10 More Movie Openings That Totally Trolled Audiences

In the case of Denis Villeneuve's Arrival, the audience isn't trolled for the sake of comedy at all, but rather deceived in order to deepen the movie's emotional throughline. And boy, does it work or what?

The sci-fi masterpiece begins with a devastating montage depicting the birth of protagonist Louise Banks' (Amy Adams) daughter, before leaping forward to reveal that her daughter dies at 12 years of age due to an incurable illness.

The typical rules of cinematic language being accepted as they are, the audience quite reasonably assumes that this is Louise's backstory, but near the end of the movie, we learn that it actually hasn't happened yet.

Rather, by learning the language of the extraterrestrials who visit Earth in the film, Louise developers a non-linear perception of time, allowing her to see events that, in a causal sense, haven't happened yet, including the birth and death of her daughter.

While on an initial viewing Louise's opening monologue about time and memory - where she says memory "doesn't work how [she] thought it did" - might seem a little flowery and philosophical, once we know the truth it takes on a whole other meaning.

Rewatching Arrival, that opening scene hits in a completely different, totally ingenious way.