Forced abortions, manipulating tenants, and human experimentation? Rewatching
"District 9" might make you question who the real monsters of the film are.
After watching "District 9" a few times, you may notice that the aliens have a variety of
contrasting colors painted on their bodies. At the end of a Q&A session led by Adam Savage at
a screening of the film, an audience member asked if there was any significance to the
variation in color displayed on the alien's bodies. Director Neil Blomkamp said that the
variation does not imply a difference in heritage or social standing within their alien society.
Although the colors have no significance regarding the Prawn's social organization,
you may have noticed they sport the pan-African colors of red, gold, and green. While Christopher
Johnson has a green hue, his friend who is killed at the beginning of the film has a yellow hue,
and other aliens throughout the film have red hues. Using these particular colors, which appear
on the flags of many African nations, could be a message promoting a more unified African
identity to combat xenophobia and discrimination against refugees from various African countries.
At the end of his Q&A with Savage,
Blomkamp confirmed that the villainous organization Multinational United,
or MNU, stamps the aliens in "District 9" with a serial number to identify them.
In several scenes, Christopher can be seen with a white, "Property of MNU," stamp on
his head with a number next to it. This serial number creates a visual parallel
between MNU's treatment of the aliens, chattel slavery in the United States,
and the Jewish people imprisoned at Auschwitz during the Holocaust.
It is clear MNU isn't just using serial numbers to identify the aliens living in District 9, but
that the organization views the aliens as property rather than refugees living in a settlement. The
aliens are regarded as something less than human. The stamp on their heads emphasizes this attitude,
as does the derogatory slur "Prawn" used by Johannesburg residents to refer to the aliens.
The links to Nazi Germany's treatment of Jewish residents are also echoed later in
the film when Wikus tells Christopher he shouldn't go to District 10.
"You don't want to go to the tents. They're not better.
They're smaller than the shacks. Actually more like a concentration camp."
One of the first truly disturbing scenes in "District 9," which highlights the social
commentary in the film, depicts Wikus conducting what he calls an "abortion" of gestating alien
offspring. Wikus even provides commentary for the film crew while the shack burns, saying,
"Do you hear that? Do you hear that? That's a popping sound that you're hearing.
It's almost like a popcorn. What the egg does is, it, it, it, it, it pops out."
Shortly after the nursery shack is burned, we learn killing alien children is illegal,
but apparently performing "Prawn abortions" is simply an MNU policy
that Wikus embraces. As pointed out in an analysis by The Artifice,
"Although Wikus follows direct protocol, he fails to recognize
that he's exterminating a species. Wikus displays no remorse towards his actions,
suggesting that he's adapted to the government's policies."
This disturbing scene draws a correlation between the film and historical instances
of forced sterilization as a means of population control for people of
color in South Africa both during and after apartheid [uh-PAR-tide]. Sadly,
real-world South Africa and the South Africa depicted in "District 9" are not
unique in this shockingly inhumane behavior. Forced sterilization and eugenics programs
have also been practiced in the U.S. on BIPOC populations as recently as the 20th century.
Wikus employs manipulative methods to extract signatures from the aliens that
are being evicted from District 9. MNU determined
that they must inform the aliens of their eviction 24 hours before they are moved,
and they must sign paperwork acknowledging they were informed of their relocation to District 10.
Wikus tricks one alien into signing by claiming they will receive a can of cat food, a delicacy
in District 9, in exchange for their signature. He also uses the discovery of illegal weapons in
their residence, which marks them as gang members and criminals, to speed up the eviction process.
When Christopher says he won't sign the paperwork because the eviction is illegal, Wikus threatens
to take away his son, CJ. He uses the excuse that the garbage around the shack makes the residence
unsuitable for CJ to live in, and that he is legally obligated to take CJ to social services.
"You said you want to stay, your boy is coming down with me to Child
Services. He's gonna spend the rest of his life in a 1-by-1 meter box."
In "District 9," the foster care system has been weaponized against the impoverished aliens. This
mirrors similar events that transpired in the United States, such as the separation of many
native children from their family homes by the government and religious organizations.
