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Fate and free will in Arrival (Spoiler)



This question has been in Meta to discuss whether it's a fit or not for well over a week, without response, so I will just post it and see what happens and change it if someone feels it's not a good fit for the QA format



Unmasked spoilers ahead


This question doesn't make any sense without knowing the movie, so I didn't mask spoilers, as it would render the whole thing useless.




During Arrival we learn that there is a sort of magical (for lack of a better word) writing system that, when learned fully, allows you to perceive time in all directions, as a whole.


The more Louise learns of the language of the aliens, the more she can travel or rather experience time and draw conclusions from events that have not happened yet to change her behaviour in the past.



This revelation leads us to wonder whether all that will happen has already happened (in the sense of inevitability, or fixed fate)


My interpretation is such that because Louise experiences Past, Present and Future (or rather; lack thereof) simultaneously, the audience is lead to believe that her future has already happened.


It appears as if she can experience all of her time at once. By that logic it would also mean that her mind is more or less "outside" of time, making her mind immortal (because she can jump indefinitely inside her timeline and relive it all again).


And; If that was true, it would mean that by knowing the universal language gifted by the Heptapods, you will become immortal, as you will be able to experience your life all at once - basically jumping in time to wherever you want.



Did the writers intend the implication that time is a closed loop or is did I miss a clue in the movie where it is explained how timelines work in this universe?



Is there any canon description of how this rendition of time travel should be interpreted in the book or by the screenwriter, director, etc.?



Answer



I don't think this question is answerable for sure within the context of the information we received in the film; however, I'm going to tentatively say:


No, Louise is not immortal


Being able to access experiences from other parts of your life does not mean you're 'actually' there; your life is still progressing, your mind is still where it belonged. You're no more jumping to the future to experience it than you are jumping to the past when you remember your childhood.


It's true that the way the film portrayed those flashes made them appear to be extremely real and vivid, as if Louise was really there, but bear in mind that the same technique - the flashback - is commonly used to show ordinary memory in other films. Indeed, the structure of the film misleads us into thinking that the events of Hannah's life had happened in the past.


This is all getting rather confusing, using a three-dimensional language to describe a four-dimensional film...but no, Louise is not immortal. She's not travelling through time, she's just remembering time.


So, with that in mind, does she have free will?


YES. Louise can absolutely change events in the future


Although we didn't see it happen in the film, I believe that the implication is that the future can be changed.



The question hinges on the idea that knowing the future does not enable one to change it; this is implied by certain lines of dialogue, where Louise describes future events with absolute terms ("I know why my husband left me" "an unstoppable disease"). However, the heptapods seem to think differently. They have given humanity their language so that humanity can progress; if seeing the future prevents one from changing it, then that knowledge is useless. It's not a weapon, or a tool, it's a trap. One cannot use it for anything, one can only see what's coming and suffer.


Our brains make choices based on the information we have. We can't stop this. Thus the very act of sending information back in time will affect what our choices will be. This may still be deterministic, in the same sense that our past appears to be deterministic, but that doesn't change whether we are free to act in the moment.


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