The film does not give a definitive age, but from the scenes, we can gather that she is much younger than twenty-five, quite possibly still in her teens. The short story, however, doesn’t reveal the nature of her daughter’s death until after the meeting with Colonel Weber, where it is revealed as a mountain climbing accident, at which the story states that the daughter is twenty-five years old. Banks’ daughter finding that she has some ailment, and passes from the illness. And speaking of “departure,” this is another point of difference: the film shows scenes of Dr. The short story also goes into detail about the separation of Louise and her husband, stating that after her daughter’s “departure,” she would have moved into their farmhouse with someone named Nelson, and her dad will be living with “what’s-her-name.” The film skimps out on these minor details, as the overall focus of the story may shift if the viewer is fed too much of unnecessary information, in my opinion. The film, however, does a quicker yet concise job of detailing the daughter’s unfortunate death, whereas the short story does take its time, although revealing that she does die young in the beginning. Louise Banks, played by Amy Adams, is beginning to tell a story to her daughter about her life. In both the film and the short story, the female lead character, Dr. So what kind of changes were made? What favorite parts of yours were either from Chiang or Villenueve? Let’s dive in, with a large SPOILER ALERT in your face, and see what are the top 5 major differences between the film, Arrival, and the short story, Story of Your Life! Uniquely enough, Villenueve had originally wanted to title the film under its original name, but test audiences weren’t too crazy for it, so it was changed to just simply Arrival. Eric Heisserer, who was hired on to create the screenplay for the film, didn’t steer too far from the original work, as both are focused on time and communication on the surface, but once we get into the sub-layers of each piece, we begin to see where Villenueve grabbed the bulls by the horns to create the masterpiece that is sweeping moviegoers around the world. Arrival, directed by Villenueve, was derived from a short story created by author Ted Chiang entitled Story of Your Life. Now, like most sci-fi works, most are often inspired by literature or art, whichever spurn the emotional responses, and Arrival is in that same vein.
Sci-fi has been a genre that has always taken a backseat to most box-office busters in the past, taking second-seat to films in the genre of action, comedy, and even romance, but with the delivery of these and other great sci-fi films, we are now on an upswing of seeing more and more of these in theaters, such as the release of the incredible and cerebral sci-fi film from Denis Villenueve, Arrival.
In the last decade, we’ve had some gems in the genre that have really helped reshape sci-fi to the modern day generation, such as 2009’s Moon and District 9, 2011’s Attack the Block, 2013’s Her, and 2015’s Ex Machina and Synchronicity. I think that goes without saying if you have seen my previous articles and reviews. I’m a huge fci-fi nut when it comes to film and literature.