District 9 is more then you think it is

Recently, after seeing District 9 for the 2nd time, I realized that the movie is much deeper than I had anticipated before. District 9 is so much more than your average “aliens on Earth” movie. For those of you who have not seen District 9, I will give you a little background. This writing will contain little if any spoilers, but I am going to try and set up a context that I watched the film in so that you can use and possibly build off of my interpretations when you go to watch it.

In 1982, a large alien spaceship stops above Johannesburg, South Africa. Reports suggest that the ship became stranded after a command module separated from the ship and dropped to Earth, nowhere to be found. A group of one million unhealthy and leaderless members of an arthropod-like Extraterrestrial species who were on board the ship are given refuge on Earth. Some of these aliens are said to have engaged in criminal and destructive activities, which lead to demands from the human population for more control. As a result, the aliens - derogatorily referred to as "prawns" - are confined to a government camp inside Johannesburg, called District 9. The actual movie takes place in 2010 when the son-in-law of a prominent military man is chosen to lead the relocation of the extraterrestrial species from District 9 with the serving of eviction notices. The people charged with relocating the “Prawns” are employed by Multinational United (MNU), a rogue private military corporation.

Now that I have somewhat set up what the movie is about, I will highlight some of the points in the movie that resonate if you are an informed individual.

1. The use of a rogue military corporation to bring about the hostile and often violent relocation of the Prawn. This day in age as we see increasing amounts of these rogue military corporations who answer to no government, leave no one but individual lawbreakers within the corporation liable for crimes, and often do not follow the law, I found it interesting that they were chosen to relocate the Prawn instead of a government’s military. Keep in mind, these Prawn are an intelligent species (more so than humans), so they should have the same inalienable rights granted to us as breathing individuals.

2. An important idea shown in the movie was that these rogue corporations and governments were working together to achieve their main goal of understanding the Prawns weapons technology, which is immensely powerful. When you see the movie it will be apparent that the military industrial complex is being highlighted.

3. A misleading corporate media is apparent a few times throughout the movie.

4. District 9 shows how life is not about what we look like or where we are from, but really who we are as individuals. By the end of the movie no one will be rooting for the bad guys simply because they were humans and against the Prawns because they weren’t from Earth. District 9 shows it is inherent for humans to be drawn towards goodness. It also shows how foolish it is of our species to continue to kill and maim our fellow brothers and sisters in war which only benefits the evil war profiteers. If this came true one day and an intelligent species happened to have to stop at Earth for help, I would hope we would be smart enough by then to get over our differences and accept them with open arms. I believe the ultimate destination of an intelligent species is intergalactic travel, so to me this movie is not as far out there as some may think, in fact I think of it as a matter of probability. The probability that an intelligent species may be traveling in our galaxy, near our star, and find our planet for help is infinitely small, but it could happen mathematically. District 9 really got me thinking how ashamed I am of those in power and responsible for aiding the progression and evolution of the human race right now.