Forest whitaker’s character acknowledged it was a group of rogue soldiers that planted a bomb.

For some reason, I couldn’t understand half of what Roger Whittaker was saying.

Thanks for reminding me about The Loner, Reed.

Just picked up the entire series on DVD and I’m going to start watching it over the weekend.

As a lifelong fan of Rod Serling and TV westerns (I have a pretty extensive collection ranging from Bat Masterson to Gunsmoke to Whiplash — Peter Graves traveling Australia with a whip!), I’m pretty damn excited.

Cool, Frank. I’ve never heard of the Whiplash series. I still haven’t gone through Steve McQueen’s Wanted Dead or Alive, or Gene Roddenberry’s Have Gun, Will Travel that I have on DVD. One day, I want to get Clint Eastwood’s Rawhide.

Let me know what you think of The Loner.

But by using their power, in the future they do know english so could think ahead and by knowing it in the future would already have an understanding of it in the present. I guess this is the Bill and Ted conundrum.

If the general learnt the language wouldnt “when” he learnt it be irrelevant if time isn’t an issue. Help me clear this up. The language allows you to just “see” the future. Not the past, not participate in any way. The present is always the present. You can’t go back in time or forward in time, you can only see, as a vision, the future. Is that how it works?

Also, I’d like to state that I knew Amy Adams job and understood what her and Jeremy were doing. What my perception though is that the aliens fully understood our language from the start and were teaching us their language. There was no significant response until communication was through visual text which i assume they were waiting for us to attempt as that is how their language works. It was our misinterpretation that came up with “Weapon”. I wonder if the first word they taught us was actually “Aliens”.

I just wanted to say that I’ve been thinking about what you’re wondering about, and I have no answers for you. The more I think about it, the more I can’t make any sense of what happens in the movie.

I didn’t realise you were so into Westerns Reed.

You should check out an old film called The Bravados, which deals with revenge and xenophobic suspicion of people from a different country. It seems especially relevant today.

Talking of Rod Serling I should dust off my Twilight Zone blu rays and actally watch them. The few episodes I’ve seen have been good.

PS, Jay and Frank, whatever happened the promised 4K manifesto episode.

Some time devoted to ‘I have a disease / why the fcuk did I buy this’ discs would be especially fun.

“No one important” has made me rethink things especially with regards to how these Heptapods interact with humans. Their reason for coming to Earth because they need our help doesn’t make sense for nonlinear time beings in my opinion. Beings in nonlinear time shouldn’t experience cause and effect; however, they may not even have an understanding of it as in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s pilot episode.
I began reading up on 4th dimensional beings in both space and time, and got nowhere.
I looked at Arrival’s science consultant’s blog to see what he said about Arrival and I don’t think he discussed the implications of time in the story.
I watched a spoiler video podcast (only 4 views) with the screenwriter, and he only had superficial things to say that really didn’t explain anything at all in the script.
So, I might have to lower my rating to 2.5/5.

When they make the sequel, which should be called Departure, set 3000 years in the future and they explain everything I’m certain you’re going to raise that 2.5 to at least a 4.

I was thinking about what Sean said and my new perception on the ability is it’s just reverse memory. How you remember something in the past, last week is very easy to recall, the further back you go it gets a little more sketchy unless it’s a significant experience. We have no idea what the lifespan of these creatures are but let’s assume for the moment that it’s similar to us. Let’s throw in 100 years. Now think of how history is passed down from generation to generation. Like a grandparent telling a grandchild about the life they had as a child, in reverse memory a grandchild could recall about their life as a grandparent to their grandparent who could then recall to their grandparent when they are a child. Kids will be saying.. “music today, is awesome, when I was an old fart it sucked”.

One possible scenario for why they need us is that they might not have future history recollection beyond that 3000 years and humans recall for them about their future beyond. Maybe they lose the ability. Maybe in the film they weren’t teaching us the language, maybe they were deprogramming us. If we look at it in reverse the book Amy wrote was actually a catalyst for past humans to not understand the language. A bit like how that anomaly in the last episode of next generation worked. Ok I think I’m done with this now.

I love sci-fi for its themes & metaphors than for the hard science. Arrival, also had the chicken & the egg paradox, especially during the climax with the Chinese General. Arrival seems to be trying to convey that since the past & the future are broken memories/visions, the present is the only reality.

We’ve been experimenting with trying to improve the audio quality so the last few episodes have been a bit all over the place. I think this episode went too heavy on the low end, sorry about that.

I wonder if someone has asked the screenwriter or director about the Renner narration. I need a rewatch.

“There is no idea of being able to change things because they have no concept of change.”

Hmm, that is a really good point.

I need to read the short story to see if it makes any sense. I still think the movie doesn’t make any sense.

My God you guys–get your thoughts together in these reviews. I don’t have time to listen to you stumble through half sentences before you actually say anything of importance. Maybe sketch out your points ahead of time or something? I used to do a radio show at university and I was more on the ball and engaging that you guys, and I have no experience in radio or podcasting. I quit listening at 26:44 and that was after skipping ahead until you actually started talking about the film. Complete waste of time to hear half hearted comments spoken without any authority, conviction, or confidence. Ciao!

i loved arrival.