Elysium

2013
R
1h 49m

IMDb RATING

6.6/10

478K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

Play trailer3:14

Cyberpunk Dystopian Sci-Fi Sci-Fi Epic Action Drama Sci-Fi Thriller

In the year 2154, the very wealthy live on a man-made space station while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth. A man takes on a mission that could bring equality to the pola... Read allIn the year 2154, the very wealthy live on a man-made space station while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth. A man takes on a mission that could bring equality to the polarized worlds.In the year 2154, the very wealthy live on a man-made space station while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth. A man takes on a mission that could bring equality to the polarized worlds.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.6/10

478K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

2,288

107

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win & 10 nominations

Videos40

Undocumented Ships Inbound

Clip 0:54

"Would You Like to Talk to a Human?"

Photos387

+ 382

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Sharlto Copley presented an American, an Eastern European, and a British "version" of Kruger to Neill Blomkamp before they agreed that Kruger would be from their home country, South Africa, and speak with the accent of "a very specific area in Johannesburg". Accordingly, Kruger's men are played by fellow South Africans Brandon Auret (who also appeared in Blomkamp's movie District 9 (2009) with Copley) and Josh Blacker. They all incorporate numerous Afrikaans slang words into their dialogue, e.g. "Boet," an informal derivative of "brother," "Boykie," meaning "little boy," and "lekker," a slang for approval.

Goofs
The original "Stanford Torus" design of a wheel-shaped space colony had an offset mirror angled to reflect sunlight onto mirrors set around the central hub and then outward to the ring. Elysium has no such arrangement and sunlight simply shines directly to the interior of the ring. This is completely impractical, as Elysium rotates (about every 6 minutes). This means that location around the habitat would have an ongoing series of periods of "day" and "night", each lasting only 3 minutes, which would be extremely disconcerting for the inhabitants. In addition, Elysium appears to have its rotational axis pointing towards the Earth, and as it orbits the Earth that would mean that (a) it rotates with respect to the Sun, and so the amount of sunlight and its angle will be continuously varying, and (b) during each orbit it will spend time in the Earth's shadow and not receive any sunlight at all.

Quotes
Android Police Officer: [Referring to Max's backpack] What's in the bag?
Max: [Max's head is shaved bald] Hair products, mostly.

Crazy credits
In the soundtrack part of the end titles it says:

"Piano Concerto No. 8 in C minor 'Pathetique' - Adagio Cantabile Written by Ludwig van Beethoven"

L. v. Beethoven wrote only five piano concertos (his eighth piano sonata is titled "Pathetique" however).

Connections
Featured in ReelzChannel Specials: Richard Roeper's Red Hot Summer (2013)

Soundtracks
Ghosst
Written by Lorn (as Marcos Ortega)
Performed by Lorn
Courtesy of Ninja Tune Ltd.

User reviews1K

Review

Featured review

The most accurate depiction of the future of humanity.

* No middle class just poor v rich.

* Enslavement but not quite. Society is run by a combination of warlords and CEOs. Zero political consciousness.

* Gig economy assassins. But even they live in squalor.

* Cyberpunk + trash aesthetic. Iraq war aesthetic across the whole world.

* Nothing works because why would you want it to, when you're stuck below? Meanwhile super advanced microchips.

* The robots while they don't violate Asimov's principles, they're really passive-aggressive and catty.

* The ghetto robot interface surgery. High tech microchip heists. Hacker culture is the one thing that did advance but they're limited by seemingly 1980s computers they have to scrap together.

* The comedy of Matt Damon's leading man stoicism reacting to all of this zaniness, demoralization, and hopelessness.

* (The big thing the film is missing a VR component to make life bearable below, giving some people the sedative illusion of a false Elysium. Like... WHAT IF you could wear a goggle over your eyes that shows the same busted up world except everything is green and beautiful, and everyone has deepfake smiles.)

* Most interesting is the poor v rich spend all their time plotting and fending each other off. Consider the discomfort that both their views are each other.

* Dysgenics on Elysium. Ie, it's not the geniuses who built Elysium but their grandkids who grew up there ruling it, making its destruction inevitable. 'Good times create weak men' etc...

* There is still spiritual consciousness but only below.

* Above is no utopia. They are not particularly more educated or gifted, but susceptible to primitive coups, corruption, bureaucracy. You kind of feel bad for them as being born there is being trapped, they're unprepared for any sort of reality.

* Opposite down below the most resilient survive and scrap by through friendship and brotherhood. Creates some kind of American revolution feeling.

I feel that there should be a series with this universe that explores the down vs up, because they struck prophetic gold on the whole thing. Plus it is epic. The flaws that were glaring back in 2013 feel minor compared to how incredible the production and concept is.