It's Coming is one of those films that ends beautifully. The closing scene has made its mark on the history of genre cinema, aided by Max Ritcher's always impeccable score. "On the Nature of Daylight" accompanies this return to normality for Louise Banks and her colleague Ian Donnelly. In the intimacy From a home, Villeneuve recalls the importance of language in human relationships.
The gift of the aliens to the linguist is then revealed. She has learned from them a new way of seeing the world, to see time as a loop rather than a straight line. She understands that the tragedies that await her are inevitable but chooses to live them anyway. A perfect ending? Yes, but not the one envisioned by screenwriter Eric Hesserer.
“It doesn't really work anymore”
In an interview with Collider, the screenwriter of Arrival explained in 2017 that the release of another monument of modern science fiction forced the teams to change their approach. Indeed, the first version of the script was too similar to the conclusion of Christopher Nolan's Interstellar. Heisserer then explained:
As a reminder, Insterstellar also involves the plans of a ship, sent by humans from the future into a black hole. Nolan's goal was to find a way for humanity to find a solution to their imminent end.
In First Contact, this notion was erased. The screenwriter even explains that the intentions of these visitors from elsewhere were much clearer in the original script. It was a question of them preparing Earth for a catastrophe that would affect the heptapods. Humans had to start colonize other planets to help their new ally.
At the time, Denis Villeneuve wasn't even involved in the process and was later offered the final version of the story. A conclusion that gave him a perfect opportunity to put language at the heart of his approach, the language of cinema and sound.
To watch or rewatch First Contact, simply go to Netflix this Thursday, May 1st. The film has been available via Canal+ for some time.
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