The Authorized Ender Companion

by Black, Jake

  2. COMIC BOOKS

  As mentioned before, the writing team that followed Scott Card had just finished a successful comic book film when they signed on to do Ender’s Game. Months later, while working on Ender’s Game, the team agreed to write another comic book film as soon as their contract with Ender’s Game ended. Comic books, it seemed, was quickly becoming their niche.

  Perhaps that’s why the team added comic books into their draft of Ender’s Game. Comics were their thing. Slipping a comic book into the Ender’s Game screenplay would be like an inside joke to themselves.

  whatever their reason, their version of Ender loves comic books. He reads them all the time—especially Superman. He’s so obsessed with the man in tights, in fact, that when packing his one suitcase for Battle School, Ender tosses in a few comics because he apparently can’t live without them.

  In the later draft written by the other screenwriter, comic books again reappeared. Ender sneaks his comics into Battle School, and he and Petra learn that they share a mutual interest in superheroes. One evening, while sitting in their adjacent bunks, they debate about who’s the better superhero, Spider-Man or Superman.

  For me, this scene was the comic book that broke the camel’s back, so to speak. I couldn’t see the significance of using comic books as a story element in the film. Comics do nothing but deviate Ender from the task at hand and make it appear as if he’s obsessed with grandiose heroics, which he clearly is not.

  In fact, in the novels, comic-book heroics are the farthest things from Ender Wiggin’s mind. The only reason he assumes the responsibility given him and does heroic things is because he has to, because he knows there’s no one else who can. He’s not trying to emulate a fictional demigod. He’s not seeking the praise and respect showered upon superheroes. That’s what people like Bonzo do. No, Ender is simply doing his job. His motivations are purely selfless. Comic books are simply not his style.

  Besides, the International Fleet would never allow comics in Battle School anyway. Comics, like anything else that might remind a soldier of his previous life, would be forbidden. Isolation is part of a soldier’s training. He must be cut off completely from the world. If these children aren’t allowed to contact their parents, why would they be permitted to read comic books?

  This isn’t to say I’m opposed to comics. I happen to subscribe to a title right now, thank you very much, and I have nothing but the utmost respect for the medium. But to have comics in the story feels wrong. It gives a false impression of Ender and introduces an element to the story that has no clear justification. For me, it felt as if the writers were inserting themselves into the story, like a painter who signs his name so large on the canvas that it fights the art for attention.

  3. THE BATTLE ROOM

  For many of us, when we say we want to see Ender’s Game come to life on the big screen, what we really mean is that we want to see the Battle Room—just as we saw it in our minds when we read the novels.

  The screenwriters differed to some extent on how best to execute the Battle Room, but the overall idea was the same: small armies of children soldiers battle it out in zero gravity, armed with weapons that shoot tight beams of light that “freeze” their enemies. In some versions, the weapons were handguns the soldiers carry into battle. But in at least one version, one of Scott’s versions, the weapon was part of the flash suit, tucked into the glove at the end of the index finger.

  The environment of the Battle Room differed as well. Each of the writers added new elements, like obstacles that rotated instead of remaining stationary, mist that clouded visibility, or small asteroid fields that made movement dangerous and difficult for soldiers. In one version, the walls of the Battle Room actually projected an image of space, making it appear as if the soldiers were floating and soaring through the galaxy. The one possible flaw with that idea is that a projected, realistic image of space would remove a soldier’s depth perception. He wouldn’t see a wall. He would see only space, and therefore he wouldn’t know when to stop or where to push off. He’d simply smack into the wall the way people walk into big panes of glass.

  Size was another difference. Some described the Battle Room to be as big as an indoor pro football stadium, while other versions described a much smaller, contained environment.

  How the game was won also differed among scripts. In the novels, five soldiers are needed to complete the ritual that wins the game. Each soldier places his or her helmet on one of the four corners of the enemy’s gate, and the fifth person passes through the gate.

  But in the final screenwriter’s version, only a single soldier is needed to win the game. As soon as anyone passes through an enemy gate, the game is over. This occurs in one scene when Ender, still a lowly member of Bonzo’s army, slowly floats unnoticed past the enemy army and through the enemy’s gate, winning Salamander Army the game and astonishing everyone.

  The flaw with this idea is that were this the rule, armies would vehemently defend their gates. No one would leave their gate accessible to soldiers casually floating by. Whole toons would be responsible for blocking passage to the gate and preventing the other team from winning. The incident with Ender as described in the screenplay simply wouldn’t occur.

  Such a rule would also greatly change how a team battled offensively. If all that was needed to win the game were to pass one soldier through the enemy’s gate, there would be tactics to achieve just that. Commanders would create maneuvers that rushed the gate or incapacitated its defenders, and battles would be fought mostly around the gates. It would be a very different game indeed.

  The biggest difference in that script, however, as far as the Battle Room is concerned, was the addition of jet propulsion packs. Rather than have the soldiers use the walls and obstacles to propel themselves through space, the screenwriter outfitted them each with a jet propulsion pack that enabled them to change direction midflight and maneuver around at will.

