A 2009 science-fiction Thriller/Mockumentary by Neill Blomkamp, based on his short film Alive in Joburg (which can be found on Youtube) and produced by Peter Jackson.In 1982, a massive flying saucer came to a halt above the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. After three months of complete silence, the government had the ship boarded. Surprisingly, most of the aliens turned out to be confused, timid and starved. They were "drones" - working class aliens, incapable of surviving or piloting their starship on their own, and their leaders had mysteriously disappeared.In August 2010, after many failed attempts to integrate the aliens into South African society, they found themselves confined to "District 9", a fenced-off shanty-town operated by multinational defense contractor MNU. The first third of the film is filmed documentary-style, focusing on sniveling corporate git Wikus van de Merwe (Sharlto Copely), a MNU agent who is given the task of evicting the aliens (derogatorily nicknamed "prawns") from District 9. His job is to get the legal paperwork out of the way, so that the aliens can be transported to a new concentration camp in the wilderness, where they can't bother humans.During a search for weapons in a shack belonging to one "Christopher Johnson", he accidentally opens up an alien device, spraying goo all over him. As the day drags on, he's forced to get a lot closer to the "prawns" than he'd have liked. As Wikus gets forcibly drawn into the life of the aliens and pursued by MNU, the documentary aspect slowly starts taking a backseat to Wikus' personal horrors and Christopher's efforts to save his people.The film itself is an odd (but very fitting) combination of a sociopolitical ImprovMockumentary, extreme violence based on (among other things) Robocop and Halo, and a classic science-fiction horror story (slash Black Comedy) very much like The Fly. Depending on how you watch it, it's either a scathing political satire with cool action elements, or a kickass horror film with an underlying social moral. Word Of God says both interpretations are valid.
Aliens In Johannesburg: The aliens manage to get stuck over what was at the time one of the most racist and xenophobic countries on the planet. They also lampshade the fact that the ship didn't arrive in New York or London.
Alien Invasion: Heavily implied to happen when Christopher returns.
Aliens Speaking English: Averted. The prawns understand English (and the humans who work with them understand their language), but both are physically incapable of speaking the other's language. Ironically, the aliens were voiced by a human actor.
Alternate History: The aliens landed in 1982. Technology, on the other hand, hasn't changed, due to MNU solely focusing on attempting to capitalize on alien weaponry.
Always Chaotic Evil: Subverted in that, in keeping with the racism theme, the humans clearly see the aliens as being this. They aren't, but news reports at the beginning do establish that at least some of them do pursue rather unwholesome hobbies, among them eating live animals, kidnapping people, derailing trains, and burning down townships. Although whether or not they actually did those things is open to interpretation. Even Christopher seems to realize the rest of his people act like antisocial jerkasses. At the very least, they are guilty of constant theft and vandalism, which makes sense if you consider the alien refugees barely had any social structure of their own. Constant abuse from the local dominant race doesn't help.
It's mentioned that the aliens don't understand human culture, making them seem more evil than they are. For instance, it's reported that some of them derailed a train, but it's not clear if they understand that trains are things that carry people, and derailing the train causes people to die.
Actually, this kind of thing would happen in Apartheid South Africa, when violent resistance groups would attempt to send a message by, for example, derailing trains. The government would give excuses like 'the natives don't understand the system involved' and so on to cover up the unrest and keep it from spreading.
Also one must remember that, given that the aliens are a worker caste in what may be a hive society, they may have developed the behaviors they have due to the way humans treated them and the way humans treated each other. However, without any real understanding of human society (any more than ours of theirs), they're going through the acts in completely different contexts. For instance, Koobus getting eaten see below for the treatment of albinos in Tanzania as well as the Nigerians eating the prawns under the belief of gaining power.
An Arm and a Leg: Wikus attempts to chop his arm off, believing it'll stop his metamorphosis, but he only manages to get a finger off and stops due to the pain.
Apologetic Attacker: Wikus, when he is forced to kill an alien as part of a weapons test.
Applied Phlebotinum: The mysterious alien "fluid," which powers all of their technology, and apparently can turn humans into aliens. Word Of God says it's meant to repair things, which probably would apply to medical aid as well.
As Himself: The newsreader who makes the announcement that Wikus has contracted an alien STD can in real life be seen nearly every night on the SABC News at 7.
As You Know: Mainly averted except when CJ, on the last day of his 20 year magic juice collection program, explains the entire thing to his friend.
Badass: The Nigerian gang boss, who, among other things, calmly and nonchalantly stares straight down the flaming barrel of an alien gun that just blasted one of his men through the wall of the building, while it's being trained on him from six inches away.
Banned In China: Nigeria has banned the movie because it "portrays Nigerians as gangsters and cannibals." There are some cannibalistic Nigerian gangsters in the film. but it never says all Nigerians are gangsters. Nigerian immigrants into South Africa are often poor and are blamed for an increase in crime. The cannibalism is actually inspired by the treatment of albinos in Tanzania.
Bald of Evil: Smit, Koobus (pronounced with a short O), and at least one of Koobus' mercenaries. Although the baldness might just be a coincidence: for African(-Americans), a clean shave is a pretty standard haircut. The same goes for soldiers, mercenaries and other military people.
