"District 9" Speculative Discussion Thread

As many have probably guessed by way of the incredible looking "District 9" site wrapper, Sony Pictures is sponsoring the AboveTopSecret.com Aliens and UFOs forum for the next two weeks.

Part of the sponsorship agreement includes creating a few discussion threads that speculate about how the events in District 9 might play out in the "real world" of 2009.

In other words, Sony Pictures wants to know what the Membership (YOU) of ATS thinks and they will be monitoring these threads for possible ideas for the sequel. Please be sure you get your views included soon because we will be moving these threads to the BTS Movies section once the sponsorship period ends.

I want to start out with some speculation of my own...

One of the most interesting aspects of the movie to me was also the most disheartening. Here we had a ship full of intelligent beings, obviously in trouble and in need of help. What does man do? What man always does...

We start out with noble intentions (to help the aliens survive) and slip into our fear based conquer and CONTROL mode. I wonder if these events were to happen tomorrow, just as they did in the movie, would the power of the internet provide the stranded aliens with a better future than they received in the movie?

With sites like ATS, programs like C2C (Coast to Coast AM) and the various television shows that have taken at least a "semi-serious" look at the phenom of UFOs, attracting millions of people who are interested, I wonder if we would have tolerated the imprisonment of the aliens in the slum that is District 9?

The direct reflections of Apartheid in this movie are a very sober reminder that we are capable of treating our OWN species horridly, but as the internet connects us to each other I like to think it opens our eyes and our hearts to the fact we are all intelligent beings who deserve to be treated fairly and justly.

In the movie we see that the aliens are very capable engineers and technicians (sort of goes without saying considering they crossed the galaxy to get here, or did they?) who can create weapons of incredible power that only they can operate.


Interestingly, after 20 years of being pent up in the District 9 slum they have proven themselves to be not much of a threat with regard to taking over the planet and killing us all. This in spite of the shabby and cruel treatment they receive by the "MNU".

This raises lots of questions in my mind...

Is it possible that these aliens were cargo?

Was the ship that stopped over Johannesburg, South Africa an intergalactic slave ship? Is it possible the aliens overtook their captors in a battle on the ship and were just as afraid of us as they were their, now dead, masters?

The resemblance of the alien ship, when it's finally opened up by humanity, to the conditions of the Cuban slave ship "Amistad" in 1839 are pretty apparent, at least to me.

I wonder if the aliens were fighting for control of the ship against their masters is what caused it to enter our atmosphere and just stop? I wonder if once they had control the alien slaves were incapable of running the ship? I wonder if it took them 20 years here on Earth, in District 9, to learn their species technology so they could finally escape?

If this is a possibility, what does that mean for us now that our planet has been discovered by an intergalactic slave ship?

I would think it means we better make REAL NICE with these beings. We better hope that when the "one who got away" comes back in three years he finds a whole new attitude in humanity.

Springer...

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Buy District 9 on DVD now

The one thing bothered me about that movie is the amount of blind hate and discrimination towards the 'visitors' I don't think it would happen in real life. One could argue this happened due to the ship was just hovering over Johannesburg, South Africa. We treat them like complete **** for no apparent reason, even if they don't have a sense of ownership of things that are not theirs. Wouldn't other nations get involved with the overall scenario and make sure the creatures are treated fairly? Those civil right people didn't do anything.

We are meant to speculate that these are the slaves and/or workers of the species and have no sense of direction or leadership. So maybe that's why we treat them the way we do because they are are already used to it.

But good topic. The movie leaves a lot of "What ifs?" flying around because we really know nothing about the aliens. We don't know where they're from or even their real names.

[edit on 17-12-2009 by Dargar]

[edit on 17-12-2009 by Dargar]

I have not seen it yet, ...waiting on the DVD release...

Has anyone else noticed/looked/asked this...am I the only one that sees a little similarity to the CARRET drone with the pic from D9 at the top of this thread?

reply to post by Dargar


I disagree, if a buncha creatures that looked like prawns suddenly showed up clicking and eating catfood like savages we would treat them like the bottom feeders that they are.

