Hidden Meanings Behind the "Arrival" Movie
Reviewed by Joy Ramos Davis

Synopsis: Twelve alien aircrafts land on Earth, creating global panic.  Teams of specialists have to figure out the aliens' intent.  Are they a threat to humanity?  Top linguist Louise Baker was hired by the government to interact with and understand the language of the heptapod aliens.  Along with theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly, they successfully decoded their written message that was transformational.

Warning: Contains Spoilers within Presentation

Welcome to "Conscious Movie Reviews."  I'm your host Joy Davis and here to review the sci-fi drama, "Arrival."

When a group of alien aircraft land on Earth, they ominously position themselves at 12 sites around the world, causing widespread pandemonium.

Specialized teams of people were selected with the task of having to communicate with and determine the aliens' intent.  It was a global, cooperative effort of sharing information among each other.

Some chosen members of the team to investigate were Colonel Weber, Ian Donnelly, a theoretical physicist, and top linguist, Louise Baker.  Within the U.S., an alien craft hovered over a vast expanse in Montana. 

The alien aircraft is tall and asymmetrical, resembling a rattleback top, also called a "Celtic stone" and "wobble stone."  It was a unique design choice because of how the rattleback has confounded scientists for how it violates the law of physics.  You can tap the edge of it, causing it to spin in one direction, then it slows down on its own to wobble and spin in the opposite direction.

Making First Contact

Louise was visibly nervous about making contact.  The team levitated within the anti-gravity chamber to approach the alien beings behind a glass.  They appeared squid-like, classifying them as heptapods for having seven tentacles.  It was difficult to translate their sounds, so no progress was made.  It would be another 18 hours before the craft would open again to allow another meeting.

Based on Numerology, the number 7 relates to the collective consciousness - humanity's deep, inner need to find spiritual connection, depth and meaning. 

As for the twelve alien spacecrafts on Earth, the number twelve symbolizes a will and sacrifice to achieve knowledge and wisdom - the ultimate goal of the investigative teams.  When twelve is broken down as a 1 and 2, the one represents new beginnings and creating your own reality that was for all humans through the alien contact.  As for the two, it can mean seeking balance, especially when there's global chaos from fear.   

A Communication Breakthrough

As a communication aide, Louise brought along a whiteboard at the next meeting.  She wrote HUMAN that prompted an alien response.  They formed three large circles inked on the glass.  It was a breakthrough!

When the word EARTH was written with a question mark, no response was given.  Louise was determined to know with each meeting if the aliens referred to themselves as singular or collective, and if their purpose for being here was conscious versus instinctive.

Breaking protocol, Louise removed her protective headgear in the chamber, insisting to the group that the aliens "need to see me" for better communication.  Both heptapods formally introduced themselves with their signature circles.  Ian jokingly nicknamed them after the famous comedy team of Abbott and Costello.

The tentacle-drawn circles made by the aliens closely resembles Zen Buddhism calligraphy.  Their word for the circle is "enso."  It is a simple, artistic expression of "completeness in each moment; enlightenment; the wholeness of an experience when you bypass the intellect," teaches the famous Zen calligrapher, Kazuaki Tanahashi.  

When the circle is closed, it represents perfection, while an incomplete circle conveys imperfection. 

Tensions Rise from Miscommunication

Working round-the-clock with the team to crack the language code, Louise would receive spontaneous visions of having a daughter.  Each vision, and later on as dreams, revealed their intimate moments together.  

When aliens from other landing sites communicated symbols translated as "offer weapon" and "use weapon," the military's guard went up.  China and Russia broke all communication ties with the other teams, convinced the aliens are a threat.  Louise loosely interpreted the alien symbol to possibly mean "tool", rather than "weapon."

Meeting again in the communications chamber, Abbott and Costello sprayed the glass with hundreds of small circles before a C4 explosive that was secretly planted by rogue military exploded.  Ian and Louise were pushed out of the chamber by one of the aliens, just in time to save them. 

Time is an Illusion

Ian was able to scientifically figure out that the circles made by the heptapods reveal their concept of time.

Tensions mounted when General Shang of China issued an ultimatum.  The aliens have 24-hours to leave or else.  Louise rushed to get alone time with Abbott.  She learned that Costello is dying; the visions received were flashes of her future self with a daughter that's fathered by a man who will eventually leave her; and the aliens are here to gift humanity with their language - a tool that shifts our perception of time to know the future.  Their alien kind will need our help 3,000 years from now.

Many spiritual masters have taught that time is an illusion.  It's not linear.  The past, present and future all exist in this moment - an eternal now.  The ego-mind is mechanical, existing in third dimensional reality to perceive time in a linear way.  You can bypass the mind to have inner knowingness, the language of Soul.  Examples of this being true is when you experience deja vu; have a prophetic dream that comes true; or receive a clairvoyant vision in your mind's eye of the future. 

A Universal Language

Louise was able to avert China's military attack on the aliens by observing her future self in 18-months having a conversation with General Shang at a United Nations party.  She learned from him about their private phone conversation.  Louise called him to recite the exact, last words of his dying wife that convinced him to change his mind by standing down.  She quickly used the knowledge to affect the present and avoid a disastrous, military confrontation that would later make way for unification. 

A second vision showed Louise giving lectures, based on the book she wrote that's a guide to the "universal language" and dedicated to her daughter, Hannah.

The heptapods left humans with their gift that can be understood two ways: circular symbols that are more direct in meaning and on another level, raise your consciousness to see the future.

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis was brought up by Louise earlier.  A simple explanation is that you can understand the consciousness of a culture by learning their language.  The isolated people of the Piraha heritage in Brazil have no concept of time beyond the present, so the concept of the future doesn't exist for them.  There is no past tense because everything exists for them in the present.   

Living in the now is ideal.  Brandon Bays, a world-renowned self-help teacher, adds that "there is a real power in bringing your awareness into the now.  When all of your being is surrendered to just this moment, fully present, freedom is revealed to already be here...You will become aware of a stillness inherent here...a vastness...a spaciousness."

Living Out Your Fate

After the aliens left Earth, Ian professed his love interest to Louise.  She saw her future with him as the father of Hannah.  Their daughter would be loved and cherished before losing her to a rare cancer.  Ian would leave them out of anger because of this knowledge about Hannah's fate.

Louise was able to understand the alien symbols because her mind was open in a child-like way to receive a new language.  Ian could not.  It is very likely that he couldn't grasp it from the prism of his highly-developed, left-brained thinking that was adept at the language of math. 

Louise asked him, "If you could see your whole life from start to finish, would you change things?"

Seeing the future allows you to relax into the present to live more authentically and deliberately.  It's a means to better understand God's Will that's always acting in your favor to give you exactly what you need to experience for your spiritual maturity and evolvement.

For Louise, she chose to have Hannah.  It was a deliberate choice to enjoy every single moment as meaningful with her, knowing that Hannah's life would be cut short.

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