We live in an era of cut-and-paste, mix-and-match, sample-and-recontextualize pop culture. Just because a movie is blazingly original doesn’t mean that it has to be shy about what it borrows from the past. Quentin Tarantino is the unapologetic king of recombinant pop — the auteur as mix-master. And in District 9, the aliens-as-dispossessed-refugees sci-fi thriller that has already struck a huge chord with audiences, director Neill Blomkamp wears his influences lightly but proudly. What makes the movie mean something is that, like Kill Bill or The Matrix, it doesn’t feel like the sources it recalls; it doesn’t feel like any other movie you’ve seen. That said, when you watch District 9, it’s almost impossible to resist playing Spot the Reference/Influence/Allusion/Homage. I’ve listed half a dozen of the obvious ones. How many more can you find?
Alien Nation. The benign and cultish 1988 sci-fi movie, which was turned into a TV series just a year later, featured a race of extraterrestrial visitors who looked like friendly, wigless department-store mannequins with their brains worn on the outside. A far cry from D9’s dreadlock-faced Praying Mantisoid thingies, to be sure — but the film highlighted the concept of aliens as entrenched outsiders living as second-class citizens, as the other, within human society.
Independence Day. The best thing in ID4 was always the image of those city-sized alien spaceships just sitting there, hovering, full of threat. Blomkamp picks up that image and re-invents it, indelibly, by shooting it with grainy newsreel video, so that instead of coming off as a wow-the-audience “movie” effect, it looks like something that’s actually happening right in front of your eyes.
Starship Troopers. A lot of people would say that comparing District 9 to Paul Verhoeven’s infamous Beverly Hills 90210-meets-the-spiders-from-Mars thriller is an insult. Not me. (Check out my original, unashamed B+ review.) The thing is, it’s really a comparison of tone: D9 is a far better movie, but its first 45 minutes or so does have that same relentless, alien-splatter, video-game turkey-shoot quality.
The Fly. I don’t want to give too much away, but when something…happens to the clownish bureaucrat Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley), he goes on a journey that can’t help but recall that of Jeff Goldblum in the 1986 David Cronenberg bio-shocker. Here, too, our hero finds his humanity the more literally that he (or, at least, his body) strays from it.
RoboCop. If you check out Blomkamp’s previous work (I’ve linked to it just below), you’ll see that RoboCop appears to be more or less his formative text. Now there’s a Paul Verhoeven movie that’s truly worth emulating (to me, it remains his best), and you can see its influence in the scenes where Wikus climbs inside, operates, and all but fuses with that walking killer auto-gun robot. Like Peter Weller’s RoboCop, he becomes a haunting and even poignant man-machine.
Enemy Mine. Though Alien Nation, too, was a human/extraterrestrial buddy movie, I think it’s this one — with Lou Gossett Jr. as a gruff-voiced, scaly-faced alien and Dennis Quaid as the human space traveler who bonds with him — that infuses the final section of D9.
So are there other films you can think of that shadow District 9?
For inspiration, I highly recommend that you check out these fascinating short films and commercials that Neill Blomkamp directed as a run-up to his first feature. They include “Alive in Joburg” (the 6-and-a-half-minute short out of which D9 sprung) and his great Nike Evolution spot.
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I thought of not a film, but a videogame- Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysey. It has alien creatures called Sligs that are kinda similar to prawns, looking kinda like a mix of insects and sea creatures and metal. And of course the way Abe was able to blow up the bad guys, almost exactly the same way the prawn weapons made people explode. Felt very similar to me.
More than once felt like I was watching an extended, really expensive episode of “the Outer Limits.” They tended to give you a premise and then flip it in the second half so that up was down, right was wrong and the weak turned out to be predators who lulled the idiotic humans into their trap.
They even had similiar plotlines and themes such as slums, alien vs terran persecution, what is human, metamorphasis, etc.
