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Elysium

  • 2013
  • R
  • 1h 49m
IMDb RATING
6.6/10
457K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
1,987
146
Matt Damon in Elysium (2013)
Set in the year 2154, where the very wealthy live on a man-made space station while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth, a man takes on a mission that could bring equality to the polarized worlds.
Play trailer3:14
40 Videos
99+ Photos
ActionDramaSci-Fi

In the year 2154, the very wealthy live on a man-made space station while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth. A man takes on a mission that could bring equality to the pola... Read allIn the year 2154, the very wealthy live on a man-made space station while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth. A man takes on a mission that could bring equality to the polarized worlds.In the year 2154, the very wealthy live on a man-made space station while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth. A man takes on a mission that could bring equality to the polarized worlds.

  • Director
    • Neill Blomkamp
  • Writer
    • Neill Blomkamp
  • Stars
    • Matt Damon
    • Jodie Foster
    • Sharlto Copley
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    6.6/10
    457K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    1,987
    146
    • Director
      • Neill Blomkamp
    • Writer
      • Neill Blomkamp
    • Stars
      • Matt Damon
      • Jodie Foster
      • Sharlto Copley
    • 1KUser reviews
    • 509Critic reviews
    • 61Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 win & 10 nominations

    Videos40

    UK Trailer
    Trailer 3:14
    Watch UK Trailer
    Trailer #2
    Trailer 3:20
    Watch Trailer #2
    Version 1
    Trailer 2:03
    Watch Version 1
    Version 1
    Trailer 2:14
    Watch Version 1
    Undocumented Ships Inbound
    Clip 0:55
    Watch Undocumented Ships Inbound
    "Would You Like to Talk to a Human?"
    Clip 0:54
    Watch "Would You Like to Talk to a Human?"
    "Heist"
    Clip 0:59
    Watch "Heist"
    Elysium: Undocumented Ships Inbound (UK)
    Clip 0:55
    Watch Elysium: Undocumented Ships Inbound (UK)
    Elysium: Heist
    Clip 0:59
    Watch Elysium: Heist
    Elysium: Heist Droid (French Subtitled)
    Clip 0:54
    Watch Elysium: Heist Droid (French Subtitled)
    Elysium: Heist (UK)
    Clip 1:00
    Watch Elysium: Heist (UK)
    Elysium: Would You Like To Talk To A Human? (French Subtitled)
    Clip 0:51
    Watch Elysium: Would You Like To Talk To A Human? (French Subtitled)

    Photos384

    Sharlto Copley in Elysium (2013)
    Jodie Foster, Matt Damon, and Terry Chen in Elysium (2013)
    Sharlto Copley in Elysium (2013)
    Matt Damon in Matt Damon (2007)
    Matt Damon in Elysium (2013)
    Wagner Moura in Elysium (2013)
    Elysium (2013)
    Jodie Foster in Elysium (2013)
    Elysium (2013)
    Wagner Moura in Elysium (2013)
    Elysium (2013)
    Josh Blacker, Brandon Auret, and Sharlto Copley in Elysium (2013)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Matt Damon
    Matt Damon
    • Max
    Jodie Foster
    Jodie Foster
    • Delacourt
    Sharlto Copley
    Sharlto Copley
    • Kruger
    Alice Braga
    Alice Braga
    • Frey
    Diego Luna
    Diego Luna
    • Julio
    Wagner Moura
    Wagner Moura
    • Spider
    William Fichtner
    William Fichtner
    • John Carlyle
    Brandon Auret
    Brandon Auret
    • Drake
    Josh Blacker
    Josh Blacker
    • Crowe
    Emma Tremblay
    Emma Tremblay
    • Matilda
    Jose Pablo Cantillo
    Jose Pablo Cantillo
    • Sandro
    Maxwell Perry Cotton
    Maxwell Perry Cotton
    • Young Max
    Faran Tahir
    Faran Tahir
    • President Patel
    Adrian Holmes
    Adrian Holmes
    • Manuel
    Jared Keeso
    Jared Keeso
    • Rico
    Carly Pope
    Carly Pope
    • CCB Agent
    Ona Grauer
    Ona Grauer
    • CCB Agent
    Michael Shanks
    Michael Shanks
    • CCB Agent
    • Director
      • Neill Blomkamp
    • Writer
      • Neill Blomkamp
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Sharlto Copley presented an American, an Eastern European, and a British "version" of Kruger to Neill Blomkamp before they agreed that Kruger would be from their home country, South Africa, and speak with the accent of "a very specific area in Johannesburg". Accordingly, Kruger's men are played by fellow South Africans Brandon Auret (who also appeared in Blomkamp's movie District 9 (2009) with Copley) and Josh Blacker. They all incorporate numerous Afrikaans slang words into their dialogue, e.g. "Boet," an informal derivative of "brother," "Boykie," meaning "little boy," and "lekker," a slang for approval.
    • Goofs
      The original "Stanford Torus" design of a wheel-shaped space colony had an offset mirror angled to reflect sunlight onto mirrors set around the central hub and then outward to the ring. Elysium has no such arrangement and sunlight simply shines directly to the interior of the ring. This is completely impractical, as Elysium rotates (about every 6 minutes). This means that location around the habitat would have an ongoing series of periods of "day" and "night", each lasting only 3 minutes, which would be extremely disconcerting for the inhabitants. In addition, Elysium appears to have its rotational axis pointing towards the Earth, and as it orbits the Earth that would mean that (a) it rotates with respect to the Sun, and so the amount of sunlight and its angle will be continuously varying, and (b) during each orbit it will spend time in the Earth's shadow and not receive any sunlight at all.
    • Quotes

      Android Police Officer: [Referring to Max's backpack] What's in the bag?