D9 was a great take on an alien movie, and probably pretty realistic. Actually it was more of a social commentary then an alien movie. This is probably how it would play out. We would want as much control over these things as possible and for good reason too.

I mean, what do you do with millions of aliens that just show up? They'd have to go into a refugee camp.

I think that the illusion of caring was more important to the officials than actually carrying it out. As long as it appears that we are helping, the other countries would fall in line. It seems evident today in the real world that we act like we care, but if it becomes too expensive or labor intensive, we back off.

I believe that the aliens were treated in this way because of this and the action of moving them from the district was just to satisfy the locals who feared them. The rebellion was just amplified more so when the the humans imposed more regulations on the aliens to the point of needing permission to reproduce. This could be seen as a containment policy to the humans, but to the aliens it was one of many last straws.

If/when the lone escapee returns, I hope he does with sufficient fire power so to insure that they will be fairly heard and the refugees will no longer be considered prisoners.

Human fear will always rule over humanity. We never learn from our mistakes and will continue to be of a hostile nature right up to the end. If they did return, it is my hope that they take their people and sever all ties with our planet. I suspect that this would not make for a good sequel unless the battle was on the scale of Independence Day.

Originally posted by liquidsmoke206
I mean, what do you do with millions of aliens that just show up? They'd have to go into a refugee camp.

You have to be more hospitable and creative.

Put them into all those empty condos in Florida. Give them vouchers for buffet restaurants. Start a dating service. Make them a tourist attraction. Charge admission.

reply to post by liquidsmoke206


Hey. Nice Hasselbeck Jersey

Perhaps at first you are right.

But after 20+ years of slums and disheartening treatment, you would think people would eventually need to have a more positive influence on them. If Humans were going to put them into concentration camps (District 9) the absolute worst thing they could of done was allow human crime lords be apart of the community. And that's what happened. Crime Lords such as Obesandjo would of never been tolerated IMO. He should of never been allowed to live amongst the creatures and attract the attention that he did. They should of been separated.

[edit on 17-12-2009 by Dargar]

I think its a disgrace to treat any human or creature with the nature of the movie that way but hey thats Hollywood. In real life it would be horrible to stand by and let something like that happen if they were non-threatening and brought technological advances like they did. In other words i would join their side to fight

Plus all the Illuminati propaganda the movie puts out is sicks the symbols and all. The militarys patches the symbols on all vehicles and so on its everywhere in the movie!





[edit on 17-12-2009 by OpTiMuS_PrImE]

Great post, S&F, certainly something I'm buying when it's released on Blu-Ray in the UK. Very much enjoyed the film. Among the best film science fiction for years, and social comment. I saw it at the cinema but I'm very interested in the extras.

I agree with most of your points. For me the highlight of the film was the Wikus character, who was a good fictional example of how a dim, petty bureaucrat, elevated to a position of power could perpetuate great evils without being fully aware of the consequences. The scene where he's pulling the plug on the alien embryos is horrific but from Wikus' exceedingly dim view of the world rules is rules.

I'd hope we wouldn't tolerate that behaviour towards extraterrestrial visitors but if we offered them full equality with humans I think it's likely, because we often tolerate such behaviour here on Earth.

I thought something that was very lightly hinted at in the film was that the lack of ability to operate alien weaponry was one of the reasons MNU were keen on keeping the 'prawns' subjigated - do as we say, act like us, or be an unwanted outsider.

Edit: changed dimly to lightly, different and correct nuance. Edit 2: Corrected Wikus' spelling, it was wrong (not Wickers).


[edit on 17-12-2009 by jackphotohobby]

Ultimately once the military overcame the huge biological hurdle with the alien weapons, they would most likely shuttle most of them away to secure bunkers around the globe to be dissected further to insure total control.
The remaining refugees would most likely be subjected to biological weapons testing to find weaknesses to exploit in the event of an attack.

I honestly cannot foresee a peaceful harmony ever being reached.
In a paraphrase from V (which must also be a historical quote from somewhere), 'when two cultures first meet the stronger will always dominate the weaker'.

reply to post by mmiichael

You have to be more hospitable and creative.

