Hello and welcome to our podcast! Your hosts are Paulina Kuchepatova, Rylie McConnell, and Joie Littleton. 

Episode Goal

For this podcast, we’re going to talk about the movie Arrival, released in 2016 and directed by Denis Villeneuve, and explore the film’s cultural background and production process. 

Synopsis

 Dr. Louis Banks, a linguist specialist, is recruited by the U.S. government to help decipher an alien language as 12 unidentified vessels have arrived on various parts of the planet.  Louis is put to the test to try and discover the aliens’ purpose on earth and what they’re trying to tell us. As nations are on the verge of global war, Banks and her crew must find a way to communicate with the extraterrestrial identities known as heptapods. Louis essentially takes her chances that could potentially threaten her life and potentially all of humankind. 

A close look at the Pandemic explored

The pandemic in this case is the unforeseen invasion of aliens known as heptapods. They basically communicate using both oral and written speech. Their written speech uses logograms or “circles” to write sentences and words. The heptapod language is expressed through emotion and is non-linear, a concept that is mind-puzzling to humans who operate on a linear form of communication. 

Cultural and Historical Background 

Unlike some of the prior films discussed in this podcast series, Arrival, which was released in 2016, offers a much more contemporary cultural and historical context.  During the time of the film’s production, the United States was nearing the end of the two-term Obama administration. Although the Obama administration, which spanned from 2009 to 2016, was considered by many to be a positive step in the right direction, there are still plenty of issues that are also important to consider in relation to that time. On one hand, the Obama administration aided the economy in recovering from the 2008 downturn and recession, ended the eight-year occupation and war in Iraq, and introduced legislation for a national healthcare program [1]. While these are just a few of the various accomplishments of the administration that was intended to protect U.S. citizens, there was also a great amount of injustice just below the surface. 

In 2015, there were more days with a mass shooting than days without a mass shooting. Not a single month in 2015 was free from a mass shooting. Overall, 468 died from 372 mass shootings in 2015. Compared with 2014 fatalities, the 468 deaths in 2015 mark a 22.2 percent increase from the 383 deaths in 2014. Additionally, there were 37 more mass shootings in 2015 than in 2014. But it’s hard to identify a definitive trend when it comes to the frequency and deadliness of mass shootings, as 2013 remains deadlier than both 2014 and 2015 with 502 reported fatalities from 363 mass shootings. It is important to note though, that in 2013 the leading cause of death by firearm was suicide, while in 2015 it was mass shooting, noting a clear shift in social issues [2]. 

To make matters worse, there was a growing sense of unrest among the African American community, as police brutality’s disproportionate impact offered some greater insight into the deeply seeded racist mentalities that continue to permeate many American institutions. Despite making up only 2% of the total US population, African American males between the ages of 15 and 34 comprised more than 15% of all deaths logged this year by an ongoing investigation into the use of deadly force by police. Their rate of police-involved deaths was five times higher than for white men of the same age. Paired with official government mortality data, this new finding indicates that about one in every 65 deaths of a young African American man in the US is a killing by police [3].

The country grew increasingly divided between people who were outraged over the increasing impact of gun violence in America, while others were threatened by the thought of their 2nd amendment rights being restricted even the slightest. This division was then further exacerbated by the concurrent presidential campaign that ended with Donald Trump beating Hillary Clinton in November of 2016. With the empty promise, “Make America Great Again,” the American people embarked into a new presidential era. The issue with this slogan is that it does not clarify who will have access to this “Great America,” or recognize that historically, America was only really great for it’s affluent white citizens. 

While Arrival was released in U.S. theatres on November 11th, just two days after the 2016 presidential election, the idea for the movie stemmed from the 1998 novella “Story of Your Life,” by renowned science-fiction author Ted Chiang [4]. At the time, Bill Clinton was the president, and social unrest and issues were present in different forms. The Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, during which the 49 year old president had an extramarital affair with 22 year old White House staffer Monica Lewinsky, came to light in 2019. The Cold War, which began in 1947, had just freshly come to a conclusion in 1991. The 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the Oklahoma City bombing leads to awareness in United States of domestic and international terrorism as a potential threat. The Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, killed 168, becoming the deadliest terrorist attack in the United States for that time. Bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh claimed he bombed the building in retaliation for the 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff and the Waco siege that followed a year later [5].

