No One Will Save You’s Director on Crafting Surprises, Minimal Dialogue, and Alien Invasions

We can tell you just how fun and surprising the new Hulu alien film No One Will Save You is, but leave it to the film’s writer and director, Brian Duffield, to really sell it. “By the time we get to the end of our first act, hopefully people will just have no idea where this movie is going because so much has happened,” Duffield told io9 over video chat. He hopes audiences think “This is usually where we end things. But I’ve never been here in five minutes!”

It’s true that, structurally, No One Will Save You feels disarmingly unique. First, you meet Brynn (Kaitlyn Dever), a young woman who has purposefully isolated herself—but before you can learn much about her, an alien has made its way into her house. Duffield wanted to speed up the story to purposefully throw off the audience. “I would have thought the movie was over and I have an hour to go,” is how the director hopes the audience reacts. “Whatever happens next is unprecedented. And that just felt like a really fun place to kick off.”

But that’s not the only way it’s unique. No One Will Save You hits on Hulu Friday, joining Prey as truly outstanding, theater-worthy sci-fi produced by the streamer. We talked to Duffield about that as well as the shocking, but apparently unplanned, decision to have very little dialogue in the film. Plus, how much bigger is this alien invasion? Read our interview below.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Germain Lussier, io9: So I’m watching your movie last night and after 20 minutes, I was like, “Has anybody spoken in this?” And I don’t think they had. So tell me how the early decision was made to go largely without dialogue, why you made that decision, and what the biggest challenge then became? 

Brian Duffield: Yeah, it was something that I kind of discovered too. I didn’t set out to write it that way. I don’t outline when I write, so I’m just kind of free fallin’. And then I, similar to you but later in the process, I realized the same. And I was like “I can see this through.” And so it kind of just became an extension of the character for me. It was that a) she was alone and as the title says, no one was helping out. And then b) I wanted to avoid the exposition TV screen that kind of tells you what’s going on. Because I thought part of the terror is that she doesn’t know and no one’s telling her. So it just kind of came from that. And so by the end of it, I was like, “I think it works.”

So, yeah, it just kind of became like a fun garnish on the movie as opposed to the reason I did it. Because I think if I had started off trying to do that, it would have been shit, right? [Laughs] It would have been non-genuine to Kaitlyn’s character. And it became kind of this beside the [fact] thing. Like, it’s not like we haven’t been promoting it, and it’s not because we’re trying to surprise people. For me, it’s not the main course. I think Kaitlyn’s the main course. [Not talking] just kind of became like a fun thing but it really didn’t feel different than doing a talkie. [Laughs] 

io9: Wow, okay. Because obviously, there’s some dialogue here and there, but by the end, there’s so little of it, it makes what little bit there is, especially towards the end, that much more impactful. So I’m surprised to hear that wasn’t a deliberate choice. Did the script have dialogue in it?

Duffield: It’s exactly what it is in the movie. And [the scene you’re referring to] was an example of a scene that, if it didn’t have dialogue, I would be doing this for the gimmick as opposed to doing what is right for this scene. But it’s not a silent movie. Like there is dialogue in the movie. I always get annoyed when people say like, “Birdman is a one-take,” and I’m like, “There’s a montage at the end of Birdman. Like, that’s editing.” [Laughs]

There are a lot of no-dialogue sections, but there’s dialogue in the movie. And it just felt to me like if the reason I’m doing this is for this, it’s a bad reason. And if there’s a moment where she really needs to get something off of her chest, like in that moment, she had to do it. And I said the same to Kaitlyn. I was like, “If there’s ever a scene where you feel like you need to talk? Do it.” Like that’s more important. Your character is more important than the device. And so that to me was just the rule of thumb the whole way. Brynn needed to talk and say something in that moment. And I think it is accentuated by the fact that she doesn’t talk often, but she does talk and when she talks it really matters.

io9: Okay, awesome. Thank you for clearing that up. I also love in the movie that the invasion starts off very quickly. We get a little setup but then we’re right in it. Also, you could have teased the aliens the entire movie, but instead, you really show them and let us look at them. So tell me a little bit about how early those decisions happened and why.

Duffield: It happened very early on. I think there is a part of me that had always wanted to see an alien movie that’s… you know, they’ve come all this way. And I love Signs and they pop into the house at the very end, but they’re like outside bopping around in cornfields the whole time, and it’s great. But I was also like, “They’ve come a long way.” Like walking into this girl’s house? It’s a Tuesday afternoon for them. It’s not a big deal after everything they’ve done to get here. And I just thought that was a really interesting place to start, where these guys are kind of blasé walking in. And then for her and for any of us, it would be the craziest thing that would ever happen to us. But really liking that idea of like, okay, “Let’s start here.”