In "District 9," Johannesburg residents regard the aliens as violent criminals and aimless
scavengers. According to Human Rights Watch, undocumented individuals living in South Africa
in 2008 suffered from similarly xenophobic violence, poverty, crime, and unemployment.
"Alive in Joburg," Blomkamp's 2005 mockumentary short that inspired
"District 9," features interviews taken from real Johannesburg residents speaking
about immigrants. These interviews highlight the poor attitudes about
refugees and migrants in South Africa. In a press release, Blomkamp said,
"In essence, there is no difference except that in my film we have a
group of intergalactic aliens as opposed to illegal aliens."
After Wikus gets infected with an alien fluid that begins transforming him,
he begins to adopt the same criminal behaviors he holds against aliens in District 9,
not because he is becoming a "Prawn," but because he has become ostracized
and impoverished overnight. He engages in violence to escape the MNU medical facility,
and steals clothing, a cell phone, and food after escaping because he has no other choice.
The aliens aren't mindless drones, as the interviewees in the mockumentary
suggest. They are refugees who lost their social structure and were imprisoned in a
camp that controls their ability to live and perpetuates their poverty. These are
issues real-life refugees must contend with while living in refugee encampments everyday.
"So we have to come there and say, 'Listen, this is our land, uh, please will you — will you go?'"
Wikus' statement at the beginning of "District 9" sounds strikingly
similar to what the U.S. government told the Indigenous population of
North America when President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act,
inciting a massive forced relocation of Native people from their ancestral homes.
The forced relocation of District 9 also has ties to South African
history. According to the South African History Archive, in 1966,
District Six was deemed a "whites-only" district by the 1950 Group Areas Act. Starting in 1968,
60,000 residents of District Six were forced to relocate because they were Black or
biracial. Their homes were demolished and a new "whites-only" district was built in their place.
In his Q&A with Adam Savage, Blomkamp spoke about how the neighborhood where
he filmed "District 9" was undergoing a forced relocation of residents to
government-subsidized housing while the movie was being filmed. The area is called Chiawelo,
and Blomkamp said the neighborhood was severely impoverished. In fact, the shacks
depicted in the film were once the actual homes of Chiawelo residents before their relocation.
Although "District 9" has been lauded for its anti-racism stance, it has also been criticized
for the depiction of the Nigerian residents of District 9 who earn a living off the aliens,
leaving critics and academics divided. The Mail & Guardian points out that,
although the film succeeded in eventually making the audience sympathize with the aliens,
the Nigerians characters in the film were depicted as being entirely reprehensible.
"You don't want to play with these boys. They'll cut you in four pieces and put you on —"
"Boss! Boss!"
" — each side of — That's the boss there. Ok! No problem!"
In the Adam Savage Q&A, Blomkamp acknowledged he was almost banned from Nigeria because of the
controversy surrounding the negative depiction of Nigerians in the film. The "Prawns" and Nigerians
act as fictional stand-ins for real-world refugees and migrants who came to South Africa
for a better life, only to meet resentment by Indigenous and European South Africans.
In her academic paper, Ashton Kirsten argues the director uses these stereotypes
to uncover misguided nationalism and change our assumptions about immigrants. Of course,
these negative attitudes about immigrants are not unique to South Africa. We need only look to the
U.S. to see a long history of anti-immigrant sentiment that has caused incredible harm to
countless individuals and cultures.
Unlike many "going native" stories, "District 9" isn't about a man who
discovers the beauty in another culture and embraces it like Jake Sully in "Avatar"
or Lieutenant Dunbar in "Dances with Wolves". Instead, Wikus is forced to
see the humanity in an alien species only after transforming into a Prawn himself.
The utter disgust Wikus displayed when he sees his injured arm has transformed
into a "Prawn" arm reveals his racism toward the aliens. Wikus denies his transformation,
telling CJ they are nothing alike when the tiny alien compares their matching arms. Eventually,
Wikus' transformation is too complete for him to continue denying it,
and he finally sees humanity in Christopher and his son CJ. After this realization,
Wikus treats the aliens with compassion, rather than being driven solely by self-interest.
