Arrival Movie's Language: Talking in Circles

We unpack the alien language in Arrival (2016) and explain how the filmmakers visualized it on screen. Warning, this video may contain spoilers.
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Transcript provided by Youtube:

00:06
one of the first things you might notice
00:08
about denis villeneuve arrival is its
00:11
gutsy choice to teach linguistics
00:12
lessons in the middle of an epic sci-fi
00:15
this gamble pays off because hey it
00:18
turns out basic linguistics is actually
00:20
pretty interesting what’s really
00:23
intriguing about the movies exploration
00:25
of circular writing is the story’s
00:27
theory that if we learn new languages
00:30
worldviews or ways of processing
00:32
information we can fundamentally change
00:34
the way we think we can open up to a
00:37
deeper more empathetic form of
00:39
communication and now that’s a proper
00:41
introduction I play dr. Lewis banks a
00:45
linguist
00:46
and a professor and she’s called upon by
00:50
the United States government to help
00:52
decipher in alien language as there’ve
00:55
been 12 ships that have arrived on the
00:57
planet and she goes in to try to figure
01:02
out what they’re telling us and why
01:03
they’re here
01:04
you know Louise really believes that we
01:07
need the twelve to work as a unit she’s
01:09
like we need to be working together to
01:10
decipher this and yet countries are sort
01:13
of pulling away and wanting to you know
01:15
protect their information and so it
01:17
really is about trying to get the world
01:20
to come together to solve the bigger
01:22
issues I feel that civilization is very
01:24
more fragile than ever that our
01:26
communications are weaker and weaker a
01:29
paranoid we are afraid of the others
01:32
even the more we have communications the
01:34
less in communication it seems we are
01:35
and our disconnected we are from once to
01:38
the other
01:39
I began by doing the spoken word and I
01:42
realized that’s pointless so we began to
01:44
communicate with them through visual
01:45
communication
01:46
and that starts to work and then we get
01:48
to see their amazing way of writing the
01:50
filmmakers had to figure out not only
01:51
how to make linguistics entertaining and
01:54
dramatic but also how to visualize
01:56
language on screen I didn’t want
01:58
something that can relate to any human
02:01
language something a language that is
02:03
coming from another way of thinking that
02:06
was created a dictionary and there was
02:08
like add piles of documents I sat down
02:11
and met with the linguist
02:12
the linguist I spoke to said oh I
02:14
understand languages but I don’t speak
02:16
them she’s like I’m not a translator and
02:18
I was like oh there’s translators in
02:20
them there’s linguist though my
02:21
character speaks a couple languages she
02:23
more studies the anthropological
02:25
significance of language and culture she
02:28
talked with aliens you will use a
02:30
whiteboard with a marker and say hello
02:33
and that form it was a very very
02:35
striking image to see the banality of
02:38
that process being in contact with
02:41
something such impressive as and another
02:43
civilization like that the circular
02:45
shape of the language mirrors the movies
02:47
exploration of time as Louise learns the
02:50
alien language thinking in their
02:51
circular logograms
02:53
she starts to see time differently the
02:55
idea of going forwards or backwards in
02:58
time blends into a far-seeing
03:00
multi-directional understanding of
03:02
events that opens her mind to new
03:04
questions of free will and choice Eric
03:06
Heiser our screenwriter he came up with
03:08
a circular language that was you know
03:14
thematically there’s no beginning or
03:16
ending it was a real anchor for the
03:19
movie emotionally and visually the
03:21
interpretation of the language that of
03:22
being circular and understanding that
03:25
it’s not just linear you know it’s not
03:27
by mistake that we came up with with
03:28
that sort of shape
03:30
for the screenwriter it was important
03:32
not to talk down to the audience we
03:34
strived time and again to give the
03:37
audience 2+2 versus giving them for
03:39
every time we thought we would have
03:42
someone to come in and say whoa speak
03:44
English doc we stopped we said how do
03:48
these people speak with each other in
03:49
real life everything in doing it I have
03:52
to explain to a roomful of men whose
03:54
first and last question is how can this
03:56
be used against us in arrival the visual
03:59
language circle underlines the movies
04:01
urgent message that we must communicate
04:04
and engage with each other even love
04:06
each other if our world is going to be
04:08
okay to close we asked some of the
04:10
film’s production team what’s the first
04:12
word they would teach the aliens why my
04:16
question probably to them would not be
04:17
what is your purpose on earth or it
04:19
would be are we going to be okay it’s
04:21
getting into the realism and the
04:23
documentary sense of asking why are you
04:25
here or where did you come from to be
04:28
more cognizant of our own actions and to
04:31
be more considerate of others is
04:33
paramount right now like I get more than
04:35
ever I’m so ah I’m just so worried about
04:38
how we treat each other
04:43
you