Editor’s Note: This article contains spoilers for No One Will Save You.
The Big Picture
- The aliens in No One Will Save You have varied biological structures, resembling humanoid forms but with eerie features and telekinetic abilities.
- Director Brian Duffield wanted to introduce the aliens early in the film, but he didn’t want the audience to think she had already defeated the antagonist.
- The aliens are on a religious journey and possess advanced technology and intelligence. They have a hierarchical structure. Duffield also explored the idea of different subspecies and religious aspects.
No One Will Save You features Kaitlyn Dever being stalked at home by extraterrestrial lifeforms. Aliens, of course, are a science-fiction staple by this point, but as, to this point in our own history at least, they are still fictional, rules are necessary when using them in films. Collider held a special Q&A to screen and show off the film to audiences, and Editor-in-Chief Steve Weintraub sat down with the movie’s director, Brian Duffield, to discuss the rules he’d come up with for the aliens’ behavior.
The aliens are shown to be varied in their biological structure. While they resemble humanoid forms, at times, there are also long-limbed, eerie-looking features to their makeup, and they communicate using their throats. Not just that, they wield some sort of telekinetic abilities and immensely powerful beams of light that are able to throw items, or people, through the air violently. Late on in the film, they also showcase the ability to use psychic powers to get a read on Brynn’s mind, her grief, and her resilience.
For Duffield, the key to making the aliens as impactful as possible was introducing them quickly, while establishing Brynn’s unhappy existence, so that the audience could learn exactly what Brynn was dealing with. While “monster” movies like to hold off the big reveal of the antagonist, Duffield knew it had to differ from the likes of Jaws.
“She’s Already Beaten the Shark”
“It was always about how to make Kaitlyn’s life as miserable as possible in the movie,” said Duffield. “Especially if you’re introducing an alien five minutes in, you don’t want it to just kind of be stagnant. We show the shark extremely early, and you’re not wanting to be like, ‘Well, she’s already beaten the shark. We’re all good here.’ So yeah, it’s about coming up with a culture for these guys and building out a language with them with the sound guys.”
Duffield added that the aliens appeared to be on some kind of religious journey, despite being extremely technologically and intellectually advanced. They also have a leadership rank, with the grunts being sent in initially to deal with Brynn before the big guns feel the need to get involved once she proves herself more than capable. Duffield explained:
“Also, there’s a lot of weird religious aspects to them, which is probably some childhood trauma of my own. [Laughs] But yeah, building out the idea that these are very intelligent creatures that came here and they feel like they are on somewhat of a faith-based journey, like most conquerors have been. So that felt like building that out and then giving each of the different subspecies different roles and then there’s subspecies that aren’t in the movie, and all that nerdy shit.”
No One Will Save You is streaming on Hulu now.
