system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Arrival] Can someone break down the movie arrival for me?

I know it’s kind of a big ask but every time I feel like I’ve got it I.... don’t.
gpt
The movie takes the idea about how some languages are built differently than other languages and require a different line of thinking (for example, there are languages on Earth that only have a present-tense, so those speakers don't think about the past and the future in the same way that English speakers do since we have past and future tenses) and combines that with the idea of time travel.

Amy Adams's character gets so invested in teaching herself the aliens' language that it begins to rewire her brain as she better understands it. The aliens see all points within their lifetimes at the same time, and their language is built on this fact. They don't have a past and future tense for their language because their past, present, and future all happen simultaneously from their perspective.

As Amy Adams learns their language, she begins to see her own life the way the aliens see their lives. She begins to see her life out of order, seeing the future during the present.

Arrival uses the type of time theory that posits that time is an immutable thing. The future is set in stone. If someone outside of time was to look at the timeline, they would know all of your choices before you do. So as Amy learns to see her future in her present, she is able to take the knowledge from her future and apply it to her present to get herself to that future. She knows what's going to happen, and she acts in a way that will make that future come to pass.