"District 9" Speculative Discussion Thread

Originally posted by Extralien
If a "District 9" situation were happening right now, then I would most certainly be one of those people who would be doing something to stop the foul treatment. I would be fighting for the independence and assistance of a race clearly in need of help.

Would you?

Every day millions of humans are subject to the same oppressive and inhumanity seen in District 9. What are you doing to help them?

1. The craft being left stationary for weeks and finally only to be opened by the humans proves that the ship may be part of bigger armada, where navigation and control systems were from some other ship elsewhere.
Supporting this theory is the energy source they had to harvest for years and the rebuilding of a navigation craft that could control and manipulate the earthbound 'mother' ship.

2. The aliens were not slaves, and most probably were colonists, which explains their placid behaviour, akin to our salt of the earth type colonists from Mayflower.

3. The reason why this 'mothership' and not the 'armada' fleet arrive was probably due to an accident or malfunction on the fleet's control ship, causing this cargo (mothership) to fall into Earth's gravitional pull, perhaps due to a solar storm or an asteriod bombardment, and presumed lost/destroyed by the armada fleet, thus no scout ships to find them.
That it floats above land once on Earth is due to its construction to never land but to hover.

4. This armada fleet then continued on into Saturn and colonised the planet, suitable for their living 'prawnish' environment in 1989

5. By 2009, the ones who escaped into space from Earth in part one of this movie, would thus rendevous with the 'armada' colonial fleet, most probably somewhere on Saturn 1+ years away at their rocket speed capable.

6. On Earth, govts are petrified by the escapees, more so by their mistreatment of the aliens. Half of the world wanted peace, and to treat the remaining aliens better, but in the end, the military-industrial complex won, with bonds being sold to raise a united space command and build armaments to meet the alien threat -
- a threat the M-IC managed to convince humans by showing the deprediations they had done to the aliens, and being an advance race, would wipe humans out once they return.

7. Spoiler alert - as humans prepares for the final battle in space, suddenly they found their physical features turning into like the aliens. The virus had spread. 3 years is already up. Humans became aliens, and finally achieved mankind's dream - to take to the stars.....with help from the returning aliens in peaceful embrace.....

(Part 2: Point 5 to 7 Aim: To let moviegoers ponder upon the question and rationale for war of retributions ( either in guilt or defense) and - if we became the same in likeness with a presumed enemy, will we still fight or seek for peace and enlightenment to face and build a new culture/world? - a hint on how the Afghan/terrorism war can be won? )





[edit on 18-12-2009 by SeekerofTruth101]

I liked this movie but its a ripoff of the movie alien nation. In nation they liked sour milk made them drunk they had a slave ship but never saw there masters they simulated with us but were hated.

D9 was often a very difficult movie to watch. There were some deep metaphors at work in this film. Some of my thoughts are

-Would we really treat Aliens like this? If we could, you bet we would. If we commit these same horrid acts on our own species and other species on this planet we would have no problems doing it to Aliens. The only thing stopping us at first would be fear but when our fear of retribution dies, well then we would extert ourselves as we see fit.

-What should a sequel entail? Well besides clearing up some plotlines I would like to see what the Prawns culture is really like. We have seen them in slum conditions, lets see them from a different angle. Perhaps the ship was actually a refugee ship, like the overcrowded boats from Haiti or Cuba and when the ship went off course and the food ran out things went wrong. However when the ship gets back, instead of bringing a warfleet they bring back even more refugees! landing everywhere across the Earth and setting up cities as they see fit, suddenly what was confined to one place on Earth is now everywhere, how do different Earth cultures deal with the Prawns?

What made D9 an excellent film was its "realism" and close in treatment of the topics at hand. That quality will have to be carried over into the second film, however I know some people who will not see the sequal regardless simply because the violence was to real in the first.

For the film sequel:

I would like to see more cooperation between the visitors and mankind.

We (The UN) have finally decided to let them stay in Antarctica where we together build mining operations and other "green" energy operations that can benefit the mankind.

Other "joint" research facilities will also be located there together with their engineers and scientists working with our best people to cure cancer and other nasty diseases.

They are also helping us with the climate change problems so we can delay and slow down the bad developments of polar ice melting, by doing so, we can also save the polar bears.

In exchange for this colony and joint operations, they help mankind with safe energy technologies and safe nanotech & other tech, so that mankind can take the next big step into the future and bring the evolution of mankind a bit further ahead.

