Yup! Azimov, Arthur c Clarke etc, all about humanity and what if?

People who don't understand think Fantasy and SF are about escaping from reality. What they do is provide a non-threatening framework to *show* people reality. Neil Gaiman summarising G.K.Chesterton said: "Fairy tales are more than true - not because they tell us dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten."

Exactly. Sci-fi provides the freedom to explore all aspects of humanity freely.

many forget it’s not the science that is at its core, but what our nature is in contrast to it

.....so much"

Really sorry for your loss 🤍

I have found that this movie does provide an interesting perspective on how we should strive to view time, or 'the journey' as it were. I don't know if it helps everyone with their grief, but if we had the ability to zoom out and look at life as a whole, one cohesive picture, it's really incredible. And if we had that mindset all the time, we could live for the beauty of each day.

Thank you so much for sharing this compliment. Im sorry for your loss. But if I may ask, what conclusion did you come to? Would you have done anything different? I’ve experienced heartbreak, but never a loss such as yours, so I’m curious. Perhaps it’s too soon to tell. Im just curious.

That is some profound shit. I send you positive energy. I hope this movie and Mary's lovely reaction brings you comfort.

Sorry for your loss. My wife has an advanced cancer and I know exactly what you mean. You're not alone. Thanks for sharing.

great introspective movie. easily one of the best sci-fi movies i've seen

Agreed.

I cried when I saw it the first time. I’ve only watched it twice because it’s so bleak. It’s a masterpiece in its own right, but not a movie I’d watch for the heck of it

This is definitely one I love seeing reactions to.

I think you might also love The Girl in the Cafe

Incendies was incredible. Every Villeneuve movie is worth watching.

Terrible movie.

@@trhansen3244 lol, I hope that spaceship lands on your car

@@trhansen3244 Why is that?

@@mandalore1089 Because it's stupid, the characters are boring, the acting is insipid and the story is beyond idiotic. I have more respect for Independence Day. At least they weren't pretending to be some grand intelligent SF film. And it's no surprise this is the same director as the boring, bland Dune remake. The guy has no idea how to craft a film. But they give him lots of money and it shows on the screen. I wish they had put some money in a story that made sense. And characters that at least had some chemistry. Amy Adams constantly looking sad may count as 'acting' to others. Not to me. Any real SF fan, or just fan of films, would recognize Arrival as one of the worst films ever made.

@@trhansen3244 god your life must be so miserable

Some of their routines can be found on KZfaq, and are generally worth watching. Their most famous one, 'Who's on first?' is superficially about baseball but can probably still be enjoyed even by people who don't know anything about baseball.

@@hkpew and interesting that the routine is based on language and miscommunication, much like the movie

Max Richter composed the music at the end, I can't help but to get really emotional when listening that song.

Max Richter's music "On the nature of daylight" always gets to me. There is a sort of "loneliness" and "times past" that you can feel in it. It's as if the music is crying of reminiscing about something that happened a long time ago but it's not sad, it's more melancholic i'd say.

Also rip johan Johannsson

I don't speak very many languages - but I have run across the situation where one language does not offer a word for a particular concept, while the other does. Having said that, I'm of the opinion that my thoughts do not depend on words - instead, it is my words that depend on a matching of my 'concepts' to the available vocabulary/colloquialisms while meeting the structural requirements of the language. Maybe I'm out to lunch on this though?

I was curious enough to investigate further, and found one source suggested "...the evidence argues in favor of a universal groundwork for perception and thought in all human beings, while language is a filter, enhancer, or framer of perception and thought." - Antonio Benitez Burraco

@@jaykawala3270 Well, we do know that children who are deprived language in their formative years have decreased brain function, and can never fully get to the level of one who does learn language. Try to think of anything, without using any form of language to think about it. It’s very hard and you can only think of very simple and basic concepts, and not really even concepts. You can imagine things, but without language used in thought, you’re just going off the visual and possible emotion that visual invokes, but beyond that there is nothing to really think about without language. We gain the inner voice with language, without it, that inner voice is silent, and some conclude that a sign of true consciousness, though I’m not sure of that. All I do know is that inner voice we gain with language is very important,maybe the most important part of being human.

The linguistic concept this movie is presenting is called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. It says that what our brains can conceive is determined by our language. A different language could perhaps enable us to understand new concepts, or think in a new way. The heptapods language enables a person to see all of time, past and future

Most linguists believe the strong form of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is false, a language can’t actually enable you to understand things you couldn’t without it. Still its a wonderful idea. And of course we haven't come across the language of an alien race yet, so who knows.

It's realistic that when a national threat shows up in your air you send the military to deal with it. The Military interprets everything in degrees of threat; they are founded on that. Suspicion is their raison d'etre. But The evolution of life on Earth is one of prey/predator. Our first reflex is to determine where the power lies. Any alien visit will be based on this; we train our children in this expectation.

One of my favorites. Nontraditional scifi alien story.

Absolutely agree

Good independence Scifi: The Man from Earth Think You would like the movie Not the typical Scifi.

