ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

I don't feel qualified to summarize this movie, so I'll offer the Wikipedia summary below instead.

It's long, I know . . . but bear in mind that I didn't write it.
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In the future, humanity is preparing to launch an attack on the homeworld of an alien race, called the Formics, that had attacked Earth and killed millions. The Formic invasion was stopped by Mazer Rackham, who crashed his fighter plane into Formic queenship at the apparent cost of his life. Over the course of 50 years, gifted children are trained by the International Fleet to become commanders of a new fleet for this counterattack.

Cadet Andrew "Ender" Wiggin draws the attention of Colonel Hyrum Graff and Major Gwen Anderson based on his aptitude in simulated space combat. They order the removal of his monitor, signifying the end of the cadet program.

Ender is attacked by Stilson, a student he defeated in the combat sim, but Ender fights back and severely injures him. Ender confesses his grief to his older sister Valentine but is harassed further by their older brother Peter.

Graff arrives to reveal Ender was being tested and is still part of the program. Graff brings Ender to Battle School and places Ender with other cadets his age, but treats him as extraordinary, thereby subjecting him to being ostracized by the others.

Among other studies, the cadets are placed in squads and perform training games in a zero-gravity "Battle Room". Ender quickly adapts to the games, devising new strategies older students have not yet seen.

Graff reassigns Ender to Salamander Army, led by Commander Bonzo Madrid. Bonzo, believing that Ender is inept due to his size and fearing Ender will cause the squad to fail, prevents him from training with the rest of the squad. Another cadet, Petra Arkanian, takes Ender under her wing and trains him privately.

Bonzo becomes aware of this but does not take any action besides ordering Ender not to train with Petra. Ender secretly persuades Bonzo to let him continue, arguing this will increase Ender's chance of being accepted into another squad.

In the next match, Bonzo orders Ender to do nothing during the match, while the rest of the Salamander Army fights another team. However, seeing the team losing and Petra in trouble, Ender comes to her aid and helps the Salamander Army win. After the match, Bonzo is humiliated by the other students and threatens to kill Ender if he embarrasses him again.

Meanwhile, Ender plays a computerized "mind game" set in a fantasy world, which presents difficult choices to the player. In one situation, Ender creates an outside the box solution to overcome a seemingly unsolvable problem. Later, he encounters a Formic in the game, and then a simulated image of Valentine entering the ruins of a castle. Inside, he finds another image of Valentine, but as he nears, it turns into an image of Peter who grabs Ender and looks into his right eye before the game ends. These are noted as unusual additions to the game, which is seemingly being altered by Ender's interaction with the computer.

Graff promotes Ender to the leader of his own squad, made from other students who have gained Ender's trust. They are put in increasingly difficult battles. In a surprise match against two other teams, including Bonzo's squad the Salamander Army, Ender devises a novel strategy of sacrificing part of his team to achieve a goal, impressing Graff.

Bonzo attacks Ender in the bathroom after the match, but Ender fights back, and Bonzo falls during the struggle, seriously injured. Distraught over this, Ender prepares to quit Battle School, but Graff has Valentine speak to him and convince him to continue.

Graff takes Ender to humanity's forward base on a former Formic planet near their homeworld. There, Ender meets Mazer Rackham, who did not die as had been previously believed, and explains how he spotted the shared-mind nature of the Formics to stop the attack 50 years prior. Ender finds that his former squad members are also there to help him train in computerized simulations of large fleet combat; Rackham puts special emphasis on the fleet's Molecular Detachment (MD) Device that is capable of disintegrating matter.[note 1] Ender's training is rigorous, and Anderson expresses concern they are pushing Ender too fast, but Graff notes they have run out of time to replace Ender.

Ender's final test is monitored by several of the fleet commanders. As the simulation starts, Ender finds his fleet over the Formic homeworld and vastly outnumbered. He orders most of his fleet to sacrifice themselves to protect the MD long enough to fire on the homeworld. The resulting chain reaction burns over the surface of the planet, killing the entire population. The simulation ends, and Ender believes the test is over. The commanders restart the video screens, showing that the destruction of the Formic homeworld was real, and Ender had been controlling the real fleet. Despite Graff's assurance that he is a hero, Ender is horrified and outraged at the annihilation of an entire race and believes everyone will only remember him as a killer.

As Ender struggles with his emotions during sleep, he recognizes one of the Formic structures nearby similar to the ruined castle from the game. Believing it is trying to communicate with him, Ender goes to it. He follows the path shown by the game and encounters a dying Formic queen. The Queen acknowledges Ender's role in the genocide, and that she simply wanted peace in the long term and forgives him. The Queen gives Ender a Queen egg that she had been protecting.

With the war ended, Ender is promoted to Admiral, given a small ship, and left to his own devices. In a letter to Valentine, he confides that he is going into deep space, determined to form a new Formic colony with the queen egg.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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IMDB has several good trivia items for this movie. Here’s a few of the ones I found the most interesting, in the blue text.
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~ The U.S. Marine Corps has Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card on its recommended reading list for officers, saying that it offers "lessons in training methodology, leadership, and ethics as well."

Note from me: That's impressive. I wonder if they show the Marines the movie, too?

~ For the wirework in the battle room, the actors trained for a month with individual Cirque du Soleil members so they could do the wire performances themselves.

Note from me: One of the perks of being an actor: you get paid to fly around.

~ Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, and several cast members that portray Battle School cadets in the film went to Space Camp prior to filming to train for zero gravity sequences.

Note from me: of the perks of being an actor: you get paid to fly around.

~ To achieve the effect of weightlessness for the actors and actresses in the battle room, two rigs were invented for this movie, used to capture zero gravity scenes. First was a lollipop arm, which is like a counter-balance offering a full range of motion. The second innovation was a "people crane". It's a contraption, sort of like the lollipop arm, but put on air pucks so that the effects is like you are floating around in the air.

Note from me: I wonder if I could find a really detailed video that shows these two rigs in action. This one is not quite what I was hoping for.

_Ender's Game: Creating a Zero-G Battle Room Effects


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~ Several props used in the film were created using 3D printers, including a model of Mazer Rackham's ship that you'll see hanging in Ender's quarters.

Note from me: Whoa! I have GOT to get me one of THOSE! I could print spaceships and hang them all over my living room from the ceiling, .

~ Asa Butterfield grew three inches during filming.

Note from me: A funny thought: Directors could put elevator shoes on child actors they suspect might grow taller during filming, then they could switch to lower shoes as the kids grow taller.

~ During the game at the beginning of the movie, the ship piloted by Ender closely resembles the Millennium Falcon, the ship piloted by Han Solo (Harrison Ford) in the Star Wars film franchise.

Note from me: I wonder if co-star Harrison Ford gave Ender any coaching on how to fly the Falcon.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)