Arrival: Ending Explained 

Sometimes movies go beyond my imagination and create something like this

I had a son, he died at age 5 months. Later he appeared in my dream. I asked him his life was worthwhile, he responded, yes I got know my father.

I loved La la land and Moonlight but this is by far 2016's BEST movie!To be a linguistic student and to hear Linguistic Relativism in the movies was surreal! This was an amazing video. Thank you so much!

I thought it was pretty clear that he left because she told him she chose to have their daughter even though she knew what would happen to her.

Did anyone else think that the heptapod was tapping on the glass to point at the bomb?

I picked up on the 'twist' when Renner said 'it's 1/12 of the whole'. Then I realized the ENTIRE movie they are telling you what the twist is. Circular writing (clock/time, the computer reads it clockwise), little conversations, confusion from Louise when talking to Hannah. 'Ask your father, he's the scientist' confirmed it. This was so well written, much like Prestige it puts the twist in your face but you're too into the film to notice.

Louises decision to go forth and choose to love knowing the pain really resonated with me. As a new mom it’s terrifying to know love like this, knowing the focus of that love is so vulnerable. The idea that the love is worth that incredible pain is so beautiful. I cried so hard.

This movie broke me... I cried like a bitch... Absolute masterpiece... Never has a movie touched me so deep..

A lot of people didnt like this movie and I dont get it. I think it's so creative and different from everything else coming out it deserved praise for it

I watched this movie tonight and can't stop crying. What a beautiful movie.

In my opinion, a lot of times when anyone talks about the movie and uses the expression "non-linear" doesnt really know what non-linear or linear means. A metaphor of the time perception of both: Heptapods are on a tower where they can see what's every tree in a forest, while humans are on the ground and can see only the next tree only when they walk forward.

The music is also nonlinear and circular, such a masterpiece.

Love the movie, story and the cast! Amy Adams I'll give you the Academy Award. Loved your acting in this movie. I'm a cancer survivor and I wouldn't change anything but to love, be kind and humble more.

I love how the structure and message of the film makes rewatching a delight

The choice that Louise makes in deciding to love despite the probable outcome makes it all the more precious. Sometimes the doubt of a failure can block us from reaching out from the heart. Though time is on no man's side yet wounds beyond reach will heal because of it. Love's true intention was found in giving without an expecting a return with which it is as they say, knowledge will set us free.

This movie changed something in my heart... I can't help it but to shed tears over the choices Louise had to make knowingly of all the pain and tears to come.

One of the most underrated films of 2016. While people were going gaga for La La Land and Moonlight, this film, although it did well, did not garner anywhere near the attention it should have. Which is strange because it was released so late in the year that it should have done much better than it did. This was a wonderfully written film that was not only smart and clever, but it had an emotional draw as well. I am not much for sequels but I might enjoy a sequel to this film.

Perfect timing. JUST finished watching this film

of all the oscar nominated movies ive seen so far, Arrival is The One for me. I love la la land so much, I think it was the best-made movie among them, but Arrival's themes are so much more meaningful for me as a person, and as a human being. I also love timey-wimey stuff so much

I just loved the background music a lot of the movie. It just gave me a sense of calmness, and its softness just gives us a sense of foreboding and a feeling that there is always hope in everything. It also made me feel that everything happens for a reason and that with a wider perspective there is always good in everything. Am I the only one??

Lots of people asking for soundtrack info. The heart wrenching piece is by Mark Richter called On the Nature of Daylight and the rest:Arrival Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Music by Johann Johannsson. I found it all on Spotify.

You did a really good job with this analysis. I kinda discovered some things that i didn't see in the cinema! Thank yoU!

a comparison of Arrival and something like LaLaLand is like comparing apples and screwdrivers.

That violin makes me cry every time!!