Bee People: The only insight into the alien's biology is from an entomologist, saying they are a colony-based organism like ants or bees. Word Of God has stated that the prawns on Earth are a worker caste, explaining why they're listless without direction from a leader caste. There's no official explanation as to why Christopher is different from the rest, but he might be a leader caste prawn. There might also be a hive mind at work.
Big Fookin' Gun: All the alien weapons fit this title. The weakest alien gun is some sort of compressed air blaster which can knock out an entire wall and fling people dozens of feet away. Then it goes to Lethal, to Unnecessarily Lethal, to "Just What The Fuck Did The Aliens Fight That Needed Such Outrageous Firepower?" When the power armor goes live, its main guns are BFG versions of the lightning cannon and automatic rifle used by Wikus and Christopher in the MNU raid, and when the mercenaries oppose it they get no traction until a mercenary is able to severely damage it with a familiar-looking South African anti-tank rifle. Needless to say, the mech was a LOT more vulnerable to small-arms fire afterwards.
It appears that Wikus is going to abandon Christopher at the hands of the psychotic Koobus when Wikus runs away in his giant mech, until he hears from the mech's audio that Koobus has ordered one of his goons to kill Christopher. Cursing to himself, Wikus runs back. Cut to Christopher having a gun pressed to his head by the aforementioned goon. The goon's entire arm is suddenly blown off.
Christopher's son activating the Mini Mecha and saving Wikus' ass from the Nigerian thugs.
An extremely brutal version of this occurs at the very end. Koobus has Wikus held dead to rights, talking about how he would love seeing Wikus cut up, but instead wants to kill Wikus right then and there. Just as Koobus is about to pull the trigger, numerous prawns show up, rip Koobus to pieces and then begin to eat him.
Big Damn Villains: The Nigerians attack the MNU convoy as soon as they arrest Wikus after his failed dropship escape.
Bigger Stick - The only reason why Wikus and CJ's raid on MNU succeeds, and their later escape to the mothership.
Bilingual Dialogue: Prawns and humans are totally unable to speak the others' language, so this suffices. Africans are also shown speaking different languages to each other at the same time.
Bittersweet Ending: Wikus is transformed and living in the slums, but Christopher and his son got away in the mothership, promising to return in three years... with reinforcements.
Black and Gray Morality: The movie has almost no unambiguously good people, aside from "Christopher Johnson" and his son, the former being the only alien who tries being diplomatic and uses violence only as a last resort (even after his friend is killed, he agrees to not kill any humans during their attack on MNU, as Wikus insists).
Black Best Friend: Fundiswa, the guy who is partnered with Wikus in the beginning and proves to be one of the more morally upstanding people when he exposes MNU's genetic testing and is imprisoned as a result.
The first call from Tanya that Wikus gets? It's her sobbing and crying about him cheating on her, and him declaring Bill Clinton style that he did not have "pornographic relations" with an alien. It's obviously meant to be awkward and weird, since MNU's explanation of his transformation is that he has an STD from fucking Prauns, complete with saucy picture.
Wikus being strapped into a firing range and forced to shoot an alien is horrifying. Wikus being covered in chunks of the alien's flesh is hilarious.
The entire "surprise party" scene counts. Wikus is in the initial stages of his transformation and has literally soiled his pants from the shock, so his constant awkwardness throughout is highly amusing until the moment he suddenly vomits and collapses. If you listen closely at the beginning, he says he might have crapped his pants.
Blatant Lies: Various people in the opening mockumentary state that MNU keeps the aliens safe and gives them what they need. Uh-huh.
Also, Piet Smit claiming that his daughter's marriage to Wikus wasn't a factor in choosing him as field commander for the relocation effort (immediately after we see his parents proclaim that he "wasn't very smart").
Bloody Hilarious: This is a very serious, layered movie. That doesn't make seeing people explode like balloons any less funny.
Blown Across the Room: averted; Christopher protects himself with a rectangle of sheetmetal, and catches several bullets with it - at no point is he even in danger of falling, much less of being blown away by the energy of the bullet impacts.
Played straight with the alien gun, but it's justified as it seems to be its explicit purpose.
Body Horror: How else do you describe watching yourself slowly transform into a completely different biological organism? The transformation involves his skin being pierced from the inside by his newly developing exoskeleton. He actually just starts tearing off parts of his skin and yanking the spines at one point.
Alien weapons frequently gib or maim.
Boldly Coming: Interspecies prostitutes are briefly mentioned. And MNU's cover story for hunting Wikus is that he caught an alien STD.
Break the Cutie: The cuties here would probably be Christopher and his son who, while maybe not as dramatically abused in the film as Wikus, probably had to endure a lot more hardship.
Break the Haughty: Wikus. Some people count this as Break the Cutie, due to his portrayal as a joyfully bumbling white-collar government lackey who makes paper mache sentiments for his pretty wife.
Of the darkest type. When being forced to test fire alien weapons, Wikus begs his captors to let him shoot a pig in place of the alien they walk in front of him. In the big Power Armor shootout, Wikus uses a gravity gun to shoot a pig... into a MNU merc and through the wall behind him.