  In the novel, Ender and Bean demonstrate their intelligence and inventiveness by creating new ways to maneuver in zero gravity. Ender trains his armies to push off each other, for example, in order to propel themselves in opposite directions. And Bean utilizes a cable attached to his waist in one instance to win a crucial battle. These demonstrations of ingenuity are lost however as soon as all soldiers are equipped with jet propulsion packs. Movement in the Battle Room is not inhibited at all.

  Another addition to the room from this script only appeared during practice sessions and not during actual battles. I call them training balls, which are hard, softball-sized balls that emit from the wall upon request and are used for target practice. You can also program the balls to attack the soldier. If you don’t shoot them in time, they’ll strike you at high speed and knock you silly. I couldn’t help but be reminded of the quaffle from the Harry Potter series.

  4. THE ANSIBLE

  In the screenplays written by Scott Card, the ansible is the Formic technology adopted and used by the International Fleet to communicate instantaneously across vast reaches of space. Without it, there would be huge time lags in communication.

  But in one screenplay not written by Scott Card, the ansible is more than that. It’s also a weapon. Somehow the I.F. has figured out a way to send a transmission via the ansible that kills all Formics instantly.

  They even tell Ender this. Toward the end of the film Mazer instructs Ender that he should “fire” the ansible in the final simulation.

  In other words, the I.F. knows exactly how to win the war. To defeat the Formics all Ender must do is push a button and send a fatal transmission.

  This of course begs the question: Why go to all the trouble of finding genius children to train as commanders if you know how to win the war? If all that is needed to defeat the enemy is to push a button, why train commanders at all? Any buck private can push a button. Wouldn’t the current leaders of the I.F. consider themselves capable of such a task?

  Secondly, if all one must do to defeat the Formics is send a tr
ansmission, why send a fleet? Why not send the transmission from Eros? Why not kill every Formic in the universe from the comfort of I.F. Headquarters?

  In the novel, Graff explains to Ender how the previous war with the Formics was won: “The only thing that saved us was that we had the most brilliant military commander we ever found.”

  Shouldn’t Ender’s Game the movie be the same? Isn’t that what fans want to see? A child who’s a brilliant commander? A child who can pull off a victory when adults see only defeat?

  5. ENDER’S FAMILY

  In the beginning of the novel, Ender is six years old, Peter is ten, and Valentine is somewhere in age between them. That’s young. Finding a talented cast at that age—not to mention all the other children needed for Battle School—was a concern of the filmmakers from the beginning. Everyone agreed that Ender needed to be young, but the role would require so much maturity, intelligence, and stamina, that Scott Card and others thought it best to make Ender a little older.

  In Scott’s first draft submitted in 2003, Ender is eight years old, Valentine is eleven, and Peter is thirteen. In terms of casting, this would make all the difference in the world. Ender could safely be played by a ten-year-old and still appear young enough to be considered a child.

  In a later draft not written by Scott, the screenwriter took even greater liberties. In his draft, Ender is eleven years old, Peter is fifteen, and Valentine is twenty, the oldest of the three.

  Choosing to make Valentine so much older greatly alters the relationship that Ender has with his sister. In the novel, this relationship is a crucial one. Ender decides to go to Battle School partially because of his love for Valentine and his desire to protect her from the Formics. That love stems, at least in part, from Ender and Valentine’s shared experience. They’re both victims of Peter’s bullying. They’ve both relied on the strength of the other to survive Peter’s abuse. And they both recognize what no adult can: that Peter is evil. Put another way, they share a common mind-set and cling to one another for both safety and mutual understanding.

  But if Valentine is twenty years old, the sibling dynamic is changed drastically. To Valentine, Ender is a child, not her equal. He’s someone whose hair she can tousle, someone she looks down upon, not someone she’d feel comfortable sharing her feelings with, not someone she can run to whenever she feels threatened by Peter. In fact, she never would feel threatened by Peter. That experience is no longer something they share. Ender is now simply a cute kid brother.

  And the same goes from Ender’s perspective. In his eyes, Valentine is simply an older sister. The only thing they have in common is their parentage and an elevated intellect.

  It becomes clear late in the screenplay why the writer chose to make Valentine so much older, though some will argue that the rationale doesn’t justify the change.

  Valentine is a college student studying exobiology. Apparently she shows great promise in that field, because the International Fleet asks that Valentine work as a laboratory assistant in their Top Secret Exobiology Program. The I.F., it turns out, has a Formic “specimen” they want to vivisect, and Valentine finds herself at the operating table, assisting the I.F. scientists perform the most important autopsy in recorded history.

  Why the I.F. feels that a civilian—and an inexperienced one at that—is qualified for such a monumental task is not made clear. One would think that the I.F. would keep such a discovery within the military, and turn to their own scientists, who have no doubt studied the Formics ever since the Second Invasion, to perform the operation.

  Perhaps the biggest question, however, is if the International Fleet does have a specimen, why have they waited so long to inspect it? The Second Invasion was eighty years previous. Why wait so long to take a look at the enemy? Wouldn’t the I.F. have done so before sending a fleet? Wouldn’t they want to know the physiology of their enemy?

