
She now writes “Louise” on the board and points to herself.

On their next trip, Louise decides to take off her radiation suit so that the aliens can see her face. Of course, they use some ubercool space ink to write stuff. The pods perceive the written English to be a form of communication and respond with a circular symbol. She first writes the word “Human” on the board to tell them what they are. On her second trip into the craft, Louise takes with her a small white board to help write what she is trying to say to the aliens. They later begin to call the aliens heptapods. On Louise’s first trip onboard, she’s unable to say anything as she’s dumbstruck by the sight of the 7-legged aliens. This has no significance except to let us know that the aliens are quite clearly an advanced civilization. The gravity in the craft is altered and is perpendicular to that of the Earth. They reach the alien craft and enter it from an opening below. He has been picked to understand other aspects of the “arrival”. In the chopper, she meets Ian Donnelly (Jeremy), who is a physicist. Weber gets permissions and comes over to her place in a chopper to pick her up. She tells him that she needs to be at the site to help understand the conversation. He needs her to help understand what they are trying to say. They have a recording of the sounds of the alien. US Army Colonel – Weber (Forest) appears there seeking help from Louise. Louise goes to an empty college and follows the news there.

Government orders a nationwide shutdown and as a result the university is closed. At this point the director wants us to think that Louise has lost a daughter to cancer and currently lives alone. She goes back home, where she stays by herself, and dozes off following the news channel. One day when Louise is teaching, 12 alien ships arrive and position themselves around the world. She is known to have helped the US Army once before in deciphering a Farsi text. At this point, she is neither married nor has a daughter. Louise is a single teacher who is a linguistic expert. Let’s cut to where she’s a teacher in the university. I’ll get to how she has these visions later on.

She is recollecting the events of the “arrival”. You can hear Louise narrating this as a recollection. The punchline in the movie Arrival or the revelation in the climax is that the scenes where Louise Banks (Amy) is shown with her daughter, is not the past. The Revelation in Arrival (Movie Meaning) While the non-linear storytelling is fantastic, the Arrival movie explanation is easier done linearly. Here are links to the key aspects of the movie:Īs always, I’m going to lay down the story linearly.