There are two main theories that are highlighted through the story of Arrival, and which originally inspired Chiang to write “Story of Your Life.” The first of those comes from his fascination in the variational principle in physics [6]. The variational principle is defined as a scientific principle used within the calculus of variations, which develops general methods for finding functions which extremize the value of quantities that depend upon those functions [7]. In a 2010 interview Chiang said that “Story of Your Life” addresses the subject of free will. The philosophical debates about whether or not we have free will are all abstract, but knowing the future makes the question very real. Chiang added, “If you know what’s going to happen, can you keep it from happening? Even when a story says that you can’t, the emotional impact arises from the feeling that you should be able to.”[8]

The second theory that Chiang explored and is greatly reflected in Arrival is called linguistic relativity. Chiang spent five years researching and familiarizing himself in the field of linguistics before attempting to write “Story of Your Life” [8] The hypothesis of linguistic relativity, part of relativism, also known as the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, or Whorfianism is a principle claiming that the structure of a language affects its speakers’ world view or cognition, and thus people’s perceptions are relative to their spoken language. The principle is often defined in one of two versions: the strong hypothesis, which was held by some of the early linguists before World War II, and the weak hypothesis, which was mostly held by some modern linguists. The strong version says that language determines thought and that linguistic categories limit and determine cognitive categories. The weak version says that linguistic categories and usage only influence thought and decisions. The strongest form of the theory is linguistic determinism, which holds that language entirely determines the range of cognitive processes. The term “Sapir–Whorf hypothesis” is considered a misnomer by linguists because Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf never co-authored any works, and never stated their ideas in terms of a hypothesis. The distinction between a weak and a strong version of this hypothesis is also a later invention, as Sapir and Whorf never set up such a dichotomy [9].  The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is referenced directly in the film.

A Vox article from 2016 titled, “Arrival is a stunning science fiction movie with deep implications for today”, explains that; “Science fiction is never really about the future; it’s always about us. And Arrival, set in the barely distant future, feels like a movie tailor-made for 2016, dropping into theaters mere days after the most explosive election in most of the American electorate’s memory. But the story Arrival is based on, which was published almost two decades ago in 1998, indicates its central themes were brewing long before 2016. Arrival is much more concerned with deep truths about language, imagination, and human relationships than any one political moment.” [10] Arrival pushes the viewer to think deeply about the benefits of language and communication, rather than allowing feelings of fear in situations where one might feel threatened to lead to the application of brute force as a solution. Openness allows for understanding so that two contrary forces might work together in ways that can be mutually beneficial. 

[1] Washmonthly. “Obama’s Top 50 Accomplishments.” Washington Monthly, May 23, 2016. https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/marchapril-2012/obamas-top-50-accomplishments/.

[2] Frostenson, Sarah. “A Calendar of Every Mass Shooting in 2015.” Vox.com. Accessed April 20, 2020. https://www.vox.com/a/mass-shootings-calendar-2015.

[3] Swaine, Jon, Oliver Laughland, Jamiles Lartey, and Ciara McCarthy. “Young Black Men Killed by US Police at Highest Rate in Year of 1,134 Deaths.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, December 31, 2015. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/31/the-counted-police-killings-2015-young-black-men.

[4] Rothman, Joshua, and Anthony Lane. “Ted Chiang’s Soulful Science Fiction.” The New Yorker. Accessed April 20, 2020. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/ted-chiangs-soulful-science-fiction.

[5] “1990s.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Accessed April 20, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990s.

[6] Rothman, Joshua, and Anthony Lane. “Ted Chiang’s Soulful Science Fiction.” The New Yorker. Accessed April 20, 2020. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/ted-chiangs-soulful-science-fiction.

[7] “Variational Principle.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variational_principle.

