District 9 (2009)
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A man's life is irrevocably altered after a botched attempt to relocate a community of stranded extraterrestrials.
The story
In an alternate 1982, an alien spaceship appears over Johannesburg, South Africa. Upon discovering a population of diseased and malnourished insectile and crustaceous aliens on the ship, the South African government confines the asylum seekers to an internment camp called District 9. Twenty-eight years later, the area has become a ghetto where humans view the aliens, derogatorily called "prawns," as filthy, violent animals. Following unrest between the two groups, the government hires the Multinational United (MNU) to forcibly relocate the extraterrestrials to a labor camp. The story follows the consequences of this relocation and the unexpected physical transformation of a human official who comes into contact with the alien technology.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In 1982, an extraterrestrial mothership lands in Johannesburg, South Africa, housing over a million starved insectoid aliens. The government confines them to District 9, which becomes a slum over the next 28 years. When the government hires the Multinational United (MNU) to forcibly relocate the 'prawns' to a labor camp, a bureaucrat named Wikus van de Merwe is tasked with leading the operation. During the process, Wikus is exposed to alien fuel and begins mutating into a prawn. He escapes an MNU lab where he is being experimented upon and seeks refuge in District 9. There, he meets Christopher, an alien who is trying to gather enough fuel to reactivate a dropship and rescue his people. The two form an uneasy alliance to steal weapons and fuel from the MNU. During a final confrontation involving a mecha suit and a Nigerian crime lord, Wikus stays behind to fight off mercenaries so Christopher and his son can escape in the dropship. The film ends with the aliens' plight exposed to the public, the men moved to District 10, and a transformed Wikus living in a wrecking yard, still alive.
- First release year
- 2009
- Runtime (minutes)
- 112
- Production countries
- New Zealand; United States; South Africa
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Neill Blomkamp
- Writers
- Neill Blomkamp · writer; Terri Tatchell · writer
- Cast and characters
- Sharlto Copley; Jason Cope; David James; Vanessa Haywood; Mandla Gaduka; Kenneth Nkosi; Eugene Khumbanyiwa; Louis Minnaar; William Allen Young
- Genres
- science fiction; action
- Themes
- humanity; racism; xenophobia; social segregation; medical torture; speciesism
- Tone and mood
- raw; dark
- Premise and plot tags
- mockumentary; alien visitation; apartheid-inspired
- Reception
- The film received positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success, earning $211 million on a budget of $30 million.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 90% · scale: percentage · review count: 314; Metacritic · score: 81 · scale: 100 · review count: 36
- Awards and nominations
- British Academy Film Awards · Best Cinematography · nomination; British Academy Film Awards · Best Screenplay – Adapted · nomination; British Academy Film Awards · Best Editing · nomination; British Academy Film Awards · Best Production Design · nomination; British Academy Film Awards · Best Sound · nomination; British Academy Film Awards · Best Special Visual Effects · nomination; British Academy Film Awards · Best Director · nomination; Broadcast Film Critics Association · Best Makeup · win; Golden Globe · Best Screenplay – Motion Picture · nomination
- Production trivia
- The film used props and items originally made for the Halo video game franchise.; The idea of aliens eating cat food was inspired by a crew member who used cat sound as bait for shrimp.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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