‘Story Of Your Life’ Is Not A Time-Travel Story
[Book &amp; movie spoilers galore]<p>As this article points out, referring to Louise being able to see the
future in the book:<p><pre><code>    &gt; &quot;she is like an actor following a script, engaged in a
    &gt; self-fulfilling prophecy, taking precisely the actions
    &gt; necessary to bring about the future she sees. A
    &gt; fictional example of this would be Paul Atreides in
    &gt; Dune Messiah, whose prescience allows him to see
    &gt; visions of the present and act despite being blind -
    &gt; but only as long as he executes the actions which
    &gt; bring about the vision, thereby keeping the visions
    &gt; reflective of reality.&quot;
</code></pre>
However, in the book her daughter dies in a climbing accident, not
from disease. The underlying point of the book as I read it is that
free will doesn&#x27;t exist and we&#x27;re all just helpless pawns doomed to
play out the inevitable.<p>Reportedly Hollywood didn&#x27;t like that interpretation, so instead her
daughter dies from disease, so the movie doesn&#x27;t have to explain why
Louise can&#x27;t just tell her daughter &quot;JUST DON&#x27;T EVER GO CLIMBING
YOU&#x27;LL DIE I CAN SEE THE GODDAMN FUTURE!&quot;.<p>I think as a result the movie really makes no sense. Seeing the future
can really only make sense if events are either determinate or you
can&#x27;t or are unwilling to change them. Otherwise you wouldn&#x27;t know
what future you&#x27;re seeing or how your actions would impact the future.<p>In a universe where you can alter the future her vision of General
Shang at the end of the movie doesn&#x27;t make any sense. How can she see
what General Shang told her in the future, if the only reason he told
her is because of information Shang sent to her from the future as a
result of her current actions, which are only possible due to
information Shang sent her from the future?<p>In the book it&#x27;s not as if Louise sees a way to save all humanity and
has to make the hard choice to follow that path like Paul Atreides in
Dune. She just sees things pertaining to her family life, in
particular that her daughter eventually dies in an entirely
preventable climbing accident.<p>So there you go, a movie that really makes no sense, although they had
the good sense to plaster over the more obvious plot hole with her
daughter now that free will is a thing by making her die from an
incurable disease instead.