When it comes to storytelling and suspension of disbelief, I’m a fan of Ogden Nash’s advice. Wanna hear it? Here you go: Here’s a good rule of thumb; too clever is dumb. The art of storytelling – especially science fiction – must contain some suspension of disbelief (SoD). Otherwise you’ll have idiots in the theater going ‘wait, why did Iron Man punch the Hulk? They’re supposed to be friends. Worst movie eVar!!’

But too much SoD ruins the story. Take for example, the movie Arrival by Denis Villeneuve from 2016. The entire plot (Spoiler alert) hinges on a suspension of disbelief on our part that human beings can alter time simply by changing their perception of it. In the last act of the film, the protagonist learns the alien language alters humans’ linear perception of time, allowing them to experience memories of future events. Banks’s visions of her daughter are revealed to be premonitions; her daughter will not be born until sometime in the future.

That never sat well with me as the audience – like, all this time all we had to do was ‘change our perception?’ That seemed awfully familiar, but I couldn’t figure out why. Then it hit me – ‘Arrival’ has the same plot as ‘Somewhere in Time.’