Yet another dark one in the deleted scenes: remember the "population growth control" flamethrower unit that Wikus calls in to kill a shack filled with babies? When Wikus hijacks an APC (for the assault on the MNU headquarters), they get killed (or at least, flung around a bit).
Wikus telling the same assistant only sissies wear surgical masks. He is hit in the face with the Fluid shortly thereafter. When you think about it, everything bad that happens to Wikus results from him not taking proper workplace safety precautions.
A merc loses an arm in the eviction. Another gets his arm blasted off due to Wikus' rampage.
Bullet Catch: The protagonist in alien Powered Armor catches an RPG-7 rocket fired at Christopher's command ship. Then it explodes in his 'hand.' He survives, though. Also, the armor has the ability to suspend incoming bullets in a force-field generated from one of its arms and then fire them back at the assailants although Wikus himself never uses this while piloting the mech (presumably because he didn't know how). Would have helped a lot if he did however.
Bulletproof Vest: Most of the MNU employees wear them. Wikus has one with a calculator on it. Fadiswa was supposed to get one. He was also one of the only people not to get mauled.
Bullying a Dragon: Let's all commit horrible acts against an alien race that would be classified as crimes against humanity if they were human. Did we mention that the alien race in question happens to have the ability to tear a man limb from limb, insanely powerful weapons, Mini Mecha only they can use, a huge ship, and a messenger who has escaped and is likely to return with friends?
Callback: Wikus' "This is quite a find, yeah?" upon discovering the alien ship. It's what Wikus said when he found the weapons cache during the MNU eviction sweep.
Camera Abuse: Koobus and his MNU mercenaries get pretty rough with the camera crew during the first half of the movie, and the camera lens ends up spattered in blood a few times. In the aforementioned scene, Koobus even yells abuse at the cameraman Trent - the actual cinematographer of the film.
Cannibalism Superpower: The Nigerians think they can do this by eating alien body parts (the alien DNA will let them use the alien weapons). The non-existent success rate does not discourage them.
Car Fu: Used twice. First by the Nigerians against the MNU, secondly by the MNU against the Mini Mecha. In, ironically, one of the Nigerian's cars.
Catch and Return: The Mini Mecha is capable of stopping bullets — lots of them — in mid-air before choosing the option, "Return to Sender." Awesome ensues.
Changed My Mind, Kid: Wikus runs from the captured Christopher in the middle of the climatic battle. As Christopher is about to die he changes his mind. Unstoppable Rage meets mecha!
The prawn Mini Mecha suit, the falling wreckage from the mothership (later revealed as the shuttle), and more subtly, the anti-aircraft missile launcher.
In addition, Wikus's sidekick is shown in the documentary sections in an orange jumpsuit, which is the standard South African prison attire. Sure enough, at the end it's revealed that he's awaiting trial because he revealed the illegal genetic experiments. He's in jail because he broke into their computer system to get the information, which is a crime in most countries.
Children Are Innocent: Well, as innocent as you can be when you're living in a crime-ridden slum. One of Wikus' worst acts is torching a shed full of alien eggs, and Christopher Johnson, despite planning his escape from Earth, works hard not to get his son's hopes up, for fear of having to crush them. Christopher even tries to cheer up his son by saying that D10 will be a much better place and that they should be happy. It gets crushed when Wikus says it's a concentration camp. Christopher is caught off-guard by this honesty, which is unfortunately a new desolation, helping to humanize (so to speak) both Christopher and Wikus.
Cluster F-Bomb: Wikus seems to drop this whenever he's upset (which is a lot). Koobus and some of the other mercenaries drop them whenever. May challenge Casino or The Boondock Saints for sheer volume of f-bombs. According to the IMDB, it's dropped 137 times. This may or may not be partly due to all of Wikus' lines being improvised. He's actually cursing in Afrikaans, though the word in question ("fok") is the same as the f-word in all but spelling.
Fun bit of useless trivia: The age rating for the region 2 DVD copy of the movie is a 15 for strong bloody violence, and...no, this can't be right...ONE use of very strong language?! No, no, no...
Cold-Blooded Torture - MNU's experiments on Wikus after his transformation starts.
Colonel Badass: Koobus the mercenary commander. Despite being a Complete Monster, he's actually quite fearless, keeping his head even when faced by the awesome power of the alien weaponry. In the end he gets killed only when he runs out of bullets. He does, however, lose his head.
Green seems to indicate intelligence, as the only green-colored aliens were Christopher, his son, and Wikus, after his transformation. All the others are fairly simple-minded. This may also explain why the aliens became protective of Wikus at the end: they sensed him as a member of their "leader" class.
Brownish-yellow or orange likely indicates drones, like the one assisting Christopher at the beginning of the film.
The red ones are probably "soldier" class as the few prawns seen carrying weapons around were primarily red ones. It may or may not mean anything that very few red ones are ever seen.
Finally, there are a couple of blue ones wandering around. What they represent, if anything, is never made clear.
Crapsack World: District 9 is pretty much the most run-down, degraded, depressing, hopeless hellhole of a town you could ever possibly imagine. And, for Truth in Television value, it was filmed in an actual South African shanty-town whose residents were being resettled by the government at the time of filming. In the commentary, the director pretty much describes it as Hell on Earth.