  And lastly, why do they have only one? When Mazer Rackham destroyed the queen in the Second Invasion, all her minions died instantly along with her, right where they sat. Millions of Formic corpses were left over from the war.

  The writer evades this question by stating in the script that the other Formics destroyed themselves. When the Hive Queen died, the remaining Formics disintegrated and crumbled away into space.

  In this same script, Ender’s father is also different. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that Ender’s father is absent. We learn early in the screenplay that Ender’s father died at some point in the past as a soldier in the I.F.’s Engineering Corps. The significance of his father’s involvement in the I.F. and subsequent death are never explained. Perhaps this change was made so that Ender would have respect for the I.F. before he joins it. Or perhaps this was a way of lessening the minor characters in the film and lowering the casting budget. I can’t be sure. In any event, John Paul Wiggin is a no-show in that draft.

  6. THE FORMICS

  In his novels and screenplays, Scott Card describes the Formics as antlike. Their exoskeleton so closely resembles insects, in fact, that children have given them the vulgar name Buggers.

  Their minds, however, are far more advanced than those of lowly insects. Their technology is proof of that. It’s far superior than our own, and were it not for Mazer Rackham, their advanced weaponry and starships would have annihilated Earth.

  But in one draft written by another screenwriter, the Formics are a very different kind of creature. The queen is described as a perfectly round, eyeless, limbless shape with intricate geometric designs. We know she’s the queen because a white spherical egg emerges from her center when she gives birth.

  The male Formics are no less bizarre. Rather than fly in starships of their own design, the Formics are the starships. They can live and breathe and apparently propel themselves unaided in open space, swarming and attacking the I.F. fighters like a hive of angry bees.

  The conclusion one would naturally make from this idea is that the Formics have no technology. They are their own weapons. They can fly across the galaxy just as easily we can walk across a room.

  This idea, while interesting, pokes a few holes in the Ender’s Game storyline. If the Formics have no ships, what did Mazer Rackham blow up with his carefully aimed missile during the Second Invasion? Was it merely the queen, floating in open space? If so, Mazer Rackham was given far more credit than he deserved. Since the queen looks completely different from the males and was floating there exposed for everyone to see, anyone would recognize her as a unique target. You would not need to be a military genius to fire a missile in her direction.

  Secondly, if the Formics don’t have ships, why do they have an ansible? If they can communicate in open space without technology, why would they have developed a device that does just that?

  7. BEAN

  In one draft, Bean is not a young, starving orphan in the streets of Rotterdam, but instead an eleven-year-old computer hacker in London. When we first see Bean, he’s hacking his way into an ATM to steal a few food credits. Once he secures the credits, he promptly uses them to buy an armful of chocolate bars.

  Bean is then tasered from behind, and a gang of street urchins led by Achilles steals Bean’s chocolates as Bean writhes in agony on the pavement. Achilles then sets off an alarm that alerts the police and leaves Bean to be arrested. The police show up, apprehend Bean, and carry him to the hospital, where Sister Carlotta is waiting. She’s so impressed with his hacking skills that she wants to offer him a place at the prestigious Battle School. Bean is reluctant to go until he learns that he’ll be given all the food he can eat.

  My first question upon reading this sequence was: If Bean can so easily hack into a computer and get food credits, why does he find the offer of food at Battle School so attractive? He has all the food he wants in London. And secondly, if Bean is so easily overpowered by a gang of street urchins, why does the I.F. think him so capable of command? Wouldn’t they be more interested in Achilles, who at least leads a group of other teens and was smart enough to o
verpower Bean and notify the police? Were I the I.F., I’d see much more potential in Achilles’s ability to command than in Bean’s ability to hack.

  Once he gets to Battle School, Bean does nothing that would lead the teachers to believe that he has any potential of command. Upon arriving, he slips away into the air vents and lives there for much of the film, sneaking out only long enough to grab food from the cafeteria. He doesn’t go with his launch group. He doesn’t go to class. He lives only in the air vents. He does nothing that would draw the attention of the I.F. leadership or make them consider him as an alternative to Ender in their search for the next great commander. And through it all, Bean maintains a snarky, know-it-all attitude that is neither endearing nor remotely like the character of Bean in the novels.

  Quite frankly, this interpretation of Bean is so far distant and opposite to the original Bean that it can hardly be called an adaptation of Ender’s Shadow.

  8. THE ENDING

  Ender regrets having committed xenocide and is committed to saving the Formic cocoon placed in his care. In Scott Card’s screenplays, Ender finds the cocoon on Eros, the asteroid used by the Formics as a base of operations during the Second Invasion. The Formics dug an intricate system of tunnels in the asteroid, and Ender crawls into one of those tunnels and discovers the cocoon.

  We then cut to one of the Formic worlds, now being scouted by I.F. soldiers. A marine walks among the Formic corpses, grabs a handful of dirt, and states that the world is safe for human habitation, a nod to the human colonization that will follow. And the film ends.

  In another of Scott’s drafts, the scene with the I.F. marine is cut, and the film ends with Ender being put onto a starship headed toward a colony planet. Mazer wishes him well, and Ender says his good-byes. No one knows he is secretly carrying a cocoon and hopes to rectify the damage he has done.