Examples Of Determinism In Arrival

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In Denis Villeneuve’s 2016 film Arrival, the ideology of determinism is significant in the Heptapod’s universal language. Over time, as the linguist Louise Banks and the physicist Ian Donnelly communicate with the Heptapods, they learn the extraterrestrial beings’ basic vocabulary. As Louise becomes more skillful with their language, she starts to have visions of herself and her daughter and their relationship without the father. When she asks the Heptapods why they have come to Earth, they answer “Offer Weapon” to her. Louise being a linguist understands that “Weapon” could also mean “Tool.” She learns that the “Tool” the Heptapods are giving humanity is their language which can be mastered to alter the perception of time. This explains why …show more content…
Louise the protagonist comes to understand that the past, present, and future are not solid periods of time, but exist relative to each other. She gains memories of her future as she spends more time with the Heptapods, but still can’t understand how it is possible with her sequential conscious. Eventually Louise learns enough of the Heptapods language to generally understand them. She is informed by the Heptapod Costello that the Heptapods have come to Earth to help humanity because in 3,000 years they will need humanities help in return. The Heptapods could not change the future that lies ahead of them, so they reached out to humanity in the present. This indicates that the future cannot be altered, only the present can be. This supports determinism in a way that all actions are caused externally to the will. According to Immanuel Kant a German philosopher “every human being has an empirical character for his power of choice, which is nothing other than a certain causality of his reason, as far as in its effects in appearance this reason exhibits a rule, in accordance with which one could derive the rational grounds and the actions themselves according to their kind and degree, and estimate the subjective principles of his power of choice. Because this empirical character itself must be drawn from appearances as effect, and from the rule which experience …show more content…
For example, Ian the Physicist suggests that purpose not choice is what the film Arrival is about; he is trapped in the sequential consciousness that all human beings are trapped in. For the Heptapods it comes down to alien psychics. Ian brings up Fermat’s Principle, which is “a principle stating that a ray of light passing between two points will follow the path that takes the least time.” Fermat’s Principle is important because it is unpredictable when it comes to where the light will start. Louise says, “The physical universe is a language with a perfectly ambiguous grammar.” Louise then mentions that humans would write the sentence for Fermat’s Principle like “light is refracted through the most efficient path between two points” while Heptapods would say it like “light intends to reach its destination through the fastest route possible.” As you can tell the first sentence is passive while the second is active. Human beings live their lives, not aware of a bigger plan, while Heptapods live their lives consciously with a large purposeful
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