Question about Mom and Dad (spoiler)
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Arrival
jervistetch — 9 years ago(November 16, 2016 02:47 PM)
Please forgive me for probably asking this for the hundredth time.
So it seems that Ian left Louise after she told him about their daughter's disease.
They hooked up and "made a baby" well after learning the secret of the alien's language.
Wouldn't Ian, therefore, have known the fate of his daughter just as well as Louise knew it?
Why would he have been taken by surprise by this news causing him to leave his wife? -
bigs-69547 — 9 years ago(November 16, 2016 03:04 PM)
I don't think that Ian knew the language as well as Louise did. Louise was able to use her future knowledge where she wrote the book on the languae and apply it to the present. Since she understood the language, she was able to think non-linearly and take information from her future
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bigs-69547 — 9 years ago(November 16, 2016 03:12 PM)
I don't think I answered your question.
Ian wasn't necessarily surprised about the daughter's (Hannah's) fate. He was more so upset that Louise decided to have the child despite knowing what would eventually happen to Hannah. -
In_The_Year_8837 — 9 years ago(November 16, 2016 04:17 PM)
If I remember correctly, Hannah asks her mom why her and daddy divorced. She replies, "Because I told him something he wasn't ready to hear."
To me this implies telling him about the girl's disease, although it could be interpreted other ways I guess. -
bigs-69547 — 9 years ago(November 16, 2016 05:01 PM)
At one point It is said that Ian told Louise that she "made the wrong choice". I took that as Ian being upset that Louise decided to have Hannah despite knowing that she was going to pass.
You also have a very good point.
Part of the beauty of this movie is that we can have different interpretations of how everything played out. -
In_The_Year_8837 — 9 years ago(November 16, 2016 03:18 PM)
It seems rather odd that he wouldn't have developed at least some of the same abilities that she did.
One would think that she would have told him enough things about the future, that would eventually come true, that he would believe her.
I think the idea of Ian divorcing Louise because she told him about their daughter's rare disease is borderline ridiculous, regardless of what what level of abilities he'd developed from the alien language. -
jervistetch — 9 years ago(November 16, 2016 03:29 PM)
Thanks. I thought the alien language was a gift to all mankind. I just figured everyone would benefit equally from it.
Plus, didn't it seem strange that it appeared Louise was alone during the end of her daughter's life? Ian didn't seem like the kind of guy that would abandon them even during this truly tragic time. But then I really don't know Ian at all, do I? -
In_The_Year_8837 — 9 years ago(November 16, 2016 04:10 PM)
Yes, that's how I understood it as well. Although I'm not sure that knowing when or how I was going to die would be a good thing. Such a "gift" might just add more stress to a stressed out world.
I don't think there were any images of him in her future-visions, even blurry or obscured ones, until the end. I think they could have implied his presence with the daughter at some point without revealing his identity.
Of all the reasons for a person to get a divorce, even a person of poor character, that just seems like an odd one to me. -
FilmWatchingPerson — 9 years ago(November 20, 2016 01:38 AM)
They did imply his presence. "If you want science, ask your father." As soon as they said that (spoiler) I knew that Ian was her father and that this was in the future.
In fact, I think that gave the game away. -
doorclosed321 — 9 years ago(November 20, 2016 04:25 PM)
She does pass it on. In the movie she releases a book for everyone to learn it. She calls it the universal language. She will no doubt be teaching in class as a teacher of languages too. Eventually all of humanity will speak it and probably experiance the universe as an heptopod does
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iangb_2000 — 9 years ago(November 16, 2016 03:29 PM)
Obviously the bits of the story that are beyond-plot don't have to hang together logically in order to justify the main story line.
However it is likely that learning the alien language would be quite challenging, and as a scientist maybe not down Ian's street.
I suspect he left more because of the feeling of betrayal that he was kept in the dark and excluded from Louise's foreknowledge - which would obviously be a hard and shocking thing to discover years later, that your wife knew all along and made the decision on her own - than simply that Ian thought she should have chosen differently. And, in any case, it isn't clear from the film whether the "wrong choice" actually referred to having Hannah (which appears to be the implication) or the choice not to share the future vision with Ian from the beginning. -
uncleroger — 9 years ago(November 16, 2016 04:04 PM)
Knowing the language doesn't give you complete and instantaneous knowledge of the future. You just get glimpses of some things to come, not all of them.
So it's very possible that Louise knew about her daughter but didn't know that Ian would have taken it so badly.
I think that Ian left both because he realised he was sort of kept in the dark and because he was probably of the idea that no existence at all is better than a short existence with a painful and early demise. -
creatorof2002 — 9 years ago(November 16, 2016 09:50 PM)
The whole time I thought the tragedy of her daughter's death was in her past but it had not happened yet? Strange. When her mother called to ask how she was doing and she said she was doing fine I thought it was a sympathy call due to the loss of her daughter.
I would like to believe that the possible futures in this story are malleable and not written in stone like that ancient greek story about how you cannot change your fate even if you know what it is.
I would like to believe he stayed by his wife and daughter through it all like a good husband and father. -
kobrakai1 — 9 years ago(November 17, 2016 01:39 PM)
Louise was the only one that directly intetacted with the aliens so I took it as she was more influenced by their language than anyone else.
Maybe no one else was able to be aware of their own future which is why Ian didn't know about Hannah but Louise did. -
jervistetch — 9 years ago(November 17, 2016 05:59 PM)
She probably WAS the foremost authority on the language since she wrote the book (bible?) on it. But General Shang seemed to know the secrets of the language at the point in time of that ceremony. That's how he knew to whisper in her ear. Maybe the ceremony takes place after the time that Ian has left her and her daughter has passed. Not quite sure.