Put them into all those empty condos in Florida. Give them vouchers for buffet restaurants. Start a dating service. Make them a tourist attraction. Charge admission.

realistically, no that wouldn't work. We can't even manage many of our human refugees on this planet. What could you do with a bunch of aliens..you don't know if they are hostile, or carrying disease etc etc. Putting them in a camp was probably the best case scenario. I'm surprised we didn't just slaughter a bunch of them. I know I wouldn't want those prawns living in my neighborhood.

I don't have any better solution for them than what was covered in the movie, because given the situation, i think that may be the only option apart from just killing them all, which is probably still on the table. Their numbers were steadily increasing in the movie, would you like to jump about 100 years into the future and find that there are no more humans and prawns have taken over the world? I sure as hell wouldn't.

i think they should have all been wiped out except for a few scietist who we take into area 51 or wherever and make them give us their technology.


never trust anything that eats cat food.

reply to post by shadow watcher


Absolutely brilliant observation Shadow... I couldn't agree more.

That's why I wonder if, in the connected (internet) world, the reality of the conditions would surely leak out as they have in other "dirty deals" (Abu Ghraib Prison to name only one) the past few years.

How would we as a society of people who are slowly starting to wake up, deal with that? The mere fact these beings can communicate with us should be enough to learn from them and teach them.

I have to think that there would be a huge cry, from sites like this at first most likely, for justice for these beings after TWENTY YEARS. At the very least, get the military OUT of the business of controlling them.

I sincerely hope that the sequel dives into the possibility that Humanity is the next great product for the galactic slave trade and these beings, we treated so shabbily, will be our only hope.

It will be interesting to watch how that could play out to say the least...

Springer...

reply to post by Dargar

Hey. Nice Hasselbeck Jersey

thanks, rough year though.

But after 20+ years of slums and disheartening treatment, you would think people would eventually need to have a more positive influence on them. If Humans were going to put them into concentration camps (District 9) the absolute worst thing they could of done was allow human crime lords be apart of the community. And that's what happened. Crime Lords such as Obesandjo would of never been tolerated IMO. He should of never been allowed to live amongst the creatures and attract the attention that he did. They should of been separated.

I don't know that 20 years is that long of a time frame. I think it would take a lot linger than 20 years to have a positive influence on a species that is completely foreign in every way to us. As far as criminals getting into D9, well they work their way into places they shouldn't be....thats what crime lords do. He shouldn't have been allowed in there it's true, but I don't see it as an impossibility if ever such scenario came to pass.

Originally posted by Springer
As many have probably guessed by way of the incredible looking "District 9" site wrapper, Sony Pictures is sponsoring the AboveTopSecret.com Aliens and UFOs forum for the next two weeks.

That is what they want you to think, it is really a documentary, it really happened! That is why if you notice the camera work it is done with a handheld camera. Someone made it, and snuck it out, so TPTB released it as a "film" to cover it all up.

District 9 was a masterpiece due to the simple fact that you could have put Palestinian or African Refugees and there would have been no diffirence in the movie plot, except for the spaceship... and even then the one crawdad that got away with his son as least had a chance of a better life then those in camps around the world right now

Fox

reply to post by Springer


Just out of curiosity, is there plans already for a 2nd film?

Originally posted by Springer
I wonder if these events were to happen tomorrow, just as they did in the movie, would the power of the internet provide the stranded aliens with a better future than they received in the movie?

If I recall, the movie is set in 2009 so the aliens would have arrived in 1982. There would have been no internet to help them. But even if there was, I don't think it would have helped much. There are plenty of oppressed people across the globe who have not had their lot improved by the advent of the internet. It may alert some to their plight but it seems to do little to help. It may just help enforce the status quo. Look at what happens on ATS every time an oppressive government doesn't something oppressive. We are flooded with apologists for even the worst crimes by the worst governments. In the world of District 9, there would be a lot of apologists for South Africa/MNU.

Originally posted by Springer
I wonder if we would have tolerated the imprisonment of the aliens in the slum that is District 9?