[8] “Story of Your Life.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Story_of_Your_Life.

[9] “Linguistic Relativity.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, April 18, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity.

[10] Wilkinson, Alissa. “Arrival Is a Stunning Science Fiction Movie with Deep Implications for Today.” Vox. Vox, November 11, 2016. https://www.vox.com/culture/2016/11/11/13587262/arrival-movie-review-amy-adams-denis-villeneuve.

Production Context

         Arrival, directed by Denis Villeneuve, had a wide release on November 11th, 2016[1]. The film was made by several production studios, including Lava Bear Films, FilmNation Entertainment, and 21 Laps Entertainment[2], with Paramount Pictures as the domestic distributor[3], who reportedly bought the rights to Canada and the US for $20 million[4]. With a budget of roughly $47 million, Arrival made a total of $24 million its opening weekend, and grossed a worldwide total of $203 million[5]. Arrival has garnered a great amount of critical acclaim, having been nominated for 8 Academy Awards, 2 Golden Globes, and 8 BAFTA Awards, and winning an Oscar and a BAFTA for sound[6]. Bradford Young, Arrival’s DOP, was also the first African-American cinematographer that was nominated by the Academy[7].

         Though Arrival clearly belongs in the science fiction genre Bradford Young, said that the film is an “intimate drama that had this science fiction element tied to it,” and focused less on aliens and more on a person’s moral conflict[8]. As Young put it, the film is ‘dirty sci-fi,’ focused on “An ordinary day and aliens just happened to show up”[9].

         Eric Heisserer, Arrival’s screenwriter, said that the film was based off of a short story by Ted Chiang titled “Story of Your Life”[10], which was also the original title for the film[11]. Given that Heisserer had mainly written for the horror genre before writing the screenplay for Arrival, he had a hard time convincing studios to pick up the script, causing the project to sit for a number of years before 21 Laps Entertainment stepped in[12].

         The movie was shot in 56 days, beginning on July 7th, 2015[13], and was mainly filmed in Montreal, with locations including the University of Montreal[14] and St. Fabien-Sur-Mer[15]. The St. Fabien-Sur-Mer location, which acts as the Montana landing site in the film, was apparently carefully chosen, as Young wanted a location that wasn’t too mountainous (in order to maintain the impressiveness of the alien’s ship) or too barren (in order to avoid cliché)[16]. Most of the interior scenes were filmed on soundstages, and for the alien ship’s interior, a 150 foot tunnel was built[17].

         Young’s approach to Arrival’s cinematography was influenced by the work of Scandinavian photographer Martina Ivanov, specifically looking at her book Speedway[18], which focuses on a nighttime motocross race[19]. Young was specifically impacted by Ivanov’s ability to take the ordinary and “turn it into something other worldly”[20], creating an ominous atmosphere out of seemingly peaceful situations[21]. Patrice Vermette, Arrival’s production designer, has also stated that he and Villeneuve were deeply influenced by the artist James Turrell and his series titled Shallow Space Constructions, which “use light and space to question the nature of human perception”[22].

         Another very important part of the film’s production was the creation of the heptapod’s language. Heisserer had specified in the script that the language was to appear as circles, to reflect the heptapod’s non-linear sense of time. However, Vermette said that the various designs suggested by linguists and graphic designers looked too similar to hieroglyphs or code, and thus too familiar. Instead, it was Vermette’s wife, Martine Bertrand, who introduced the idea of using logograms. Using Betrand’s designs, Vermette was able to make a dictionary of 100 symbols, which can be combined to express a variety of ideas and concepts simultaneously[23].

         There was one interesting controversy that happened during the film’s marketing campaign, when Paramount released a series of promotional posters, one of which showed the heptapod’s ship hovering above Hong Kong’s skyline. Controversy emerged when Hong Kong citizens realized that the Oriental Pearl Tower, which is located in ShangHai, was also included in the poster. Because Hong Kong has a long history of struggling to maintain its independence from China, many were appalled by the mistake, and publicly voiced their discontent through social media. Paramount eventually removed the poster and issued an apology, claiming that the posters were made by a third party vendor[24].

