The fun thing about this story is: what happens is only a "paradox" if you still view time as a linear thing - as something with "before" and "after", with "beginnings" and "endings." But Louise says she no longer believes in such things anymore: instead it's all a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey-wimey stuff. :) EDIT: And yeah, they split up because Ian found out that Louise chose to have a baby even though she already KNEW that the child would become sick and die very young. That's why he said that she "made the wrong choice."

@Heavensrun

Жыл бұрын

It's not a big wibbly ball, though. I appreciate the reference, but it's actually backwards. This movie posits that time actually IS a strict progression of cause and effect. It just isn't linear. Time in this story is fixed. You can't change things, your destiny is your destiny. The heptopods help humanity not so they CAN help the Heptopods in 1000 years. They do it because they know we WILL.

@dlweiss

Жыл бұрын

@@Heavensrun Oh interesting! I have to admit, I didn't interpret the film quite the same way. From my reading, at least, it's actually unclear whether or not Louise actually COULD have changed something that she's seen in her future - because she ultimately decides to embrace everything she's already foreseen, and never attempts to contradict any of it. So I always interpreted her final question to Ian ("would you change things?") as hinting that she's capable of altering the future, but in that moment is currently deciding whether or not she'll choose to. As for the Heptapods statement about 3000 years ahead: the syntax and phrasing is blunt and ambiguous: maybe you're correct that they're saying it's all definitive. But I interpreted their statement as simply saying: "we're helping you now because we'll eventually need you around to help us." Nothing fixed or locked: just that humanity needs to still exist, otherwise there won't even be the CHANCE to help the Heptapods. But hey, that's why I love deep sci-fi like this! Lots of room for subjectivity and discussion. :)

@campbell91988

Жыл бұрын

@@dlweiss Yeah, that's more or less my interpretation. She at least believes that she had choice in the matter. It's possible she's wrong but it's also possible that the timeline she sees is the one that reflects the choices she will make knowing the entire timeline at once. She won't really see it change because to her she's making all of those choices simultaneously because she lives in all of those moments at once. She wouldn't see alternate timelines because she's already made those choices once she can see time that way.

@popinjayishuman

Жыл бұрын

Another factor to consider is that of the universal wave function. If you posit that time is non linear and just a result of our perception of the world, consider as well that when we make choices those too are non linear and the one we experience is just another result of our narrow perception. Louise will always make both choices as all possible outcomes are always fulfilled. The film follows the version of her in which she chooses to have her daughter, in another wavelength, she doesn't but even then there is no contradiction because the 'reality' in which she does have her daughter will always exist alongside it.

@Heavensrun

Жыл бұрын

@popinjayishuman except we don't see her experience any alternative timelines. She ONLY sees the one where her daughter exists. The movie asks this question and explicitly lands on the hard determinism answer over and over. There's no "many worlds" here.

The fact that there was no Oscar nomination for the music is a travesty. Amazing score!

@perenniallachrymosity276

Жыл бұрын

It got disqualified because it used the Max Richter song at the beginning and end. They said that viewers might not be able to distinguish the song from the score which is just 🤦‍♂️

@TARS20

Жыл бұрын

It is also because the score has already been used in a lot of other media before which disqualified it from either category Original score/song. But it did win sound editing which is much deserved.

@Persephone_Personified

6 ай бұрын

It got sound design 🤷🏼‍♀️

The aliens aren't us from the future, they are an alien race that will need our help in the future. She was teaching the language to the rest of the world in the future because she was the first human to understand it, she didn't develop it.

The line that always gets to me, and completes our understanding of “the weapon,” is at the end when Louise is embracing Ian and says, “I forgot how good it felt to be held by you.”

@petrjasinski8659

7 ай бұрын

Another lovely detail about this is that in the helicopter scene Ian is reading from the Louises book opening sentence "Language is a first weapon drawn in the conflict"

@8RBrain

4 ай бұрын

@@petrjasinski8659 YES, EXACTLY!!!!! When Costello told Louise she had the weapon and to "Use the WEAPON" I remembered the helicopter scene. That's when the puzzle box clicked, and everything fit. Use the weapon = Use the Language. I shouted YES! fist-pumped and spilled my popcorn. My wife looked at me like I was crazy.

This is really a phenomenal movie...still breaks my heart.

“She never had her daughter yet” is the best sequence of words to summarize a good chunk of the film.

