Essay Questions

What's the significance of seeing Louise's daughter die?

In the beginning of the film we see that Louise's daughter dies of an unexplained illness. The significance of this is that Louise doesn't yet have a daughter, she's not even pregnant. We come to learn that Louise can perceive the future as she learns the heptapods' language. Thus this gift that is given to her through the learning of their language is both a blessing and a curse.

Why does Ian and Louise's marriage fail?

After the Heptapods leave Earth, Ian and Louise's budding relationship turns into love and marriage. They have a child, a baby girl, and Louise having learned the Heptapod language is able to perceive the future. And she has seen that their daughter will die at a very young age. She weighs whether to tell Ian this or not, but decides to do so. But in telling him it causes a great chasm to form between the two as it seems he cannot grasp the reality that she has lived with for some time and it appears he believe her choice was very selfish and a betrayal to him. This is what can be deduced as to why their marriage failed.

Why does General Shang want to attack the Heptapods?

Shang is China's General and has decided to declare war against the Heptapods. The Americans know this when China completely shuts down communication with every other country. China's mistake is that they have mistranslated the Heptapods as saying "Use weapon" rather than correctly interpreting their message which is "Offer weapon." From this point Louise must find a way to stop Shang from attacking which comes in the form of a perception of a future meeting with the General where he gives her his private number, which she is able to use to speak to him and convince him to stop the attack.