The twists & plot in the movie could be:

1. The alien scientists develop a vaccine for something, but we the mankind don't trust their intentions and the ingredients of this "vaccine"

And some of the board members and officials of the WHO are suddenly starting to behave very suspiciously, and we find out that a few of them are corrupt and are working with a "maverick" and rebellious secret group/brotherhood among the alien visitors behind the back of the rest of us (both some of the visitors and most of the mankind suspect a conspiracy)

Meanwhile!

2. During the explorations in Antarctica for the energy and mining operations together with them, we discover something buried which is really ancient and out of this world - we're confused and baffled about what it is at first, but it's apparently very bad news - and we have to cooperate together to fight this new invading threat which could be bad for both us and them. This new alien discovery also finally explain the spiral phenomena and the origin of the three Abrahamic religions.

*One old Hopi indian, the Pope, an old Rabbi and other Noble Prize Laureates explains the scientific results with the conclusion of this new discovery and all of this with soft voices and in a pedagogic way to the people of the world in a breaking news International TV broadcast from the UN.*

With this new dicovery and during this breaking news broadcast they unfortunately slip and out of the blue they suddenly also explain the meaning behind the Masonic philosophy and all secret symbolism & secret handshakes, which of course is in some way connected to this discovery and other ancient Sumerian & Egyptian occult symbolism.

And maybe this new so called discovery could give us some new facts leading to a better understanding of the Universe and more insight of the origin of these aliens and where we humans fit in all of this. Maybe these visitors can tell us who/what the great architect of the Universe really is?

At the same time in Antarctica, a very dangerous experiment at one of the alien/human research facilities goes totally wrong and is suddenly out of control - because the military industrial complex went for the profits first and totally disregarded the concerns about the safety and earlier warnings from the aliens!

All this together with the current economic and finacial heist & fraud leads to a revolution worldwide - and the Earth "elite" together with the small group of rebellious aliens are trying to save themselves and their lives from the rage of the people's stakes and pitchforks!

Most of the good & nice aliens will be joining the people though!

Finally! Sony should hire Tim Schafer and make a really really good game of this film, which IMHO should be a mix between Oblivion/Fallout 3 - KOTOR and Tim Schafer's 'The Psyconauts' & Grim Fandango!


[edit on 18-12-2009 by Chevalerous]

I want to be very clear I am not condemning Extralien in any way or calling him a hypocrite. It would be better to ask would any of us?

It is very easy to think we would stand up against such evil and inhumanity. But that is only because it is being shoved in our face; it is a violation of the world we know.

But if it wasn't a violation, if it was the status quo would we care beyond a few angry words? That is the world we live in now. We've grown up in a world of Darfurs, Palestines, North Koreas and third-world-level poverty on Indian Reservations right in the middle of the United States. The list could go on. But it has ceased to be jarring, it is ceased to be extraordinary. It is mundane. It is acceptable. We might voice a few angry thoughts on occassion. But none of us are going to lose any sleep over any of those situations tonight.


[edit on 18-12-2009 by DoomsdayRex]

I think the superpowers would take over, US, Russia and China would internate the aliens in a camp, keep everything closed and examine.
The ship would be filled with military, or even took down or apart to study.

No way a South African country could keep it for itself.

Maybe under UN rule or just by the US alone, they would confiscate everything.

A sequel ? the ship took off but due whatever problems it strands in the Nevada dessert, and alien masters come in to get the ship out, and all hell breaks loose, if they dont collide with the V people.. lol!

Originally posted by Majorwood
I liked this movie but its a ripoff of the movie alien nation. In nation they liked sour milk made them drunk they had a slave ship but never saw there masters they simulated with us but were hated.

I'd forgotten that film, it is a similiar premise but those aliens were more humanoid, which the ones in District 9 aren't, plus the language barrier allows for greater segregation. That it was set in South Africa I thought was a bit too obvious, given the obvious comparisons of recent segregation practices, but that may have been the intention. It just seemed a bit crass to me. Though the Nigerian arms dealer angle would have had difficulty working anywhere else!

Excellent film though, I enjoyed it enormously.

[edit on 18-12-2009 by shamhat]

Originally posted by shadow watcher
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

Don't you think relying on experience (learning from mistakes) is what causes fear?

Without experience, or memories, fear is lost, because it's simply an emotion stimulated by the past, by our experiences, to protect our insecurities..

On topic: I forgot I was watching this movie....I felt like I was there. Amazing. Because of this, it's hard for me to draw any parrallels without separating myself from the experience and observing it with the intent of comparing and cotrasting.

-Dev

If Sony are to make a sequel or similar type of movie, they may want to look into the Valiant Thor story. This would make a fascinating movie that people could really relate to on a human level, since the Extra Terrestrials (ETs) in this story are human-looking and are here to help humanity evolve peacefully. The only other recent Hollywood movie to depict human-looking ETs was the remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still.

