The Beings Beyond Time -- Arrival, and The Story of Your Life Explained 

The Story of Your Life was the first reading assignment for a class I took for creative writing credits in college. Back then I was absolutely certain it's not possible to be adapted into a visual media. 3 years later, Denis Villeneuve and Eric Heisserer entered the server and proved how wrong I was. How the film reconstructs the source material's narrative while being shockingly faithful in tone is quite astounding. I was marveling how they pulled off this adaptation when I watched it for the first time instead of feeling sad that I knew how the story would go.

This video.... “was so artistically done.”

The book this short story is from, "A Story of Your Life and Others", is a simply excellent read. The book contains five such stories, each dealing with a different and interesting look at the world through different scientific viewpoints. The book also contains an afterward for each of the stories by the author explaining the though process and framework of each one. The best way to read it, in my opinion, is to read each story and afterward as a pair. This book is a simply excellent read, and I highly recommend it to anyone who found this video intriguing!

This story is a kind of happy Lovecraftian story. In many of HP's stories, human minds that study alien languages or mathematics begin to gain access to strange powers and visions. Of course, in Lovecraft, these powers unravel and destroy the protagonist, whereas in this one the change of perspective helps and completes her. It even has cephalopod-style aliens! The trappings are all there.

The one thing I take away from Science Fiction was a whole is that it can really make you think. It can really make you change your view on the world around you, your way of thinking, your beliefs, etc. Do more of these.

Damn... I don’t know if you remember me. You helped me with my resume over 3 years ago. I’ve been watching and supporting ever since from a distance. This was very well done! I’ve always loved Arrival for these exact same reasons. Keep on keepin on bro and mtfbwy always.

I watched this in a science class in my last year of highschool, it was amazing and I couldn't get the amazing soundtrack out of my head for weeks.

In a nutshell, the extraterrestrial beings are paracausal in nature, meanwhile the humans are bound to causality.

The fact that Eck explains the book's plot and yet i still want to read it proves that you can find meaning in the journey

I wonder if we do think in a paracausal way without realising it. When people talk about "using their intuition", there doesn't seem to be an explanation for this in the causal way our science sees events. Yet from experience I can say that my intuition always works as when I'm using it it's almost like I'm seeing the decision and destination as if they've already happened, as if there could be no other way. Similar to how the light seems to 'know' it's course from the very beginning.

Saw the movie and all I could think was that they should have sent a 6 year old to play ball with the aliens. That 6 year old would have learned the language in a couple of weeks.

I haven't read the book, but I have seen the film and I love it. It makes you think, it provokes thoughts that otherwise wouldn't be sparked. If you try to think about this from a mathematical or scientific point, you won't get it, what you'll get is a headache. We've been conditioned to think of cause leading to effect (causality as physicists call it), not cause and effect being intertwined or even the same thing. This film is a great 'what if' point, what if you could think in a non-linear way? I really need to watch it again. Great video Eck, a very nice surprise change from the usual content.

Denis Villeneuve is such a master of filmography. I love all his works

Eck: posts a new thing Me: a surprise but a welcome one to be sure

#AskEck (Suggestion) Battle Breakdown: The Battle of Klendathu

Ive stopped watching your star wars videos for a while but when i saw this video i instantly clicked. Great to see you branching out, loved your SCP vids too!

Loved this video so much! I think these sort of “deep dives” into a complex topic like this is incredibly fun and I would love to see more!

I suggest a breakdown of the Shimmer from Annihilation.

I remember reading it AFTER seeing Arrival (which is imho one of the best sci fi movies ever made), and I was just astonished how Villeneuve managed to translate this story into a production -AT ALL- Dune is in good hands! Speaking of, post-Tyrant BG would be SO terrified of Heptapods! Creatures essentially living in that trap they fear so much, being trapped in-the-eye-of-an-oracle. Of course, Heptapods aren't prescient, but still, BG would be oh-so-freaked-out! :D

I wish you would make more si-fi shortstory videos I really love them and listen to them over and over like podcasts

This video was really deep and somewhat dark how she could see her child die and do nothing to stop it. But I also found comfort in it as well with how she knew it would happen but found her life enjoyable anyway

"Why do you ask 'what?" "When the delicious question is 'when?" "The only difference between past and present..." "...is semantics." "Lives. Live. Will Live." "Dies. Died. Will Die." "If we could perceive time as it truly was..." "...what reason would grammar professors have to get out of bed in the morning. " -name that quote

You can only grieve for what you loved truly, to love is also intrinsically linked with loss and knowing you will one day lose what you love, the ending is the same no matter what. Knowing this and reminding yourself of the future will make you also appreciate the moment you call the present

This was a refreshing movie to say the least. I love my action, horror, and suspense movies just like everyone else. But I always tend to appreciate movies that either keeps me thinking or envelopes me in wonder and discover. This movie does both so I completely satisfied with the experience overall. It can't hurt that I'm also a big fan of Sci-fi movies/shows.