This movie came out when I was at high school and influenced me in two major ways. 1) I am now studying translation and interpretation, it's my final year. I am planning to do my doctorate in linguistics as well. 2) I became a big Villeneuve fan and became so much more invested in film making and story telling.

I like the fact that everyone was so afraid of the term weapon... But she is the one using it first in the movie : at the beginning of her book "the Language is the first weapon used in time of war". That is exactly what happened

"I don't understand, who is this child?" With one sentence your entire perception of the film gets turned on its head. It's f**king brilliant writing, cinematography, score and direction. What a film.

@christopherbyrne2274

9 ай бұрын

For me, this moment happens when she receives the trigger from Donnelly with “non-zero sum game.” All of the scenes that we thought were flashbacks occurred up to that point, and when she says to her daughter “non-zero sum game” we realize that she is using the main alien timeline to influence her life in the FUTURE, rather than what we thought was the past. It saddens me that most people don’t pick up on that in their first viewing, because that was what made the film for me. That instant realization sent a shockwave through me that I will never forget. It’s so brilliantly constructed

"war makes no heroes but orphans and widows", such a beautiful line....

This is my favourite version of time travel/foresight rules. There is only ever one way things go; you can change things and make decisions, and nothing changes because that is always the way things went/were going to go, because your free will choices are/always were part of the timeline. Causal loops are allowed, because they are stable - it's not a paradox if it's always the way things go/went/were going to go.

@jethompsn

Жыл бұрын

Yeah it's my favorite version of time-travel as well. It's called Novikov's Self-Consistency Principle, and I could not recommend the show DARK on Netflix enough. It is the perfect show if you love that concept and is my all time favorite show.

@greenfalcon11

Жыл бұрын

Dark is absolutely fantastic!

This is my favorite movie. The story is not only thought provoking and beautiful but the cinematography is phenomenal, the sound design in incredible. It is one of the few movies that really moves me.

Saw this in theatres alone. Sat there sobbing in the dark as the credits rolled. Such a powerful film!

This movie was so good that I watched it twice in a row and then bought it. I've seen dozens of people react to it because it's the closest I can come to seeing it again for the first time. I'm super excited to see your reaction! I know it will be awesome.

You asked why they split. They split because she knew the baby they were going to have was going to tragically die young, and still went into it regardless. He said she made a mistake, made the wrong choice. He resented that she chose to let their daughter live a short painful life.

@GreatOutdoors1

Жыл бұрын

The daughter had a relatively short life, but it seemed to only be painful near the end. She seemed to have a happy life until at least her early teens.

@chris...9497

Жыл бұрын

I don't believe there was a choice to have or not have Hannah; she was unstoppable and inevitable. Louise understood this. It was not a matter of choice. There is no [[linear] time.

My take is that the parents split up because she didn't tell him about the fact that she knew their child would die, and didn't give him a choice, and decided to still have the child. I mean, of course, if we could comprehend time as nonlinear like she was, who is to say what choice we would make. She chose not to change the events of her life, but apparently he wasn't sure that was the right choice to make, and besides that, he wasn't ALLOWED to make a choice (which we all hate, don't we?). I like to think that it's not so much about that for him, though -- that maybe it's about the hurt and the heartbreak that he went through....It's quite a thought provoking film, and as you said, beautiful in many ways.

@vickster5001

Жыл бұрын

I don’t think she has a choice though. She sees time now like the aliens, as non linear, so she sees everything, but don’t think she can change it. It’s such a fascinating film that makes yo think and discuss. I love it.

@mbpoblet

Жыл бұрын

@@vickster5001 Things get weird when you can see the future, but not change it. She _did_ make that choice... but at the same time she couldn't have chosen anything else, because that always was and would be the choice she'd make, even though she could see the consequences.

The gift of their language, that is such a beaufitul thing.

Please DO watch "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Not enough reactors are doing it. One important note to think about as you watch: Everything in this movie was a model; they had no CGI. Always kills me when younger viewers disdainfully comment on older movies something to the tune of, "Doesn't look bad for the 80's," or somesuch. Or they may gleefully opine, "Well, not like today's CGI." This movie changes a lot of minds.

This movie is one of my favorites. This is the movie I wish I could see for the first time again.

It's not a paradox to get information from the future to make that future happen. It's a predestination loop. A paradox is where you change something in the past that PREVENTS the future you came from.

