Response #11

The monsters in pop culture I chose to study were the alien species or “heptapods” as they come to be named that appear in the 2016 science fiction film “Arrival”.  The movie depicts the arrival of 12 alien spacecraft’s around the world. Linguistics professor Louise Banks, played by Amy Adams, is recruited along with a physicist Ian Donnelly, played by Jeremy Renner, to find a way to communicate with the extra terrestrials.

I believe that the alien species represented in “Arrival” are a symbol of the fear of society unraveling as well as fear of the unknown or of what we cannot control.

The fear that we as a society are unraveling is a fear that has been expressed throughout history and is very prevalent today.  In the past, our society in America is based on resiliency or the ability to time and time again to bounce back from crisis, but that resiliency and unity of our society is starting to dwindle. Terrorist attacks; racial prejudice, police violence, politics, environmental challenges, war etc. have all contributed to our society’s unraveling and loss of unity.

In the film, the arrival of extraterrestrial life to earth is another example of the disintegration of society. The unknown visitors pose a threat not only to America, but the entire world. Their arrival causes fear, uncertainty and confusion. As depicted in the film, after the 12 ships’ arrival, America, as well as other countries, are taking what they refer to as an “open” approach with the aliens in attempting to communicate with them to discover their purpose. While other countries, shown in the film as mainly China, are gearing up for an attack. Once a message from the aliens gets misinterpreted as a threat to humanity each of the countries involved with the effort of communicating with the aliens withdraws from communicating and sharing information with each other as they previously were doing. War seems to be around the corner although the aliens have made no threats or exhibit any threatening behavior.

Humans have come to fear or mistrust those who look different, think different or act different than them.  We need only look at Hitler and his diabolical plot against Jews or the racial prejudice still evident today for evidence.

The heptapods bodies themselves represent the fear of the unknown or what we cannot control.  Their arrival is a mystery for most of the film. Their bodies and physical makeup are unlike anything seen on Earth. Their language and way of communicating is also a mystery.  As one scene in the film depicts, once a photograph of the alien’s goes viral, fear and terror spreads rampant.  Violence and uprisings begin. People start revolting against the government for their handling of the invasion. 

The fear of the aliens motivates a group of soldiers to sabotage the space ship that landed in America by placing a bomb in the chamber where the communication between the humans and aliens is taking place.

Ultimately, the message from the heptapods is conveyed to Louise Banks, who has learned their language.  The aliens were not there to threaten but to give and share technology so that 3,000 years from now humanity could then help them. Their language was the gift, their language enables one to see the future and time as non-linear as the heptapods do. They came to help elevate humanity on to a higher plane of understanding. With this gift, Louise is able to stop the coming attacks on the aliens. The heptapods gave each of the 12 locations one twelfth of the information so that each country would have to come together and share their information with each other.

The representation of this monster in pop culture matters because it is different from the typical monster tropes that appear in pop culture. In that typically monsters are there eat, kill or destroy. This film matters because it causes us to look at “the other” in a new perspective. Not as a threat to our very fragile world peace, but someone or something to learn and gain wisdom from.