Loved this breakdown! Seen quite a few of breakdowns of Arrival, your is by far the best one, by really getting to the unique thinking at the core of this story! Well done

#AskEck *Attempt 809* Can you do the Forerunners vs the Imperium of Man faction versus video soon please?

I've struggled for years with an understanding of human interaction that I'm not sure should exist or really anyone else has experienced. I've watched human interaction from an observational behaviorist point of view for most of my childhood, without friends, silently watching everyone, in highschool I was introduced to psychology the nature vs nurture, the patterns and behaviors, cognitive roots and sociological tendencies that I've already known but had no names for. Two decades now after I first started observing, and I'm three years past a bachelor's degree in psychology, I've found the tendencies to be interesting, I preface my next statement with this history to hopefully explain my understanding. I often have conversations that I already know the outcome and what they are going to say, I often change how I speak knowing how everyone that hears it will end up reacting, sometimes word for word. I have triggered reactions that I've seen thousands of times in hundreds of people, and the separate flavors of humanity I come across have dulled into a gelatatous grey. I rarely find people I do not fundamentally understand after two sentences with them. I sometimes enjoy days with friends, watching new movies, new video games etc, knowing how it's going to end but still enjoy the complexity of human interaction and the time spent in it. But even that has started to grey. I'm 25, turning 26 this year. This story, speaks to me as an individual and how I grew up, the organic silence of the human experience stretched out by time, such a silly thing, and I hope it doesn't become stale anytime soon. I'm at peace with knowing these ends, and it has become a comforting thought that even after it all, it will be worth every moment. Not that I have any precognition and such, but I understand that every moment of your life will progress on and on and then the end. A beginning and end. And because of that, with my very human understanding of the universe, I can understand the next year, day, hour, and be able to tell another person exactly what they need to hear to hopefully grow beyond themselves. I consider this story to be hopeful and wonderous, and I'm so glad you covered it. I hope it can provoke a greater understanding of the life of the people who've read the story and watched this video. And for anyone that read all the way through, thank you for your time. :) I hope you have a wonderful day.

Hey Eckhart, Loving the vids I think you should do a video on the side factions such as the Ewoks, wookies, the naboo and the Geonosians. From star wars!!!

A thought I just had listening to you talk about it: To Louise, the act of changing the future -- especially in the film, where her daughter dies not of an accident but of a genetic defect she was born with -- would have been the death of her daughter, just as surely as the death she finally died. She would be erasing the daughter she knows and loves before she is even born from ever having existed.

I just bought this video a few days ago and watched it. It was not what i expected and and it turned out much bettet than I was ever hoping it could have been.

“As if you have any choice” Did... did Eck just threaten us... with safety?

Wanted a summary of the story for my class and wow my hockey guy showed up, really cool to see you Eck, thanks!

The next sci fi short you should do should be The Road Not Taken by Harry Turtledove!

Just found out the there is going to be a discussion about Arrival at Ohio State featuring several professors fro the linguistics and astronomy departments next week. I will be sure to attend (on Zoom of course), should be a good discussion.

I cannot describe how much I love this channel

I've not read the book, but I have watched the movie. I was still in my mid teens when the movie came out, and had only read the intro to the book before brushing it aside. Watching the movie then made no sense to me, it seemed to confusing. However, looking back at the movie, and seeing the genius behind how it was filmed and how it relates to human life in so many different way opens ur eyes to view things in a different way. Honestly, this movie deserves way more credit then it has received, and in a way, is a hidden gem.

Celebrate the joy before the sadness.....

Hi eck love your content hope you keep Createing videos for years to come.

For what it's worth, I didn't realize the daughter was in her future, until she explained it all at the end of the film.

Love these short stories, keep up the good work!

congrats on the baby

I didn't know that Eck liked arrival. I hope it gets a sequel. "Session 38" I'd call it.

Loved the story. As a strong believer is "Block Spacetime" it resonates with me - I think you must live as if you have agency even if the reality is you do not have it. Any action that you takes that does not make tomorrow better did not make tomorrow better.

