Neill Blomkamp’s allegorical sci-fi action adventure District 9 manages to fit a number of trenchant themes and issues relating to technology and politics within its unusual structure and audacious tone. Depicting a fictionalized world in which a derelict alien ship floats above Johannesburg, South Africa, with its indigent alien population (colloquially called ‘prawns’) segregated into districts and marginalized by its people, District 9 uses its setting in a powerful way to present a startling critique of the African apartheid that occurred in the late half of the twentieth century. In addition to its social criticisms about apartheid and refugees, District 9 also manages to raise concerns about the increasing fusion of humanity and technology, and the unethical nature of the military-industrial complex in pursuing tactical power at all costs.
In terms of its political themes, District 9’s treatment of apartheid comes in the form of the world’s treatment of the prawns in Johannesburg. The situation the prawns find themselves in – starving, malnourished and without a means of easily communicating or finding their way home – is not unlike South Africa’s policy of separating whites and blacks in distinct neighborhoods, with the black majority population being socially separated by whites enjoying minority rule. In this film, the rulers are the human government of South Africa, with the prawns standing in for the oppressed black suffering under apartheid. District 9 itself is representative of the slums people were forced into in South Africa, with poor conditions and little chance of escape. By heightening this scenario to a science fiction allegory, the context of these issues are made clearer to a wider audience less familiar with South Africa’s specific history of apartheid.
Furthermore, the potential destructive power placed in their hands by the alien weapons is shown to be a tremendous risk. All the alien guns featured in District 9 perform an array of dazzlingly violent effects, from blowing up entire buildings to overturning cars, to exploding human beings into a bloody pulp from yards away. The ethics of pursuing such destructive power for the sake of profit is a valuable concern within District 9, particularly given the lengths to which MNU is willing to go to get it. The alien tech is treated as a kind of Pandora’s Box which everyone is going after – from the MNU scientists to the Nigerian warlords who want the guns for themselves.
District 9 quickly and resoundingly criticizes both the racist, speciesist apartheid of the prawns and the unethical behavior of the prawns through the character of Wikus van der Merve. Initially a feckless middle manager for MNU, Wikus is the ultimate company man at the start of the film – fully aware of MNU’s rule in policing the prawns and taking their technology, but buying into the racism that humanity shares towards the aliens. It is only after accidentally getting sprayed with a piece of alien biotechnology that he starts to become one of them, starting to understand (and empathize with) their predicament once MNU begins to experiment on him. The startling montage near the start of the film, in which Wikus is subjected to a number of tests where he is strapped to an alien weapon and forced to blow up innocent prawns, cements the unethical nature of MNU’s research and inspires Wikus to escape and help the prawns return home.
In stark contrast to the treatment of the prawns’ weapons as dangerous, Wikus’ own use of technology is framed as virtuous, having a positive effect on his character. While the alien guns explode people and things with terrifying force, the alien bio-goo that transforms Wikus slowly but surely into the prawns manages to create a scenario that generates empathy toward the prawns. As Wikus experiences his own marginalization as a result of the alien device – being rejected by his family, called a ‘pervert’ on TV and run out of a burger shop – he starts to understand the plight of the prawns much more. This is doubled by his budding friendships with the prawn scientist Christopher and his boy, opening his eyes to the inherent goodness and sympathetic nature of the prawns themselves. In this respect, technology is used by Wikus to gain a sense of multicultural competence, as it facilitates cross-cultural encounters that disrupt his own ethnocentrism towards a more egalitarian point of view (Bennett 62).
As a result of the technology that changed him, Wikus’ experiences throughout the film reframe his perspective and inspires him to be more inclusive and selfless in his worldview. When you contrast Wikus’ weaselly behavior in the beginning to his gun-toting, battle-mech piloting warrior persona at the end, the transformation of this character into a dramatic, ethical actor is made clear. Wikus’ exposure to the transforming goo creates a scenario in which, arguably, inter-species genetic crossing technology has the potential to generate more ethical and moral behavior in individuals. The film’s last shot, of a prawn (presumed to be a fully-transformed Wikus) creating a rose for his estranged wife out of a tin can, hammers home this theme of cross-species understanding, facilitated by technology.
In exploring the indignities of racism and authoritarianism, as well as exploring the ethical quandaries of alien-human mutation and military-industrial weapons research, District 9 creates a fascinating and thoughtful framework for its exciting action. In creating a world in which an entire species is being discriminated against for being lazy, difficult to communicate with, and foreign, the film creates a scenario in which military and corporate forces feel comfortable subjugating an entire group of people for the sake of their own profits. Here, MNU is blatantly shown to be the villains, their entire motive being to unlock the secrets of the destructive alien weapons carried by the prawns – with anyone and anything else considered expendable. Through the (physical and thematic) transformation of Wikus, District 9 shows the ways in which technology can also generate empathy by connecting those disparate groups of people, offering technology as a way to bridge differences and facilitate understanding.
Works Cited
Bennett, M. J. “Becoming interculturally competent.” Toward multiculturalism: A reader in
multicultural education, 2 (2004): 62-77.
Blomkamp, Neill (dir.). District 9. Perf. Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, David James. TriStar
Pictures, 2009. Film.
