Children of Men (2006)

In 2027, in a chaotic world in which women have become somehow infertile, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea.

Director:

Alfonso Cuarón

Writers:

Alfonso Cuarón (screenplay), Timothy J. Sexton (screenplay)

Stars:

Julianne Moore, Clive Owen, Chiwetel Ejiofor

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 48 wins & 76 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Clive Owen	...	Theo Faron
Juan Gabriel Yacuzzi	...	Baby Diego (as Juan Yacuzzi)
Michael Caine	...	Jasper
Mishal Husain	...	Newsreader
Rob Curling	...	Newsreader
Chiwetel Ejiofor	...	Luke
Jon Chevalier	...	Café Customer
Julianne Moore	...	Julian
Rita Davies	...	Café Customer
Charlie Hunnam	...	Patric
Kim Fenton	...	Café Customer
Danny Huston	...	Nigel
Chris Gilbert	...	Café Customer
Phoebe Hawthorne	...	Café Customer
Rebecca Howard	...	Café Customer

Storyline

London, 2027. In this dystopian world, humans have been incapable of reproducing for eighteen years for an unknown reason, meaning the imminent extinction of the species. Britain is the one remaining civilized society on the planet, which has resulted in people wanting to immigrate there. As such, it has become a police state in order to handle the immigrants, who are placed into refugee camps. Lowly government bureaucrat Theo Faron, once an activist, is approached by the Fishes, deemed a terrorist group, led by his ex-wife Julian Taylor, who he has not seen in close to twenty years, their marriage which disintegrated following the death of their infant son Dylan during the 2008 flu pandemic. Although the Fishes did use terrorist means in their on-going revolution against the state in the fight for immigrant rights, Julian vows that they now garner support solely by speaking to the people. What she wants is for Theo to use his connections to get transit papers for a young immigrant ...

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Plot Keywords:

long take | england | fertility | allegory | british government | 

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Taglines:

No children. No future. No hope.

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Genres:

Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence, language, some drug use and brief nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [United States] UIP [Germany]

Country:

USA UK Japan

Language:

English German Italian Romanian Spanish Arabic Georgian Russian Serbian

Release Date:

5 January 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Niños del hombre

Filming Locations:

Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina

Box Office

Budget:

$76,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£1,284,254 (United Kingdom), 24 September 2006, Limited Release

Opening Weekend USA:

$179,268, 24 December 2006

Gross USA:

$35,552,383

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$69,959,751

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Strike Entertainment, Hit & Run Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

109 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Sir Michael Caine based his performance on John Lennon.

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Goofs

On the version typically shown by US pay TV, the closed captions indicate that the elderly woman in the fugee camp, who is giving the baby bits of orange, is singing in Romany. In fact, she is clearly singing in Russian. This is confirmed by the old photos in the room, which were obviously taken in Russia/USSR.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Newsreader: Day 1,000 of the Siege of Seattle.
Newsreader: The Muslim community demands an end to the Army's occupation of mosques.
Newsreader: The Homeland Security bill is ratified. After eight years, British borders will remain closed. The deportation of illegal immigrants will continue. Good morning. Our lead story.

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Crazy Credits

At the very end, one can read "Shanti, Shanti, Shanti" with children shouting and laughing on the soundtrack, which can be heard repeatedly throughout the end credits. This is the last line of T.S. Eliot's 1922 poem "The Wasteland." "Shanti" means "peace" in Sanskrit.

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Connections

Referenced in Half in the Bag: Fright Night and Conan the Barbarian (2011)

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Soundtracks

Allegro from Symphony No. 10
Composed by Dmitri Shostakovich
Bis CD 973/974
BBC National Orchestra of Wales (as BBC National Symphony Orchestra of Wales) and Mark Wigglesworth
By permission of Boosey & Hawkes Music Consultancy

User Reviews

Restored my faith in the art of cinema

I've had a particularly bad film year, especially after having seen one particular over-hyped vacuous mess earlier in the year which all but killed my desire to see any films, no matter how interesting they looked or what the critics said about them. So, it was with a little trepidation that I went to see this, especially given that it starred Clive Owen (IMHO, the George Lazenby of British acting).

Well, I loved it and I'm not ashamed. It's unremittingly bleak and violent, but so beautifully filmed and realised that, at one point, I damn nearly burst into tears that someone could have created something so fresh and so moving, so provocative, so disturbing and so grimly beautiful. I thought it brought a real sense of imagination to the screen and that it was possessed of a fantastic visual flair. I felt that it ended on a note of hope, however uncertain and unclear, and certainly a note of redemption for the hero. I'll admit that Owen, while he still hasn't convinced me that he's a great actor, pulls off this role with a hangdog...um, doggedness that I found believable and often even moving.

I left the cinema strangely elated, relieved that cinema still has the power to move.