Actually, the alien's form of language and memory is time travel. To learn their language, you must access time past, present and future in your own life as Dr. Banks did. The problem is when you create this time vocabulary in your mind this part of the timeline becomes the core and cannot be changed without dire consequences, therefore Dr. Bank's life must not be changed. Unfortunately, Dr. Donnelly does not have this ability to communicate through time so he does not know that their daughter dies. The core ring of the universe's timeline must not be changed only the protrusions change just like their language to create alternate outcomes, for example Dr. Bank's preventing World War 3 with the Chinese general. The circular smoke symbols are the time representation of the creation of the symbol's meaning. The aliens need a team of humans to save the universe's timeline core from other alien life forms that are destructive time travelers before their own race dies off in 3000 years.

Awesome film. Somehow the fact that Louise has visions about Hannah rather than memories makes her death even sadder.

"Non-Zero Sum Game" That part is when I realized that she's seeing from the future. Like bruh I literally screamed upon that realization 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯😝😝😝😝

Props on the Vonnegut Tralfamadorians reference.

This analysis just blew my mind, amazing! Really cleared any confusion from the film, and showed me the message of the film.

This movie was amazing on so many levels watching it once does not do it justice, i'd recommend 4 times minium, twice just to get your head around it, once more with friends to get their take on it, & a 4th time after watching a video like this to see if you've missed anything really deep, bloody well made, you are a credit to your chanel.

What an insightful analysis! I don't ever recall being moved to tears by an EXPLANATION of a movie! And I've watched a thousand reviews and analyses on YT in the last few years, including ones about Arrival. I've never even seen the movie! So now I want to go watch all your explanations to see what other profundities you have to share. Wow.

This was a movie that when I first watch disturbed me. I was similar to Ian, angered and couldn't made sense of Louise's choice. But it keep me thinking about the film again and again, more than anything that came out in 2016. Now I think it has one of the most beautiful ending ever. It takes great courage to embrace life offerings knowing that it will be taken away, I hope one day I can learn to approach life like Louise.

There should be more movies like this ... and I know there will ...

Perfect way to end the video, where Hannah looks at the camera and whispers, "I love you."

the snake/serpent/dragon eating its own tail represents the ethereal barrier around the earth, the van allen belt. which in some mythologies it is said to have been put there by cosmic entities.

I loved this movie in theaters for the exact reasons noted in this video. The theories of learning a truly alien language, the struggles of communication and understanding, and the concept of choice in full knowledge that the consequence of that choice is pain. A lovely, lovely, story.

Denis V gives me hope that in a year full of sequels, the Bladerunner one may be something that is a lot more than just a cash-in..... He has not made a bad film yet.

The legs of the heptapods look like 11:11

2020 nope we haven't learnt to communicate and not act on paranoia.

love your channel

Amazing summary of an amazing movie...thank you

When I saw the film I had thought that the significance of the "3000 years return" wasn't relative to the length of the alien's life span but that they were traveling in excess of light speed. It would be a much shorter period of time to them but three thousand years to earth.

That the Best Directing Oscar went to Hollywood Hand-Job (aka La La Land) instead of Arrival shows exactly why winning an Oscar has lost its worth.

This movie was deep & it made you think...to imagine circular time instead of our traditional linear time, giving us hope in humanity.

Wow, this video is on par. The ideas said in this video is so heart warming.

I couldn't wait to watch the movie but after watching it, I was a little confused because of all the hidden meanings. Your video really cleared things up. Now I want to watch it again. Thanks

“I haven’t shared this with anybody yet...” AD BREAK

Wow, so much of this movie went over my head the first time I saw it. Amazing film. Thanks for making this. Cheers!

Really excellent analysis video!!

Blown away with this analysis !

The Heptapod's language also looks like the Zen enso

Brilliant. I'm so glad I discovered this channel.

this is the best explanation i hve heard so far...

This is one of the best explanation of movie ever. and the narration and the voice of her explaining and the way she explains everything is just great. i didn't watch the movie but this video made me appreciated and want to watch it.

