A very interesting premise wherein instead of us earthlings visiting deep space we have aliens visiting Earth and a reversal of roles takes place where instead of us humans fighting against dangerous aliens, the aliens are fighting dangerous humans and that too on planet Earth. The ending had me saying poor aliens and laying all the blame squarely on us “evil” human beings.
The movie begins in documentary style with lots of reports/reporters telling us the backdrop. In 1982 an alien spaceship was found hovering over Johannesburg, South Africa. The spaceship apparently developed complications and could not take the aliens back home and when humans forcibly open the spacecraft they find a million starving and disoriented aliens. The aliens are brought to earth and quarantined in a section of Johannesburg that’s called District 9, a sort of a refugee camp until a permanent solution can be found out what to do with the aliens. Over the next two decades, this refugee camp turns into a derelict part of the town that is not distinguishable from any slum in any part of the world like India or Brazil or say a ghetto in the U.S. Instead of poor and downtrodden humans, its filled with aliens who have grown to around 1.8 million in number. This part of the town is cordoned off and fenced but like any ghetto has a high crime rate and abject poverty among other things.
The aliens are built like humans, are tall and thin, but with crustacean morphology and hence are nicknamed “prawns” by the humans. The aliens are from a more advanced civilization but are treated with derision and hostility by the humans who but naturally blame them for any problem in the city and want them moved to another location. The setting of the movie and its commentary is very much representative of apartheid and very much shows us humans for what we are. The army is physically and verbally abusive towards the aliens, the Nigerian gangsters prey on them, the multinational corporation M.N.U. wants to harvest them for biological weapons since the cache of weapons aboard the alien spaceship are DNA encoded and work only when used by the aliens but do not fire when humans use them, the politicians and bureaucrats only want to get rid of them, yeah the list is pretty much unending. With the human population reaching the end of their tether with the aliens and their growing populace the M.N.U. is given the task of relocating the aliens to 200 miles away from the city. Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is given the task of heading this relocation wherein the aliens are served a relocation notice and then forcibly moved after a 24-hour period. Wikus is married to Tania Van De Merwe (Vanessa Haywood) who is the daughter of Nicolas Van De Merwe (Johan van Schoor) who heads M.N.U.
Wikus while serving notices to the aliens comes into contact with alien DNA and starts mutating into an alien himself. The M.N.U. quarantines Wikus and wants to harvest his DNA for their biological weapons but Wikus manages to escape to the only place where he will be secure i.e. District 9. In District 9 he is chased and hunted by the army and M.N.U. combine who want him for his DNA, and also chased by the Nigerian gangsters whose leader wants to eat Wikus’ arm so that he too will regenerate the alien DNA within himself and then be able to use the alien weapons and become all powerful. In the ensuing melee Wikus is befriended by an alien and his young son in District 9 and they mutually agree to help each other, Wikus will help them to access the alien spaceship and escape Earth and return home, the alien will fix Wikus so that he will become human again and return to his normal human life. In the battle that ensues Wikus helps the alien and his young son escape with the alien promising to return in 3 years to rescue the remaining aliens and also fix Wikus. Wikus meanwhile turns completely into an alien and is moved with the rest of the 2.6 million aliens to their new location District 10, 200 miles away from Johannesburg.
The movie ends in documentary style with lots of reporters throwing in conspiracy theories on whether the aliens will return or not to save the remaining aliens, Wikus being captured and his DNA used to develop biological weapons by M.N.U., Wikus being captured by another government and so on. All in all District 9 is a satisfying experience and really does show us humans with all of our frailties and shortcomings none of which is flattering!
