Film Analysis: The Arrival

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Redefining the Ideas of Language, Time, and Free Will
Time and language are both basic constructs for society. Individuals depend on the existence of time to organize their lives and language to have the ability to communicate with those around them. Though the technicalities of time and language have changed over the years, they have, for the most part, remained the same conceptually. However, The Arrival, a science fiction movie released in 2016, took the philosophy behind time and language and altered it completely. The Arrival tells the story of Dr. Louise Banks, a professor of language, as she attempts to decipher the language of the aliens. In doing so, her perceptions of time are completely changed, an experience which causes emotional …show more content…

If all moments are happening at one point and in one singular present, there is no way that any causal chains can be created. In the movie, Louise is able to call the Chinese leader and change his mind about attacking the alien ships by relaying to him information she is told in the traditional idea of the future. This demonstrates not a causal chain that functions linearly, but instead a loop or a circle. Rather than each action be dependent on another, each action is dependent on each other, a concept that defines the idea of nonlinear time. Consequently, because no causal chains exist, neither could determinism. As a result of this, every choice an individual makes is independent of causal chains that could influence it in any way. For example, Louise, having already experienced significant portions of her life, has the ability to choose whether or not to give birth to her daughter. However, because this decision has no causal impact on the traditional idea of the future due to the nature of nonlinear time, it instead represents a completely liberated version of free will. This is a version in which choices have absolutely no influence over anything else; instead, all of the choices made in the traditional concepts of the past and future function together to give a singular output of a present moment, otherwise known as nonlinear time. However, this philosophy does pose many ethical and legal problems. If a choice does not directly define or influence its outcome, there is no standard by which an individual can be punished for making a wrong or criminal decision. This problem of free will could cause challenges in determining how harsh a punishment should be for a crime, if there should be a punishment at all, and could significantly problematize different forms of government and of legal

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