions between that and the first alien meeting. Can someone explain this?

2. At one stage, the aliens' message included a 1/12 marker as discovered by Jeremy Renner's character. Was this an attempt by the aliens to get humanity to work together?

I'm pretty good at understanding these types of movies but those two points have confused me.

Thanks

[–] robin-865-702233 8 years ago

The way I saw it is that Q1: Louise absorbed the alien language, freeing her from our linear notion of time so she could 'travel' both forwards and backwards in her memory. As the principle character, we were treated to some of her experience of this throughout. I felt with that in mind, those early 'flashbacks' were more a storytelling device to slowly reveal the idea, rather than something she was actually experiencing at that point. It was a reflection of the life she would have after her enlightenment - being able to relive her entire life before it had actually happened, and the aptitude to profoundly savour the present.

Q2: I guess the critical action was her being able to see that she needed to make the call to Shang and make a demonstration of what the aliens could teach them - 1/12 was the simplest (or most absolute) way to communicate that humanity needed to work together to achieve an understanding of their gift?

[–] wearyourlove 8 years ago

I think it's important to realize that the "flashbacks" are neither "before" nor "after," "beginning" nor "end," because a nonlinear time by definition precludes those kinds of easily distinguishable codifications. The alien language uses circles that exemplify this - they have no beginning or end but exist in their totality. So whatever Louise experiences, with her daughter or without her, is always happening "now," so to speak, as well as "then" and "later." It's not even so much that she's experiencing it all simultaneously as she's freely able to switch back and forth between the registers.

[–] emvan 8 years ago

Great answers so far, but after the opening sequence which indeed works as both a conventional framing device and a sample of heptapod storytelling, the next such flashforward is after she's exposed to the alien language. It's sold to the audience as a flashback she is reminded of, when the causal arrow is actually pointing in the opposite direction.

I watched for it because I'm a fan of the original story and knew what was going on from the beginning -- which, as a friend pointed out, is the way a heptapod would have seen it.

Prepare your minds for a new scale of physical, scientific values, gentlemen.