 

[1] “Arrival (2016),” The Numbers, accessed April 28, 2020, https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Arrival-(2016)#tab=cast-and-crew.

[2] “Company Credits,” IMDb, accessed April 28, 2020, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543164/companycredits?ref_=ttloc_sa_4.

[3] “Arrival (2016),” Box Office Mojo, accessed April 28, 2020, https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt2543164/?ref_=bo_gr_ti.

[4] Kit Borys, “Jeremy Renner Joins Amy Adams in Sci-Fi ‘Story of Your Life’ (Exclusive),” The Hollywood Reporter, published March 06, 2015, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/jeremy-renner-joins-amy-adams-779876.

[5] “Arrival (2016),” The Numbers.

[6] “Awards,” IMDb, accessed April 29, 2020, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543164/awards.

[7] Tobias Scott, “Bradford Young Breaks Color Barrier with Oscar Nomination for ‘Arrival’,” published February 15, 2017, https://variety.com/2017/film/awards/bradford-young-arrival-oscar-han-solo-1201988626/.

[8] “Close Encounter: Bradford Young ASC/Arrival,” British Cinematographer, accessed April 29, 2020, https://britishcinematographer.co.uk/bradford-young-asc-arrival/.

[9] “Close Encounter…”

[10] Grobar Matt, “‘Arrival’ Scribe Eric Heisserer Digs into Process of Adapting Ted Chiang’s Short Story ‘Story of Your Life’,” Deadline, published November 20, 2016, https://deadline.com/2016/11/arrival-eric-heisserer-denis-villeneuve-paramount-pictures-oscars-interview-1201859018/.

[11] Borys.

[12] Grobar.

[13] “Close Encounter…”

[14] “Filming & Production,” IMDb, accessed April 28, 2020, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543164/locations?ref_=tt_sa_4.

[15] “Close Encounter…”

[16] “Close Encounter…”

[17] “Close Encounter…”

[18] Laurent Olivier, “Inside the Cinematography of the Oscar-Nominated Movie Arrival,” Time, published February 22, 2017, https://time.com/4677598/arrival-oscar-cinematography/.

[19] “Close Encounter…”

[20] “Close Encounter…”

[21] Laurent.

[22] Laurent.

[23] Rhodes Margaret, “How Arrival’s Designers Crafted a Mesmerizing Alien Alphabet,” Wired, published November 16, 2016, https://www.wired.com/2016/11/arrivals-designers-crafted-mesmerizing-alien-alphabet/#slide-1.

[24] “Hong Kong Outrage at ‘Arrival’ Poster Skyline Blunder,” BBC, published August 12, 2016, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-37127909.

Close Readings

Rylee:

         The scene that I chose to look at is from 58:05 – 58:37. The scene opens on a high angle close up of a soldier listening to an internet talk show host criticize the government’s reaction towards the heptapod’s arrival. The host indicates a strong distrust of the federal government, saying that during the heptapod’s uncertain appearance, people are supposed to place their trust in “…the same government that ruined our healthcare and bankrupted our military.” The next shot is wide, establishing that the soldier is watching the show in the barracks, before cutting to a close up shot of the computer screen, where the website is surrounded by ads for firearms. Then, there’s a low angle medium close up of the soldier, who listens for a moment before glancing offscreen to the right. The scene’s final shot is of a fellow soldier lying in his bunk, who meets the first soldier’s unsaid question by clenching his fist.

         Though the scene is short, it immediately caught my attention because of its verisimilitude and how it clearly reflected the tension surrounding the 2016 election. The video in the scene immediately reminded me of Alex Jones, a conservative internet talk show host that is infamous for his conspiracy theories and weighted language. Additionally, the host’s statements about the heptapods, specifically when he says that the president is willing to “sit back and let them waltz in and take our country,” is very similar to rhetoric used by conservative figures when talking about illegal immigration. The host and soldier’s obvious distrust and frustration with the federal system is also a sentiment that was widely vocalized during the 2016 election, and was one of the reasons why Trump’s promise to ‘drain the swamp’ was so popular among his voter base.

