Elysium

Elysium Information

Elysium is an American science fiction action film written, co-produced and directed by Neill Blomkamp and starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster. It was released on , 2013 in both conventional and IMAX Digital theaters. Elysium is a co-production of Media Rights Capital and TriStar Pictures. It also represents TriStar's first big-budget offering since The Mask of Zorro in 1998.

The film takes place on both a ravaged Earth and a luxurious space habitat called Elysium. It explores political and sociological themes such as immigration, health care and class issues. When asked whether the film reveals how he sees Earth turning out in 140 years, director Blomkamp responded "No, no, no. This isn't science fiction. This is today. This is now."

Plot

In 2154, two classes of people exist: the wealthy, who live on an advanced space station called Elysium, built by the Armadyne Corporation; and the rest, who live on an overpopulated, ruined Earth. Secretary Jessica Delacourt (Jodie Foster), deciding to preserve the luxurious lifestyle of the citizens of Elysium at all costs, employs vicious South African mercenary Kruger (Sharlto Copley) to eliminate the illegal immigrants attempting to reach Elysium and use its advanced Med-Pods. President Patel (Faran Tahir) disagrees with her methods and threatens to dismiss her, in addition to firing Kruger. Delacourt then convinces Armadyne's CEO, John Carlyle (William Fichtner), to write a computer program that can override Elysium's controls and make her President in return for renewing Armadyne's defense contracts on Elysium for the next two hundred years. Carlyle agrees, and, after creating the program, stores it in his own mind for safekeeping until he leaves Earth for Elysium. Meanwhile, Max Da Costa (Matt Damon), an ex-con who lives in the ruins of Los Angeles and works in one of Armadyne's factories that manufacture robotic surveillance drones for Elysium, reconnects with an old friend, Frey (Alice Braga), who works as a nurse in a rundown hospital and has a daughter, Matilda, who is dying of leukemia.

After being exposed to lethal levels of radiation in an accident at the factory where he works and learning that he'll die in five days, Max is fired by Carlyle and seeks help from a smuggler, Spider (Wagner Moura), who agrees to help Max infiltrate Elysium and use a Med-Pod to cure himself if, in exchange, Max helps him steal corporate information from Carlyle's mind that Spider can profit from. Recognizing that Max is severely weakened by his radiation poisoning, Spider arranges for him to receive biomedical implants, including a rudimentary exoskeleton that increases his strength, and a transmitter to steal the information directly from Carlyle's mind and transfer the information to Spider. He then intercepts Carlyle's spaceship with help from his friend Julio (Diego Luna) and Spider's men, and steals the data from Carlyle's mind. Upon learning of the attack, Delacourt deploys Kruger and his men to rescue Carlyle, and, in the ensuing firefight, Carlyle is mortally wounded by a stray bullet while Julio sacrifices himself fighting Kruger so Max can escape, but Max is stabbed in the process. Max seeks Frey for help treating his wound, but when she asks him to help smuggle Matilda into Elysium so she can be cured, he refuses. Meanwhile, Delacourt launches a manhunt through Los Angeles and demands Max be captured alive. When Max returns to Spider to remove the information from his head and get his ticket to Elysium, they discover the Carlyle's program, and realize that it could be used to rewrite Elysium's systems and make the people of Earth citizens as well. Max refuses, and instead bargains with Kruger to be taken to Elysium in exchange for the reboot program (threatening suicide by a live grenade). Frey and Matilda are captured by Kruger's men and taken to Elysium as well. As they are landing, one of Kruger's men attacks Max in an attempt to disarm Max of the grenade, with the grenade ultimately detonating, crashing the airship and severely disfiguring Kruger.

