Ender’s Game, w/ Alexander McCoy (2013)

A high-budget sci-fi meditation on strategy, morality, peace, and war.

“When I understand my enemy well enough to defeat him, then in that moment, I also love him.” So begins the 2013 film adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s classic sci-fi novel Ender’s Game.

This movie had a large budget ($110 million) and a stacked cast, including Harrison Ford, Viola Davis, and Hailee Steinfeld. Yet, it was a flop at the box office and got an unremarkable reception from critics.

Still, Ender’s Game was a highly personal film in ways that I explain in the latest episode of the Bang-Bang Podcast. As I immersed myself in the formal study of strategy during my Pentagon days, this film and book (which appears on the Marine Corps Commandant’s reading list) helped convince me that peace—not military conflict—is the higher terrain of strategy.

Our guest in this episode, fellow vet Alexander McCoy, debates with us about the politics of Ender’s Game and the inherent (im)morality that comes with organized violence no matter who does it.

Further Reading

“A Primer on Orson Scott Card and the Ender’s Game Controversy,” by Anna Silman

The Internationalists, by Alexander Ward

“The Great Humbling,” by David Klion

“Four Futures,” By Peter Frase

Strategy and Conscience, by Anatol Rapaport

Ender’s Game Trailer

Teaser From The Episode

Get the extended free preview of the episode at Bang-Bang, or wherever you listen to podcasts!