Essay Questions

What's the significance of seeing Louise's daughter die?

In the beginning of the film we see that Louise's daughter dies of an unexplained illness. The film opens with a voiceover from Louise, who says, "I used to think this was the beginning of your story. Memory is a strange thing. It doesn't work like I thought it did." This is accompanied by an opening shot of a window overlooking the sea. As the camera pans down and out, the audience is able to add context to the shot, foreshadowing the knowledge they gain later in the film which will transform their understanding of the opening scene.

Additionally, the lighting of the shot, with rectangular windows and a hazy single-toned blue hued background, foreshadows the wide screen Louise later uses to view the heptapods in the pod. These details, along with the quote "I used to think this was the beginning of your story", primes the audience for a non-linear narrative that alters their perception of time as a chronological experience.

This opening scene, revealing the loss of Louise's daughter, provides the emotional weight driving the remainder of the film. When these scenes return in the film's closing, the audience realises that for Louise, these memories are in the past, present and future simultaneously. Her daughter has both not been born yet, and has already died. Through this, director Dennis Villeneuve poses the film's key philosophical question: If you knew the future, would you change it?

Why does Ian and Louise's marriage fail?

After the Heptapods leave Earth, Ian and Louise's budding relationship turns into love and marriage. They have a child, a baby girl, and Louise having learned the Heptapod language is able to perceive the future. And she has seen that their daughter will die at a very young age. She weighs whether to tell Ian this or not, but decides to do so. But in telling him it causes a great chasm to form between the two as it seems he cannot grasp the reality that she has lived with for some time and it appears he believe her choice was very selfish and a betrayal to him. This is what can be deduced as to why their marriage failed.

Why does General Shang want to attack the Heptapods?

Shang is China's General and has decided to declare war against the Heptapods. The Americans know this when China completely shuts down communication with every other country. China's mistake is that they have mistranslated the Heptapods as saying "Use weapon" rather than correctly interpreting their message which is "Offer weapon." From this point Louise must find a way to stop Shang from attacking which comes in the form of a perception of a future meeting with the General where he gives her his private number, which she is able to use to speak to him and convince him to stop the attack.