Arrival (2016) is not your average sci-fi movie. We explore how the film departs from standard conventions of the sci-fi genre and the film’s deeper meaning.
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Transcript provided by Youtube:
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arrival is not your average sci-fi movie
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after mysterious spacecrafts appear in
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12 locations across earth linguistics
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expert Louise banks must figure out how
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to communicate with the aliens to
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identify their purpose here and
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ultimately save humanity from themselves
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sure the film has many classic sci-fi
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ingredients aliens advanced science and
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technology seeing the future and a
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global conflict that threatens mankind’s
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survival but arrival departs from
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standard sci-fi conventions with some
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unorthodox elements a present-day world
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setting rather than an alternate reality
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the absence of futuristic technology or
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over time-travel organic shapes and
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effects instead of flashy spectacle and
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most of all by telling an epic story in
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a realistic close to home naturalistic
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style that director denis villeneuve
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calls dirty sci-fi the documentary like
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feeling draws us in and makes the
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characters relatable so we feel as if
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these incredible events could just as
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easily happen to us because we’re so
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used to certain sci-fi conventions we
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have preconceived notions about the look
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of extraterrestrials droids or robots we
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expect to see advanced technology and we
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assume aliens will probably be a
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nefarious threat to mankind but by
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subverting our expectations arrivals
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different sci-fi spin underscores it’s
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timely all too relevant message
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beware the dangers of relying on our
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preconceptions about the foreign or
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unknown in today’s fractured
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socio-political climate we face an
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urgent need to communicate in visual
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terms dirty sci-fi comes down to a
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naturalistic filming style that makes us
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feel close to the characters we create
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an approach for the movie that we call
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dirty sci-fi we were trying to create
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the feeling that this was happening on
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the bad Tuesday morning going away from
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the scope of the huge movies unit going
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away from the flesh we’re not trying to
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make something delicate a rival takes
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inspiration from the classic Steven
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Spielberg’s Close Encounters
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the third kind if you think about what
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that movie did the way Spiller cast that
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film with very real looking people in
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their houses and what they wore and the
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cars they drove it it felt like people
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that you know that’s why I think that
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you have these very relatable people in
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an extraordinary situation instead of
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the more average Syfy’s typical hollow
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spectacle for its own sake arrival
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enters the alien contact story via
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Louise’s personal experiences with her
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daughter grounding us in the larger
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global events in a natural connective
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way I always felt that it was one of the
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rare sci-fi that had that was grounded
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in emotion while many Syfy’s are set in
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a future alternate reality or parallel
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world the events in arrival take place
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in hours he wanted it to feel like it
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could happen any day so it doesn’t exist
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in another universe it exists in our
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universe typically sci-fi softn revolve
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around technology that doesn’t yet exist
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in our time but here apart from the
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aliens unknowable mysteries the only
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available technology and tools our
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current science and linguistics now I
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didn’t want that the humans to use
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technology that didn’t exist I wanted
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them to then to use what is available to
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be you
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talk with idioms you will use a
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whiteboard with a marker most science
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fiction films rely on a fair amount of
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suspended disbelief but there’s very
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little magic going on here the events
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are plausible even if aliens haven’t yet
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made contact they could wouldn’t be so
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so shocked to something like this happen
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like someday we couldn’t be visited
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likewise Louisa sessions going through
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the methodical steps of teaching
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language to the aliens
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helps the movies realistic outlay as a
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thought experiment part of challenging
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our sci-fi preconceptions means not
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giving us the obvious threatening aliens
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we expect instead arrivals
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extraterrestrials feel organic a
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dreamlike surrealist mashup of
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recognizable animals from our natural
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world I wanted them to have a huge
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strong presence like a whale or maybe
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you can have that feeling with elephants
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too strong instinctive presence and then
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the deep individuals the spaceship
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alludes to a symbolic space presenting
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enlightening ideas and thoughts when we
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ultimately step into the spaceship which
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is ultimately a temple is a place where
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a certain level of truthfulness is
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revealed we don’t feel frightened to be
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in the shit we actually feel enlightened
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to be in the shit
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the spaceship also alludes to the
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relationship with life and birth the
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long tube-like shape of the entrance to
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the ship’s internal chamber mirrors the
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shape of the birth canal it suggests
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that in parallel with the aliens
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emergence there’s an awakening new
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growth and understanding of the universe
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and life beyond that of Earth somewhat
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unusual for a sci-fi the film flips the
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obvious old-fashioned visual
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connotations of dark is bad and light is
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good here darkness doesn’t need to be
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feared it’s just the unknown what’s yet
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to be discovered
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the imagery reflects the theme that the
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unfamiliar doesn’t have to be
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unwelcoming there’s a visual trajectory
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about starting in a dark place which is
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sort of the unknown and ending in a
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place that’s a little bit more elevated
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enlightening oneself and coming to
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realization of where we are as human
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beings ultimately most sci-fi movies
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emphasize feelings of isolation
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fearfulness and caution for dark futures
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that could result from misguided human
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intelligence and hubris but arrival
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leaves us with a warm
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optimistic message while most national
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governments and militaries immediately
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assumed aliens are here to attack
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probably because they’ve seen way too
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many conventional sci-fi about alien
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attacks arrival ways up other reasons
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that we might be visited by aliens and
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suggests that their arrival could be a
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gift by doing sci-fi differently the
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film’s message of hope has a better
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chance of being heard – moreover by
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pairing the alien contact story with
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Louise’s relationship with her daughter
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arrival conveys that real communication
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means loving one another despite the
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risks one of the biggest key messages
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that I found in the story that I wanted
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to try and impart in the film is the
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need for communication we need for
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clarity arrival combines a personal
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intimate story with larger universal
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themes about the need for human
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communication and connection
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you
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video