I subscribe to the mag, and read on line daily. But I have to say, giving an A to District 9 is in poor judgment of rating movies. I consider myself an avid fan of movies, but I thought this movie was horrible. My wife and I were ready to leave within 30-40 mins of start.
You’re not an avid fan of movies if you thought this movie was ‘horrible’, Considering most every other avid movie fan on the planet thought it was AMAZING. I have yet to speak to someone that truly didn’t think it was a well-made film. Either youre one of those people that are trying to be a movie snob or you just don’t know quality film making when you see it. This movie deserves most of the praise it’s getting.
been a big movie fan fo 40 years, love sci-fi. This movie hit every cliche in the book, and was really heavy-handed in its symbolism. I haven’t spoken to anyone who liked it. It was like watching a “very special episode” of a tv series, where you learn a valuable lesson.
I work in the industry as an editor (only TV thus far, but I’ve got to start somewhere). I can safely say that I thought it was an awful movie that was made poorly. You claim a well-made movie, why? ‘Cause everyone else is telling you too? The camera work falls in line with “Quarantine” and “The Blair-Witch Project,” which Jackson did for the mockumentary effect. However, I think this could have definitely been a more high quality film if he had foregone the whole “Running-with-the-camera-technique-to-make-this-look-like-real-news-footage.” Wouldn’t have lost authenticity, but perhaps kept more of an audience.
I get the overall theme – it was obvious – but apart from the take on apartheid, this was not that creative of a movie.
So there you go – I’m an avid movie fan, I love sci-fi, work in the industry, and still hate this film. Sorry Zach.
I see equal parts “Heidi,” “Babe,” “The Color Purple,” “Plan 9 From Outer Space” and “How Green Is My Valley.”
Michael T, what movie were you watching ? You sure you weren’t watching Transformers 2 by accident ?
I also see Aliens (Cameron’s sequal), Black Hawk Down and Cry Freedom
Can we all call for a moratorium on the expression “that said,…”??? Has there ever been a more overused term in the past 25 years? Enough already.
That said, I still liked this movie. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!
The directing style and wailing Arabic soundtrack is all Ridley Scott and ‘Blackhawk Down’.
I loved D9 but didn’t find it orignial at all. I thought it was trying to break ground that had already been broken. Cloverfield, anyone? I’m shocked that that one was left off the list!
I agree. This seemd like a hybrid of alien nation, cloverfield, and aliens 3.
During the first 30 minutes, all I could keep thinking was how much Viker was Michael Scott from The Office. It was really weird.
You hit the nail right on the head! I was waiting to hear him yell “That’s what she said!”
He reminded me of Murray from Flight of the Concords. I kept expecting him to say “Bret! Bret!”
I also think it had a “28 Days Later” vibe based on its documentary-style realism.
I saw some of that as well. The 28 later series is one of my all time favs.. probably one of the reasons D9 stuck with me soo much.
Loved District 9, and I am glad to see Starship Troopers hasn’t been forgotten. RIP Dizzy!
Michael T., I agree that the movie started very slowly, but did you stay past that point? Just because a movie starts slow doesn’t mean it’s not a great film.
Glad you mentioned Enemy Mine. That was the first movie I thought of after watching D9.
The huge alien spaceships in ID4 were obviously influenced by the Visitors ships in V, so I would say that V should definitely be on this list.
Here are my notes:
Fifth element – uber weapon (don’t press the red button)
Marathon Man – is it safe?
The Evil Dead – my hand went bad
I’m sure I can stretch for more….
All the people that hate this movie are should just shut the hell up and move on with their ridiculously boring lives. I’m a fan of this film and I in fact think its the best of the year. If you hate a movie so much, then stop visiting the freaking posts that are related to the film. Go eat your Rice a Roni and play with your cats.
Dude…chillax. Stop giving sci-fi geeks a bad name with all your hate. Just because some people didn’t like a movie that you like doesn’t mean your opinion of it is bad. You’re still “allowed” to like it. Free country, free speech, and all that, yeah? I’m a huge sci-fi nerd and even I, though I did enjoy the film, thought it was very derivative and only original in a couple spots. Just…chill, brother.