Absolutely, Contact is a fantastic experience!

Yeah, contact is like the older sister of this movie, and a lovely reaction

I also took ASL as my "foreign language". Part of the class was attending social events with deaf people, and it really changes your perspective on a lot of things. Like, if the restaurant you're meeting at is having music night and there are bright, strobing lights then that makes it hard to communicate. Even if my new friends weren't deaf the loud music would have made it difficult anyway. Also, how do you tell a secret if everyone can see your hands? Thus, part of deaf culture is to be open about what's going on in your life. Not sharing when you meet is considered rude. And things like if you want to say "I ran into a tree" first you have sign for the tree, then yourself, and then you can use motion for two indicators (fingers for the tree and you) to run into each other.

@@VorpalBunnysRevenge YES! I did as well. Why I always try and look away whenever I see people signing because it's considered "nosy;" (which there is a sign for LOL). I found it totally fascinating. My ASL prof. told me "Don't focus on the signs, those will come to you. Focus on the grammar,"

His whole filmography is top tier. From maelstrom to dune every single movie is a masterpiece.

Yeah, Contact is a great movie.

@@DeltaAssaultGaming I agree, the move is good, but the book is fantastic. It's one of those books I re-read every five years.

And one of the questions here is very interesting - would you go through that journey, knowing how it would end?

@@ethanlivemere1162 it’s definitely an interesting question to ponder. I think most people, if they saw a all the highs and lows, the triumphs and heartbreaks, the joys and sorrows of a life before they lived it, would probably make different choices along the way. They’d probably be paralyzed by the possibilities and try to min/max everything in the end though... unless what happens is fate and you have no control over your future and can only see what WILL happen, not affect what COULD happen, which is a whole ‘nother sci fi can of worms.

Villeneuve is a Master at his craft, my favorite director presently. I watched a lot of Villeneuve work and all the movies are master pieces.

Was relevant upon release in 2016, and is even more relevant now. (The news)

"...listening to a paranoid, reactionary news show..." Right, establishment media.

One of the worst films ever.

@@trhansen3244 there is a special place for people like you, that go to positive comments multiple times, just to comment the same negative shit. Just stop, leave, go somewhere else please.

@@RoxxSerm Yeah, we must all love Arrival. Incredible film, filled with wonderful performances that are perfect, the relations are genuine, and the story makes perfect nonsense. LOL It is a total shit movie. And I cannot believe so many people buy into it. Besides the effects and cinematography (thank you, big budget!) it is an awful awful horrible piece of crap movie. And I wish I could have it erased from all memory. It's that bad!

@@trhansen3244 you're allowed to have your opinion for sure but you're not asked neither welcome to spread it in a place where noone cares about it you know? Not every movie has to make perfect sense or have no plot holes. LOTR movies for examle are plenty full with them, even major ones debunking/contradicting it's own story and still among the best films ever made. So, respectfully, shut up.

@@RoxxSerm This place is for all opinions. Let me guess. You are a liberal. Right?

Ever seen the French film Oxygen? Simple premise, but also makes you think for a bit afterwards.

I think it did with Blade Runner 2049 in 2017.

@@Hoganply thanks for the recommendation! Just watched it. A few nitpicks since I work in the human space flight business, but putting those aside definitely a well above average sci-fi movie and we’ll acted.

@@paratus04 Definitely. The acting was the best part imo. Melanie Laurent had arguably the best acted part in Inglourious Basterds as well.

to me this movie shows women/the mother as an amoral slave to nature and its mandate of reproduction no matter what; men/the father as moral and rational and actually considering the futility of being born just to suffer and die

@@helvete_ingres4717 We're *all* born to suffer and die...

My worst fear, the thing that keeps me up at night. Sorry for your loss, but you're right about the new perspective. It's a gift we should all have without going through tragedy.

That's exactly how I feel about this movie. The alien plot is interesting but ultimately that's not what the movie is really about.

The soundtrack itself is by Jóhann Jóhannsson, but "on the nature of daylight" by Max Richter was added at the end of the movie.

Yes - Contact is great!

My favorite too. Incredible movie.

take 4 minutes out of your schedule and watch Who's On First

Are you trolling? Lol In case you don’t know, Abbott and Costello were a famous comedy duo from the 1940’s or so. They had many tv skits and successful films. Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein is probably their most well known film. They were very funny.

