Elysium (2013)
- Eagle-eyed viewers have noticed a hidden easter egg referencing Neill Blomkamp's previous film in the background of the opening scene.
- Before Matt Damon was cast, several major A-list stars turned down the lead role because they felt the script was too risky.
- The original script for Elysium was written over a decade before production finally began in 2013.
Elysium is a 2013 American dystopian science fiction action film written and directed by Neill Blomkamp. Set in 2154, the film depicts a world where the wealthy live on Elysium, a luxurious space station orbiting Earth equipped with medical bays that can cure any disease or injury, while the remaining population lives in squalor on an overpopulated, polluted planet. Matt Damon stars as Max Da Costa, a former car thief now working in a factory in Los Angeles who is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation and has five days to reach Elysium's med-bays.
To get there, Max undergoes a procedure that bolts a powered exoskeleton to his body and agrees to steal valuable data from a billionaire's brain β data that could grant all of Earth's citizens access to Elysium. Neill Blomkamp's follow-up to District 9 wore its political allegory openly β Elysium was an unsubtle metaphor for immigration, healthcare inequality, and the growing divide between the global rich and poor. Sharlto Copley's Kruger, a psychopathic mercenary employed by Elysium's defense secretary played by Jodie Foster, was a memorably unhinged villain.
The production design of both the gleaming space station and the dusty, overcrowded Earth were detailed and immersive. Elysium earned $286 million worldwide on a $115 million budget.
