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
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?
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.
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 💀
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.
Amy Adams wrecked me with two movies back-to-back. Nocturnal Animals and Arrivals really did a number on me.
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.
spoiler
I didn’t care for it at all, I felt the memory as time travel thing to be weaksacue, and I felt ripped off at the end of watching it, plus I don’t like her very much at all
Spoiler
Of course its totally fine to not like a movie, but I wanted to clarify the memory as time travel thing.
I can’t remember where I first heard this, it wasn’t this movie, but suppose humans are oddly fixated on the flow of time. To us the flow of time is immutable we exist in the present and remember the past. What if other races could “remember” things that haven’t happened yet as easily as we remember things from the past.
The movie kinda proposes that learning human languages traps us into this linear / temporal mode of thinking. As in, as children we learn to parse things start to finish and that’s it… we just never do it the other way future to now.
Turns out I’ve done a shit job at explaining this.
As I said, it’s fine to hate the movie. I just thought I’d try to explain this part because I felt like I understood it, although I’m not sure anymore.
I get into Sci Fi, time travel and obscure concepts, and I have to agree with you mainly. It ended and I kinda felt like, “yeah OK”. Another person here has said that it should be watched again. Like what, did I miss something ? Anyway, it’s entertainment and each to their own. Maybe I should watch it again one day, but it will be a while.
It depends. What were you expecting and what was your takeaway after watching? Because to me, it didn’t have anything to do with the time travel or scifi aspects at all.
The main point of the film is summed up with the line “If you could see your whole life from start to finish, would you change things?”. It was about free will and the main character’s decision to let things play out knowing her daughter will die at an early age, because if she didn’t have her, she wouldn’t have experienced the life she had with her daughter at all. It’s a philosophical story wrapped in a scifi film.
I think the impact, if any, that it has on the viewer depends on their answer to that question. I enjoyed the movie, but thought the characters acted like emotionally rife teenagers, and that the decisions they made were wrong. I’ve never felt like rewatching it. I’d make a bet that all of the others in the comments who absolutely loved the movie agreed with the characters’ ultimate decisions.
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.
Loved the movie! Such a great concept and so elegantly made. But the tagged on love story kind of took me out of it. Could almost hear the producers pushing that love story for wider audience appeal.
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.
Same. I’m skeptical of most newer movies given all the rehashes and sequels. The presentation of the aliens had me shaking a little bit!
the short story/novel its derived from is also pretty good
Watched it last week for the first time. Really enjoyed it
