History Film / Elysium

''Elysium'' is a {{dystopian}} ScienceFiction film directed by Creator/NeillBlomkamp, director of ''Film/District9'', and starring Creator/MattDamon, Creator/JodieFoster, Creator/SharltoCopley, Creator/WagnerMoura, Carly Pope, Creator/AliceBraga and Creator/DiegoLuna. It was released on August 9, 2013.

''Elysium'' is a {{dystopian}} ScienceFiction film directed by Creator/NeillBlomkamp, director of ''Film/District9'', and starring Creator/MattDamon, Creator/JodieFoster, Creator/SharltoCopley, Wagner Moura, Carly Pope, Creator/AliceBraga and Creator/DiegoLuna. It was released on August 9, 2013.

* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The teaser was fairly opaque, but one of the full-length trailers has two specific shots (Max yelling "I have five days to live!"; Max carrying the IllGirl) give away the plot. Another goes into even more detail, summarizing the first half-hour. The only thing any of them preserve is Kruger.

* ExtremeSpeculativeStratification: The film takes the "White Flight Syndrome" social phenomenon and boosts it ''way'' past UpToEleven: the titular space station is essentially a suburb/man-made country for the hyper-rich to which they have moved to; leaving the increasingly-CrapsackWorld that is Earth (with its immense levels of overpopulated poor) to rot.

** One of the weapons in the Art of Elysium book that did not make it to the final cut, was a man-portable railgun that was going to be wielded by Crowe, one of Kruger's fellow agents. The design for it was based around the mounted door gun used by Drakey to attack one of the other survivors of the failed heist. The big difference was that it wasn't mounted and that Crowe was going to use it on foot. The power for the weapon would of been drawn from the battery packs bolted to his body armour, just like the power source used to fuel Kruger's personal deflector shield.

* KnifeNut: Aside from being a katana fan, Kruger has a big combat knife strapped across his chest, plus remote-explosive shurikens. He also uses a shard of broken glass to [[spoiler: kill Delacourt.]] His exo-suit also has multiple knives concealed on it in various compartments.

* BaldHeadOfToughness: Max [=DaCosta=] has a completely shaved head because he just got out of prison.

%%* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Arguably, this can be said to be a justification for the Elysian government's extreme anti-immigration policies. Space and resources on a colony are something the has to be managed ''extremely'' carefully, especially if one wishes to maintain a high standard of living so they can't afford to take any more people in. Yes, they're only saving the wealthiest of the wealthy, but even that is better than everyone dying.

* WhoWearsShortShorts: Surprisingly, Kruger does when he's not on duty. According to some behind-the-scenes material, this was Sharlto Copley's idea.

* AdultFear: Frey's daughter is dying of cancer, and there's nothing she can do to save her.

''Elysium'' is a {{dystopian}} ScienceFiction film directed by Creator/NeillBlomkamp, director of ''{{Film/District 9}}'', and starring Creator/MattDamon, Creator/JodieFoster, Creator/SharltoCopley, Wagner Moura, Carly Pope, Creator/AliceBraga and Creator/DiegoLuna. It was released on August 9, 2013.

''Elysium'' is a {{dystopian}} ScienceFiction film directed by Creator/NeillBlomkamp, director of ''{{Film/District 9}}'', and starring Creator/MattDamon, Creator/JodieFoster, Creator/SharltoCopley, Wagner Moura, Carly Pope, Alice Braga and Creator/DiegoLuna. It was released on August 9, 2013.

** Kruger states that he can't commit violence in front of children and repeatedly tells the little girl to keep her eyes shut while he's punching her mother.

** Kruger also does this during his siege on Max and his allies, flipping it as he flips a car with an explosive.

** The lone woman shown to manage getting her crippled daughter healed in an AutoDoc foreshadows [[spoiler:Frey and her daugther]].

* SwissCheeseSecurity: For a habitat supposedly concerned with keeping the riff-raff out, there doesn't appear to be anything actually stopping people from flying up there aside from Kruger, and the government does not like Delacourt using him. During the first trip up, their first and last line of defense is essentially to ask politely for the ships to turn around. Droids do show up to round up the immigrants once they actually land, but even this response is ignored when Spider's men show up in the final act. This is actually a plot point, as Delacourt is chafing under the restrictions that have made Elysium laughably easy to invade. If she had her way, the station would be armed to the teeth to prevent that sort of thing.

%% * SmugSnake: Delacourt, Caryle, and Kruger.

* StopOrIShootMyself: Max does a variation of this, by holding a primed but not live grenade (pin pulled, spoon still attached) to his head when he meets up with Kruger to get a ride up to Elysium. He tells the latter not to try anything funny, or he'll blow his head off, destroying everything that was hijacked from Carlyle.

* CentrifugalGravity: Elysium rotates to provide this.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: As with ''District 9'', Neil Blomkamp makes little effort to be subtle in his symbolism. The film is a condemnation of the [[SlobsVersusSnobs economic and political disparity]] between the wealthy and the lower class. The fact that the film is mostly set in America and the downtrodden population is mostly Latino puts its commentary specifically on the issue of [[SouthOfTheBorder Latino immigration in America]].
* TheDogBitesBack: [[spoiler:Kruger mutinies against Delacourt while she's chewing him out.]]

* BaldOfAwesome: Max [=DaCosta=] has a completely shaved head because he just got out of prison.

* ThoseTwoBadGuys: Kruger's henchmen, Drakey and Crowe.

* TheStarscream: Delacourt plans a coup because she feels the current president doesn't have what it takes to lead. [[spoiler:Kruger later kills Delacourt in order to seize control of Elysium for himself. Karma's a bitch.]]

* SpaceDoesNotWorkThatWay: Elysium doesn't have a roof -- the shuttles are able to fly over the walls and land anywhere on the habitat ring. On a structure smaller than a planet, centrifugal force and high walls shouldn't be enough to keep air from leaking out, and there's no indication that the atmosphere is held in by a force field, even though force field technology exists as applied to Kruger's personal shield.

* 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 [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped much less stupid than the premise would first imply]].

* KatanasAreJustBetter: Kruger, a South African commando, carries around a katana as part of his standard gear and whips it out in a few situations where bullets still might be flying. RealityEnsues when he tries using it against Max's exosuit; the blade is ruined in just a few swings. Still. reasons why he is using katana over British officer sword are unclear.

** Max's PoweredArmor is grafted directly onto his bones and tied into his into his nervous system and brain, which means the pain is probably a lot worse than it might seem at first.

* {{Autodoc}}: The Med-Pod is the closest thing the future has to a Panacea. They can heal every disease known to man (as stated in Armadyne's AlternateRealityGame website), repair any form of injury, and reverse aging seemingly without limit. They're so powerful that they can even [[spoiler:repair Kruger's face, most of which was blown off with Max's grenade, in about twenty seconds]].

%%* CapitalismIsBad: TheMovie, pretty much.