And I think it really wrong-foots you in hopefully a fun way where you’re like, “I have no idea [what’s going on]. This is usually where we end things but I’ve never been here in five minutes,” and by the time we get to the end of our first act hopefully people will just have no idea where this movie is going because so much has happened. So it’s like, yeah, we kind of do the glimpse of the alien here, a toe here, a voice here kind of thing. Then we just start showing our boy. [Laughs] And then I think my hope is that it takes people by surprise a little bit where they’re like, “Oh, there he is. Like, what is he doing?”

And then, when our second act starts, I think people are going to have no idea where we’re going. And that’s kind of a fun place to have an audience at the start of your second act where it’s just like, “I would have thought the movie was over and I have an hour to go. Whatever happens next is unprecedented.” That just felt like a really fun place to kick off, like, what happens after that first act and where that goes. So that was kind of the kickoff idea of the alien side of the movie for me—that the first act is like an act-long set piece that ends in a surprising way. And then you’re like, “Well, I have an hour to go. Where are we going?”

io9: I think I literally wrote that in my notes. “How is this over already?” But of course, it wasn’t over. So that certainly worked. And the movie certainly worked as I watched it at home but I’m wondering, was this always the plan? Was this ever going to be a theatrical release or was it always going to go direct to Hulu?

Duffield: Always direct to Hulu and it was great. Yeah, it would be cool to see this in a theater, but like, this is a weird movie. This movie takes a lot of swings and is not your typical movie in a lot of ways. And I think with a streaming release, 20th Century and Hulu gave us the ability to do that. We didn’t change anything for the studio. It wasn’t, “Audiences are going to want this resolution.” It wasn’t all these other things. They really let us make the movie we wanted to make. And 20th really loved the movie we were all making together. So I’m really thankful that Hulu wanted to make the movie. I don’t know if anyone else would have made the movie in the way that Hulu let the movie be made, and that was really exciting. The craziest stuff in the movie was never up for discussion.

I’ve worked at other theatrical studios that I love too, but I don’t think that would have been true. I think it would have been a very different movie if it was going to theaters from a different studio. So for me, the Hulu of it all was like, “Hey, we got a little bit more room to swing.” And that was really, really exciting. I shot it for Hulu. I shot it knowing it was going to be on a lot of people’s TVs and iPhones and iPads and everything. So for me, it was all telling stories. And 20th Century and Hulu were the place that allowed us to tell our story the way we wanted to tell it. I can’t complain.

io9: Now, what happens in this movie is a contained story. There’s no need to think about what else is happening in this world. But as a nerd, I do and I think you probably might too. So how much did you think about what else is happening in the world? What else is going on in your No One Will Save You Cinematic Universe?

Duffield: [Laughs] Yeah, well, actually, we had a little bit of pick-ups on the movie, and that was everything that happens at her neighbor’s house. That was one thing we kind of figured out. Once we kind of put a cut together, a lot of people were like, “Is what’s happening to her real?” Cause it’s so hyper-specific on her. And it was kind of really helpful to be like, “Oh, this is a larger story happening.” It’s not just her. And that little bit of clarity, I think, really helped people to understand the context of the movie.

As for the larger universe, I think for me, it’s a global thing that’s happening. It’s a full-scale party [Laughs]. Like there’s definitely the Independence Day saucer over the White House happening at the same time. That kind of stuff. But I also think that the aliens, their plan is very similar to what Brynn is encountering where it’s very stealthy and it’s almost secondary. They are so far advanced from us that they’re kind of like, “We’ve just got to get this part done and then we’ll move on to the next thing.” Or they’re so interested in poking around and just learning about people, even when there are people in the house. It’s such a weird little afterthought to them.

io9: Finally, I’d like to ask about the title. It feels like a pessimistic proclamation on the one hand, but I’m sure you have more intention with it. To you, what does No One Will Save You mean?

Duffield: I thought it mostly was about the fact that there is no “one.” Like that was the key thing. It’s really up to her do it or to figure it out. It’s not the kind of thing where she’s launching the torpedo into the Death Star. It’s not that kind of a movie.

No One Will Save You debuts on Hulu September 22.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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