Elysium , director Neill Blomkamp ’s follow up toDistrict 9 , hits theater today . Here are a few things to screw about the pic .
1. The film is set in 2154—and Blomkamp thinks his dystopian vision of Earth will come to pass.
In the film , the have - nots live on a polluted and overcrowded Earth , while the have - lots live in an idyllic quad station yell Elysium , where there ’s no sickness or poverty . When Max — a blueish - pinch tellurian with a deplorable yesteryear — has an stroke on the job that grant him just five days to live , he makes it his business to get to Elysium and get cured .
The disparity that Blomkamp portrays inElysiumisn’t all that far from reality — many city around the humans have pockets of riches skirt by slums . And Blomkamp thinks it will only get worse . His vision of Earth is " a full step backwards , compared with where hoi polloi suppose we ’re going , " hetold io9 . " It ’s just morbid . It ’s like a sodding lack of technology , and Third World . … But I think that ’s where we ’re going . "
2. Before he started shooting—or casting—Blomkamp created a graphic novel as a reference.
Most of his films begin with a visual construct , andElysiumwas no exception . “ It absolutely blew my nous , " Damon toldWired . The Scripture sport not only detailed illustrations of the flick ’s creation and its weapons and applied science , but also how Blomkamp wanted Max to reckon . " Neill was so specific … He in reality had a icon with my face assemble onto this guy rope with this soundbox , " the 42 - year - old actortoldVariety . rend off that muscle - bound look was n’t well-situated , either . " They literally hire me a flight simulator and I went to him with the movie , " he said . " It was four hours a day in the gym — and I ’m not 26 anymore but I get in shape . ”
3. Damon wasn’t Blomkamp’s first choice for Max.
First , Blomkamp approached Ninja from the South African melodic group Die Antwoord , who turned him down because , accord toWired , he “ did n’t need his first screen function to be an American - accented fiber in such a high - profile photographic film . ” Next , the directorwent to Eminem , who was game — but only if the movie was shot in Detroit . Finally , in 2010 , Blomkamp cast Damon , whotold MTVthat he did n’t mind about being third in line for the office . " I just found out about Eminem because I read it somewhere , " he said . " It ’s the sort of affair like … necessitate your girlfriend about ex - boyfriends . You do n’t want to live , and it does n’t sham your relationship . You just get the parts you get . "
4. The set for 2154 Los Angeles was the second largest garbage dump in the world.
Soundstages in Vancouver served as the circle for Elysium , but to produce Blomkamp ’s vision of a dystopian Los Angeles in 2154 , the crowd shot for two weeks in a dump in Mexico City , which Damon has said were thetoughest two week of his career . Because the dust kicked up by the output was n’t dust . It was fecal matter .
" [ We had to ] literally eat st , " he say . " It was explained to us that , like any rubbish dump anywhere in the world , the dust is in reality comprise mostly of fecal matter . So , at the end of every daytime , as we ’d wipe this stuff off , we ’d be basically throw these stty towels at each other . " Meanwhile , during one successiveness , Damon ’s stunt double gotsoaked in pig urine .
harmonise to theLA Times , condition were so toxic that at one point the production had to scrape off the top level of silt and replace it with prop garbage , and the gang had to pass through a clean zona before tiffin .
Shooting in Mexico City also call for increased security department . " I very specifically scouted the areas because I wanted them to be as run - down as potential , " BlomkamptoldEsquire . " That was Matt ’s only trepidation — the security in Mexico City . He ’s very plot , but the whole thing there is snatch , and it ’s unlike with him than it is with you or me . He ’s internationally know . People recognize he ’s in the state . We had to hire a security house . Our security system guys would ladder different routes to the set in the morning , do reconnaissance , verify there were in - and - out routes everyplace we went . "
5. Syd Mead designed some of theElysiumsets.
Blomkamp is a huge fan of future - minded designer Syd Mead — whose employment you might recognise from photographic film likeBlade Runner , Tron , andAliens . So he asked Mead to aid out withElysium . " I did a render forNational Geographicon space travel and the future tense , " MeadtoldVulture . " One of them was a view inside a ' tore ' kind of world . I call it opposite linear perspective because the primer plane goes up out of sight , up into the ceiling . He saw that rendering year ago , and that fascinated him . Elysiumis one of the few or only picture with that invert perspective . " The two met in Vancouver , and Mead signed on to help design the space station ’s briefing and control suite .
6. Weta Workshop created the film’s weapons.
From futuristic AK-47s to deadly droids , all ofElysium ’s weapon system are fully realise . grant toWired , they were plan in a yearlong collaboration between Weta , Blomkamp , and conceptual creative person Doug Williams . At a mechanical press conference during San Diego Comic Con 2012,Damon said that"Neil and the guys at Weta Workshop come up with all these things ; they worked , they made sense , all these guns . You ’d see these guys with battery pack on , really kind of knobbed weapons that do n’t be in the world that we live in but you entirely bribe them when you see them . Just learn them on set , you ’d say , ‘ This looks like some terrible weapon that someone is go to invent someday . ' "
The party also built the exoskeleton that Damon ’s character wears . " They did a really good job , " hetold theHuffington Post . " By the time I got it , they fetch it down to 25 pounds . [ It was ] disperse over my whole body , so it really was n’t bad . " According to wardrobe notes for the moving picture , the HULC suit of clothes required eight months of research and development and 75 rewrite just to finalize the design .
7. The design ofElysium’s space station is based on real science.
Specifically , a design called the Stanford Torus , proposed by NASA in 1975 . Scientists fancy a donut - shaped ring over a statute mile in diameter that would rotate once a instant to create stilted sobriety on the interior of the ring via centrifugal force play and hold in 10,000 people . It would bebuilt from materials from the Moon . Behold :
But although its design is scientifically accurate , Blomkamp let in that the way he imagines Elysium would have been build is not . " Elysian Fields is ' Bel - Air in Space , ' " hetold io9 . " The dark satire of like building a sign of the zodiac in outer space — with the weight of take stones and sh * * up there [ from Earth]—is screaming , you know ? It ’s not scientifically plausible , but it ’s incredibly funny . "
