Guillermo del Toro explains No One Will Save You‘s secret meaning, stunning the movie’s writer/director Brian Duffield. Released on Hulu on September 22, the sci-fi/horror film follows an exiled and anxiety-ridden homebody named Brynn (played by Kaitlyn Dever) who finds herself in a battle for her home against an invading alien. The film has garnered much attention online for featuring only a single line of dialogue throughout its entire 93-minute runtime, but also for its ambiguous themes and obscure ending.
Shortly after the movie’s release, Guillermo del Toro took to Twitter to explain the secret meaning behind No One Will Save You, which stunned the movie’s director, Brian Duffield, who responded to his analysis. Check out the interaction between directors below:
Del Toro, a three-time Oscar-winning filmmaker known for his strong connection to the horror genre, began his thread by saying, “There is an essential principle in Catholic dogma (thus you may choose to refute it or embrace it) that serves as a narrative backbone: Grace and salvation emerge from pain and suffering. It is in this passage that you find salvation.”
Del Toro continues his analysis, saying, “You will save yourself through this. You can find it in the Book of Job- In Jonah in the whale and in fact in many other religions. The world- the essence of it- is a paradoxical composite of destruction and creation. Any human-scale attempt at suppressing one side, results in strife. Because the universe doesn’t play nice. Period. I think the key is the moment of “communion” through the eucharist of the alien identity pod. It is profound.”
Del Toro concludes his analysis by saying “The film is about soul repairation, yes- but then it telescopes to other levels… This narrative strand is essential to Hitchcock- and operates as the backbone of many a fairy tale and parable. That is what NOWSY is for me: a parable. A REALLY fun parable. Sunday school was never this fun.”
Duffield responded to Del Toro’s thread, saying “I don’t think Guillermo even knows I’m a missionary kid that grew up in Ireland so this is a wild Sunday morning,” seemingly confirming the movie’s parallels to Catholic dogma were intentional.
No One Will Save You’s Parallels To Catholic Dogma Explained
As Del Toro explains, the essential principle in Catholic dogma that grace and salvation emerge from pain and suffering serves as the narrative backbone of No One Will Save You. In the movie, Brynn is riddled with guilt after having accidentally killed her best friend, Maude, when they were kids, and being subsequently shunned by her small town. After the alien invaders capture her and probe her mind, they discover all the pain and suffering she’s been through, so they let her go without controlling her mind.
After living a life of pain and suffering, Brynn is allowed to return to Earth and, as opposed to every other resident in her town, she doesn’t have a tentacled organism controlling her thoughts and actions. In a stark reversal of her life before the alien invasion, Brynn’s neighbors are now quite friendly and welcoming towards her, representing her moment of salvation. Though the parallels between No One Will Save You and Catholic dogma definitely there, Del Toro explains that, just like the dogma itself, one can decide whether to refute or embrace it.
