The Authorized Ender Companion (56 page)

Part of me wonders if some involved in the early development of
Ender’s Game
held this misconception. Sometimes I wonder if Scott Card was given the true consideration he deserved or if those involved were merely meeting Scott’s stipulation of the contract and giving him a go at the script, all along intending to hire new writers once the stipulation was met.

I have no evidence of that, of course, and no one has ever suggested as much. It’s incredibly unfair to those involved for me to even suggest it, but there you have it. It’s completely unfounded speculation and I take full responsibility for it.

I only bring it up because in Scott Card’s case nothing could be further from the truth; Scott is protective of how the character of Ender is portrayed, yes, but he isn’t opposed to shifts in the story. Throughout this process Scott has listened openly to others’ ideas and was always willing to change anything that was nonessential to the meaning of the story. In fact, some of Scott’s producing partners from Chartoff Pictures argued in favor of sticking with the novel’s way of handling various story points when Scott changed them in the screenplay.

I can speak from personal experience, too. Scott embodied this same open attitude when he and I adapted his short story “Malpractice.” The screenplay and novel we wrote were very different from Scott’s original creation, but it was Scott who had suggested the largest changes to the story. Were he a self-absorbed author overly protective of his work, he would have fought off any story alterations with a feverish stick instead of embracing and suggesting new ideas.

Scott, therefore, was willing to hack away at
Ender’s Game
and
Ender’s Shadow
to form a single cohesive story line. But the difficult question still remained: what should be cut? How best do we tell both stories in the time allotted?

The initial consensus was to cut back and forth between the two characters’ origins and then unite them once they came to Battle School. Scott’s first draft did this well: we see Ender on Earth with his family; we see him being recruited by the International Fleet; we see him hop aboard a shuttle headed for Battle School; and then we cut to the dirty, crime-filled streets of Rotterdam, where Bean is a tiny street urchin using his smarts to stave off starvation. Sister Carlotta tests him, recognizes his genius, and informs Battle School of her find. Bean and Ender then meet up at Battle School, and we’re off to the races.

In a later draft, the Rotterdam scenes occur as flashbacks late in the film as Bean recounts to Ender the horror of witnessing Achilles killing Poke.

In another writer’s draft, the sequence in Rotterdam is even briefer. We see the children coming into the soup kitchen. Sister Carlotta inquires to know who was smart enough to think up a way to get them in. And the children point to Bean. We don’t meet Poke. We don’t see Bean’s genius at work, thinking up the plan. Nor do we see Bean’s brutal survival instincts or his willingness to kill Achilles once he recognizes that Achilles is a threat. In short, we don’t see much of what makes Bean . . . well, Bean.

In the draft written by the writing team, we don’t see Rotterdam at all. They chose to ignore Bean’s origins altogether, and therefore ignore Sister Carlotta, Poke, and Achilles as well. All we know of Bean is what we see him say and do at Battle School, making their draft 95 percent
Ender’s Game
and 5 percent
Ender’s Shadow
.

These decisions made by the screenwriters on what
not
to include in the screenplay resulted in very different adaptations of the two novels. What one screenwriter considered important, another writer considered immaterial and left out completely. Here are a few more examples.

1. THE MONITOR

The monitor, that little device implanted on the back of children’s necks used to monitor their intelligence and determine their candidacy for Battle School, is missing from most drafts. Of Scott’s drafts, only his most recent includes a scene in which Ender’s monitor is removed.

The writing team that followed Scott also included a monitor-removal scene, although, unlike the scene in the novel, in their version, a member of the I.F. is present to witness the removal and to confiscate the monitor.

The third writer changed the monitor completely. In his version, the monitor is a bracelet. Why he made this change is unclear. In fact, I’m not sure that the audience would have known that the bracelet Ender wears in the beginning of the film
is
a monitor since it’s only referred to later in the script and very briefly at that. Were I in the audience and ignorant of the screenplay, I would think the bracelet a mere wardrobe accessory and not a critical tool of the I.F.

