I was expecting a generic alien invasion movie, and I was pleasantly surprised
It’s based on a short story called “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang. He’s published only eighteen stories in his career (starting in 1990), nothing longer than a novella and mostly short stories. Despite that they’ve won him four Hugos, four Nebulas, and six Locus Awards. He’s worth reading, is what I’m trying to say.
I put him up there with Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein, easily.
Well that’s got me interested then
The short story was OK but this is one of the few cases where the movie did it better, added flavor to it that wasn’t in the book but carries the emotional hit farther.
The short stories in that book felt very “woah dude” to me, in the end I finished it but didn’t like it all that much. I’ve been downvoted for this opinion before, but oh well.
If you haven’t read The Merchant and the Alchemists Gate by Ted Chiang I can’t recommend it enough. Here’s a PDF Link
It’s lesser known than his big hits like Exhalation, but I think it’s phenomenal.
It’s also featured on a two-part episode of LeVar Burton Reads.
Oh, I’ve read all of his stuff! It’s a red letter day for me when a new story is published. None since 2019, though.
My odd choice of his would be Seventy-Two Letters. I find him most interesting when he follows through in the consequences of an old disproven scientific theory or theological explanation of the universe, and he manages to fit two of them in here.
I read the story and found it very entertaining. I’m not sure what impact it had on me, but it made me marvel at the idea of the inevitability of fate and how often our suffering and regrets of the past are the reason we’re regarded so highly by others.
How did it strike you?
I wonder if Ted Chiang was inspired by Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five
He’s written some “Notes” on the story when it was printed in his first short story collection and said that it has the same theme but that he wasn’t inspired by it directly. The roots were Paul Linke’s play “Time Flies When You’re Alive” and the principle of least time in optics – if you treat light as a ray, it has to know its future destination in order to know the path with the shortest time it will take to get there (though not if it’s a wave). Then there’s a bunch of diagrams and discussions about the principle’s implications for free will that will stretch your brain. It’s pretty fun.
This movie absolutely destroyed me emotionally for like a week. I was wholly unprepared for what this movie was really about. I was expecting an alien invasion movie and got a brickload of emotions dumped on my heart.
For anyone wondering, the music that just destroys you in the movie is by the amazing Max Richter. The song is On The Nature of Daylight.
PS: He recently released a piano arrangement of the song.
This song is everywhere if you look. I heard it in Shutter Island first.
I’d like to watch this and Annihilation again. I’ve only seen each of them once, both around the same time, and my memories of them are pretty fuzzy at this stage.
that fucking bear 💀
I’m pretty sure I saw it in a Dolby theater and it kept me up that night.
Two of my absolute favorite movies. They are both amazing examinations of contact with life that functions completely differently than us, albeit in very different ways
FYI Annihilation novel has the same premise and setup as the movie, but is quite different plot-wise. It’s more emotional, introspective, and has very vivid imagery. Much different from what I usually read, but I loved it.
Interesting, maybe I’ll read that before re-watching the film. Thanks for the recommendation!
Still one of my favourite movies ever
I watched it for the first time last year without knowing anything about it and, as someone who loves to nerd out about anything linguistics related (am translator, for context), I cannot describe how gleeful I was that such subjects had center focus in a big blockbuster like that. Obviously the other aspects of the movie were amazing as well and the story got me very emotional by the end, but I will never shut up about how interesting and important that translation/communication aspect of the movie was.
Now you have to watch it again. Seriously
I just did it.
Amy Adams wrecked me with two movies back-to-back. Nocturnal Animals and Arrivals really did a number on me.
I didn’t know how it was going to end, at any point during the movie.
That’s a good thing
Yeah, genuinely one of my favourite original sci-fi movies I’ve watched in the last decade. I did a linguistics course in high school so just really loved that side of it. It also really felt like they did a great job building the tension and making it feel like there were high stakes to her work.
The concept of linguistics changing the way we understand the world is interesting but i cannot enjoy a movie that portrays other countries as unreasonable warmongers and incompetent while portraying the US as reasonable and brilliant.
The only heptapod killed in the film was killed by Americans…
The world is shocked to discover that Terry’s Chocolate Oranges are actually seed pods for intelligent extra terrestrial life.
It’s not Terry’s, it’s Extraterrestrials.
Now you need to watch the 1996 classic “The Arrival”!
Reading this made my knees hurt.
the short story/novel its derived from is also pretty good
Ted Chiang’s Story of Your Life won a Nebula for best novella and a Theodore Sturgeon award, and was nominated for a Hugo for best novella.
Yeah, it’s pretty good.
The best sound design team. I also love the ability of the visual design team to give a true feeling of scale and weight to things.