I love this film. I remember first watching it and the realisation that the start wasn’t the past in the way we see time, it was the future, because we view time as linear, rather than seeing everything. So she doesn’t time travel, her mind changes to experience time like the aliens. It’s so sad seeing her start that life with Ian, yet she knows what will happen. I can see why he’d be angry that she didn’t tell him, but she was is such a heartbreaking position. It’s such an intelligent film, but also so beautiful to me. Plus great acting and that score is so atmospheric.

denis villeneuve is an absolutely amazing director. he has had pure hits in the last decade

@musicmashup9597

Жыл бұрын

it;s his best movie though

Ted Chiang writes the most amazing stories. Story Of Your Life and my personal favourite Understand are both in his anthology Stories Of Your Life And Others. Pick up a copy, you won't regret it. :)

I watch this movie every year and I’m thrilled to see you doing it, though I’m surprised you haven’t before now.

"daddy and mommy talk to animals" "who is this child?" "wanna make a baby?" 😭👏🍿 A favorite of mine, beautiful and meaningful

Denis villeneuve filmography is so goated

This is the kind of movie that you only see once by yourself, but dozens of times in reactions or with other people :>

Oh hell yes. Close Encounters of the Third Kind is one of my favourites as is ET. PLEASE REACT ASAP.

@photojennifer

Жыл бұрын

yes!!!!!! one of my fave all time movies!

One of the best films of the last 20 years! ♥ Amy Adams! You should add the movie Contact (1997) to your list. Another intelligent sci-fi film

Interesting that you brought up the Tower of Babel because another one of Ted Chiang's short stories was "Tower of Babylon" in the same collection as The Story of Your Life, called Stories of Your Life and Others.

This man just be watching all he shit that I love 😂

I was about five minutes into this and remembered I had already watched the full version on watch-along. My brain said, "So?" So I watched it again. Still epic! BTW, a Causal Loop is my favorite paradox!

@th3phoenix

Жыл бұрын

I don't see a causal loop as a paradox. It's creating or destroying one that's a paradox. If it's stable, and nothing messes with its existence, it's just a stable causal loop, a static if interesting feature of the flow of spacetime.

@urikorsikov843

Жыл бұрын

@ThePhoenix A causal loop fits the definition of a paradox. It seems contradictory or opposed to common sense, but can still be true. And if you can change a causal loop, it's no longer a causal loop. So if Shang hadn't given Louise his number in the future, she couldn't have called him in the present. No more causal loop. A causal loop is also called a predestination paradox which would imply that they can't be broken.

Just stop thinking of time as a line but a point and paradoxes disapear ^^ Everything that is going to happen, including timetravel, are all part of the timeline... we humans can only "see" it as a line, in the same way we can't see infrared

Abbott and Costello were a representation of miscommunication. With their skit who’s on first comedy act.

Cutting out the part where she reveals she doesn't know the child, physically hurt me. I may not recover from this.

Love your intelligence and humor! It took me three watches to get it. Thanks also for your Wednesday reactions! Love

7:11 - "does this shit happen", and my dumb ass immediately responded that no, no Mr. KZreadr... aliens don't land in Montana. But you were talking about the weather ok I'm dum dum.

omg you HAVE to watch INTERSTELLAR; it's about space, love, time... it's just i n c r e d i b l e! if you liked this movie, you will love interstellar

I am seven months late to this reaction but your discussion about taking time to understand one another reminded me of this quote from Before Sunrise: "I believe if there's any kind of God it wouldn't be in any of us, not you or me but just this little space in between. If there's any kind of magic in this world it must be in the attempt of understanding someone sharing something. I know, it's almost impossible to succeed but who cares really? The answer must be in the attempt." So, I think there is hope in the attempt of understanding one another. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it's still magic.

I really love all the themes in this movie. I like the discussion about miscommunication, misinterpretations, not communicating fully, impatience, and fearing something we don't understand yet. I too wish we could come all together as a world try to understand each other and accept our differences. I have a lot of thoughts on how our country the US in particular can move towards that direction at least but as you said It's not very likely to happen unfortunately. And sadly I think we are regressing in a lot of ways. There was great cinematography and sound design for this movie. Amy Adams is a great actor. And Denis Villeneuve always does something interesting, I will say he can be a little too monochromatic with his color schemes for me it works for this movie but Dune could have used a little more color for me personally (the behind the scenes footage of Dune showed a lot of interesting costume & set detail that didn't show up on film because the filter was so very dark. It's a shame to spend so much money, man hours & hard work for something that won't be seen just because of a lens color filter). I think he did a much better job with color in Blade Runner 2049 but he was using the original Blade Runner movie as a guide especially with the neon lights in the city portions. It was still a great movie of course. I'm interested to see part 2 as well.

