To infinity and beyond … kind of. 

The 2016 Denis Villeneuve sci-fi sensation “Arrival” turns 10 the same year as the Artemis crew  broke the record for the farthest distance from Earth ever traveled by humans, journeying 252,756 miles this April, into the unknown. 

While new space discoveries from here on Earth or via satellite are frequent, the buzz around the great unknown from the eyes of our species alone has been dormant for quite some time. This sentiment is mirrored in Villeneuve’s film as it follows a linguistic professor, Louise Banks, encountering an alien spaceship that touched down in 12 locations on Earth. The professor, played by Amy Adams, attempts to communicate with the Heptapods, or aliens, and venture into the unknown of extraterrestrial life. 

At the time of its initial release, “Arrival” was a standout film, with eight Oscar nominations and one win, as well as nominations from the BAFTA and Saturn Awards. 

The film is relevant now more than ever because of NASA’s new space explorations. But the correlation is deeper than the mere final frontier. 

“Arrival” has many themes woven throughout the storyline, but the most striking is its idea of the beauty of life and finding happiness despite the inevitability of pain. This theme is on full display when Louise realizes she will eventually lose her daughter, but she chooses to experience the joy of her life rather than mourn when it will end. 

Despite the 10-year gap, the film and mission mirror the struggles of life and the beauty of humanity as seen in the strength of Reid Wiseman who named a crater to honor his wife, Carroll, after losing her in 2020 to cancer. He has been raising their two daughters on his own and on top of that had to discuss all the possibilities of leaving the atmosphere. 

“I went on a walk with my kids, and I told them, ‘Here’s where the will is, here’s where the trust documents are, and if anything happens to me, here’s what’s going to happen to you,” Wiseman said at a NASA news conference reported by the Baltimore Banner. “That’s just a part of this life.”

Another prominent aspect of “Arrival” is the inevitable outcomes when pushing boundaries and exploring the unknown. 

In order to understand the Heptapods, Louise has to decipher their nonlinear, written language. Communicating with extraterrestrials through their language and having to unravel it in real time is understood to be quite the challenge. We follow her linguistic journey concurrently as the film unfolds, much like humans on Earth when they watch astronauts head for the unexplored lunar South Pole of the moon; which is the uncharted territory the Artemis missions will hopefully uncover. 

Uncovering truths because of an arrival of something new is also an essential theme in the movie. But instead of the film playing with the idea that everything new is everything that’s good, it reminds us that exploration can sometimes mean the realization that the best things are right in front of us, not galaxies away. 

Even though the team was breaking records every minute, the members of the Artemis crew spent their time in space naming craters after loved ones, preaching the gospel and sending love back to everyone on Earth; reminding humanity that even the most exciting advancements in history can’t overcome the level of love back home.

“As we continue to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos, I would like to remind you of one of the most important mysteries there on Earth — and that’s love,” Artemis Pilot Victor Glover said.

“Arrival” reminds us that time doesn’t have to be linear, just like the complexities of space travel and the probing of paradoxes. You can move at your own pace, make new discoveries, revisit the old and find new facets of times you thought were lost. The film allows us to see a world different than our own as it begs the question:

“If you could see your whole life start to finish, would you change things?”