20 Things You Didn't Know About Arrival
10. The Deeper Meaning Behind Louise's Earring
Costume design in a film is used to showcase a character’s sensibilities, convey their emotional and physical state, and sometimes make commentaries on the world the characters inhabit. Sometimes, the design choices go beyond an iconic pairing of black shades and a trench coat, or a well-known fedora.
The most minute costume pieces may hold significant meaning to the film’s plot, even if does not feel this like at first glance. Louise’s earring in Arrival’s climactic flashforward is similarly shaped to a nautilus shell. As the name suggests, it is a protective casing of the cephalopod that is well known for its near perfect logarithmic spiral.
The earring’s distinct shape may be a reference to the Heptapods’ cephalopod-inspired design as well as the Fibonacci sequence, which was briefly mentioned by Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) earlier on in the film. This mathematical principle is visually represented by a spiral (resembling a nautilus shell) and based off this; the earring’s use may be a nod to the cyclical nature of the film’s narrative.