Film Analysis: The Arrival

If I had to pick any book, film, or video game that everyone in my generation must see, read, or play, I would say everyone should watch the Arrival. It is a fairly new movie, but I think it displays a beautiful message. The movie is not factual at all and most of it is make believe, but when the surface of the movie’s scientific fantasy plot is scraped away it leaves behind a message that speaks louder than any aspect of the movie. The movie begins with a mother and her child. There is no words in the beginning, just videos of this child growing more and more ill until there's a point you know she died. The main plot of the movie then begins with the main character, Louise Banks, who is a linguistics professor. To summarize the

Textbook after textbook has taught us that if a solution is not reached in a variable amount of time then the answer is to use violence and the victor achieves their outcome. History repeats itself, right? Arrival does not fall short of this standard. The first threat of using violence from the American standpoint in the movie was almost immediately after the spaceships landing. Fear creates violence. Once the fear was controlled, the characters explored the ship and tried to discover a purpose. Which introduced the second time violence was threatened; time is a factor in everything. The human race lacks patience which is why time is a crucial part of everything. When an answer wasn't surfaced fast enough, a bomb was placed in the ship. At first when I watched this part, I thought isn't that too harsh, people in real situations would never do that. But upon reflection on the fact, wouldn't they? Wouldn't we? Time also creates fear. The third threat was created via misinterpretation. The aliens used a symbol we read as weapon, when they actually meant more of a tool since of the word. They meant their language is the tool, a gift to us. This confusion lead to all the nations forfeiting communication with one another and an attack planned on the alien's ships. The violence shown in the movie puts the way the world acts into perspective as well. It is easy not to think about it when it is not directly placed in front of you,

Humans are on a strictly linear line that we call time. Aliens, however, experience time in a spherical manner. This fact made me think, why are we stuck and bounded by time? The answer was obviously because we couldn't see it the right way. It only takes a change in mindset to make a second a minute and a year an hour. Time ties us to the earth, but only because we allow it to. I like the idea of time being a sphere. The idea itself opens up boundaries we cannot