RELIGIOUS THEMES
SACRIFICIAL LOVE
"It was only through the sacrifice of our greatest commander, that we avoided total annihilation"
A big theme in Ender’s Game is sacrificial love. During most of the movie, when people are in trouble or can’t make a decision, they ask “What would Mazer Rackham do?" like how Christians say “What would Jesus do?”. When mankind is in danger from annihilation by the Formics, hero Mazer Rackham sacrificed his life by crashing his F-35 Lightning II into the Formic mothership. Rackham’s sacrifice is very similar to Jesus’ sacrifice. Jesus
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters."
1 JOHN 3:16
ENDER AS CHRIST
"When I understand my enemy well enough to defeat him, then in that moment, I also love him"
Throughout the movie, Ender is seen as a Christ-like figure. His actions imitate the ones of Jesus Christ. Ender was born as a third child, which due to the overpopulation since the Formic invasion, his parents needed permission in order to have him. So already, Ender had a “special birth” like Jesus. When an angel named Gabriel appears to a virgin, Jewish woman, Mary, He tells her that she will conceive a son, that she is to call him Jesus and
"If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink."
PROVERBS 25:21
Christ, the son of God, was sent to Earth to die on the cross for us to be forgiven for our evil. He sacrificed his life to save mankind. In the bible, Jesus’ sacrifice is told in John 3:16-17, it says “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” So Jesus and Mazer Rackham both are heroes to humanity and sacrificed their life to save the world.
that he is the son of God. So both Ender and Christ had very special births.
Jesus was sent to earth so that he would die on the cross for our sins, he was “chosen” by God to rescue us from our darkness. Like Jesus, Ender is seen as the “chosen one”. He is chosen to save mankind from the Formics and to prevent total annihilation. Colonel Graff sees Ender’s unique talents and believes that he will be able to destroy the Formics once and for all. In comparison, Ender and Christ were both chosen to destroy the evil of earth but also to save mankind. Ender and Jesus are also similar in the way they love. In the bible, it tells us to love our enemies. Ender finds it hard to fight his enemies because in order to actually destroy your enemy, you have to know them and when he gains understanding, he learns to love his enemy which makes it harder for him to defeat them. We are told in the bible that Jesus also loves his enemies even when it means he has to die for their sins. When Jesus is called out for lying about being the son of God, he is beaten and seen as weak. But when Jesus returns from the dead, the people are able to see how powerful he is and that he is in fact the son of God. Like Jesus, Ender goes through a very similar situation. Colonel Graff chose Ender to save mankind ,however, when he is first at the Battle School, he is also seen as weak until he shows his strength and is respected and or threatened by his peers. Another fun way Ender relates to Jesus is, Jesus has his disciples, Simon, Andrew, James, John, Phillip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James, Thaddaeus, Simon and Judas, and in the movie, Ender also has his followers or "disciples" when he shows that he is a leader.
GOOD VS EVIL
"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."
ROMANS 12:21
Pretty much any exciting movie or novel has conflict within it. This is no different for Ender’s Game. This movie experiences Good vs Evil but in a very unique way. When the hostile alien race, the Formics, attack earth, mankind is near total annihilation. A major part of the movie is the human conflict with the Formics. However, we discover that the humans are the ones taking the role of “evil” but nonetheless, the theme of Good vs Evil is still
"I want to find out if I am as gifted at peace as I am at war."
DECEPTION
present in Ender’s Game. As I said before, every good story has a conflict between Good vs Evil. In the bible, we are able to see the various conflicts from Cain and Able to the Good vs Evil within ourselves to the main conflict God vs Satan.
“This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.”
Revelation 12:9
A lot of people don’t know the story behind how the Devil came to be. Satan is believed to be a fallen angel, which are angels who have turned on God and sinned. In Christianity, the Devil is one of the great fallen angels and considered the leader. So Satan was good but turned on God to try and become more powerful. This story has similarities to Ender’s Game in some ways. When the Formics attack Earth, Colonel Graff does not want to risk the
"We won. That's what matters." "No. The way we win matters"
chance of another invasion. He along with the International Fleet, train young minds in order to stop the Formics. When he finds Ender, he realizes that he is the key to destroying the Formics. Later in the movie, Ender learns that the Formics were not trying to harm Earth, they were trying to protect their race. When Ender discovers this, he feels used and betrayed by Colonel Graff. Graff deceives Ender to wipe out all of the Formic race just like Satan deceived Adam and Eve by tempting them to eat the fruit off of the forbidden tree. The Devil deceives people, we are told this in Revelation 12:9 “This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.” Colonel Graff deceived Ender just as Satan deceives the world so that he could cowardly win the battle against the Formics.