They are surrendered to Delacourt, who prepares to extract the program from Max's mind, which, due to the security added by Carlyle, will kill him in the process. Kruger's men put their boss in the Med-Pod and he is revived, but chastised by Delacourt for letting the situation get out of hand. In response, an insane Kruger stabs Delacourt and leaves her to die with Frey and Matilda. Despite Frey's best efforts, Delacourt refuses her help and dies. Max escapes and rescues Frey and Matilda, sending them to the surface of Elysium to use a Med-Pod. Realizing that the Med-Pod won't work on Matilda, as she is not a citizen of Elysium, Max resolves to use Carlyle's program to make everyone on earth a citizen, and leaves to confront Kruger. He then meets with Spider, who arrives with his men to help him. Kruger receives a more advanced, military version of Max's exoskeleton, granting him superhuman strength and agility. He then madly rampages through Elysium's base of operations looking for Max while his men kill most of Elysium's leaders, intending to use the program in Max's head to make Kruger president of Elysium. As Max and Spider reach the main control hub, they are ambushed by Kruger, who stabs Spider's hand and attempts to kill Max by disabling his suit. However, Max rips Kruger's link to his exoskeleton out of his head and disables his exoskeleton, and uses this advantage to kill Kruger with his own explosive. Spider and Max make their way to the Elysium's main computer, where Max radios Frey to say goodbye. Max activates the program he stole from Carlyle, knowing that the process will kill him. As Max dies, everyone becomes a citizen of Elysium, and Matilda is cured. As everyone on Earth is now a citizen of Elysium, Med-Pods are flown out to Earth to cure the sick and injured.

Cast

Matt Damon as Max Da Costa
Jodie Foster as Secretary of Defense Delacourt
Sharlto Copley as Agent C.M. Kruger
Alice Braga as Frey Santiago
Diego Luna as Julio
Wagner Moura as Spider
William Fichtner as John Carlyle
Brandon Auret as Drake
Josh Blacker as Crowe
Emma Tremblay as Matilda Santiago
Jose Pablo Cantillo as Sandro
Maxwell Perry Cotton as Young Max Da Costa
Faran Tahir as President Patel
Adrian Holmes as Manuel
Jared Keeso as Rico
Carly Pope as CCB Agent
Ona Grauer as CCB Agent

Production

Elysium was written and directed by Neill Blomkamp, the director and co-writer of District 9 (2009). It re-unites Blomkamp with some of his District 9 crew, such as editor Julian Clarke, production designer Philip Ivey, cinematographer Trent Opaloch, and actor Sharlto Copley playing one of the film's villains.

In January 2011, independent studio Media Rights Capital met with major studios to present Elysium, and Blomkamp shared art designs of his proposed science fiction film. The art designs won over the executives at Sony Pictures, who bought the film after making a more attractive offer than the other studios.

With a production budget of , production began in July 2011. The film's Earth-bound scenes were shot in a dump in the poor Iztapalapa district on the outskirts of Mexico City, while the scenes for Elysium were shot in Vancouver and the wealthy Huixquilucan-Interlomas suburbs of Mexico City. Matt Damon shaved his head for the role of Max, and also worked out four hours a day with personal trainer Dr. Sae-ung. The main role was offered to rapper Eminem, but he wanted the film to be shot in Detroit. That was not an option for the two studios, so Blomkamp moved on to Damon as his next choice.

The futuristic designs were executed by Philip Ivey after long periods of researching and studying older science fiction films. Ivey has continuously cited Syd Mead as a substantial influence for the film. Complicated visual effects were handled by Industrial Light and Magic and Image Engine, the latter of which collaborated on District 9. Re-shoots took place through October 2012.

The film's "organic" music score was composed by newcomer Ryan Amon and recorded at Abbey Road Studios with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Release

When the film was first announced, Sony Pictures intended to release it in late 2012. It later set an official release date for , 2013, before moving one week earlier to prevent competing against Oz the Great and Powerful. In October 2012, Sony then announced they had pushed back the release date to 2013.

In April 2013, Sony also announced that the film would be specifically reformatted for IMAX theaters. By that time, two theatrical trailers and a TV spot had already been showcased.

Reception

The film has received generally positive reviews, although critics compared it less favorably to Blomkamp's previous work. Elysium has a 65% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes (based on 162 reviews), with the consensus being, "After the heady sci-fi thrills of District 9, Elysium is a bit of a comedown for director Neill Blomkamp, but on its own terms, it delivers just often enough to satisfy." and a Metacritic score of 60 (based on 45 reviews).

Themes

Although set in 2154, Elysium's director argues that it is a comment on the contemporary human condition. Although it is not immediately apparent what Neill Blomkamp meant by this statement, critics have suggested that there is an overt analogy between the rights conferred to citizens of Elysium and rights enjoyed by citizens of different nations today. Additionally, the rationing of Med-Pods -- or medical care -- in Elysium has been seen to comment on rationing and corporate restriction of the distribution of health care.