"District 9" Speculative Discussion Thread

I found it odd...

and saw an analogy to LA being in FEMA's District 9.
and the gangs living in the alien ghetto, all problem to get rid of?
move them to camps when they get out of hand...
ill movie...

how to save the cockroaches?
have a nuclear war, of course they survive...
the anglican overlords with their weak constitutions
because they spend tooo much time in their minds
and not in their hearts and their 4th reich medical propaganda
may all have to become cockroach
hybrids to survive... no wait that is what has happened to
american culture and middle class ha ha its a dump
and the upper echelon is the equal opposite
ah wait the world is following us like the pissed piper

so bring in a holographic robotic angelic alien to clean house?
nothing like em gene therapy versus em weaponry and mind control
and i want to copy right these ideas right here and now and if they are used
i want a contractual consulting fee in box office percentages ha ha
and i live in a state where there are parole contracts ha ha

heck this reminds me of the robotics programs in the schools where they are mining
great new ideas for 'cough cough' technology and the kids never get a cut from haliburton ha ha




[edit on 17-12-2009 by DChenO]

Originally posted by Springer
reply to post by MajesticJax

 

Actually, the aliens were developing that stuff for fuel, not for a bioweapon. I believe the effect on humans was an unintended (?) side effect of exposure.

Springer...

Now I remember. Saw the movie the day it came out so it's been a while.

Thanks for the reminder.

reply to post by MajesticJax


No worries...

You'll notice I did put a "(?)" next to my statement. It's an interetsing possibility that it's not only a fuel but a "slave creator" as well, if you buy my "slave theory", that I hadn't considered...

Springer...

OK here is my take on the movie and my idea of a sequel.

First of all I would like to say I absolutely loved the movie!!!

But if you noticed the Prawns acted very much like the human race in general. You had Pawns addicted to cat food, much like people are addicted to drugs. You had Prawns thrown into situations of interment, much like many people on Earth have. And most of all you had a huge diversity of intelligence, just like the Human race.

The Green Prawn with the little kid Prawn was very intelligent and worked over the 20 years to get enough fuel to get the Hell off Earth while much of the rest of the Prawns were living in squander and had no knowledge or aspirations of anything else. I think this was symbolic of what is actually happening on Earth with us humans. We as humans have technology we really have no idea how we got and we would trade it for our version of cat food too. We also have many people working behind the scene with tech we we could only wish to understand. All this is being done in secret much like the Green, Yellow and little kid prawn were doing.

Also the movie shows that it is quite possible that the Prawns are only Prawns due to their technology do to the fact that the Human was turned into a Pawn himself.

So as a sequel I think it would be cool if we some how found out that the actual refugees on Earth were not only the Prawns but also the entire human population on Earth. The Ship was actually a distressed ship that had to stop of on the nearest prison plaint do to some error of some kind.

But the twist and the end of the movie should be that the Refugees are not the Prawns but rather WE the humans are the Refugees dropped off on this quarantined planet long ago and did not turn into pawns do to the lack of exposure to the now Prawn technology. Pawns we once Humans and still are at heart But Us humans are the ones stuck in internment.

Also at the end of the movie they said the population of prawns was growing. This could also be because many humans are turning into Prawns due to the exposure of Technology!!

Izzy.

[edit on 17-12-2009 by Izarith]

Originally posted by Springer
reply to post by MajesticJax

 

No worries...

You'll notice I did put a "(?)" next to my statement. It's an interetsing possibility that it's not only a fuel but a "slave creator" as well, if you buy my "slave theory", that I hadn't considered...

Springer...

Think its possible that every one of the 'prawns' on the ship were originally human? Abducted over the years transformed aboard the ship?

Yes, there is the hole in that theory that some of the prawns know of and have seen their 'homeworld', but perhaps memory modification is part of the process also.

I have no idea what purpose such a scheme would have... but its more food for thought.

reply to post by Springer


Not a biological weapon? You would say that though, wouldn't you. I'm on to you, prawn:





[edit on 17-12-2009 by rexusdiablos]

They actually have some pretty decent ideas for the sequel already, i can't find the link to the interview though.
I believe it may go into greater detail about the aliens home planet, etc.

