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The narrative of a brutal, dystopian future is a persistent theme in science-fiction cinema.
Mankind, for the most part, is portrayed as being utterly powerless to avert the inevitable post-apocalyptic nightmare that awaits us. The best SF films act as a metaphorical mirror of contemporary society, exposing and amplifying our darkest fears about modern culture, while at the same time keeping us entertained.
South African director Neill Blomkamp’s latest big-budget action thriller, “Elysium,” is one of those films. It explores critical sociological and political themes such as immigration, the environment, healthcare, overpopulation and massive inequality.
“Elysium” is only Blomkamp’s second major feature film. His directorial debut, 2009’s breakthrough “District 9,” was made for a paltry $30 million, but it went on to gross $211 million worldwide. “District 9” was critically acclaimed, and it earned four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
“Elysium” is a bigger, higher-profile production starring Matt Damon and Jody Foster, and while it is a more conventional film than “District 9,” it is still a very astute example of what makes SF such a powerful and effective movie genre — at least, when it’s done right.
Blomkamp arbitrarily chose the year 2154 as the setting for “Elysium,” but the tragic near-future he depicts is practically inevitable within the next hundred years, based on the current state of the world.
In the film, the elite 1 percent of society has abandoned Earth to live out their days in extreme luxury on a gigantic orbiting space station called — you guessed it — Elysium, while the rest of humanity is left to fend for itself in the toxic environment back on the surface. The lucky inhabitants on this colossal space paradise attend endless parties, speak French, wear designer suits, fly around in Bugatti spaceships and follow all of their utopian dreams — in perfect health.
Those still stuck on Earth suffer the ravages of an unsafe, polluted and overpopulated planet.
The moneyed classes who buy their way onto Elysium have access to all sorts of technological marvels that the poor suckers back on Earth can only dream about. One of these scientific wonders is the med-pod, which resembles a super-deluxe MRI: You simply lie down in it, punch your access code into the keypad, and with a couple of passes of the device you are healed of every possible ailment — from cuts and bruises to terminal cancer.
Elysium is plagued by increasingly desperate illegal immigrants from Earth trying to escape their wretched surroundings for a better life. They are routinely rounded up or simply blown out of the stratosphere with little regard for the loss of human life.
The irony is too blatant to ignore.
Meanwhile, back on earth, Damon’s character gets blasted with a lethal dose of radiation while working at a factory producing robotic surveillance drones for Armadyne, the company that handles security on Elysium. He’s given just five days to live by the staff of medical robots at the factory. The only way he can save himself is to get to one of the med-pods on the exclusive space colony.
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Max lives in Los Angeles: a city that has been reduced to a sprawling, open air barrio by 2154. In another case of depressing irony, the scenes of future Earth were shot on location inside an actual slum in Mexico City. The crew spent two weeks filming at one of the biggest garbage dumps in the world. Blomkamp’s vision in this regard is highly prophetic. Our planet is doomed to become a gigantic trash heap if we don’t take immediate action to save it.
The scenes depicting life on Elysium were shot in idyllic Vancouver, B.C., which also happens to be the filmmaker’s adopted home. Blomkamp admits he’s not very optimistic about the future of mankind. He is convinced that Earth could someday look a lot like his dystopian portrayal in “Elysium.” He recently told Wired: “The dice are going to be rolled, and either we’re going to end up coming out of this through technological innovation or we’re going to go down the road of a Malthusian catastrophe.”
Blomkamp is referring to the famous essay by Thomas Malthus, “The Principle of Population,” in which the 18th Century scholar mused about humanity’s enforced return to subsistence-level living conditions once agricultural production becomes outpaced by population growth. That road leads to extinction or, at the very least, to anarchy.
Still, Blomkamp insists that there is no “message” behind his movies. “Anybody who thinks they can change the world by making films is sorely mistaken,” he said. “Elysium” was created to appeal to the widest possible audience. Even though about halfway through it degenerates into just another violent, explosion-filled action thriller, the concept behind the film is pure genius.
Except for Jodie Foster. WTF?
