Warning: This article contains spoilers for No One Will Save You.
Since the aliens in No One Will Save You are instrumental not only to its terrors but also to its emotional depth, here is a complete breakdown of the central aliens’ inner workings, powers, motives, and versions. In its initial moments, No One Will Save You unfolds like a regular alien invasion movie, where its main character, Brynn, struggles to protect her home from the Grays. However, as the film moves forward, it becomes evident that the aliens are mere narrative devices to drive a human story of grief, guilt, and acceptance.
Given how crucial the aliens are to its narrative, it is not surprising that No One Will Save You emphasizes several details in their physiology, language, and even emotions. To ensure that viewers do not get tired of watching the same Grays over and over again throughout its runtime, the alien abduction story in the Hulu horror movie also creatively makes subtle alterations to the aliens’ designs and abilities. With so many layers to everything from the outer appearance to the intrinsic elements of the central aliens, it is hard not to dive deep into the central aliens’ lore and explore their purpose and abilities in the movie.
The Aliens’ Powers In No One Will Save You Explained
As the first alien invasion in No One Will Save You begins to unfold, the electronics in Brynn’s home go through sudden voltage spikes. These voltage fluctuations in Brynn’s home suggest that the aliens or their ship emit strong electromagnetic fields or radio waves. The next morning, all electronics, including Brynn’s landline, also die, further reinstating this idea. When it comes to strength, the typical gray aliens are much stronger than humans and possess prehensile (hand-like) feet, allowing them to move more quickly and with a lot more agility than a regular human.
Several moments in No One Will Save You also suggest that the aliens have a heightened sense of sight and hearing. For instance, the first alien who invades Brynn’s house easily hears her floorboard creaking. In another scene, Brynn tries attacking an alien from behind, but the alien effortlessly stops her without turning back. The aliens use telekinesis to attack and defend themselves from potential threats, establishing that they are levels above humans in intelligence. The aliens also make humans ingest a parasite-like creature, which attaches itself to the inside of a human’s throat and makes humans more compliant.
No One Will Save You‘s ending shows how the aliens use telepathy to access Brynn’s memories and understand her. The fact that they spare her after learning about her tragic past shows they feel empathy, perhaps even more than humans. Although their expressions rarely change, they seem to express their emotions with rhythmic vibrations and a form of sign language.
There Are 6 Different Versions Of The Aliens In No One Will Save You
To keep things interesting, No One Will Save You introduces several different alien designs, with each reflecting what the aliens are capable of. Although the diversity in the aliens’ appearance does not seem to have any narrative significance, it expands the movie’s world-building and leaves room for audiences to be curious about what Brynn will encounter next. In its runtime of an hour and a half, No One Will Save You portrays at least six unique designs of its central alien species — here’s a brief rundown of their traits and their purpose in the movie’s storyline.
The Typical Grays
While most modern alien movies like Annihilation and Nope try subverting the tropes surrounding aliens and their appearances, No One Will Save You conforms to many, especially when it comes to the designs of its aliens. The movie represents them as the stereotypical Grays, with long humanoid bodies with big heads and eyes. Given how aliens have not been represented in the classic gray design for quite some time, it is refreshing to see how No One Will Save You brings it back and tweaks it slightly to present other types of aliens belonging to the same species.
Human-Alien Hybrids
The Grays in No One Will Save You seemingly turn humans into aliens by making them swallow a parasite. Although the movie does not explicitly mention that the humans who ingested the parasite are aliens, the fact these humans start worshiping the alien ship suggests that they, too, have morphed into a hybrid form of the alien species. The human-alien hybrid transformation reveals how the central invasion works in No One Will Save You. Instead of mindlessly taking over the planet and killing all humans, the aliens use mind control to make humans more obedient. This allows the aliens to reign supreme on Earth without resorting to extreme violence.
Baby Aliens
In one of No One Will Save You‘s scenes, Brynn gets chased by a miniature baby alien who seems nearly as strong and aggressive as its adult counterparts but shows no signs of possessing telekinesis. Its lack of supernatural abilities allows Brynn to overpower him. Although the movie does not mention anything about the aliens having offspring, the appearance of a baby alien suggests that the central aliens have families and children like humans or come in different shapes and sizes.
Giant Spider-like Aliens
Brynn also faces a giant spider-like alien who almost seems invincible until it gets trapped in a car, and Brynn manages to burn it down. Although this alien shares its facial features with the typical Grays, it is physically much bigger and presumably even stronger. Unlike the Grays aliens that stand up on two feet like humans, this one has spider-like arthropod joints that allow it to crawl and climb with ease.
Alien Parasite
The aliens in No One Will Save You use the parasite as a device to control humans. After the aliens force a human to ingest it, it crawls down their throat and seemingly hacks into the neurological system of their body. Since it appears to be sentient like the regular Grays and even squeals in pain when Bynn pulls it out of her throat, it deserves to be considered a separate alien entity.
The Alien Spaceship
Many scenes in No One Will Save You imply that the alien spaceship is a life form in and of itself. The Grays use their vibrations and sign language to communicate with the ship, and the ship also seems to decide whether they should leave Brynn alone. While many aspects of the ship remain a mystery, especially the part where it somehow creates Brynn’s clone, it would be safe to assume that it is an intelligent alien life form that governs the Grays.
The Aliens’ Motives In No One Will Save You Explained
Considering that the aliens in No One Will Save You spare Brynn after empathizing with her, they are not inherently evil. The movie never explains their true purpose, but the way they use the parasite to gradually take control over all humans implies that they have arrived on Earth to invade. The only difference between them and the typical evil Grays in pop culture is that they avoid taking a vicious route, and instead of wiping out humans from the face of the planet, they control their minds. Beyond these surface-level implications, the central invasion also serves as a metaphor for Brynn’s guilt.
Throughout the movie, Brynn struggles to accept the guilt and grief she carries from accidentally killing her childhood best friend, Maude. She tries burying her guilt by writing letters to her friend and even creating a miniature model of an idyllic town she would love to live in. However, before she knows it, her guilt gradually starts invading the well-protected space she creates for herself and threatens her safety and sanity. The alien is a mere narrative device highlighting this invasion of Brynn’s guilt. Towards No One Will Save You‘s ending, Brynn finally accepts her guilt, which sets her free and allows her to settle back into society.