My favourite movie, for precisely the reasons stated in this video. Thank you for posting this

Seriously this channel from the best channels ever on RU-vid.

Fantastic! Thank you...

I wonder if the key to understanding the language truly (which gives you the ability to process things non linearly) comes with the knowledge that you can't and wouldn't change things. So anybody trying to learn the language with the intent of changing what they would see in the future will never be able to become fluent. Vs being like Dr. Banks and understanding it's just a part of life. And while Abbot's sacrifice was noble, I doubt someone who grew up in a language like that would even have the concept of changing the future. To them it wouldn't make any sense. So Ian saying she made the wrong choice tells us he doesn't fully grasp the language and how Louise perceives things.

Nicely Explained... Thank you...

This movie did not get the attention it deserved. Fantastic story, writing, music, cinematography... It's one of my favourites.

Really deep analysis you did there. TERRIFIC JOB!

This film is a masterpiece of non linear thinking and touches on very deep concepts like freewill and morality , as well as advanced linguistics and the human condition. And you have done such an awesome job explaining these concepts I will leave it there . But this film is a very smart kid dressed in an alien costume , and I think your explanation of this film has shown its brilliant depths thus making it very underrated. When I saw this film I saw the circular themes in time and the design of the language but you pointed out so much more , and said it so well. The occult symbology mentioned here is spot on as well , and was prominent in this films theme. So many thx. ⚡

This is a beautiful Movie. And this the best review on RU-vid

this channel is my new favorite one!

I will have to see this movie again. I keep forgetting that I am seeing Jeremy Renner in movies and now I’m so enjoying them more and I spin out when I consider his immense talent and that we all came so close to losing him. Thank you God for keeping him here for his cherished daughter.🎉😊❤❤❤

Love your channel!! Can you do Donnie Darko next please??? would love to see a well thought out explanation of that movie.

You guys have awesome and mind blowing intetpretations! Good job

Best explanation given for Arrival yet. I think the difference is the fact the screenwriter had input to the explanation.

Superb video. Thank you!

Beautiful explanation!

I'm currently editing a review I did for Arrival. There's a couple of things I missed lol. The insight from the screenwriter was interesting and I didn't even think about the date it was released. Great analysis as always.

That was beautiful. Thank you 😊

The thing she told her Ian (her future husband and dad of Hannah) is that Hannah will die. She doesn't tell him this until much later. That's what she meant when she told Hannah that he left her because she told him something he wasn't yet ready to hear about the future - and he thought she made the wrong decision - meaning the decision to have a baby when she knew the baby would die. She was able to see her life in nonlinear ways - the future as if it was memories. When she asked Ian "If you know your life from start to finish, would you change anything", she was referring to already knowing about the death of their daughter and was contemplating if she should go through with having a baby in the future.

It was clearly told why he left her. She embraced the future even though she knew what their daughter will go through because she thought it's not about just knowing the future but the feel of it. Whereas Ian, when realized she knew what was gonna happen, confronted her about having their child suffer when she could easily have avoided it.

Very interesting content analysis of a very beautiful movie. Many thanks.

great explanation

Nice analysis!!!

best vid about the "Arrival" movie!

i want to kiss the guy that analyses the films and makes these videos. truly amazing

OMG... Your analysis made me cry

It needs to be understood that the General also knew the new language as he wants Amy's character to intercede and remind him so he won't go to war. Louise is able to go to that moment in time and see his number and recite the last words on the General's wife. That is why he tells her he wanted to meet her. He needed someone to intercede in that moment. If you take that part, that understanding out, it makes the general look rather forward, giving Louise his phone number...

Some of the wisest words I ever heard I think came from the PBS 2-time series therapist, John Bradshaw, "You're the only person you will never have to say good-bye to." I have carried these words with me throughout my life since and I am now 74.

Great message..... We still have the time !