         While Villeneuve and Heisserer could not have planned for this film to speak so strongly to the film’s contemporaneous events, Arrival almost perfectly matches the tone of the 2016 election year. The election was marked as a time of extreme division and lack of communication between opposing political parties, which Arrival reflects upon by displaying a perilous diplomatic process that seems to hinge on the communicative skills of small, but powerful groups of people. Arrival also focuses on the US and China’s relationship as competing world powers, and displays the same volatile dynamic that was also seen in Trump’s campaign promise to impose tariffs on Chinese imports. 

Paulina

Begin at ~1:38:00

The scene I will be focusing on is from the end of the film, when Louise calls the General Shang on his personal number and stops the attack on the heptapods by reciting his late wife’s dying words, this proving the revelation she has that the heptapod’s language is a gift that will allow humans to perceive reality in a less limited way than ever known before. 

What I think is the most important aspect to this scene is the inherent show of humanity. While humanity refers to the human race as a whole, it also refers to the condition of being human, and the quality of being humane to the human condition. Kindness and understanding should be the cornerstones of humanity, as we are all experiencing life collectively, and it is clear that historically we can make great advancements when there is cooperation. The enemy of humanity is selfishness. This can be reflected in many ways, but being selfish is rooted in the fear of not having enough. Not having enough power, not having enough money, or not having enough privilege. Society as we know it is always a checks and balances system of an individual’s selfishness, and the motivations behind that vary in justifiability. For instance, in the movie, some of the military members stationed at the Montana heptapod base become frustrated with the lack of answers and progress, and thus take matters in their own hands and by placing explosives in the heptapod’s vessel. The men were not acting solely on their own accord, but out of concern for the pandemonium that had ensued in the general public regarding the heptapod’s arrival. The unknown is scary, and the arrival highlighted a disconnect between public knowledge and the actions of the government. 

Joie 

There’s a pretty interesting moment in the film where Dr. Banks is explaining to the military commander why the framing and structure of a language is  equally important to the words they teach to the aliens or “heptapods.” Later we figure out that in China, linguists are teaching the aliens mahjong, a game that uses tiles printed with characters instead of teaching them a more difficult language such as Mandarin. Banks says that  the alien communication that  was interpreted as a threat may not be a threat at all, its simply put that the strategy of using a game such as mahjong automatically makes a bias of contrasts between winning, losing, weapons, and defeat.  This idea that language shapes the way we think is a linguistic theory. If we learn new languages, different worldviews, or ways of processing information, we can fundamentally change the way we think and we can open up to a deeper and more empathetic way of communicating. Arrival supports their theory with the Sapir Whorf Hypothesis which states that “the structure of a language determines or greatly influences the modes of thought and behavior characteristics of the culture in which it is spoken.”

 When we compare this to our struggles entering the COVID-19 pandemic, the concepts displayed in Arrival reflect our current status as a nation and fundamentally as humans.  An article produced by Vox entitled “Pandemics are not Wars,” poses important questions regarding the intentional vocabulary associated with the pandemic. Questions include, “Why do we talk about medical professionals as if they are soldiers on the front lines of a war, rather than scientists and practitioners studying and caring for the health of others?” Followed by, “Is it possible that saying ‘we are at war’ prevents us from seeing all the ways we can both end this pandemic and prepare for the next one?”

 War is a common metaphor for a pandemic and it used regardless of political affiliation, time in history, or geography. Using war as a metaphor for disease during a global crisis is not something that we’ve seen in modern times but for years. Vox states that there’s this cross-cultural inclination to look at a disease in terms of war. When we step back to look at how Arrival is explaining this matter, we notice how there are cultural and historical patterns for disease being a form of war. Wars are thought out to be winneable even though we can’t scare on threaten a virus away as we could an enemy. It’s interesting to see how the heptapods in the film were willing to reason with the humans struggled to reason with each other. Overall Arrival teaches us the power of language and that it is a tool or “gift” that we should use to better humanity.