SNAPSHOT
In the year 2159 two classes of people exist: the very wealthy who live on a pristine man-made space station called Elysium, and the rest, who live on an overpopulated, ruined Earth. Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster), a hard line government official, will stop at nothing to enforce anti-immigration laws and preserve the luxurious lifestyle of the citizens of Elysium. That doesn’t stop the people of Earth from trying to get in, by any means they can. When unlucky Max (Matt Damon) is backed into a corner, he agrees to take on a daunting mission that if successful will not only save his life, but could bring equality to these polarized worlds. (source: collider.com)
Desperate people with nothing to lose are the most dangerous people on Earth.
Stripped off the heavy weight of obligations, concerns about the future, and the loss of everything they hold dear, they move unencumbered, with purpose and few, if any, worries about collateral damage, towards their goal.
And woe betide if you try to stop them.
Max De Costa (Matt Damon), the protagonist in Elysium, the new film set in a dystopian 2154 from writer/co-producer/director Neill Blomkamp (District 9), is one such a man.
And Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster), the woman charged with maintaining the otherworldly peace and harmony of the pristine, untroubled world of Elsyium – a thematic mod to the utopian Elsyian fields of Greek mythology – far above the environmentally degraded, poverty-stricken Earth below, will do everything she has to to make sure it stays that way.
Which includes, shockingly but not surprisingly, blowing up ships of “illegals” up mid-flight as they race towards Elysium (a horrifying corollary of the refugee debates wracking Australia and the world in contemporary society) .
With two such powerful forces running headlong into each other, there can only be one winner, and if this trailer is any indication it’s likely to be Max De Costa, a man with little to lose, and cliched though it is, everything including life itself to gain.
The trailer promises a film that, combining superlative cinematography and storytelling with a thinking man or woman’s action thriller, asks the deeply uncomfortable question – what price a life of privilege?
And is it worth pursuing if it means the vast majority of humanity is disadvantaged?
We will no doubt be presented with a lot to think about when Elysium opens in USA on 9 August 2013, followed by Australia on 15 August and UK on 23 August.