Yes, we would have. The fact they are not human would be enough to treat them inhumanely. We already do that to our own species. How long have we tolerated the situation in Darfur. Sure, we protest it, shake our fists in righteous indignation but nothing is ever done to correct the situation.

And Darfur can provide a real-world example of why the world would allow the Prawns to be inhumanely treated in District 9. Sudan sits atop huge oil reserves, a resource the world needs and which China is getting access to. So we don't get as anger as we could or should; and when things do start moving beyond strong words and righteous indignation, Khartorum has China there to protect them.

It is not too hard to imagine a similar situation arising in the world of District 9. South Africa would be the sole gatekeeper of the Prawn technology, something ever country would desire. We might get angry at South Africa and MNU's treatment of the Prawns but no country would ever get too angry, least they be left out in the cold when the secrets of the technology is finally unlocked.

I think in a world such as District 9, South Africa would have become a super-power or at least weild considerably more power than it does now. It would barter promises of access to the Prawn technology to put itself in a very desirable position on the world stage. Considering this, I wonder how many other times there have been escape attempts and South Africa/MNU has stopped it. It may not have taken 20 years to leave, if it not been for South Africa/MNU.

Of course, all of that might change once the Prawn ship left Earth. The plight of the Prawns still trapped here might worsen. There would be no reason for MNU or South Africa to given them even the modicum of humane treatment they were afforded. They have no more use for them. At the same time, once South Africa has been robbed of the one thing it could blackmail the world with, the other countries of the world may no longer turn a blind-eye to the abuse of the Prawns.

Originally posted by Springer
In the movie we see that the aliens are very capable engineers and technicians (sort of goes without saying considering they crossed the galaxy to get here, or did they?) who can create weapons of incredible power that only they can operate.

Some of them are. I think they mention in the movie that the majority of them are simple workers and they need a strong leader. Christopher would be one such leader. A queen among drones, as it were.

Of course, that could be attributed to racism and nothing else. The average prawn may be no less intelligent than the average human. And I think that's the case. Far too often in the real world we have attributed similar stereotypes on oppressed peoples or minorities.

Originally posted by Springer
Interestingly, after 20 years of being pent up in the District 9 slum they have proven themselves to be not much of a threat with regard to taking over the planet and killing us all. This in spite of the shabby and cruel treatment they receive by the "MNU".

I am sure every crime committed by the Prawns would be spun by South Africa and the MNU as proof of how much of a threat they are. The Prawns may not be much of a threat, but world perception might be much different.

We would rationalize it away their cruel, inhumane treatment, telling ourselves it would be worse if we had just left them on their ship. We would justify it, pointing to examples of our charity towards them.

Originally posted by Springer
Is it possible that these aliens were cargo?

Was the ship that stopped over Johannesburg, South Africa an intergalactic slave ship? Is it possible the aliens overtook their captors in a battle on the ship and were just as afraid of us as they were their, now dead, masters?

I wonder if once they had control the alien slaves were incapable of running the ship? I wonder if it took them 20 years here on Earth, in District 9, to learn their species technology so they could finally escape?

I don't see it that way at all. Rather, I think any of us would find ourselves in a similar situation if we found ourselves trapped on the space shuttle. Sure, humanity can build such wonderous machines but the majority of us have no idea how to operate them.

I think the ship just broke down. In context of the film, that makes sense. There is nothing about these aliens that meets our expectations. They did not usher in a new era of scientific understanding. They were not angels-by-way-of-aliens here to save us from ourselves. They are as falliable as any human. And just like humans, everything they make is ultimately flawed and will eventually break.

Originally posted by Springer
If this is a possibility, what does that mean for us now that our planet has been discovered by an intergalactic slave ship?

I would think it means we better make REAL NICE with these beings. We better hope that when the "one who got away" comes back in three years he finds a whole new attitude in humanity.

Though I don't think they were slaves (and really neither of us have any way of knowing for certain) I got the sense they were refugees or refuse. They could have been set adrift by the powers-that-be for any number of reasons. It could be that when Christopher reaches his homeworld, he is met with yawns over the plight of the Earthbound prawns.

