Arrival: What Louise Told General Shang (His Wife’s Dying Words Translated)

In Denis Villeneuve’s 2016 science fiction thriller Arrival, the pivotal moment comes when Louise (Amy Adams) uses the dying words of General Shang’s (Tzi Ma) wife to convince the Chinese leader to stand down from military action against the alien ships. She does this by using information she learned from Shang in the future after she cracked the Heptapod’s alien language and the key to understanding their non-linear timeline. In the film, she communicates over satellite phone the same words she whispered to him in the future, which causes China to de-escalate.