Hey, Mary. If you're wondering what she told the general on the phone at the end, it was "In war there are no winners, only widows". Profound stuff.

mmm.... I was going to wax poetic about how thankfully, concepts of this nature are strictly hypothetical. We can't scry the future so topics like this are simply thought experiments. But upon reflecting I realized "No... I suppose many, many people do in fact face this exact choice every day." Early on in pregnancies most developed countries test for genetic defects and diseases and while the decision to abort a pregnancy is intensely personal, it can't be denied that we are constantly doing that mental calculus about the quality of life a child would have in whatever circumstances. I personally have no strong feelings about that one way or the other, but it will make for interesting debate in the coming decades as genetic engineering technology matures. It's been posited that it may one day be deemed unethical not to screen and cure known genetic diseases (Down Syndrome, Cystic Fibrosis, etc) because it relegates the child to a lifetime of preventable suffering. Lol hypothetically. It may also cause unknown mutations and turn them into X-Men, but regardless it's super exciting! I love living in the future. One thing that I found neat, however, was an alteration in the screenplay. In the book Louis's daughter dies in a rock climbing accident. And because those characters live in a deterministic universe, that's just the way it goes. But the screenwriter of the film felt rebellious, like "I don't like that. You could just say 'No! You're not going rock climbing this weekend and that's final.' " And because the main character can supposedly view all of her own timeline, loopholes like 'trying to stop her death inadvertently causes it' seems implausible. But regardless, an intractable illness seems far less amenable than, say, a jet ski accident.

I didn't like the first one that much, it was ok but not great, but the rest of the stories are fascinating indeed.

@@SteveNaranjo in my print that's the Tower of Babel one, right? That's my number 2 after the titular story

@@bepkororoti8019 yes, that's the one, to me it was ok, but not great.

Hah word... It's a pretty damning lie of omission. The fact that the characters seemingly live in a deterministic universe raises a lot of questions though. Like, if she can theoretically view all of her own timeline (and what I wouldn't give for perfect recall and the ability to 'rewind' and watch any and all aspects of my life!) it creates curious quagmires about whether or not Louis was even an active participant in this agreement or if she was 'fated' to have the kid. Lol and to make every decision and repeat every line exactly as it's written in the eternal and unchanging Book of Fate. Conversations about deterministic universes get weird really quickly.

@@bradleymay5350 I too have thought of this. When I first saw this movie I thought how wonderful their "gift" was. Then upon closer consideration the movie clearly makes the case that it isn't a gift many would want. After all, she did see the death of her own child and the end of her marriage. There was a line in the movie when her child tells Louis "I hate you!" Louis clearly told her child what she knew and that is how she reacted. Knowing the future wouldn't be pleasant at all. I'm glad the movie ended the way it did. I still love this movie. I watch it, even knowing how its going to end.

She decided not to tell him, so the child would have her father in her life and that they both would have each other once she was gone. When she told him, he kept at a distance for fear of the pain and the anger he felt towards Louise for destroying what he hadn't even built yet. It is sort of a "better to have loved and lost.." situations; good relationships (even though short) always enrich the human experience. It is easy to say that one would not have a child (knowing it to fall ill) before a connection is built, but loving parents would never say about a child they lost that they wished they had never been born in the first place.

@@PrimeCircuit The child in the movie had a disease that medical science couldn't cure. Her child died young and probably suffered in her last years. Louise clearly believes it was "better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all" and doesn't regret her choice. However, Ian and Hannah clearly don't share that that opinion. That is why Ian left and told her she made the wrong choice and it is why Hannah told her "I hate you." From Ian and Hannah's point of view Louise acted selfishly because she had her anyway knowing Hannah would suffer and Ian would be angry knowing she knew. "She decided not to tell him, so the child would have her father in her life.." I find that scary. It reminds me of women who knowingly lie to men about them being the father of a pregnancy when they aren't. Those women believe that the lie is best for everyone because the baby will have a loving father and mother. Really? You don't see anything wrong with that? There are many people around the world finding out their Father really isn't their father because of home DNA tests to find their family tree. Both children and Fathers getting this news are devastated. The mother ends up with a horrible mess and a family, that never was, to try and hold together.

I agree it was wrong, a couple is supposed to be a team and make big decisions together. I understand she meant well but I don't agree with how she went about it

Agree, the book is a really good reading.

All the science fiction books and movies I’ve read/watched have all been about humanity

Very well put! Excellent.

I agree with Metastatic Malady (M&M1) and MeanderingMarley (M&M2). Your comments were very eloquently said, Frantachy. Science fiction often reveals our basic humanity (or lack of same) in stressful, unfamiliar settings and circumstances.

@@johncourtright1632 I guess that means I'm the goofy, peanutty one...yeah, that seems about right. 🤭

@@meanderingmarley3910 Perhaps, but there's some consolation in knowing that although the guy out front (Milk Chocolate M&M in this case) may get all the media attention in the short term, he also takes the brunt of the blast when things go bad (like Abbott, formerly of Heptapod Abbott and Costello fame, in the film). Once Milk Chocolate M&M gets taken out by a sniper or radical-fringe group bomb, Peanutty M&M will be front and center, basking in the limelight. In this nutty world, it's only a matter of time. (Wait, didn't we have this conversation in the future?)

"The Fountain" belongs on that same list. Another film more akin to "Arrival" than "Cloud Atlas" or "the Fountain" is "The Time Traveler's Wife". Between "Arrival" & "The Time Traveler's Wife" on the one side and "Cloud Atlas" & "The Fountain" on the other would be the 2000 version of "Bedazzled". "Looper" would also fit in this list, somewhere between "Arrival" and "The Time Traveler's Wife".