I remember seeing this in theaters. I was *fascinated*, and then yes...cried. A lot. It is profoundly my favorite movie ever made, and knew immediately with Denis V was attached to Dune that it would be a masterpiece. Also, a friend of mine read the novella it was based on and didn't realize when she saw the movie. Imagine the...perfect symmetry of her realizing that, considering the resolution of the story.

It's been filmed in Québec and the fog is a reel thing

Its your first time watching Arrival? Wow. Great reaction as always.

The "ink" is magnetic and the dial before shows static elektricity in the air.

I love linguistics and languages and this movie does such a great job at explaining the mechanics of it all and how it shapes everything in our world. It's making it interesting and even visually engaging. It's out of the scope of the story but I would have liked to see how sign language, Asian or Arabic languages would have interacted with the aliens', I think it could have had very different and fascinating journeys.

This movie is so cool, if you're interested in the novella the movie is based on I definitely recommend the video Arrival: Time Is An Illusion by CJ The X, it's a great video discussing both the movie and the book!

24:21 Damn I never though of that. You were right on the mark there about thinking of time end-to-end. O_O Mind blown.

This is one of my favourite films. For what is an "Aliens" movie it really explores a topic I enjoy seeing in movies and TV, humanity. It strangely reminds me of an episode of Doctor Who called Midnight. That episode really shows the worst of humanity and what fear can make people do. Arrival also does that but manages to show the best of humanity too and ultimately leaves me with more hope for the future of humanity than Midnight did.

There is a game I found out-Circle of words and you do not use the same word twice. I found out it is a kids game.

The Heptapods could see the future. They knew they wanted Humans to learn their language. They even knew Albert would get blown up, and they were looking for "The Golden Girl", Dr.Louise Banks. They had to give Doctor Walker a brain stroke and get rid of him, so Dr. Banks would be brought to them. Why didn't the Heptapods name Louise ☼ LOUISE, in her honor? (Star Louise or Dr Starr Banks) :: Another thing, the Heptapods could learn English in just a few minutes, however, the Humans needed to learn Heptapod2. Ian married "Whats Her Name", and never came back to Louise. I think the Aliens look like their birthrate is going to suffer sometime in the future. It had better suffer because Version 2 of ARRIVAL ain't gonna tell what the Heptapods need humans for. ( I think )

Love this freakin movie

When you watch Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, I highly recommend you do the original theatrical release from 1977. I saw it then and watched it many times then because it was that good and competed well with the first Star Wars that year. Great year for scifi - two big blockbusters! There's a real difference in tone between the original and the other two versions. The original has a more positive vibe, even a few typical Spielberg slightly humorous bits, though it's a serious movie about a serious topic and one could imagine something like that happening. The other versions have a more negative vibe to it, the fun deleted, and a couple of impossible scenes added making it less believable. For your first CEotTK experience start with the original and look closely because the "director's cut" at most sources is misleading and dated 1977 even though it was put together in the late 90s. A Special Edition version came out in 1980. 🖖👽

Ohhh, didn't expected this, nice

I love this movie. I always tear-up.

One of my favorite sci fi movies

Arrival reaction lets gooooooooooo This the first Denis movie I've watched and probably my favorite; Amy Adams is an acting powerhouse, the visuals with Branford Young's cinematography are gorgeous and the score by late (RIP) composer Jóhann Jóhannsson is fantastic. I can't wait to see the reaction!

Close encounters is great.. might I suggest Steven Spielbergs mini series Taken. I don't know many people that have seen it but it's a great show. IMO

They split because she knew if they had a kid, the kid would die, and still chose to have that kid and not tell him how it would turn out

We thought this movie was about the value of love and time - turns out it was about Men listening to the wrong podcast might end the world.

I share your thoughts about possibilities of humans if we would work as a team. Unfortunately, the last 200 years or so, the West considers division as the primary tool when "working" with "others".

Call Luis did not create the language. She is teaching language she learned from the aliens.

