His name was changed to Ian for the film.

Gary Donnelly is the name of the physicist working with Louise in the original story.

Where humans use principles based on differentiation (which makes sense from a human perspective), Heptapods instead use analogical principles with integration (natural for Heptapods but obscure for most humans), e.g.

Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: Why do the Heptapods have problems with basic math, but not the complex equations? In the short story it's physics instead of mathematics.

Adaptation Expansion: Details on the other ships that landed on Earth are included, antagonism against the aliens among some members of the American and Chinese military are introduced, and the reasons for the aliens' arrival and the events after their departure are expanded.

Not to be confused with 1996 sci-fi film The Arrival, or with Shaun Tan's graphic novel The Arrival. As Louise and the heptapods slowly learn each other's languages, a geopolitical drama plays out in the background as competing governments attempt to discover the aliens' purpose. They discover the ship is inhabited by two cephalopod-like 'heptapods' (named after their seven limbs), who communicate by forming ink into complex circular symbols. Army Colonel Weber (Whitaker) recruits her and physicist Ian Donnelly (Renner) to figure out how to communicate with the aliens and ask why they have come to Earth. While Louise is at work lecturing, twelve mysterious extraterrestrial craft appear in various locations across the world. In the film's prologue, linguistics professor Louise Banks (Adams) is caring for her daughter Hannah, who dies during adolescence from cancer.

The film stars Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker. Arrival is a 2016 science fiction drama film directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Eric Heisserer, based on the short story 'Story of Your Life' by author Ted Chiang.

Short story arrival