District 9 (2009) on Netflix
A million aliens live confined in a Johannesburg camp called District 9. Wikus van de Merwe, sent to serve eviction notices, is sprayed with an alien substance that begins to change him.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.9/10757,810 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes90%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1982 a vast ship appears over Johannesburg, and the more than a million malnourished, insect-like beings found aboard are settled in a camp that becomes District 9. Twenty-eight years on, the camp is a shantytown, its residents are known as prawns, and unrest between them and the city's people has grown. The government hires Multinational United, a defense contractor, to move the aliens out of the city, and executive Piet Smit puts his son-in-law, Wikus van de Merwe, in charge of serving the eviction notices. Inside a shack he finds a hidden container whose contents spray into his face, and he begins to change.
Cast
- Morena Busa Sesatsaas Interviewee
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about District 9 (2009)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Peter Jackson had planned to produce a film of the Halo video game franchise with first-time director Neill Blomkamp, but financing fell short and it was put on hold. The pair turned to District 9 instead, using props and items originally made for the Halo film.
- Nigeria's Information Minister Dora Akunyili asked cinemas around the country to ban the film or edit out references to Nigeria, objecting to the depiction of Nigerian characters as criminals and cannibals and noting that the gang leader Obasanjo shares the surname of former president Olusegun Obasanjo. The film was later banned in Nigeria.
- The idea of the aliens eating cat food came from a crew member who used cat food as bait for shrimp during the film's production.
- Director Neill Blomkamp said Johannesburg in winter "actually looks like Chernobyl", a "nuclear apocalyptic wasteland", so he and the crew filmed in June and July to catch that deserted, bleak atmosphere. Shooting took 60 days in all.