The screenwriter does however make an effort to demonstrate Ender’s readiness for Battle School by adding a scene in which Graff gives Ender an exam. In the exam, Ender is asked to build various shapes using holographic blocks. The shapes become more complex as Ender successfully makes them, and his little hands move so quickly that we the audience can only conclude that this is one bright kid.

The flaw with this exam, however, is that it doesn’t test the right things. It doesn’t measure those characteristics of a military leader that the I.F. would find so appealing. It merely shows us that Ender is great with Legos
^®
and can solve a puzzle. It doesn’t show us what the real monitor showed the I.F. in the novel: that Ender is equal parts Valentine and Peter, that he won’t hesitate to use violence when no other option is available, that he understands what motivates people and drives their behavior, that he is humble, that he is capable of love, that he is decisive and quick on his feet, and on and on and on.

2. STILSON

An early scene in the novel that clearly illustrates why Ender is a wise candidate for the I.F. is the scene in which a bully named Stilson and some of his cronies confront Ender after school. Now that Ender’s monitor has been removed, the boys think they can push Ender around without any adults knowing. Rather than stand there and get pulverized, however, Ender defends himself and knocks Stilson down. Fearing that the other bullies will seek
vengeance later, Ender puts fear in their hearts by ruthlessly kicking Stilson three times while he’s down, in the ribs, the groin, and the face. That last kick, we learn later in the novel, kills Stilson.

The problem with the Stilson scene is that it would be hard to watch in the theater. In the novel, the scene works wonderfully because we know why Ender is doing what he’s doing. We can read his thoughts. We know he hates being violent. We know it pains him to do this.

But in a film, as said before, we don’t have that luxury. We can’t get inside Ender’s head. All we know is what we see characters do and say. So when Ender kicks a man who’s down and then makes angry threats to the bullies still standing, we assume he’s expressing his true feelings. Our interpretation of the scene would be exactly what the bullies would assume: that Ender is a violent, dangerous kid.

Rather than endear us to Ender by teaching us how averse he is to violence, the Stilson scene in the film could potentially lead the audience to dislike Ender. For this reason Scott Card chose to exclude the Stilson scene from all of his drafts.

The writing team that followed Scott, however, thought the Stilson scene a necessary plot point. Their execution of it complicated the matter further, however, because for them, it wasn’t enough for Ender to merely kick Stilson while he was down. In their draft, Ender does a little karate move and shatters Stilson’s nose. Then Ender proceeds to beat Stilson to a bloody pulp, kicking his head, hitting him as hard as he can, beating him viciously in the chest and stomach, and slamming his fists repeatedly into Stilson’s already broken nose.

It’s an extremely violent scene, possibly even violent enough to earn the film an R rating. It surprised me. It painted Ender, right from the beginning, as a vicious kid driven by bloodlust and went beyond what was necessary to scare off the other bullies. To be fair to the writers, the scene that follows the Stilson scene shows Ender running off and crying, visibly shaken for what he has just done. But I don’t think it compensated for what we would have just seen Ender do. When I read it, I despised Ender for it. And I presume audiences would have had the same reaction.

3. THE FANTASY GAME

Scott Card’s first draft incorporated the Fantasy Game a great deal. It was a clear way of showing that the Formics were trying to communicate with Ender and keep him from committing xenocide. At certain points throughout
the draft, Ender picks up his laptop and plays the game. His game character, Ender Mouse, beats the Giant’s Drink, the supposed dead end of the game, and proceeds to explore Fairy Land and find the castle tower where the Formic queen is waiting.

In Scott’s later drafts, the game appears less, though he does use other devices to incorporate the game into the story. In one scene, for example, we’re inside Fairy Land, and we think Ender is playing the game. Then Ender Mouse finds the Hive Queen, she pounces on him, and Ender wakes up, revealing that it was only a dream. The scene is significant because it proves that the Formics don’t even need the laptop anymore to get inside Ender’s head.

