The Ending Of Arrival Explained

Denis Villeneuve is fast becoming one of the most exciting directors of the 2010s. He started gaining prominence for his heart-wrenching drama Incendies, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film.

Villeneuve was known for his dramatic thrillers but now he has ventured into the sci-fi realm with Arrival. The movie is based on the short story “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang and critics are already hailing the movie as one of the best of the year.

It’s arguably one of the most beautiful sci-fi movies ever made and it’s a story that you have to watch with a lot of focus if you want to catch its subtle and poignant messages. In case you got lost in the movie's beautiful cinematography alone, here is an explanation of its complex ending.

#Arrival #Movie #Film

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis | 0:00
Rewiring Louise's brain | 1:01
Weapon opens time | 1:52
Everything is pre-determined | 3:11

[Looper]

What other movie endings should we explain next?

[-C.S.R]

I can’t wait until they make the video that explains this video

[davidhartzheim]

Best SF movie in a long time. Such a relief from the hundreds of dystopian earth stories and horrible alien creatures pitted against humans. And Amy Adams is wonderful.

[Lexx]

You go to the movies, you leave with a bachelor degree in theoretical physics

[Backinblackbunny]

That's so tragic. Louise knows she's going to lose her daughter but because of her new reality she can't change that. She must endure the fact that she will have this baby and while she can revisit parts of her life, she won't be able to save her. She will live with the ecstasy of her daughter's birth and the devastation of her daughter's loss at all times.

[khadijagwen]

Having seen the movie several times, I can say without qualification that it is probably the most intelligent Sci Fi I have ever seen. As expected, humans tried to screw it up, but this time, the Heptapods and one human salvaged it. I would like to see two or more sequels to it but unless a producer can be convinced that it would be a money maker ...

[ceerstar]

I love movies like this that are written by actual intellectual and intelligent people. I was captivated by the concept of this movie however realistic. I enjoy watching a movie that my mind has not yet fathomed the idea. This movie has a really fresh direction on the whole sci-fi/alien genre.

[igkgigoh]

"I'm just a puppet who can see the strings."
Just a mindblowing quote from Watchmen to me, but I didn't know that this language meant the same for Banks.

[Henry-yoqf]

Don't forgot the amazing music from the late Jóhann Jóhannsson. R.I.P

[mmMovieTrailersScans]

General Chang stated "I do not claim to know how your mind works", he understood enough of the prescience to know he had to show her his number and tell her the dying words of his ex-wife, but to conclude that he learned the heptopods' language is a step too far.

[Classsseaissues]

I don’t know how she’s not won an Oscar yet 🤷🏾‍♀️ Hollywood is messy

[themoddingprodigy]

A really beautiful and timeless movie. You can get lost in its calmness.

[Kimoto]

If you learn a language and take on the culture of that language, you will indeed see things through the lens of that culture. If you learn the language without taking on the culture, you'll miss the depth of the language, the people, and of course the culture because you'll be projecting your own culture/world view onto them.

Yes, language with culture does determine how you see the world. Ask any honest modern human if he felt he'd be the same person if raised in a totally different culture and circumstance and there's a 100% chance he'll say "No, I'd be different". If you've learned a language sufficiently different from your own (think "western" language VS say, Arabic or even better Japanese, Chinese or Thai)... and you've sufficiently let go of your first culture to adopt the new one the language belongs to... You'd know the world views are distinct between the cultures/languages. What's missing in this video is that culture shapes language and culture plus language shape the minds... who under its influence contribute to maintaining and shaping the culture/language (It's a feedback loop).

[thomashazlewood]

When I reached that telling point in the movie, I said, "Oooooh, ". Been a long time since a movie caught me off guard, not since the Sixth Sense.

[PeterParker-vqcz]

in the middle of watching the movie and i knew a little about it going in, like she can see the future thanks to the aliens and that the daughter is her daughter with the renner character, however i got chills while watching the "zero sum game" scene, made me pause it and search to find out if she can not only see the future, but can literally interact with that future as well, meaning, did she just giver herself the answer to her daughters question based on an event from the past????

seems the answer is yes and that is a pretty cool concept :)

[kymrush]

This is my fav movie. Intelligent & thoughtful. It is good to have a movie that isn't plotless & just eye candy.

[undefeatableyt]

Just saw Arrival, this has to be one of the greatest sci fi movies I've ever watched. It is a classic! 💯

[shannonmcstormy]

Another way to conceptualize what happens in this movie is that the character becomes aware of all the choices she has made in life. This isn't a loss of free will, it's simply an awareness of all the choices you made in life. Additionally, the film suggests that you can make changes in the past and future, in other words, any point in your life. Louise makes the choice to have her daughter despite that she is aware that her daughter will die young. The choice that the pain of losing a child (a cataclysmic trauma) was worth experiencing her daughter, her love for her daughter, for as long as her daughter has is huge. Her making this choice for her husband is but one reason for him leaving, the pain of losing a child is too much for him, understandably.

[tobiahsellias]

When you still don’t understand anything after watching this video

[romeoashkar]

I disagree with one idea from this video. This video claims that with time being "non-linear", then everything is predetermined. I choose to see this idea in a different manner. To me, time represents a loop in which everything keeps happening over and over again, with our actions and decisions changing both our future and "future-past". In the movie, Louise chooses over and over again to save the world and call the general every single time, living through the fact of losing her daughter and her husband. The fact that she saw what would or "has" happened 18 months later is due to her already saving the world in the "previous" time. If she would choose not to call the general, then, in the following "times", she would not be able to see the future in which she meets the general and wouldn't be able to save the world, nor get the same child, ...etc