I could write a thesis on “Arrival”… I’ve been to a linguistics seminar, I’ve been to a psychology on perception seminar… Most of the known sciences out there can analyse “Arrival”, each from its own perspective. It is hard to elaborate on its key points without giving away spoilers so I will choose my very few words extremely carefully. Whether you have watched it or not, maybe you’ll find my standpoint somewhat useful – I hope so anyway.
There are three concepts you need to pay attention to:
- Language
- Time
- Perception
Keeping these in mind, here’s the film’s concept: Louise, a renowned linguist, and Ian, a distinguished mathematician – among others – are enlisted by Colonel Weber, after twelve alien spacecrafts suddenly appear, ostensibly randomly, around the world. As the big nations are planning on attacking the spacecrafts, Louise is racing against time to find a way to communicate with the aliens and prevent a global disaster.
Then the end credits scroll down… And now, years later, I still find myself pseudo-wondering, what do I really know about these concepts? But shortly after, as usual, life snaps me out of it and then I wonder, what do I really know about anything?
I salute the cast and crew for mastering such depth and complexity.
I watched this some time ago. I really quite enjoyed it although they could of done so much more