MovieChat Forums > Arrival (2016) Discussion > Just saw Arrival and have some questions...

Just saw Arrival and have some questions (SPOILERS)

posted 8 years ago by hornage-1
4 replies | jump to latest

SPOILERS AHEAD:

1. What did Abbott say to Louise on their last visit? I saw this while abroad in the Netherlands and couldn't fully understand the Dutch subtitles. Something about Costello having died, then the humans help the heptapods 3,000 years in the future? I can't remember if there were also subtitles I missed during the General Shang phone call scene.

2. Please correct me if I'm wrong on any of these premises I took away from the film:
A. Time is non-linear and cannot be changed, so even though the heptapods and Louise have the ability to experience the future, they cannot change it, hence Louise's daughter and Costello's death. Which kind of suggests that nothing in the universe has free will, everything is just following a predetermined path.

B. The heptapods came to earth because they had to fullfill the paradox of their own future by giving humans the ability to see the future, so that it would unite the human race (perhaps preventing us from destroying ourselves) so we could in turn help save the heptapods 3000 years into the future.

C. The heptapods gift to humans is teaching us their language which in-turn rewire's our brains with the ability to experience non-linear time and see the future. So the heptapods were basically teachers, and perhaps could have wrote in our language the whole time, but needed to get us to learn their language in order to rewire our brains.

D. Louise's brain gets rewired, does anyone elses? Seems as though Ian's never gets rewired even years into the future, since he doesn't believe Louise when she tells him of their daughter's future death. Does the book Louise writes rewrite the brains of those who read it? Was she spreading the heptapods gift to the rest of the world via the book? EDIT: I think I understand the sequence of future events better now:
- Heptapods come to earth: goal give humans the ability of non-linear time.
- They succeed when just one person, Louise gains the ability.
- It takes years for Louise to fully decipher the heptapod language, so for perhaps 15 years she is the only human with non-linear time abilities, hence her separation from Ian.
- After her daughter's death, she releases her book, which is the sum of the gift heptapods gave humans... non-linear time abilities spread around the world.

3. Anyone know if there's any scientific basis for the time paradoxes we see in this film? From what I understand it's impossible to send information back in time. So Louis being able to get information from the future General Shang to influence him in the past breaks fundamental quantum mechanics as it relates to making decisions and observing their outcomes. I read that the quantum eraser double slit experiment proves that sending info into the past is impossible, the universe is built to prevent time paradoxes. But perhaps perceiving non-linear time could be scientifically plausible if it shows that no decisions are ever made, they've just always and already have been made and we're just along for the ride, following a predetermined life with no real control of our own. Seems like a depressing gift from the heptapods if you can see your future but not change it.

[–] rabbitmoon 8 years ago

Interestingly, the questions you raise are the major issues I have with the film, and why I don't think it holds up as a story. Certainly not a good or happy one by any stretch of the imagination. The heptapods are basically selfish, malevolent a55holes who didn't deserve to be saved via some nonsensical phone-call contrivance.

This bit: "...which is the sum of the gift heptapods gave humans... non-linear time abilities spread around the world"

I just cannot accept non-linear time perception as a gift. At all. Its not a benefit to anyone in the film except perhaps the heptapods - but we never learn why. The answer is apparently 3000 years in the future.

How is it a gift to see the tragedies of your future, and be powerless to change it? To have your illusion of free will and decision making removed? Its the greatest curse a person could have. It essentially removes what makes you at least feel like a human, and renders you completely mechanical, following a life that you have already essentially experienced in memory. How could that possibly be seen as a gift? She even loses Ian over it, and knew that she would all along. Its a horrible way to live!

[–] septerra 8 years ago

It's a horrible was to live.....

Yet, if that is the fundamental truth of how everything works, I'd rather have that knowledge. Me knowing the day of my death may change what I feel in the short term, but after, it would drive me to experience everything leading upto it, more than I ever would have otherwise. But, I suppose 'otherwise', does have the comfort of ignorance.

That said, if I realised I was going to be stabbed 23 times to death or the myriad other horrible things people experience everyday.....

I'm not so sure anymore.

[–] Lin301 8 years ago

Time is non-linear and cannot be changed, so even though the heptapods and Louise have the ability to experience the future, they cannot change it, hence Louise's daughter and Costello's death. Which kind of suggests that nothing in the universe has free will, everything is just following a predetermined path.

I've always found these discussions to be highly fascinating. The interesting thing about seeing the future and worrying about not being able to change it is that it comes from a time-is-linear perspective, which is exactly which doesn't seem to apply in a non-linear perspective of time in which past and future exist simultaneously. I read the short story once and if I remember correctly the author draws a parallel with the child who keeps on reading her favorite books and watching her favorite movies, over and over again, not because she doesn't know what is going to happen but precisely because she knows what is going to happen and wants to experience, or 'live' it. I guess you do give up a sense of agency but what you get in return is the chance to relive memories. Imagined if one of your loved ones has died and you get a chance to go back in time and relive the last few days or so with that person, not to change anything but just to be there again, would you want to do that?

[–] 8 years ago

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