Another case of human-looking ETs is the infamous Ingo Swann supermarket incident, whereby he encountered an alleged malevolent human-looking female. And of course the George Adamski case being quite notable.

In summary, I feel that we need to move beyond the foundation level of ET encounter movies. Various opinion polls suggest that a large proportion of the general public do believe in the existence of ET intelligent life and that governments are withholding this information. Yet, the media and Hollywood still insist on asking the same old question over and over again: "Are we alone?" We need a movie to begin at the Intermediate level by illustrating the fact that "we are not alone, we have never been alone since the beginning... and are destined for a life in the stars" as quoted by Robert Dean (Ret.). There has yet to be a really good hard hitting ET movie that gets people excited and talking, at least not since Close Encounters and E.T.

Originally posted by Venetian
Another case of human-looking ETs is the infamous Ingo Swann supermarket incident, whereby he encountered an alleged malevolent human-looking female.

But he was told by others that seemed to have their own private agendas that the human looking alien was dangerous without offering anything to prove such a thing. On reading this document I noticed firstly that she was being described as a real head turner and was dressed very provocatively. Granted, some woman who dresses like that can be dangerous to a driver on a dangerous street but this is the drivers fault not the head turners.

This apparently malevolent “alien” was standing in a supermarket admiring some vegetables. What could possibly be dangerous about her unless of course the danger lay in a telekinetically induced stroke? Would she induce a stroke just because you wanted to say “Hello miss, welcome to earth?” Somehow I do not buy it.

I think Mr Swann with all due respect was fed a lie to keep him away from a positive contact that could have given some really viable answers but it was his call and he made it.


*edit*
Sorry mods I just realised this post is off topic, please do as you deem fit, it was an unintentional error on my part.

[edit on 18-12-2009 by SmokeJaguar67]

Originally posted by Venetian
If Sony are to make a sequel or similar type of movie, they may want to look into the Valiant Thor story...

Despite this and other similar suggestions I think Sony should stay as far away from UFO mythology as possible, especially the more New-Age stuff. District 9 built a unique vision (albeit based on a part of the real world and history many of us are never exposed to); they should continue to build on that vision, instead of retelling someone's favorite UFO incident or conspiracy theory.

I'm not saying they wouldn't make for good stories. They just would not make good District 9 stories.

[edit on 18-12-2009 by DoomsdayRex]

reply to post by SmokeJaguar67


The main point I'm trying to get across is in my final paragraph... we can go into the details of 'he said/she said' with regards to the Ingo Swann supermarket incident, but it takes away from the main point I was making.

Besides, I've read the entire book by Ingo and am just re-iterating what he mentions in there - that he sensed static around the woman and that the two operatives were monitoring her from a distance and the phone call from Axelrod stating that she's dangerous, etc, etc., hence the word "alleged."

Besides, we're talking about Hollywood movies here, so whether the facts are correct or not are meaningless - the end result will be fiction regardless.

reply to post by Venetian


Quite right, my apologies I was typing away without really engaging my brain - I tend to do that sometimes.

Originally posted by DevolutionEvolvd

Originally posted by shadow watcher
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

Don't you think relying on experience (learning from mistakes) is what causes fear?

Without experience, or memories, fear is lost, because it's simply an emotion stimulated by the past, by our experiences, to protect our insecurities..

-Dev

Hi Dev. Personally, I think fear stems from inexperience more than from experience. As my name alludes to, I feel that if we live in a cave fearing the shadows cast on the wall from outside, we deny an experience from which the fear could be eased. The South Africans were very fearful of these unwanted guests. That fear may have been lessened greatly if their perceptions of the aliens were from a more evolved stand point. What I mean is they just wanted District 9 to be out of their yard. They did not consider making them more welcome or even understanding their needs.

This would have improved the race relations and avoided the needless deaths. To say the least, South Africa would have been looked upon as the hero when the rescue ship arrived, and perhaps some gained technology would have given them a leg up in their world status as well. I suppose after some 20 years of doing nothing for them aside from exploitation and terrorizing them there probably could be no coming back from that. If the MNU took an active role in helping them other than 'protecting' maybe the assimilation of the cultures could have been forged to a point of friendship.

Other than the resistance given by the aliens as a result of their treatment, I do not recall them actively being outwardly violent. We were able to communicate with them and this would have been an enormous obstacle, we as a race should have been able better accommodate them.

A major focus point of any sequel has to be the transformation of Wikus into a "prawn". He appeared to keep his humanity as he transformed, as evidenced by the scene where he left a hand made present on the porch of his house for Tania. This makes me think that the "prawns" may have come from several different species of beings and that many of them may have been transformed in the same manner as Wikus. A multi-species transformation could account for the difference in their intelligence and behavior.

