Arrival // The First Sanderson-esque Film?

[hi.im.caleb Pahn Kahl]

Arrival has been an obsession of mine since first seeing it. The way it unfurls a deep mystery surrounding a unique language which turns eventually into to something VERY unexpected.

SPOILER ALERT (Major for Arrival + Minor for The Cosmere Novels)  – If you haven't seen Arrival, go watch it. If you haven't read Mistborn, the current Stormlight books, or Elantris, go right now. Read them. Thank me later. Then continue reading this.

While Sanderson has talked about magic systems in films such as Harry Potter and Star Wars, there's something much more to Sanderson's books that I don't think any film has quite captured until now. The unravelling of mystery through discovering the truth about how the world works. Let me explain this.

• In Mistborn we see the world through Vin. Much of Vin's story takes place doing research and trying to decipher the truth about Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy. It's through discovery and revelation that the plot unfolds.
• Same goes with Stormlight, our bookworm being Shallan. It's through her's and Kaladin discovery that most of the plot moves forward.
• Finally, the entire story of Elantris is built upon Raoden discovering the truth about the Shaod.

While it's Sanderson's non-cliche form of Fantasy that makes him stand out in this genre, the true stroke of intrigue is that each of his stories is built upon mystery – and a very unique type of mystery, almost like solving scientific ones. In most mystery stories, the truth is built upon "Who did it?" or "What actually happened here?" but Sanderson presents very different and unique mysteries built around understanding the world and the way it really works.

Arrival, as far as I see it, is the first film to do this. We've seen similar mysteries in Animes, such as Full Metal Alchemist, and in shows such as Stranger Things, but Arrival is the first film of it's kind to dive deep into a mystery that pays off with an almost magic-system-like revelation in the end.

Our protagonist explores a language and tries to decipher the alien's intent. Her discoveries lead to her having the ability to see time linearly almost allowing her to time travel, in a sense. It's an ability anybody can learn, it seems, but it takes a deep understanding of a language very few are likely to be able to interpret and learn.

Anyway, what are your thoughts here? Do you agree? Also, any other films you think fall into this category?

Edited May 27, 2017 by hi.im.caleb
Better Orgnanizing the Information

[Argent Splinter]

Eeeh, you could see it that way. The climax of the movie has a feel you could describe as similar to how Brandon tends to write climaxes - a wrap-up that not only explains much of the mystery presented throughout the novel, but one that also shines a new light on some of the past events. In that sense I think the two are similar. I am not sure if I am ready to follow you on your other points, the evidence there feels much more situational and inconclusive (or maybe just not obvious enough) to me.

But it's a fine movie, there's no doubt about that.

[hi.im.caleb Pahn Kahl]

I'm curious what other points you mean. That it's the first in a film to tackle such a story? Or are you alluding to connections I drew that you don't see?