What if Louise DID have Free Will, and her husband stayed?
(SPOILERS)
I watched it again last night and I noticed she said near the end
"I know why my husband left me" (ironically, as it turns out; to the guy himself!)
The way she blurted it out like that, told me it had to be an important line, but I couldn't work out why. Even after the film finished, and we knew who her husband was going to be, I was stumped as to why she said it.
Then I think I got it.
So the twist ending tells us that what we thought were flashbacks were actually visions, or knowledge of the future. And her daughter was yet to be born.
And we know that she marries Ian. And from a scene earlier in the movie where she is talking to her daughter, we know her husband leaves her, because Louise tells him something he wasn't ready to hear.
I assumed that information was about their daughter's illness.
But now I believe Louise told him about how the aliens "taught" her how to view time in a non-linear way, like they do, so she knew what would happen in the future (and she ended up saving the world, of course!) and when she told him this, he didn't beliieve her.
And he possibly thought she was now crazy.
So that's why he left.
BUT... when Louise stated "I know why my husband left me" that line had to be there for a reason.
What if the line is there to tell the audience that Louise now knew how to stop him from leaving her?
All she has to do is NOT tell him ...and he would stay!
Problem solved!
But it's a hell of a secret to keep. I mean you'd want to tell somone something so big, wouldn't you?
If this theory is right, then it makes it pretty sad for Louise, that she can never tell anyone. Especially the man she loves. But she gets to keep him, so a happy ending too.
What do you think?