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I do not understand the scene in Arrival in which Ian and Louise are coming back to the spaceship and during the communication with the aliens the charge exploded.

I did not notice who installed the charge and why. I suppose that it was the army. Why were our two "translators" allowed to enter the spaceship when the charge was in? I remeber that the scene occurs after the misinterpretation of the word "weapon". But the reaction of the army seems to me a little bit odd.

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  • BlueMoon93's and Napoleon Wilson's answers are spot on, but for more info you should also see this answer on a similar question about the same scene. That answer goes into a bit more detail on the motivations of the rogue soldiers as well as how the aliens and other characters react to that event.
    – LazyGadfly
    Jul 17, 2017 at 15:16

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Why were our two "translators" allowed to enter the spaceship when the charge was in?

Because the soldiers couldn't make up any reason to stop them.

First of all, the ones who planted the bomb were not acting on official order, they were rogue soldiers. As Napoleon Wilson put it,

It was a group of misguided soldiers acting on their own, based on their fear of the aliens and their beliefs that they are hostile (especially after the mention of "weapon").

After the rogue soldiers planted the bomb, Ian and Louise decide to go back inside the ship. The soldiers make a feeble attempt at stopping them, but cannot think of any good reason to actually deter them.

Ian and Louise have no idea there's any danger (why would there be?) and storm in, and the soldiers' only way to stop them would be to admit what they had done. They don't admit it, and they don't stop them either, thus leading to the events portrayed in the movie.

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It wasn't exactly the army in an official act. It was a group of misguided soldiers acting on their own, based on their fear of the aliens and their beliefs that they are hostile (especially after the mention of "weapon").

They do try to warn Louise and Ian as they're entering the ship, in vain though.

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