Your video made me want to both read the book and see the movie- thank you, because I know I will. I frequently reread books that obviously I already know the ending of, and the ending of it’s sequels, etc- but I always explain it to people who ask why, that it’s because I enjoy the feeling that it gives me every time. It’s like visiting a place that I’ve been before, and love being there. It doesn’t matter that I know the ending, because it doesn’t have to have one- I can always start it over, and I eventually always do. Before the movies came out, that’s how the Lord of the Rings was to me. I’ve always been a very advanced reader, and read The Hobbit in second grade (1982- seems so long ago) and LOTR finally in fourth grade- and I revisited that world in full once every year since, but also dipping in just to read parts of it multiple times throughout the year- it was a place that I felt comfortable in, and it has always brought me a lot of joy. I know it isn’t exactly the same as the idea of this movie (and book), but it makes me think of that feeling. Anyway- thanks again for sharing this video- I’m looking forward to seeing and reading this. I hope that you and your family are safe and healthy- take care!

Love all your videos! I think a return to factions compared would be cool, but with new factions outside of StarWars, like StarCraft or Sins of a Solar Empire.

Two points you raise at the very end. I don't think the aliens telling Louise that the child is her future daugther lessens the message. At that point, imo it is really a message to the dumb dumbs, because you can kinda start figuring the whole thing out already. Maybe the spelling it out method of delivery is too on the nose, almost patronizing, but as far as the message goes, if you hadn't realised by then, you will be surprised anyway. As for them needing humanity in the future, I think it is sufficiently vague, I don't think it ruins the point. We don't even know how humanity helps them. For all we know, learning human language and thus the ability to perceive time from a human pov is already how humanity helps them in the future. If anything, the books version strongly hint shade at it while the movie leaves it actually more open. In the text version, after learning "human" and having a human learn to speak "alien", they just piss off without an explanation. Sounds strongly that they got what they wanted, they delivered the "payment", deal is done, the end. The alternative is one of those endings I just find really annoying "so I don't feel like writing anything else really, so just make up your own stuff! That is why you're buying a book, so you can imagine things in your head all by yourself just like you were before you even got the book, ain't I clever" (have I said I hate those endings). With the movie's version, there is room for imagination, but there is an imagination prompt, and that I very much prefer.

Man I love this movie. The pacing, the music, and the acting. So good.

Bro I love Arrival and I love Eck, and he loves it too??? My day has been made

Very deep thought. Amazing story. Time to take the trip down the rabbit hole and use your link to the book. Hope you have a good one!

Arrival always made me think of Babel 17 by Delany. They both deal with a language that affects how you perceive time and reality.

I love your videos so much that I would never want to criticize but the aliens actually called heptapods not hetapods

I had the biggest argument ever with my father about this movie, because we had different understandings for this movie

I bought this book in England and read it as we sailed the Irish Sea. This one and the rest of the stories in the book are small masterpieces. Love the video, Eck! It was cool getting to revisit and ponder this sci-fi gem.

Ooh I’m so glad you made a video on that story! I really enjoyed it. Would love to see more reviews of science fiction stories.

The movie was good, but I like the short story better. I understand why the movie had to create a conflict that wasn't present in the short story, but I think the short story is better because having no conflict in the story allows the reader to just feel the melancholy of it all.

Eckhart making an Arrival video? A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.

Hell yah, an arrival video

Well thought out and presented video, the quality of your work is beyond consistent

Great video! You should do more videos on different topics like this!

Given this is a major a StarWars channel, let's assume that there is some intersection between SW fans and people who appreciated Arrival. Then why would be inconcievable to some people that SW fans were nor satisfied with the shortcomings on the Disney trilogy once theu had Arrival as partial benchmark,

honestly wish i could sometimes wipe my memory of ever watching Arrival just so i can get that amazing twist for the first time again and again

Fantastic movie!!!

Look at Eck flexing that big brain. You show 'em!

Loved this movie. Never read the book. But I was blown away by the film. Reminded me strongly of the Aang-ti monks from starwars and their views on the Force. Wonder if there is some inspiration here

Arrival ... a truly underrated philosophical masterpiece (both the novel and the movie) 🧐😊

This movie was so fantastic. Nice work summing it up. You should do some more stuff outside of the usual Star Wars content, it's really good.

Haven't read the book but wonderful movie. I didn't know what to expect going in fresh and was not disappointed. Great video on the subject of causality vs. predetermination!

I watched this movie on a road trip at night. That REALLY helped to add to the tone of this really strange but also kinda cool movie.