What if the alien that escaped in the end is not a prawn at all? What if he was transformed liked Wikus? The world he is returning to might not be the "prawn" homeworld, but rather a world that had been infected/conquered/enslaved by the "prawns". His return with a cure for the transformation would cure both Wikus and the others, showing that the experiments were actually being conducted on beings that were much more human than "prawn" in appearance.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


(Hi everybody - this is my first post, and english isn't my first language, so please forgive me if I act like a total noob - I am a noob ;-) )

"[...]black and white, no gray area [...] clearly defined good guys and bad guys when the shooting starts. I think that is what people want to see."

Of course that is what we want to see. What we always wanted to see, since the earliest days of entertainment in the arenas of the roman empire.

But as we all know, life isn't that easy. There isn't just a black and white. In fact, there are uncountable shades of grey.

And maybe it's been exactly this perception, that made mankinds history so bloody. This belief in black vs. white, good vs. evil, us against them.

And it seems like a principle, that we automatically tend to see ourselves on the good side.

We never fail, we’re always right, aren’t we?

But Adolf Hitler also thought he was one of the good ones, and so did uncountable other (religious or political) leaders of the world and their followers. In fact, just when humans thought they were doing good deeds or god’s will, just then they’ve done not rarely the most horrible things.

Who of us doesn’t remember this warm feeling of (self)righteousness and safety we got when we watched those aliens in “Independence Day” and “Aliens” go down in flames?

But maybe… are we, the humans, the most scariest monsters in universe.

My thoughts about a plot for the sequel of “District 9”? – the movie should just keep on showing what we’re really like, and when Christopher returns, we should expect a punishment that was adequate to the things we've done to those aliens. But in the end them aliens show mercy upon us who didn't know what we were doing, and doing that they finally proof, that they're more human than us, the humans.



[edit on 18/12/09 by Peloquin]

reply to post by Springer


I agree with you, thats what a I thought is that the ship wasn't theirs but someone elses and they where either cargo or menial staff on the ship. Even peace loving beings that made a ship like that wouldn't tolerate their people being moved from the ship and then put in warrens for 20 years. They would have decided they where leaving and used that ships defensive or offensive weapons to leave, they didn't. And your probably right, it probably took them 20 years to figure out that ships technology in secret from the mammals. It sounds like they got control or whomever was in charge of the ship left in a hurry and the ship was on remote control and landed in earths atmosphere, all this happening in a few weeks. Richard Hoagland posted an article a few years ago on his website from our govt. that commissioned a report on discovery of alien life. And to get to what pulls it all together, he bolded the text that said "We would have to change our behavior". This is important because the scientists are admitting in a scientific way that we as a society and a race would have to change how we go about treating other societies and people consciously and unconsciously. Because if we don't we will get OUR ASSES KICKED.

Pure and simple, they will just stomp us in the mud and take what they want and the only thing we could do is to look on and hope the bad beings go away. Even though the Aliens in District 9 didn't attack humans we still acted like since there not a threat we can treat them like dirt and disrespect them. Be careful, one day we may get a society that comes to the planet and instead of wanting help, they want us gone and the planet theirs as NEW CONQUERS.

reply to post by DoomsdayRex


Hiya D.R.

Nice posts.
It's nice to read some very good thoughts and points from you.

As to what I am doing to help towards all the millions currently suffering here on Earth right now, well, I do what I can in any way I can.

There are many parts of my life that I have changed to disturb the flow of this current society. I have done so from an early age.

Partly because I was brought up with "one man cannot change the world" shouted at me by an angry and frustrated parent.

Wether I am chatting about my own views or discussing current ATS issues with members of the public or if I am refusing to use particular banks or buy certain items.. I am trying to do the best i can...no matter how small it is.

It's a bit like that saying that a butterfly fluttering its wings on one side of the planet causes a typhoon on the other side.

The French resistance were not always resisting.. sometimes they had to stop all they did in order to look as normal and as a part of everything until they were safe to emerge again to upset the barrel.

In D9, the visitors were here for twenty years.. that's a long time for many to get involved and do something.. As we see in the film, some do their best to take full advantage. Others, although not often seen in the film, were supporting the visitors.

I am constantly looking for weak links in the chains that bind us all... most of us here on ATS are doing the same. Just by writing in this thread and putting our thoughts forwards is a step towards our personal goals in order to bring about the types of changes we desire for ourselves and for others.

Discussions like this sow the seeds of ideas and inspiration to others whilst we grow in our understanding. From small acorns do big oaks grow.