Literally just finished watching this movie then i browse youtube watching a random video then this one popped up on my suggestions. Thought it was a few weeks old but when i looked at the date it's published just YESTERDAY.

I don't know why I put off watching this movie until now, but I'm kind of glad that I did, because the message was all the more impactful in this bizarre year we're having. Couple of things that weren't mentioned in this video was the significance of when Louise calls language "the cornerstone of civilization," to which Ian argues that it's actually science. One is calculated, observable, rational, and measured, while the other is interpretive, emotional, and fluid. In this film they had to use both approaches to fully grasp the non-linear language of the heptapods in order to make contact and understand one another. I found that to be such a brilliant way of defining the complexity of our humanity and how we need both the rational and the emotional to truly communicate with one another. It's why Ian and Louise are so compatible and also at odds with one another. When Hannah asks her mom what the term is wherein two parties can reach an agreement where both are happy, Louise gets frustrated when she can't convey the term Hannah's looking for, and ends up brushing her daughter off telling her, "If you want science, go ask your father." But then the answer comes to her through the cyclical timing, when the topic of a "non zero sum game" is mentioned in conversation around the meeting table in her past, because she's using that ability to unite the rational and emotional again in her mind. It's a brilliant film that had me sobbing by the end of it, because it's less of a story about an alien encounter, and more of a story about coming to grips with the human condition. If we could effectively communicate with ourselves and with others, what kind of power and knowledge could we all be capable of? Louise's curiosity and willingness to learn and be changed by what she knows grants her unfathomable abilities to transcend time, and in doing so, averts the worst armed disaster of the modern human world. The heptapods ultimately needed humanity to work collectively, and it was their contact and willingness to impart their knowledge ("weapon") that enabled Louise to kickstart a global reunification process, thereby ensuring that in the future, humanity could save the heptapods in kind. A sort of higher purpose that not only saved us from ourselves, but helped another species, too. EDIT: And I didn't even get into the use of music in this movie! UGH! The composition is called On The Nature of Daylight by Max Richter, but there's another version of this song that combines the instrumental composition with Dinah Washington's This Bitter Earth. I won't get into it too much here, but the version with her sung lyrics over it contribute so much to the emotional power of this film, and I think it was probably for the best that they didn't add the lyrics to the film because it would be too much to handle. Go look it up for yourselves if you're interested. It's a beautiful, heartbreaking piece of music.

Well said. Thank you.

Very decent video. Thank you guys.

you got a new subscriber:)

This will go down as one of the best sci fi movies, ahead of its time.

Wow.. this video is awesome 👍

I thought this movie was absolutely fantastic. Definitely a must see.

One of the best films I've ever seen

Wonderful analysis of an amazing movie.

good info, thx

The problem with Arrival - and this is coming from a linguist - is that her scientific methods for discerning the nuances of scripts was entirely off. When you encounter a completely foreign form of communication that has no known relation to an already deciphered similar mode of communication, you have to establish the idea of whole object bias. You show the aliens a baseball. You say "ball". Hide the ball. Show the aliens a bowling ball. You say "ball". Hide it and show them a basketball. Say "ball". If these aliens have any sort of intelligence, i.e., logical processes, they will quickly understand what the linguistic sign "ball" signifies. It is not an attribute of the objects like smooth, stitching, finger holes or color but the name of a class of items with a threshold of similarity. If they are shown enough items, they will begin to discern the differences and similarities and then categorize objects by hypernyms and hyponyms. But no, she just jumps right into "You, Tarzan. Me, Jane"-type crap. Well, no wonder their extra-terrestrial motives were so easily misunderstood.

Good work Screen prism.. I was totally confused after watching the movie.

awesome video and awesome movie! best film of 2016 for me

Good stuff. The analysis helped me ARRIVE at the meaning/ destination I was looking for. Oh wait...!

I thought it was a great movie. It's sad though that Louise will lose Hanna and Ian.

What a great explanation. :)