What I found most fascinating was that the movie seemed to also be an homage to Slaughterhouse-Five. The aliens, as conceived in the movie, are aptly described by Vonnegut, "an eyestalk atop a body shaped like a hand". Not only that, but the Tralfamadorians of Vonnegut's writing were similarly unbound from linear causality, describing human perception of time as 'a man strapped to a train and forced to look through a keyhole, only seeing the smallest and most immediate unit of time, instead of being able to view the entire landscape'.

I haven't read the book, but i watched the movie just to properly watch this video, and it brought me to tears as i tried to understand the feeling of having a non-linear sense of time and of your own life, it gave me the same feeling as the short story named "The Egg" (that you can find an animated version of in Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell channel), just, the feeling of you or me, being part of a whole, like something similar to the end of Evangelion, feeling the time and the experience of an entire life, or rather of the entire humanity inside your soul is... I don't know, astonishing, to big to explain on human words hahahahaha great video

Both the short story and the movie are some of the best of recent science fiction. I didn't like the changes made in the movie though - particularly removing the looking glass devices seemed to change the dynamics of the plot quite a bit - arguably the communication scenes from the story would probably look hilarious on the screen, which wouldn't be good for the overall tone.

Thanks for making a video about one of my favorite movies

Please do more videos like this.

Woah, this one is sooo refreshing....pls make more of em

I haven't read the story (it's on my list, now, though), but i like how the movie addresses a common theme in our life (we all know how we're going to end up) and asks "what would you do if?..." As all good sci-fi does, it makes us more aware of our present situation by crafting a story around a fantastical aspect of our lives.

Love how you dissect topics man. Also congrats on being a new papa!!

Do Heptapods vs The Flood next.

One of my favorite movies

Heptapod. HEPtaPOD. HEPTAPOD. SEVEN LIMBS. HEPT. HEPT!

Eck, you would like the Garden of Sinners movie series. The 8th movie in particular deals in similar concepts to the headopod method of thinking.

I usually watch all your Star Wars videos. But I really like this movie and enjoy a change of pace from you. I'll give the story a read.

I personally am a subscriber to the thought that what we do is a result of simple physical reactions, that me typing this comment was inevitable from the beginning of everything. If you were able to know the velocity and position of every particle in the universe(which is against the known laws of physics), then you too would know of this inevitability, and would be able to write a book describing every past, present and future event. Most people who see this deterministic thinking as sad, something that would make a person cynical, immobile, depressed, but I feel non of those things personally because of two reasons. The first being that I feel like I have a choice in the matter even if my actions are just me completing a prophecy, in other words, I don’t know the future, so as far as I know, I’m writing my own destiny, even if the standard model of physics tells me it’s already been written. The second reason is simply that I often forget about everything I just said until someone brings it up. Yup... That simple. So I kinda understand the thinking of the headapodes, though the whole baby not born yet thing is still confusing me.

Absolutly amasing video men!!!

The Story of your life is a brilliant short story in the book...but the one "Hell is the absence of God" was also great. In all a brilliant collection of short Sci FI stories. Well recommend it 👍

Makes me wonder what would happen if thrawn would somehow encounter the hetapods

Very good vid. I’ve seen the movie but have not heard of the book.

I get that the story brings up important questions of free will versus fate and the value of living a life that we know will be brief and full of pain, but the fact that learning a language with circular symbols lets you see the future is just so goofy that I had a hard time taking the story seriously.

Very great video, you did the concept and source material justice. Take it with a grain of salt, because I’ve only seen the movie. I think in sci fi, it is much cooler to have aliens that aren’t anthropomorphic. Sometimes it seems like just a recreation of the fantasy genre in sci fi to have mass effect style aliens make up most of the known races. It seems much more likely that aliens, intelligent extraterrestrials, would be completely different in their perceptions and the motivations arising from their biology.

Yes! Ty very much for this

i had a buncha unexplainable dejavu in middle and highschool. had it so much i decided to try to remember it and change it. pretty sure i did a couple times. cant say too much without sounding crazy or being dissected by an OGA but think theres something but maybe not enough to do anything practical. but with technology and knowledge might be easy.

Wow, great video!!

I really enjoyed this movie, thanks for the upload!

I like this content, good job!

This was a beautiful video honestly

I need to watch the movie now

Now that, is creative!

Ok so I'm 29seconds in and I gotta bail, this sounds like too interesting a story to listen to your breakdown without readin it first, al be back though 👍

This movie was so good

I think about how awesome too a story like this would have been set in the Star Trek or Star Wars universes. An alien craft shows up at each of the major planets in the galaxy and Picard and crew try decipher their language, changing them all irrevocably along the way.

Wow awesome, congrats!!