The central character of Arrival, Louise, is a linguist. She is tasked with deciphering the language of a visiting alien race, the heptapods. Louise’s ultimate mission is to find out why the heptapods are on Earth. The aliens eventually explain to Louise that 3000 years in the future, they will need the humans to help them. In exchange for their assistance in the future, the heptapods have come to offer something in exchange: their language.

As a result of learning the heptapod language, Louise begins to perceive time in a non-linear fashion. We learn that her visions of her daughter, Hannah, who died a terminal illness, are not flashbacks, but flash forwards. Louise will marry her colleague, Ian, and one day have a child named Hannah.

While it’s not the focus of the plot, Arrival raises interesting questions about the nature of time and of foreknowledge. Specifically, I wondered whether or not the events in the flash-forward visions that Louise and the heptapods have are inevitable, or whether, by knowing the future, the heptapods, and Louise, can change it.

Examining the film, the evidence in the case of the heptapods seems mixed. If knowing the future allowed them to change it, why don’t the heptapods simply avoid whatever trouble they’re going to be in 3000 years in the future? Perhaps it’s because that trouble is inevitable – or maybe reaching out to humanity is simply the most effective way to solve the problem.

In Louise’s case, the film seems to suggest that Louise choose to allow her future with Hannah and Ian to unfold, even though she knew it would end painfully. This suggests that the visions are not inevitable. Yet, if what you’re seeing doesn’t have to happen, you’re not really seeing the future, are you? You’re seeing a possible version of events.

It’s interesting to consider what heptapod society would be like if all individuals have this forecasting ability. Would it complicate the visions if everyone involved could see them and change their actions in the present if they wished events would turn out differently? How would it affect you in the present if other people know you will do something bad in the future?

Louise also faces an interesting dilemma, in which case she knows that her future will bring both great happiness and great sadness, and must decide whether to let it happen.

Or, maybe the visions –  or at least certain components of the visions – are inevitable. In this case, the real question is not what choice you would make in Louise’s shoes, but whether or not you would prefer to know the future if you did not have the power to affect it.

Both interpretations raise interesting questions. I’m not sure which one I would prefer. One offers the power to choose your future – but also a great deal of responsibility. The other one would likely make you feel powerless. Either way, it is fascinating to consider to what extent the future the heptapods see is in flux.