Calle tentacled aliens a simpler shape than a cube 😂 i understand what you meant but you used the exact opposite analogy

I can't imagine the anxiety

There's competition with scientists

I feel like I should do a spoiler comment, lol, but I would hope that anyone on this page has watched the movie and or your reaction. So yeah, the aliens aren't inherently humans (I always saw them as truly alien, but I can see the argument). The idea is that they see all of time in their life span. So they know they need humanity in 3000 years. And in her dream she and Renner's character talk about that once you think about a language, you begin to understand the culture and think like them. So understanding the fundamentals of the language gave her the insight on time, and she sees it all at once INCLUDING knowing the entirety of the language. So she CAN'T change things, but it influences all of her decisions? It's meant to be something really hard to wrap your head around. But she definitely entered into the relationship knowing she would be happy for atime and that it would result in Hannah and that Hannah would die, which led to her divorce because how could she choose to do that (but honestly, she couldn't NOT choose because that is her life). It's fascinating and beautiful and...hits you right in the heart.

Simplistic is not a synonym for simple.

Fucking awesome movie

Yes, they split because Louise lied to her husband, withheld information and didn't give him a choice and waited until it was too late to tell him. She was selfish and narcissistic, and she knew it was selfish because she hid it from her husband. No wonder he left her.

"If it's peaceful contact why send 12 and not just one" Well..US is not the only country in the world that's for one,and 2.. assuming by the ability to travel through space that they're intelligent beings,they understand concept of politics,also knowing how violent humans are it's safer to contact more than one group of humans.

Sci-fi Masterpiece.

How are you going to edit out the most revealing line in this movie. That's the #1 line to see someone react to lol. "Who is this child"

@benjalucian1515

Ай бұрын

IKR? He talked over the most important turning point of the movie. SO frustrating.

One of the best non superhero movies i have watched since 2016

Just saw this movie a few days ago. Loved it!

Arrival is fantastic.

OHHH IM EXCITED FOR THIS ONE

This is such a great movie.

The circles look like to me female and male. Circle language.

Ugh you talked over like the key line in the entire movie and missed it. "Who is this child?"

@fjgiie

Жыл бұрын

Did the movie leave it out? :edited: edited to add --------> Can you imagine asking a totally strange alien | who is this child | . Out in movie land we know, but would an alien even know what our child is that she is dreaming about?

This movie is overrated. It is extremely effective at emotional manipulation to be sure, but it honestly has little to say if you step back and really think about it. I get the film has lot to say about the importance of linguistics, but that's not a theme or something anyone would disagree with. The anti-war message is nice, but I'd be hard pressed to think of a movie that was pro-war. It is indeed a beautifully made innovated sci-fi film and no one is going to say otherwise, but a forgettable flick all the same. Honestly, I keep forgetting this movie exists until it pops off in my radar. Fun Fact: In Arrival (2016) Forest Whitaker plays a military officer who recruits civilian experts with special skills to assist with the first contact of an alien species. In Species (1995) he was a civilian expert with a special skill who was recruited to assist with the first contact of an alien species. Solving Style Fact: While the shape of the ship was decided early on, Denis Villeneuve had great difficulty imagining an interior that would allow humans to easily navigate through such a steep and vertical design. The later decision to turn gravity sideways offered an obvious and convenient solution. Rosetta Stone Fact: Director Denis Villeneuve and screenwriter Eric Heisserer created a fully functioning, visual, alien language. Heisserer, Villeneuve, and their teams managed to create a "logogram bible" that included over a hundred different completely operative logo-grams, seventy-one of which are actually featured in the movie.

@immortal5626

Жыл бұрын

No you mean this movie is very Underrated.

@brucesimmons5517

Жыл бұрын

That's funny, considering I watched this movie once several years ago and it's still stuck with me.

@k3008

Жыл бұрын

The message of this film has nothing to do with linguistics or pro/anti-war. It's summed up with the line "If you could see your whole life from start to finish, would you change things?". That's the point the film was driving and it was wrapped inside a sci-fi movie. It's probably forgettable to you because you're looking at it from the language and/or war angles, which are just the side plots to the actual message of the film.

@MRIRONLAK

Жыл бұрын

​@@k3008 ouch for the recieving side this was meant to😁

@jenniferdarling6

Жыл бұрын

Haven't I read this same comment on a different Arrival reaction? I think I said then "it seems to have deeply affected you"