Death Glare: Koobus gives one to his subordinate when he has to be reminded that they have orders Wikus is to be captured alive. He gives another to Wikus thrice during the final battle, once when he runs off to abandon his friend, the second when the mech is near-dead and is hit by a car, and the third when he's about to kill Wikus.
Death Ray: At least one of the alien weapons could only be called this.
The shaven-headed Koobus seems very reminiscent of Neo-Nazis. Particularly the lines of how he "loved watching prawns die" and calling Wikus a "filthy half-breed". The actor deliberately gave Koobus an English accent and a loathing of Wikus (an Afrikaaner).
The aliens' drug-like addiction to cat food is based on a very common colonial occurrence: you find some substance the natives don't have (usually alcohol, caffeine, or sugar), get them hooked on it, and then make unfair deals with them that exploit their addiction.
The treatment Wikus receives from his fellow humans after the news media claims he's been infected with an alien STD recalls the social ostracism of people infected with HIV/AIDS.
Not dueling in content, but it was one of three films released in the fall/winter of 2009 with "Nine" in the title, causing a little confusion among the less...attentive of moviegoers.
Dying Like Animals: A lot of the aliens fall into the Lambs category. Only Christopher could really be said to be Fighting For Survival rather than merely prolonging the inevitable.
Enemy Mine: So, team up with the former leader of your oppressors who is turning into one of your kind, is now at the top of their Most Wanted list, and can get you into their secure facility to retrieve the one item critical to your plan... all right, when do we start?
Even Evil Has Standards: Even though Wikus clearly is alright with aborting baby aliens, he clearly has a problem with the illegal experiments MNU is doing on the aliens.
Evil Gloating: Twice. Colonel Koobus really likes the sound of his own voice. He does shoot an alien in the head after a similar rambling speech in the beginning of the movie, so apparently he just likes to dick around with his victims before killing them, and just happens to get interrupted before the critical moment in the later confrontations.
It extends to his own men as well. Wikus manages to hear Koobus' order to shoot Christopher twice, and runs the distance back to the scene in the time it takes the merc to raise the gun to Christopher's head.
Evil Versus Evil: A massive fight occurs between the evil MNU mercenaries and the evil Nigerian gangsters. Both want to use Wikus' corpse so that they can activate prawn weaponry, although the gangsters are considerably less scientific about it.
Evilutionary Biologist: Dr. Moraneau, the MNU head doctor. It's strongly implied that those things in the jars were his attempts at fusing human babies with alien DNA.
Extreme Graphical Representation: Alien vehicles are piloted via holographic control panels that also provide a 3D map of the environment. While Wikus is able to demonstrate some of the more tactile-based controls, it's Christopher and his son who show what a master of the tech can do.
Eyes of Gold: Despite their insectoid bodies, the aliens have yellow, almost feline, eyes.
Considering that the "camera eye" has evolved numerous times completely independently, and appears to function as the best thing evolution can come up with— considering how good a solution it is to the problem presented— many scientists think it's probable that aliens really would have eyes like this. Also take into account that the prawns seem to be carnivores with agility and strength that appears to point towards a natural hunting pattern comparable to big cats, and it seems pretty reasonable for them to have eyes like this.
Eye of Newt: The native gangsters chop up Prawns for witchcraft in an attempt to gain the ability to use their bio-mechanically locked weaponry.
Fan Nickname: Christopher's son is referred to as either "C.J." or "Oliver" in most works of fandom, despite having no apparent canon name. The DVD subtitles give his name as "Little C.J." Also according to them, Christopher's friend (the yellow prawn) was named Paul. The name Oliver can actually be considered canon, as it was mentioned in this post to Christopher's blog that he had two children, named Oliver and Sherry.
In the DVD commentary, Blomkamp does refer to the yellow prawn as Paul.
Fingore: When Wikus's fingernails fall off as he transforms into an alien, and later, when he chops off one of his alien "fingers". This is an homage to The Fly. Wikus even does the same fingernail-nibbling in the mirror that Jeff Goldblum did, to great effect.
First Contact: A rather dark take on it. Just look at the trailer! Talked about by a sociologist during the mockumentary, who says that people were expecting bright lights and music from heaven.
Fix It in Post: After Wikus is sprayed in the face with the fluid, he asks the cameraman to have it taken out of the final cut. If he did, we wouldn't be talking about it.
Foreign Cussword: Wikus uses several Afrikaans naughty words during his many, many rants. Moreover, every time he says the F-word, it's actually its Afrikaans counterpart.
For the Evulz: Koobus's only real motive is that he loves to kill prawns.
The first trailer makes it look like it's going to be a documentary about xenophobia in South Africa... then bam, the spaceship appears. It is a documentary about xenophobia in South Africa, just not the one you might have expected.
Within the film itself, the beginning is mostly shot in a mockumentary format with some conventional shots, then flips to mostly conventional around the time of Wikus's infection.
GIFT: Christopher is infinitely more fiery on his blog.
Going Native: Inverted, since the outsiders aren't native to Earth. White oppressor (Wikus) saves the oppressed outlanders after beginning his metamorphosis into a prawn.