I really enjoyed this movie! I think maybe the critics were wrong in saying it was completely original, but I’m way over trying to pick this movie apart. It was damn entertaining. Period.
I think Neill Blomkamp’s biggest influences into “District 9″ are video games. I believe this will be a major trend in the upcoming years with movies. For example, “The Book of Eli” is written by a former video game journalist. But “District 9″’s look references many recent video game epics. “Resident Evil 5″’s African setting looks very similar to the African landscape here. Also, Blomkamp was originally slated to direct Peter Jackson’s “Halo” adaptation, and the clips that Blomkamp shot for pre-production (which can be found of YouTube) are incredible. The film also stylistically looks very much like “Half-Life 2″ and it’s heavily quarantined living settlements. But I definitely think that the world of movies will be heavily influenced by video games and vice-versa. Look at the upcoming “Heavy Rain” and the Stephen King-penned “Alan Wake” for more proof that this synergy most likely will be the future of both mediums.
You forgot “Black Hawk Down.” The dragging-aliens scene is taken right from that picture.
First, it’s not Robocop that District 9 echoes, but Aliens, where Ripley climbs into the combo-robot-fork-lift to fight the big bad mother alien. Robocop WAS a half-man/half-robot, which is not at all what happens in District 9. Aliens also has the mega-corporation-as-evildoer aspect that is so key in District 9. So first of all, please correct your article. Robocop is all wrong.
Some other films referenced:
- Come See the Paradise (community of ‘aliens’ legally forced into internment camps, legally abused)
- Doomsday (outcast separated community, lots of futuristic action sequences)
- Predator (similar-looking alien, but that’s all)
- The Incredible Hulk (father lying to his daughter in order to use/abuse her husband)
THANK YOU!! We’ve been going crazy trying to think of what movie had the robo-forklift thing.
I feel the aliens look is mush like the Aliens in half life they both have an extra arms on their chest like the Vortigaunt and the weaponry also looks and fuctions like the famed Gravity Gun and many other weapons too, and the alien suit he was wearing looks like the robotic character Dog.
Dog Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwMot_SwLcs
vortigaunt http://aaronspringer.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/vortigaunt.png
Your reasoning for ID4 is flawed… the giant spaceship just hovering there is in fact from Alien Nation’s opening scene. ID4 and District 9 both borrowed it.
No YOUR reasoning is flawed.
ID4 and Alien Nation both stole the idea from the TV Mini-series “V”.
The Hulk was definitely a reference – not only the hand (and apparently the father/daughter relationship), but the scene where he originally escapes death at the medical facility seems lifted from some incarnation of the Hulk.
Half-Life 2. Dog and its gravity gun.
There is a scene when Wyckers is trying to call his wife and he is standing on a ridge overlooking district 9 – it looks almost identical to luke skywalker on tatooine – he then dials the phone for his wifes number…the tune on the buttons being pressed is …the starwars theme!
the bouncing camera, documentary-style filming reminded me of the blair witch project
I haven’t seen the movie yet, but from the commercials the aliens look very similar the buggers from Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. Or at least how I imagined they would look.
just another response to all those saying i don’t know movies. No i did not think Transformers2 was good. Along with GIJoe loser. But, I guess if you like a guy being filmed throwing up for an hour the second half was much better. But still does not rate an A.
Surprised no one yet has mentioned “Close Encounters Of the Third Kind” (CETK)as that’s what I thought of as soon as I saw the spaceship hovering over Johannesburg. It looks a lot like the mothership from CETK, plus the story is the flip side of the CETK plot. Instead of the aliens being all peaceable and cuddly, they’re sort of gross and violent; instead of mankind reacting with awe and wonder, there’s fear and a desire to isolate and ultimately destroy the alien visitors. I think CETK came from a more idealistic time, District 9 a grittier, more cynical era.