Well its tough to speculate what would happen afterwards (if based on reality) because the movie assumes humans are in control of planet Earth and call all the shots. I think there is more than enough evidence to show that humans are not in control of this planet and worse have been manipulated to serve a side which means we will always be at war until we are free of whatever force (reptilians, greys, insectoids, sirians or whoever) is holding us down. Until we wake up and take a stand to find out what is going on in our own planet the truth will never be revealed.

I think the ship was not overtaken by a cargo of slaves and its crew slaughtered because had there been another race of aliens on board then the humans would have found them. For this post I will refer to the aliens as insectoids and not prawns because for one thing prawns are eaten by humans and for another thing and within the context of the film the label of prawn was racially derogatory and so I find it distasteful to call them prawns.

I think that had there been slavers on board there would have been something to set them aside from the theorised slaves, like clothing – Or traumatic wounds from extreme violence.

I still shudder at the scene near the end when the mercenary leader was dismembered within seconds like fried chicken. There could be an argument that the slavers were ejected from the ship before it entered the Earth’s atmosphere but why would they do that and would they really have felt so motivated to expend their energies thus when their plight seemed to dire?

For the three months that the ship sat there, suspended over the city the crew or colonists seemed disorientated to me not because they were brainless fodder for the mines or other forms of physical labour but because they had suffered a traumatic awakening from some form of cryogenic suspension.

This seems plausible as to why they just festered inside their giant ship and why when they were abused down on the surface by the humans they did not use their fantastic weaponry to burn the city to the ground. They did not do this because I think they were civilian colonists and the security or military members of their crew and their watchers during their cryogenic suspension were killed either by infection or some other ship board catastrophe.

The film never elucidated to the nature of the emergency but my theory seems to stand up on its own.

What I imaged from the opening of the decks to the humans coming on board was a scene of aliens who had suffered greatly from a catastrophe that had taken place outside the atmosphere of earth.
I come to this conclusion because at the end of the film the Alien that Wickus saved said that he would return in three years. He also told Wickus that he would not leave his people behind to be the genetic and biological experiments of humanity.

I sensed a threat and a deserved one too.

From those words I was also left with the impression that the “Insectoids” were in control of their own fate and destiny to the extent that if needed, one of them could get home with the intention of bringing help, and all that was needed was to get back on board their ship to set the autopilot.

I think the reasons it had not been set sometime within the first three months that the ship had hung there was because of disorientation among the crew.

Therefore my opinion is that the ship was not a slave ship but was a colony ship, like the Mayflower, setting off into the stars to find a new place to settle. This is just my own opinion because the reasons for the alien’s appearance over Johannesburg were never explained.
Slaves would not need portable weapons of mass destruction and slaves would certainly not have weapons so intrinsically linked to their DNA to enable activation.

A slave thus armed is not a slave but a loaded gun.

If this event had taken place for real and the authorities had treated these people in this way no matter how they looked then I do not think that in reality the people out there would have been content to sit in their homes and just get on with their lives. I for one would have booked myself a flight to South Africa even if it was just to set eyes upon an extraterrestrial and to touch one.

Of course I would have been with ten million other people who would not have been willing to have been represented in such brutal terms by a brutal and uncaring bunch of self servers that assessed the visitors as a threat and a pest to be killed like cockroaches (pardon pun).

In this film the finest and most important moment in human history had not only been squandered but it had been sold out for the goal of exotic weaponry – a means to and that would enable a new arms race that would give the winner total domination of the world.

I think that when the three years is up the sky will be filled with a military strike force and I think they will be looking for answers as to why their people having crashed and looking for help were instead interned into a concentration camp, killed and experimented upon and had all rights that a sentient species should be entitled to, stamped into the dirt. The answers had better be concise and honest because if war stated it would be very quick, one sided and end in a global genocide.

My opinion is that the insecotoids would not be unjustified because everyone that could have rained in the greedy sat back and played the apathetic and so deserve the reward that all drones deserve.

I really enjoyed the film by the way and I even went and bought the film score too. Beautiful and paints a picture in the head