Gorn: The alien weapons more often than not blow their targets into tiny, bloody pieces.
G-Rated Drug: Cat food. Practically the only G-rated thing in the whole film.
Happily Married: Wikus and Tanya, until Wikus' transformation begins and he's hunted down by MNU, and she thinks Wikus fucked an alien. To Tanya's credit, she figures it out, and it seems that by the end of the movie she loves him again. It's too bad they're separated by, you know, Wikus being an alien at the end.
Hermaphrodite: In a deleted scene, a scientist explains that the aliens have both male and female reproductive organs, being able to impregnate and become pregnant themselves. Whether this is still canon is unknown, but it leads to some interesting Fridge Logic. And, of course, the corresponding fanfic.
Heroic BSOD: Christopher when he reaches the MNU lab and sees the horrible carcasses that have been dissected by the humans.
And how: not only do they abuse the shit out of the aliens but once the main character Wikus starts transforming into one, they halt otherwise decent medical treatment and are authorized by his father-in-law to torture him with painful procedures, minus anesthesia, force him to kill an innocent alien with its own weapons, and attempt to dissect him while he's still alive. Ass. Holes. When it comes to the prawns themselves, one of the mercenaries says he gets off on killing prawns to Christopher's face, other people kill and eat prawns, and MNU has been vivisecting and experimenting on them in an attempt to create supersoldiers.
The pro-alien humans appear in a brief scene as a human (prawn?) rights organization protesting outside District 9. It's pretty clear that the reason MNU keeps their evil activities secret is so they don't come down on them like the wrath of God and since MNU's evil has been exposed at the end of the film, you can bet those activists will be going after that company big time!
The Nigerians crank this movie's use of this trope Up to Eleven in one of the deleted scenes: one of them features an MNU worker who finds an alien kept in a cryogenic chamber exported from the mothership. It is then explained that the Nigerians force anybody who can't pay up into staying in a cryo chamber until someone can pay up. It's one thing to go in there willingly, but unwillingly? MNU classifies it as illegal activity, but still...
Hypocritical Humor: After telling Christopher not to kill anyone Wikus kills a guard after being shot at. When questioned by Christopher he responds, "He was shooting at me!"
I Can't Believe It's Not Heroin: Apparently cat food is like crack cocaine to the aliens, without the health issues. (Maybe. Given the tone of the movie, there's a roughly one hundred percent chance that the cat food was detrimental to the aliens' health; the makers just didn't have a way to highlight it.)
Idiot Hero: Oh deary deary me, where to begin. Let's start with Wikus' own mom referring to him as "not very bright," and go from there. The outtakes from the documentary say Wikus is playing dumb as protective colouring. Up to a point.
Case in point: After fleeing the MNU lab, Wikus's location is pinpointed inside the compound thanks to them tracing a cellphone conversation he has with his wife. While he probably should have known better, it's a little forgivable since at that moment he's clearly panicking and not sure about what he's going to do next. Then, later in the movie, he lets it happen again.
I Know That Gun: The guns used by the MNU soldiers are simply South African-made Vektor CR-21 rifles, painted white. The big rifle used to damage the Mini Mecha is a Denel/Mechem NTW-20, one of the most powerful anti-material rifles in existence. Meanwhile, Koobus and some of his closest men have Vektor R5 assault rifles.
Immune to Bullets: The prawns' exoskeleton is tough enough to take a shot from a handgun, provided it isn't armor-piercing, but that's it. The Mini Mecha is functionally immune to small arms, and can use its Gravity Gun to catch bullets and shoot them back at those who fired them; it's the big guns Wikus has to watch out for.
Improv: A lot of dialogue in the film was made up by the actors on the spot, including pretty much everything Wikus and Christopher say. (Christopher's dialogue was first spoken in English by the actor, then later re-dubbed to alien speak, with the subtitles following the improvised lines.)
(Although completely inverted by the acting directions. According to the DVD extras, the director and actors spent painstaking time and effort plotting out every move, position and action before actually filming each scene.)
Indy Ploy: Wikus gets them into MNU headquarters, but hasn't bothered to work out how to get out again, mainly because he thinks it's a suicide mission anyway. Christopher has to think up a plan on the spot to save both their butts.
Innocent Aliens: The humans claim that the drones think setting fire to things and derailing trains is recreational and a bit of sport. Given that this was how the government would write off the exact same types of actions by violent resistance groups in apartheid South Africa, the validity of this claim is questionable.
Inspired By: The real life forced removal of over 60,000 blacks from District 6 in Cape Town. And the whole "Nigerians eating alien body parts to get their powers" thing is sadly inspired by what happens to Albinos in Tanzania. Similar instances of cannibalism have occurred during the Second Congo War, with the victims being Mbuti pygmies. In one of the DVD extras there is a brief conversation with Neil Blomkamp where he talks about growing up in apartheid South Africa. His decision to use this setting wasn't necessarily a decision to make a moralistic movie, but to put aliens and Sci Fi into a realistic third-world crapsack environment - and what better setting than what he knew growing up?