The sequel should certainly continue where the first one left off.
Perhaps a few years in the future.

We will see whether they return for the man,
and whether they come back in peace or at war with us.
We have seen they demonstrate a strong sense of loss and understand injustice as demonstrated in the scene whereby the new 'leader' alien discovers what is being done to his kind in the lab.

This new leader alien is perhaps a natural evolution of the hive, as their previous leader has presumably died.

Another thought of the directors was that the aliens had picked up some kind of disease from one of their other offworld missions and could no longer function properly.

We will see in the sequel what happens when they do function properly,
and what their advanced weaponry was actually being used for.

These aliens are not advanced spiritual beings, and are fully capable of devolving into gangs, and are capable of violence.

I think we did not see the full extent of what they are capable of, which would rely mostly on a capable leader to direct them.
An example of this direction is seen towards the end of the movie whereby they attack the soldier as a group, at the command of the new semi leader.

This had never happened before despite all previous injustice done to them. The difference now was that they have a leader.

I believe the sequel will heavily feature a more organised alien hive, with a leader which may or may not be out for revenge.

I personally would like to see the crimes committed against the "Prawns" by the MNU come into full view of the public and by the rest of humanity.

In my opinion, the only way to avert a war with the aliens, if they do ever decide to return to Earth and rescue their brethren, is to prosecute the criminals who decided to perform these horrific experiments on their helpless victims.

They are an intelligent and sentient species with sophisticated technology, who were murdered en masse by a corporate select few of individuals within the human race, in their insane lust for power and wealth.

The human race must demonstrate that this type of behavior is not tolerated, and is not indicative of the will of the rest of humanity as a whole.

The Nuremberg trials marked the first time in human history that a country's top officials were tried before an international court and held personally accountable for their crimes against humanity.

I would like to see something similar done here in this context. Crimes committed against an sentient alien race. Again, this would be precedent setting for the humanity.

Obviously, a lot of questions about alien-rights would have to be answered. Do "Prawns" have the same rights as human beings under our laws? A whole new set of laws outlining the rights that these individuals have would have to be drafted, and serious discussion would have to take place involving every nation on earth.

If so, the perpetrators of these crimes against the "Prawn" or insectoid people would have to be prosecuted. Possibly, in the same context that the leaders of the Nazi party were prosecuted. Under the umbrella that the whole MNU organization is a criminal conspiracy.

As you can probably tell...lol I was quite disturbed seeing the secret laboratories and experiments that the MNU were conducting against these helpless alien refugees. I feel that this topic of government and corporate responsibility should be addressed in the sequel, as it mirrors our own struggle with this same issue.

Thats my 2 cents.

Have not seen the movie, guess I am lame,but from reading the posts it sounds a whole lot like the movie and tv series alien nation. Hope I did not get my movies mixed up Hey is this on the internet yet? Oh do they get drunk on curdled milk?

[edit on 12/17/2009 by dirtydog]

Well, as has been stated previously, the entire movie is a metaphor for what happens when any culture clashes with another. There's fear, anger, rejection, etc. The preview's for District 9 did a great job of "fooling" the viewer into thinking it was something about "Blacks moving in to a neighborhood."

I saw previews for the movie awhile ago, and I thought it looked brilliant.

Those of you who know me and this "subject matter", can testify to how much that is saying. It will be be available on blue ray Dec 5 or 7th I recall hearing on the television.


None the less, in my opinion this movie is possably the best ET based propaganda yet. Well, exept for he original of course, but that is a given.

I sincerely hope any sequel to District 9 will be just as GRITTY as its predecessor.
The reason I LOVED this film so much was because of its fairly low budget and total grittiness.

District 9 worked because it acted as a mirror to every single human being alive today. Sitting in that movie theater for 2 hours was like sitting in front of a mirror held in front of humanity... It brought everything into view from our terrible racism which only stems from some primitive human instinct to FEAR and HATE anything and anyone that is different on the outside.

The idea that perhaps the "Prawns" in District 9 were actually cargo, perhaps slaves or even a food source for some other, EXTREMELY powerful alien civilization is very interesting. Perhaps there was an uprising and those very few "prawns" that were smarter than the rest (aka Christoper) could have led the uprising on board this "cargo ship".

