Panida takes an extraterrestrial, theoretical journey with Arrival

By Soncirey Mitchell

The newest installment of the Panida Theater’s $5 movie series will feature the Oscar-winning extraterrestrial drama Arrival. The PG-13 film begins at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 28 at the Panida (300 N. First Ave.).

After 12 spaceships land around the world, a linguistics professor (Amy Adams) and her team are employed to investigate and make contact with the extraterrestrials. These aliens are, well, alien, and communicate through a complex visual and auditory system that researchers struggle to understand. As tensions rise and the threat of a global war draws nearer, the linguists must decode the aliens’ message or risk total destruction.

What makes Arrival different from most other alien movies is the story’s reliance not on action and explosions but on philosophy and linguistic theory. Based on the 1998 novella Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang, the 2019 film explores the idea of linguistic determinism — a component of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis that argues language dictates how people perceive and interact with reality. Arrival asks the question: “What happens to a human when they learn a language unlike anything on Earth?”

Grapple with massive theoretical concepts and new ideas about humanity’s place in the universe for only $5. Tickets are available at panida.org.