In his academic paper, Laszlo Szabo writes,
"In 'District 9,' body horror becomes a medium for
dehumanization that further stresses the inhumanity of the colonizers."
Wikus' transformation into an alien forces him to confront the inherent racism of his culture,
and the self-loathing he feels as he transforms is a poignant depiction of internalized racism.
When Wikus becomes a science experiment at the MNU medical laboratory, he is forced to
fire alien weapons, and even kill an unwitting "Prawn" in a particularly upsetting chain of
events. After MNU's tests are run, Wikus is faced with a choice: submit to the agency by having his
organs fatally harvested for medical research, or use his newfound alien strength to escape.
During their raid to retrieve the rocket fuel responsible for Wikus' transformation,
Christopher sees the experiments being carried out on his people at the MNU medical laboratory. His
horror is made clear by his dejected stance as he hangs his head and stares at the corpses of aliens
with the intense firefight between Wikus and MNU soldiers raging in the background
This history of experimenting on prisoners is broad. The Nazis experimented on Jewish prisoners
during the Holocaust, and during WWII the Japanese experimented on Chinese prisoners in Unit 731.
This history of unethical experimentation also exists in South Africa. According to PBS,
the Truth and Reconciliation Commission uncovered details of the Chemical and
Biological Warfare programs run by South Africa's apartheid-era government which
specifically targeted the non-white population.
Discover Magazine also exposed a long history of unethical experiments on oppressed populations
in the U.S., from the Tuskegee syphilis study and the CIA's MK-Ultra studies,
to a dermatologist's use of prisoners as test subjects in the mid 1950s.
Discussing his thoughts on "District 9", producer Peter Jackson told Entertainment Weekly,
"It's an utterly original film. In an industry that's looking to
make movies out of every obscure TV show, or sequels, or video games,
you look at 'District 9' and it's unlike anything you've ever seen before."
While this statement is 100% true, and "District 9" is undeniably inventive,
it is also a love letter to sci-fi, the genre Blomkamp grew up obsessing over.
As Empire acknowledged in their "District 9" review, the film is a treasure trove
of references to sci-fi classics like "Alien Nation," "The Fly" and "RoboCop."
For example, the suit Wikus wears to battle the MNU soldiers in the film's
final confrontation is a not-so-subtle homage to the mech-suits in "RoboCop."
The director essentially confirmed this in an interview with FirstShowing,
saying that "RoboCop" was one movie that strongly influenced him as a filmmaker.
Blomkamp told Time how the combination of his youth steeped in South Africa's
turbulent history and his love of sci-fi came together and
inspired him to create a sci-fi set in South Africa. The result was a truly unique film
that celebrates an unabashed love of a genre while serving up satirical social commentary.
At the very end of "District 9," we see mockumentary footage of Wikus showing the
camera crew a picture of his wife and telling them she is an angel.
"She's my special angel. There, she even looks like an angel with a halo."
While the scene acts as a sweet sentiment showcasing Wikus' devotion to his wife,
this line might also be a subtle reference to the "Halo" film project that fell apart
before Blomkamp made "District 9." Although Blomkamp's "Halo" movie never materialized,
a TV adaptation premiered in March 2022 on Paramount Plus.
In an interview with FirstShowing, Blomkamp spoke about how it was only
after his live-action adaptation of the "Halo" videogame fell apart that
Peter Jackson suggested he develop a feature inspired by his short film, "Alive in Joburg."
That twist of fate allowed Blomkamp pioneer his own sci-fi franchise. As reported by Sci Fi Wire,
the director has teased the possibility of a sequel periodically since "District
9" hit screens, even telling an audience at San Diego Comic-Con,
"It's a very personal film, and it's a universe and a place that I find
incredibly creative. I'd love to go back to that universe."
Blomkamp continues to say he is developing a "District 9" sequel. In 2021, he even
hinted to IGN the sequel would more directly address concepts related to American History.