Perhaps the ship we see hovering above Johannesburg is simply a escape boat that had broken off from a much larger vessel in outer-space, or is infact the cargo ship itself.

I think a really effective sequel to this fantastic film could go in the direction of "the tables have turned" on humanity. With the higher, much more advanced civilization coming to earth and start to enslave us as they enslave the "prawns".

Or simply that Christopher returns with the rest of his species to collect those stranded on earth, and should the rest of the "prawns" return, humanity should be made to feel ashamed of themselves somehow (I really can't imagine how).

I will admit if a sequel was about the rest of them returning to collect the stranded and take out some kind of enslavement or retaliation on humanity, after watching what we did to them in District 9 I would gladly watch our own species get put in our place and have our asses handed to us... I would enjoy that very much.

[edit on 17-12-2009 by Nomad451]

Originally posted by Nventual
So.. the producers of D9 paid ATS not only to display a huge banner at the top of every page but to create discussions about the film so that there are threads about it too? Incredible.

SO. WHAT.

I, for one, am glad our little community has grown and is now recognized as the best source of feedback for topics such as these.

Do not discount this honor we've been given.

P.S.- After re-re-re-reading your post, I'm a little hazy on your implication. If you're NOT being sarcastic, I apologize; if you are, my reply stands.

[edit on 17/12/09 by MajesticJax]

[edit on 17/12/09 by MajesticJax]

[edit on 17/12/09 by MajesticJax]

reply to post by liquidsmoke206


I will preface this with I havent seen the flick.

I have to go with smoke on this one from the info at hand.

You have an outside force coming into your area. Unknown biological threats as well as possible military.

Then we have the "over breeding" issue.

History bears out that the "host" society has problems at the doorstep.
Be ready to deal with it quickly. Its a bloody shame its got to be this way but be ready for peace and prepare for war.

Peace isnt always what its presented as.

haven't you guys noticed something fishy about district 9.. Have any of you noticed anything? i mean it comes out in 2009 and says it will come back in 2012 (3 years later) the dvd comes out on december 22, 3 years later of december 22nd is 1 day ahead of the 12,21,2012 thing everyone goes on about. Its also about aliens, 2012 prophecy by the hopi and by the web bot predictions both predicted an astrological event, an outside force coming into earth. Most people interpret this as an astroid, but what if it meant aliens?? mabye district 9 is trying to say something

Though I greatly enjoyed the film I was a bit disappointed it was more about blowing things up than it was about dealing with how we as humans make decisions. While I had no illusions the movie was going to be anything like Star Trek (ignoring the most recent romp) I did hope that it would be slightly more skewed in the direction towards a dramatization than an action flick.

I say this of course with the caveat that the moral issues were displayed in a horribly accurate and believable way ("like popcorn! pop-pop-pop!"). Now that the stage is set I'd prefer to watch the sequel from the alien perspective. Though in saying this I get a bit worried that it'll be misinterpreted that the movie should take on the qualities of "Independence Day" crossbred with "Alien." It would be imminently more enjoyable if we see a race of creatures subjugating humans, but acting only to pacify not for the purpose of enslavement. In this scenario we could view Christopher and his race as a sort of galactic police-force attempting to show humans that if they want to be treated as anything more than barbarous animals we need to use better judgment and show a greater degree of compassion towards one another.

This would be so compelling because innately as a human I would want to see our people beat the aggressors back! However if we see the "prawns" only using as much force as is necessary, despite what we did to them, then I think it would cause a fantastically deep internal conflict forcing the viewer to reflect not only themselves but our entire species cultural value system.

[edit on 17-12-2009 by Xtraeme]

reply to post by Springer


Thanks for giving us a chance to portray our view. I would like to start with saying I found the movie realistic which reflected events which we can relate with our history and current world affairs.

Keeping in mind the story line of District 9 it tells us:

1. At the start of movie it is said that a exploratory team discovers a group of one million unhealthy and leaderless members of an arthropod-like extraterrestrial species (mining teams) who are given asylum on Earth in 1982.

