History Film / Elysium

* JustEatGilligan: Every single person who risks their lives to get up to Elysium is doing so to access a [[AutoDoc Med-Pod]], something that is a completely minor part of the lives of people on Elysium, but which is almost magical by standards of Earth where medicine is not much more advanced than present day. The Med-Pods could easily be supplied to Earth and hence stop the problem of people trying to access Elysium so desperately in the first place (or at least reduce the occurrence substantially)... and this becomes really sickening when it turns out that ''[[spoiler:there are THOUSANDS of these Med-Pods just sitting around in ships that never get used and could have easily been sent down to help people]].'' It would only take a comparatively tiny portion of money to give everyone medical treatment in the first place (or if not everyone, at least have ''some'' access to the technology rather than none at all). The fact that this is very much TruthInTelevision with regards to modern day medicine (and illegal immigration to some extent) makes it much less stupid than the premise would first imply.

** The head of Armadyne. His first concern on discovering one of his employees has been blasted with radiation? Keeping the bedding on the gurney in the medbay clean. Oh, and don't let your dirty Earth germs get on him, cover your mouth.
** Max's foreman, who [[PragmaticVillainy only cares about his fracture in a way a broken tool needs to be replaced]] and causes Max's irradiation in the first place by forcing him to fix a stuck pallet jamming a blast door. However, [[EveryoneHasStandards it does look like he feels bad when it's announced that Max has five days to live]].
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Spider. He's effectively a crime boss and unapologetically uses Max's irradiation to force him into a dangerous job, but when it turns out that [[spoiler:Max has found a program that will let them take control of Elysium]], he immediately wants to use it to save ''everyone''.

* KickTheDog: Carlyle shows minimal concern for Max after he suffers a lethal dose of radiation.

* KickTheDog: Carlyle shows zero concern for Max after he suffers a lethal dose of radiation.

* ArtificialIntelligence: In this film robots exist that are bright enough to handle police work and parole duty. Also to run Elysium.

* GunsVersusSwords: Kruger is able to survive taking on several gun-wielders with his katana. It helps that he has an energy shield and other pieces of tech to give him an edge.

-->'''Max:''' [[ItMakesSenseInContext I know why the hippopotamus did it.]]

* ArtificialIntelligence: In this film robots exist that are bright enough to handle police work and parole duty. Also to completely run Elysium without any human interference (which in the end is the saving grace of those on Earth as [[spoiler:no human can interact with the core A.I. to fix what Spider had done by making Elysium open to everyone via the re-boot, and the only guy who could re-write the code is already dead]].

** This leads to Kruger's moment, in which Patel lists, as evidence of Delacourt's extremism, the dozens of crimes that he has committed, including multiple rapes and torture.

** President Patel also has one, as he immediately calls Delacourt in to review her actions, showing he has far more humanity than the other antagonists.

* MotherlySidePlait: Frey is introduced with her hair like this, showing her as a soft and maternal character.

* KickTheDog: Carlyle shows zero concern for Max after he suffers a lethal dose of radiation, proving how much of a corrupt snob he is.

* TrailersAlwaysLie: The trailer heavily implies that Max's exosuit is what gives him the ability to override Elysium's system. It doesn't, but the reboot code it lets him download from Carlyle's brain does. It also implies some shots of Kruger are actually of Max (such as Kruger's PowerWalk when he [[spoiler:begins the coup and specifically starts gunning for Max]]), and that Kruger is assisting the hero. The trailer also implied that Max's exosuit can remotely crash a ship, which was just gesture by Kruger (activating sticky homing explosives).

* SpiritualSuccessor: While not sharing any plot, this film shares a lot with Blomkamp's previous film ''District 9''. It's about a racial population confined to slums and exploited by a wealthier class with Apartheid undertones. Eventually violence erupts and the hero must fight alongside the downtrodden people against evil mercenaries hired by the wealthy class using sci-fi guns and power armor.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: [[spoiler:Kruger fatally stabbing Delacourt]].

** Max's foreman, who [[PragmaticVillainy only cares about his fracture in a way a broken tool needs to be replaced]] and causes Max's irradiation in the first place by forcing him to fix a stuck pallet jamming a blast door. However, it does look like he feels bad when it's announced that Max has five days to live.

** President Patel also has one, as he immediately calls Delacourt in for a review of her actions.

* {{Irony}}: Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster) gets Carlyle to [[spoiler:write a reboot code for Elysium to perform a coup and keep it safe from the people on Earth]]. In addition, she hires [[spoiler:a complete psychopath to do her heavy lifting for her. He ends up murdering her in cold blood, and the code ends up used to give Elysium to the illegal immigrants she was trying to protect it from.]]