In Working Order: Averted, and a major plot point. Humans can't seem to find a way to operate the alien weapons. The only way you can do this is for someone to turn into an alien... which MNU tries to exploit when Wikus is halfway through his metamorphosis.
Ironic Birthday: Or, in this case, an ironic surprise promotion party.
Jerk Ass: Our first indicator that Koobus is this is when he yells at Wikus for no reason after Wikus tells him he needs to put on a bulletproof vest.
Karma Houdini: Smit, Moraneau, and the rest of the MNU higher-ups.
However, considering that the truth of NMU's activities were leaked at the end, it's likely they'll be under investigation.
Karmic Death: Koobus, who spends the majority of the movie being a Complete Monster and just barely avoiding death several times, is eventually torn apart and eaten by prawns. And Obesandjo takes an electric rod to his brain mid-sentence, which charges and causes the rest of it to explode.
Kick the Dog: It is a little harder to like Wikus after the alien abortion scene and the attack on Christopher, the real hero of the story.
Last Stand: Wikus uses the Mini Mecha to fight the MNU mercenaries while Christopher bolts for the ship and his son. The armor is already heaving and failing with him inside, but Wikus does not stop until the ship is safe. Even more heroic when you consider that Wikus knows that he will almost certainly not be killed, but rather captured and returned to the MNU for further "experimentation".
Late Arrival Spoiler: The 82nd Oscars' montage of the film gave away the fact that Wikus starts to become an alien.
As did the commercial spots for the DVD release, as well as spoiling the alliance between Wikus and Christopher, particularly the raid on MNU.
Ludicrous Gibs: A common end-result of the usage of alien weaponry.
MacGuffin Guy: Eventually, Wikus, in the eyes of MNU and the Nigerians.
In the commentary, the director refers to this trope almost by name. He was a fan of Macross/Robotech growing up and added the effect as a Shout Out.
Meaningful Name: Christopher Johnson. "Christopher" is also the patron saint of travelers. "Van de Merwe" is a generic name given to characters who are the butt of ethnic jokes against Afrikaaners.
Mega Corp: Multi-National United, or MNU, who are interested in the aliens' technology and are using them for cheap labor.
Messianic Archetype: Christopher Johnson intends to save the prawns from poverty and slavery, one way or another. If he comes back with firepower and a grudge, it might be a case of Dark Messiah, or hopefully Kung-Fu Jesus. Note that his initials are an inversion of those of Jesus Christ. Since Christ is actually a title not a name, it works regardless.
Mighty Whitey: Played with/subverted. Wikus is quite bigoted against prawns, and even though he Took a Level in Badass and possibly gained a bit more empathy for the plight of the prawns, he's still very reluctant to save Christopher's life and is generally doing a lot of the heroic things he does for his own purposes, not to help the prawns.
It's also relevant that the big plan comes from the alien, NOT from the white guy. Sure, Wikus eventually helps him complete the plan, but he also screwed it up in the first place, and there is no special human knowledge needed to save the day. This is a huge difference from a lot of stories where the mighty white outsider is better able to use native tech/resources than the natives are.
Deconstructed: Joining the aliens (the oppressed minority) doesn't make Wikus their new all-inspiring leader or their most awesome, badass fighter as usually seen. No, he becomes an oppressed nobody just like the rest of them, forced to live in the slums, eat cat food and hide from human guns, which is neither mighty or inspiring, and guess what, he hates the new life he's living under now.
Mini Mecha: Shows up pretty early in the film, traded to the Nigerians for cat food. Wikus gets inside much later, and awesome ensues.
Mismatched Eyes: Wikus has one alien eye towards the end of the movie. The movie's final scene also shows that one eye of the fully-transformed Wikus retains its human coloring.
Mockumentary: For the first third, the very end, and bits and pieces throughout.
Mood Whiplash: Given the tone, pretty much every joke in the film.
Nepotism: Wikus is the MNU manager Piet Smit's son-in-law, who lampshades this with a Suspiciously Specific Denial of such. In this case, however, events later in the film invert the trope: Smit clearly gave him the promotion knowing that he was out of his depth and hoping he would be humiliated or somehow end up killed by the aliens.
Network to the Rescue: The film's entire existence is this trope. Neill Blomkamp was Peter Jackson's choice to helm the Halo film. When the budget of that reached $145 million, the studios canned it. Jackson then went to Blomkamp and essentially said "Sorry that didn't work out, here's $30 million, go have fun." It also counts as a complete avoidance of Executive Meddling. Jackson knew exactly what Neil was capable of and wanted him to do whatever he wanted, knowing it would be awesome.
Never Trust a Trailer: Pretty much all the footage in the trailers was filmed specifically for promotion, and does not appear in the finished film.
Next Sunday A.D.: It's shown at various points that the "present" of the story is August, 2010.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Christopher is the unfortunate victim of one of these. After the MNU mercs are done with the Nigerian gangsters, they get Christopher out of the truck he's in and Koobus starts beating him with metal pipes and rifle butts to get him to talk. He's so badly hurt that when Wikus comes in, he has to tug Christopher to his feet. Christopher is later lapsing in and out of consciousness because he's so badly hurt.