2. Due to petty crimes committed by aliens and the xenophobia among humans aliens are restricted in District 9.

3. After 30 years (the time period of the documentary or you can say 21st century) their population only rose to 1.8 million.

4. MNU were performing "illegal secret" experiments on extraterrestrial creatures and in the end of the movie it is told the experiments are exposed.
The term illegal is important as it states that there was some kind of rule/policy among human govt. (possibly involving United Nations) which ruled out conducting any experiments on the extraterrestrial species.

5. When the mothership begins to leave and Johannesburg's residents celebrate at its departure they were not aware of the illegal experiments being conducted on the creatures.

6. It is hinted that Wiku is still alive as an alien with a bandaged left arm crafts a flower out of metal (which his wife receives).

7. In the end of movie the documentary states the aliens are successfully moved to District 10, said to have a population of 2.5 million and growing.

From here I can think of as to what might happen next:

First the question arises why in first 27-30 years their population only rose 800k? (1982 upto 2009/10) whereas when they are moved to District 10 their population surge is 700k within 2-3years?
Now we can judge it is because as it's shown in documentary there was not much food available for aliens thus they were still unhealthy and unable to mutate (successfully/ properly ?), also many deaths by violent human crimes (Human gangs killing/ experiments etc). Which tells us the conditions in District 10 are better than District 9 thus the explosion of 700k in such a short time.

But why the conditions improved in District 10? There can be several factors which come into play here:

a) It can be because when the word of illegal experimentation are exposed and there is a massive uproar among the humans and condemnation from allover the world including UN and other world powers.

b) After the experimentations are exposed and the reason for sudden departure of mother ship is found out there is fear among World Powers for what is to come.

From here being realistic we can start the story:

"Playing" on people's emotion (massive uproar over illegal experimentations) UN get directly involved with the treatment/conditions of aliens in District 10 thus the better treatment. But secretly world powers are also anticipating attacks from the aliens. So it would play in their interest if they "show" the aliens are being treated good now and there is some chance of diplomacy, thus agree in UN on humanitarian grounds.

World Powers (US/UK etc) gets hold of all the notes and research work of experimentation which was conducted by MNU in District 9. On which they secretly keep conducting the study (As we have learned from our history after Holocaust US has kept all the research done by German Scientist done on humans in camps and even continued with research in secret) hoping for a breakthrough.

US/UK also learns about Wiku (human who turned into alien so he does not leaks the information the aliens may return to save the people and thus in general trying to keep humans calm/ in peace? not panicky?) and keep looking for him. Wiku goes underground and form a militia ( for eg. Hamas/ Hezbollah) which world powers terms are "terrorists/ extremists" whereas Wiku's Militia call themselves "resistance fighters". Reason for resistance is the extreme distrust of Wiku on the Govt. and he knows about the ongoing weapon study "still" being conducted by world powers.

We see Christopher return with senior members of his society along with a huge military and get in negotiation for safe return of his species with world powers. World Powers shows the senior species that their race are now being treated in good condition and face no threat. However, Christopher who witnessed the experiments from his own eyes is still skeptical and suspicious of the intentions. However, seeing the good conditions and treatment of their fellow species the Senior Official (for. eg. Dalai Lama who believes everyone easily but get's fooled around by world powers) is impressed with the world power. During the time period of these negotiations US/UK do their best to keep away Wiku by limiting contact of Senior species with their species living on earth. Wiku on the other hand is trying his best to contact Christopher to tell him about the ongoing secret research but is not successful.

Fast forward, it's show Christopher is assassinated by US/UK but blamed on Wiku and his militia. The Senior Official on the other hand agrees to transfer technology to US.UK and forms a "trade pact" (Iran/ Iraq) in exchange of Cat/Dog food. In the end it's shown Senior Official returning to mother ship promising to bring more supplies of weaponry/ techonology. Wiku and his militia are continuing their struggle on earth and "resisting" world powers.

[edit on 17-12-2009 by December_Rain]

reply to post by Xtraeme


I respectfully disagree.

The movie was hyped to sci-fi fans, action fans, et al, but gave us a pretty good allegory.

I think it was brilliant, and I really had empathy for Wiku?, even as something physically reprehensible.





[edit on 17/12/09 by MajesticJax]