Alien film 'Arrival' visits McGill linguistics professor for inspiration

CTV National News: Speaking alien A Montreal professor played a major role in the making of the movie 'Arrival'. Genevieve Beauchemin reports.

When producers for the sci-fi film “Arrival” needed inspiration for their protagonist -- a world-class linguist tasked with cracking an alien language -- they headed to McGill University to study a professor in her natural habitat.

Montreal-based linguistics researcher Jessica Coon was an advisor on the film long before it entered production. She read several drafts of the screenplay, provided detailed feedback and even sat down with actress Amy Adams to answer questions about her job.

“I was so surprised at how much detail went into this movie,” Coon told CTV News.

In “Arrival,” a fleet of monolithic extra-terrestrial aircraft suddenly land on Earth. To understand the aliens’ motivation, governments enlist the expertise of Dr. Louise Banks (played by Amy Adams) to bridge the gap between human and alien languages.

The film, which was shot in Montreal and directed by Canadian Denis Villeneuve, has earned rave reviews and already generated plenty of Oscar buzz for its original script and breathtaking special effects.

The movie is sprinkled with authentic details plucked directly from the world of academia. For instance, the production modelled an office in “Arrival” off of Coon’s work space at McGill.

“They took pictures of everything, they borrowed all the books off my bookshelf, they borrowed my colleague’s books, also, because I didn’t have enough. And then they took pictures from the blackboards,” said Coon.

While Coon helped with the linguistics side of things, she isn’t much of an alien expert. She spends her days as a field expert studying Mayan languages. She has also studied Mi’kmaq, an indigenous language.

Coon said the producers weren’t sold on all of her suggestions, and that some lines in the film paint linguistics as little more than translation work. But she is delighted to see someone in her niche profession portrayed on the silver screen.

With a report from CTV’s Genevieve Beauchemin