No Kill Like Overkill: Again, every single time the alien weapons are fired — including the counterattack performed by the Mini Mecha. It is glorious. Eventually reaches the point where all you can ask is, "Just what the fuck are the prawns used to fighting?" Though perhaps it's a case of Puny Earthlings, as the aliens seem to treat getting shot by a handgun as equivalent to a hard shove several times.
Not With the Safety On, You Won't: During a raid on Christopher's shanty, the mercenary taking point has his rifle, on safe as seen from the gun-mounted camera's POV.
One-Woman Wail: Played perfectly straight, and foreshadowed by a One Man Wail.
Orgasmic Combat: The first sign that something is seriously wrong with Koobus is the breathy laughter and orgasmic sigh he lets out when he shoots an alien point-blank.
Overprotective Dad: Smit, who obviously thinks Wikus isn't worthy of his daughter Tanya, from his first appearance in that interview.
Pardon My Klingon: Generally averted, as whenever the aliens use whatever equates to profanity in their language, the subtitles simply display regular English profanity.
Plot Armor: Koobus. He's immune to machine guns, lightning cannons, rockets, Car Fu — you name it, he walks away from it. Boils away at the end, wherein aliens can kill him to save Wikus, showing that they accept Wikus as one of their own.
Product Placement: Right in the foreground of the the first shot in the movie!
Psycho for Hire: Koobus and his bounty hunter team. "I can't believe I'm getting paid to do this. I love watching prawns die!" To their credit, it seems that most of the grunts are just Punch Clock Villains, while the higher-ups (who have been presumably doing it longer) are the psychos.
Reality Subtext: Comes from the quote "if they were from another country, maybe we would understand" in the first half. Maybe intentional, maybe not, but it's hard to deny. In May 2008, (black) South Africans rioted to expel Zimbabweans (primarily) as well as Malawians and Mozambicans from the country, or hack them to death with machetes—whichever. At least two people died and many more were injured. Thousands of people left the country, while others were deported, and there's still (as there has been for decades) an underlying nationalist sentiment. So yeah, no.
Red Herring: Fundiswa Mhlanga, citing concern for his family, asks for a ballistic vest at the beginning of the operation to service eviction notices to the aliens. As he cannot find one, Wikus assures him not to worry about it. Not only is Mhlanga not killed, as expected, but he is the only character of the three who doesn't get attacked by an alien.
Red Right Hand: A major plot device is Wikus' alien arm, especially how it lets him operate prawn technology. Ironically, it's not his arm that gives him away before he can get to District 9; it's his moustache, his most identifiable facial trait. If he had shaved it after going on the run, the people in the restaurant probably wouldn't have freaked out during the news report about him.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Wikus goes absolutely apeshit in the Mini Mecha, trying to take as many MNU mercenaries with him as he can during his Last Stand, covering Christopher to help him get back to his ship. He yells "IS THAT ALL YOU'VE GOT" while the mech is literally falling to pieces around him, still trying to take down more MNU mercs. Of course, he could be talking to the mech not the mercs; regardless, he's pretty much roaring to keep fighting.
Rock Beats Laser: The MNU mercs, after a fair amount of effort, manage to bring the Mini Mecha down. However, it takes a lot of small arms fire, at least one rocket, no less than two trucks, and a huge-ass anti-tank rifle. In addition, the only reason they ever have a chance is because Wikus doesn't know exactly what he's doing.
Rule 34: Yes, there is actually porn of Christopher with a penis despite him being an alien.
Not as out-there as one might think. Much like the camera eye evolving independently many times simply because it's a good solution to the problem of needing to see, penises have also evolved independently in just about every species out of sheer usefulness even in some asexual species. It wouldn't be surprising at all that the prawns have a penis, probably not a human-looking one but a reproductive organ of the same concept and function, most likely. Considering the near-skeletal narrowness of their lower anatomy, though, one wonders where they keep it.
Ruthless Foreign Gangsters: The Nigerians, with their black market cat food, illegal arms dealing, inter-species prostitution, and eating the flesh of the aliens, ostensibly to gain their "power", are working District 9 from every possible angle.
Scannable Prawn: The left side of every prawn's head has white paint with a decal on it.
Scary Black Man: Generally averted given that the film takes place in South Africa, but damn the Nigerian gang boss Obesanjo is one scary dude, despite being in a wheelchair and never raising his voice.
Scenery Porn: The choppers flying toward the Mothership is definitely this.
Serkis Folk: The aliens are completely computer-generated. The deleted scenes on the DVD (only one of which has CGI added in, by the way) also reveal that Jason Cope played pretty much every single grown alien in the film that got more than five seconds of screen time.
In truth, none of Cope's physical performance is motion capture. Blomkamp describes it instead as "rotomation," a portmanteau of rotoscopy and animation. Basically, Cope was digitally erased from the footage and his performance was referenced by the animators, but not actually recorded move-for-move.
Sequel Hook: Christopher will be back. In three years, no less, which is a very reasonable timeframe for a sequel to be made. And the aliens are living in District 10 by the end of the movie, so there's your title right there. This is about as unsubtle as it gets.
The ship/control pod, with two rotating engines on either side and the general shape of Serenity, looks remarkably similar to a Firefly-class transport.
The design isn't far off from a Hunter-Killer, either.
