Hyrum Graff

Graff and Major Gwen Anderson follow Ender's life through his monitor. His siblings were already ruled out: Peter was too aggressive, Valentine too gentle. When Ender beats Stilson with calculated violence, Graff decides he has found the balance he wanted.

He goes to the Wiggin house himself and offers Ender a spot at Battle School.

On the shuttle up, Graff praises Ender in front of the other cadets. The point is to leave him alone, so he learns not to count on anyone. Anderson asks how far this can go. Graff answers that humanity has no time for scruples.

He rigs the games against Ender, puts him on Bonzo's team and later hands him an army of rookies. Graff also tracks the Mind Game, a program that reads what's going on inside the students' heads. When Ender reaches a level no one has seen before, Graff wants to know why before deciding what to do.

When Bonzo is hurt in the bathroom fight, Graff doesn't step in in time, and Anderson confronts him. Ender asks to leave. Graff brings Valentine to him on Earth, because he knows she's the only person who can bring him back. Throughout the film, Anderson is the voice asking whether this is training or cruelty. Graff listens, argues and keeps going. To him every test is a question: can the kid take it? And Ender always takes it, even when it costs him.

At the forward base, Graff hands Ender to Mazer Rackham for final training. He watches the last simulation knowing what it really is.

When Ender learns the truth and yells at him, Graff doesn't apologize.

In the control room, while the officers celebrate, Graff tries to tell Ender he's a hero. Ender won't hear it. Graff's line, that they won and that's all that matters, is exactly where the two of them part ways. For Ender, how you win matters too.

Card once considered making Graff a woman and suggested actresses like Janeane Garofalo and Rosie O'Donnell for the role, which went to Harrison Ford.