The other writers, however, chose to exclude the Fantasy Game—with one exception. In one scene of one draft, as Ender is walking in the arcadelike game room, he passes a kid playing the Fantasy Game. There’s no dialogue exchanged or emphasis given to the game. It’s merely mentioned in the screenplay as part of the landscape. If you blink you miss it.

4. GRAFF

For die-hard fans of the novels, it might sound like blasphemy to suggest that
Ender’s Game
be made without Hyrum Graff. But the suggestion was made. Someone in the script-development process asked, Could the film work without Graff? And more specifically, what if Graff and Mazer Rackham were the same character? What if it were
Mazer
who comes to the Wiggin home at the beginning of the film to recruit Ender? And
Mazer
who follows Ender through Battle School?

The screenwriters after Scott explored this idea. In one draft, everyone knows and recognizes Mazer when they see him. But in another draft, neither the audience nor the other characters know he’s Mazer. We think he’s simply a commander in the I.F. No one recognizes him because the International Fleet has kept the vids from the invasion classified. It’s not until late in the film that the big Aha! twist is revealed: that this Graff-like character is in fact Mazer Rackham.

Scott Card explored a similar idea, but rather than ditching the character of Graff altogether, he merely gave Mazer some of Graff’s duties and therefore beefed up the character of Mazer. In Scott’s draft, Mazer—not Graff—comes to the Wiggin home in the beginning of the film to recruit Ender without identifying himself or being recognized. After Ender agrees to accompany him, Mazer escorts Ender to Battle School and places him
under Graff’s care. Mazer reappears later in the film when Ender’s training on Eros begins and there reveals his true identity, just as he does in the novel.

Personally, I thought this a smart move. It introduces the audience to Mazer’s face early in the film and establishes him as a character of great importance. That way, when we see him later in the film, he’s not a total stranger. We’re not introducing a character at the beginning of the Third Act. It’s also smart because Mazer Rackham is one of the few characters in the film who could be given to a name adult actor, someone who would have some pull at the box office. Beefing up that part by giving Mazer more to do at the beginning of the film makes the role more attractive to name actors.

5. BATTLE SCHOOL JARGON

Battle School soldiers have their own vernacular. When two soldiers greet each other in the corridor, for example, they’ll say “Ho” instead of “Hello.”

“Ho, Ender.”

“Ho, Bean.”

Or rather than call someone a four-letter word, a Battle School kid would use the term
eemo
. “Hold you fire, you stupid eemo!”

In the novels, these unique words and phrases added another dimension to the Battle School experience and gave it a feeling of authenticity. Kids make up words all the time. As do soldiers in war. Language evolves that way.

The words were never overused. They weren’t distracting. And if they appeared, the reader needed no translation. Their meaning could easily be surmised from context alone.

Scott Card used Battle School jargon in his drafts of the screenplay, but the writing team that followed him did not. The screenwriter who followed them
did
use Battle School jargon, but it was jargon of his own creation, not words lifted from the novel. I found it interesting that I could immediately identify his words as unauthentic even though it had been a few years since I had last read
Ender’s Game
.

6. THE TWIST

Another complication of adapting both stories was deciding how best to reveal the big twist. In
Ender’s Game
, the reader learns that the simulation on Eros is the real war at the same time Ender does: after the battle is over.

If you were lucky enough not to know this twist when you first read the book, it was a humdinger of a reveal. It came out of nowhere. “NO WAY! He was fighting the
real
war?”

But in
Ender’s Shadow
, the reader knows this already. Even before we crack the book open, we know the big twist at the end. Scott Card solved this in the novel by wisely giving us another twist, something that
wasn’t
revealed in
Ender’s Game
but arguably just as surprising: Bean knew the truth. Bean figured it out. Bean knew he was sending men to their deaths during the final simulation. And because Bean understood Ender, because he knew how the truth would affect him and how it could jeopardize the entire mission, he kept his mouth shut and simply did his job.

So what should the film do? Should the final twist be saved until the end? Should the audience learn the twist when Ender does, as in the first novel? Or should we learn from Bean as he does in
Ender’s Shadow
, long before the final simulation?