Tralfamadorian Meet Heptapods: A Comparison of "Arrival" and "Slaughterhouse-Five".

By Alejandro Celi

A comparison of Denis Villeneuve's “Arrival and Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s “Slaughterhouse-Five”

By Alejandro Celi

Mystery, aliens, and time warping. Denis Villeneuve is best known for his dark sci-fi films like “DUNE”, “BladeRunner: 2049”, “Sicario”, and “Prisoners”. I recently watched one of his grossly overlooked and underappreciated films named “Arrival”. I can confidently say that this movie falls within my top 10 favorite movies of all time. “Arrival” tells the story of a linguistics professor, Louise Banks, who leads a team of researchers when enormous spaceships touch down in 12 locations around the world. Banks and her team must find a way to communicate with the extraterrestrial visitors before nations declare a global war on the intergalactic visitors. The film's cinematography, special effects, and soundtrack create an apocalyptic and anxiolytic setting. Much of the plot focuses on language, uncovering a way to transmit the concept of language and how language impacts and affects our subjective truth, perspective, and reality. We soon realize that the movie emulates themes about comprehending our life choices, true acceptance, and living like any time in your life is just as meaningful or valuable as the next. Without spoiling the end, the film demonstrates how knowing what will happen in the future will not destroy the meaning behind a choice you make today. 

While watching the film, I couldn’t help but notice the many similarities between Arrival and “Slaughterhouse-Five”. Both films raise questions regarding our perception of time. Vonnegut describes the alien species as unable to perceive time as linear, much like the aliens in Arrival. “The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies, he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed and always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just that way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance” (Vonnegut 205). Both Arrival and Slaughterhouse-Five present an alien race who have no linear understanding of time. These beings have no past, present, or future. Instead, these aliens understand that every moment is active and continuous. “All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. (Vonnegut 204)” 

The next similarity is how the main characters struggle with the concept of non-linear time and how they both cope with some trauma. Vonnegut explains how Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time. Billy experiences memories that are out of order in his life. Vonnegut writes how Billy interacts with Tralfamadorians who see time as an illusion. Later it is revealed that Billy’s time skipping was actually the Traflamadorians giving him insight into what was really happening behind the fallacy of time. This is almost identical to what happens to Dr. Louise Banks in Arrival. Louise is given the gift of seeing time differently. The Heptapods, alien creatures in Arrival, are able to communicate with her to prevent a worldwide war. As Banks learns to communicate with the Heptapods in their written circular logogram, she is able to see glimpses of random but useful events from the future. These glimpses and dreams about the future help Banks prevent the new world war and allow her to see the future events in her life.

Lastly, I couldn’t help but notice the similarity in appearances. The Hepotpods resemble giant squid-like creatures whose top half resembles the shape of a human. The appearance of the Tralfamadorians is described as looking like a plunger with hands for heads and a single eye in the center. Both creatures have spider-like features, and the heptapod looks very similar to a Tralfamadorian if the Heptapod is inverted. 

In conclusion, I enjoyed both the film and the novel and recommend these pieces to any sci-fi enthusiast. The complex plot, multi-faceted characters, and science fiction in these pieces stimulate the imagination and make you question our reality's subjectivity.