During the attack on MNU HQ, you can see Tetra Vaal Biosafety on the wall. Also, the Mini Mecha looks a lot like the robot from Tetra Vaal (also by Neill Blomkamp), and "Tetra Vaal" signs can clearly be seen inside MNU headquarters.
The way the armour's levitating/gravity weapon is used to fire a pig carcass strongly resembles the Half-Life 2 Gravity Gun in its operation (holds the object floating in front of it, then launches with a loud CLUNK).
The eighties version of The Fly, especially the scene with the fingernails and the mirror.
Now, is there anything else that seems reminiscent? Oh yes, the comment that it wasn't Manhattan or Washington DC but Jo'burg that got the GIANT DISC-SHAPED FREAKING SPACESHIP.
There's a party scene after the first evacuation day in the district. Wikus is cutting up the cake as the day finally takes its toll and then falls face first into the table. The whole thing just looks like the infamous Chestburster scene.
The closeup of Wikus' face, with projected lights visible on his helmet-equivalent, is strongly reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey. However, since the effect has been used in plenty of the video games that inspired the film, it's more likely to be a callback to those.
The idea of lowly aliens landing on Earth and being segregated, and also a human and an alien fighting together, is similar to what happens in Alien Nation.
Some Call Me Tim: The only alien with a name is "Christopher Johnson". The origin of this moniker is explained through Christopher's blog, where he states that the MNU has assigned all aliens new, human names as a form of cultural repression - this is implied in the film itself, but never stated outright.
Spell My Name with an S: Wikus is pronounced "Vikus", leading to some confusion from people who didn't see it spelled out in the film. Koobus, however, taunts him during the MNU raid with "Dickus". In addition, it's "Koobus", not "Kobus". Van der Merwe is pronounced "Van de Mevah". It's in the credits, folks.
Most of the names use the Afrikaans pronunciation, with Afrikaans originating from Dutch and heavily influenced by German, French and some English.
Starfish Aliens: Averted. The prawns are basically humanoid, have recognizable facial expressions, and at least some humans can understand their language. They were originally intended to be Starfish Aliens, but the creators felt it would be hard to empathise with something with no face; the early design was recycled as the "pit-fighter" bugs.
Aversion of Rubber Forehead Aliens as well — while the prawns DO appear mostly humanoids and have recognizable expressions, their morphology is much different from human morphology. Their face looks, well, like a prawn's.
Strapped to an Operating Table: Played horrifyingly straight with Wikus, who is fully conscious while his own father-in-law orders his vivisection.
Tested On Humans: Inverted when Wikus is forced by his captors to test an alien weapon on a live prawn. An offhand comment by Moraneau indicates that there have been previous (fatal) attempts to integrate human and alien DNA. Also played straight: a horribly mutated human fetus is visible in a jar during the assault on the MNU lab.
He didn't demonstrate particular wisdom earlier either - when a crazed human mutant is pointing an alien gun at your head, it isn't smart to tell him "I'm coming for you and I'm gonna get you". Basically, he only lives due to Wikus being too much of a pussy to kill a man in cold blood. Well, for a while, anyway.
Took a Level in Badass: By the look of it, Wikus. Then again: powerful, user-friendly, alien technology meets Wikus's rage, recognising him as family — that's a free ticket to Took a Level in Badass.
Unreliable Narrator: We get our initial ideas about the prawns from possibly biased documentary footage and a making-of video for a bit of corporate spin. Not everything they say is true.
Villainous Rescue: Subverted. The gangsters show up just as Wikus and Christopher are being taken away by the PMC troops, resulting in Evil Versus Evil as noted below.
Hoo boy. The in-universe Multinational United webpage, and Christopher Johnson's blog. In addition, signs have appeared in major cities, instructing people to report all sightings of non-humans to an MNU hotline, which has its own website.
At comic con, they had people handing out various fliers asking for donations to support humanitarian efforts in District 9.
The first viral ad was a sign outside a bathroom at Comi-Con '07, announcing "NO ALIENS ALLOWED".
There's a Facebook group called MNU Spreads Lies.
Viral Transformation: Wikus. After being sprayed by the black liquid, he begins to transform into an alien, starting with his left arm: this gives him status as an alien as far as their advanced technology is concerned. The movie keeps count of how many hours it's been since he was "exposed", and the progression of the transformation is evident onscreen. He eventually completes the transformation and joins the "prawn" residents of District 10.
What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: A being named Christopher is both helped and betrayed by a person who follows him, comes close to being executed, and ascends into the heavens with promises of bringing back salvation three days years later. Hmm. Also, Van der Merwe is the south african counterpart of John Doe.
What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: It's very heavily implied (and even pointed out in the DVD special features) that this is why MNU can get away with what they do. Played absolutely straight in the fact that Christopher is easily the most compassionate character in the film. And he's one of the aliens.
What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Apparently, less than the dirt they're standing on. This movie is pretty much about exploring this trope. Lampshaded in the first five minutes or so. If you take Christopher to be a master alien to the drones stuck on this C-grade planet full of primitives, well we're the aliens and What Measure Is A Non Prawn? Nothing. Until one is willing to sacrifice himself for him and his son.
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