      Max: [Max's head is shaved bald] Hair products, mostly.

    • Crazy credits
      In the soundtrack part of the end titles it says:

      "Piano Concerto No. 8 in C minor 'Pathetique' - Adagio Cantabile Written by Ludwig van Beethoven"

      L. v. Beethoven wrote only five piano concertos (his eighth piano sonata is titled "Pathetique" however).
    • Connections
      Featured in ReelzChannel Specials: Richard Roeper's Red Hot Summer (2013)
    • Soundtracks
      Ghosst
      Written by Lorn (as Marcos Ortega)

      Performed by Lorn

      Courtesy of Ninja Tune Ltd.

    User reviews1K

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    5/10
    Elysium is visually gorgeous but its story and characters left me cold and disappointed
    After director Neill Blomkamp's fantastic debut film District 9 I was understandably eager to see his new sci-fi film Elysium. Unfortunately his second feature doesn't quite match up with the greatness that was District 9.

    Visually the film is quite stunning and it has some great cinematography when it comes to the larger shots. The CGI effects are excellent and blend in well with the environment. The Earth of the film looks very gritty, believable and lived-in and the space station Elysium has this very sterile and futuristic look to it. You could really buy it that Earth could look like this with many decades of neglect and poverty. Everything's in disrepair and in decline. The rich on the other hand have every resource available to them in their own little paradise in space. The set and production designers truly did a great job with the locations.

    Matt Damon is decent as the film's protagonist Max who is an ex-con now working on assembling the droids which keep order on the now overpopulated Earth. His role and the writing of his character isn't anything too special or memorable but he does what he can with it. He's just a no nonsense guy who is thrown into a difficult situation. He was also quite sarcastic and funny when he was dealing with the droids in the earlier part of the film but we didn't see this side of him at all after that. Alice Braga plays Max's childhood friend Frey with whom Max meets up again when he's an adult. I didn't feel much of an emotional connection or chemistry between them though and that hampered the film a bit. Their back story is told almost completely in sentimental flashback sequences which I didn't care for. The antagonists in this film were very one-dimensional and over the top. Jodie Foster plays Elysium's defense minister Delacourt and Sharlto Copley (who was also in District 9) plays an undercover agent named Kruger who is positioned on Earth. They're both very cliché and uninteresting. The writing of all the characters wasn't very good at all in this film and I didn't get emotionally invested in any of them.

    The story isn't that great either and this then also takes away from the film's many action sequences because we don't have that big a stake in them. The film starts quite strongly as it juxtaposes the situation on Earth and on Elysium to highlight the problems of social and economic inequality. Then suddenly when the action starts, these issues fade far in to the background in favor of more and more action. From the trailers and the hype I really got this impression that the film would deal with these issues in a thoughtful manner. Regrettably this is not the case with this film. A big problem with the film is also that none of the characters seems to learn anything new or change their beliefs or anything like that. A huge part of the success of District 9 was in seeing how the main character evolved after spending some time with the aliens. In Elysium the good guys are the good guys and bad guys are the bad guys. There's no complexity, nuance or subtlety in any of them. We also don't get to meet any other citizens of Elysium beside the higher up leaders like defense minister Delacourt and president Patel. It would've been interesting to see the common people of Elysium and how they react to the situation, what their beliefs are and what drives them. The writing is also a little too pointed out and heavy-handed. Some of it just made me think "Wow, really?". For example, at one point the CEO of the droid production company literally tells some mid-level manager not to breathe at his direction. Things also seem to happen way too conveniently to push the plot along. Then again you could say this about many films but you really start to pay attention to these things when you're not completely engrossed in the film. This film surely would've benefited from a more subtle approach. The ending was also way too simplistic for my taste.

    The action in this film is quite intense and it looks very impressive at times. The exoskeletons were fun and looked convincing. Then comes the shaky cam. Oh boy. It's really quite annoying and very often it's hard to see what's going on. They should've really taken a page from the Bourne movies on how to shoot action scenes. Luckily the shaky cam isn't there all the time but the action could've definitely been improved with a clearer shooting style.

    All in all, the film has decent action with absolutely gorgeous visuals and it moves along at a good pace. Sadly the writing, the plot and the characters aren't that interesting and it's hard to get emotionally invested in this film. It's watchable and probably quite entertaining if you're in the proper mood for it. For me, the film ultimately left me a bit cold and disappointed.
    helpful•840
    251
    • InternetOfZings
    • Aug 9, 2013

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    FAQ5

    • What is 'Elysium' about?
    • Is 'Elysium' based on a book?
    • How does the movie end?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • August 9, 2013 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • United States
      • Canada
    • Official sites
      • Official Facebook
      • Official Facebook (Brazil)
    • Languages
      • English
      • Spanish
      • French
      • Afrikaans
    • Also known as
      • Kỷ Nguyên Elysium
    • Filming locations
      • Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
    • Production companies
      • TriStar Pictures
      • Media Rights Capital (MRC)
      • QED International
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $115,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $93,050,117
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $29,807,393
      • Aug 11, 2013
    • Gross worldwide
      • $286,140,700
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 49 minutes
    • Sound mix
      • DTS
      • SDDS
      • Dolby Digital
      • Dolby Atmos
      • Auro 11.1
      • Sonics-DDP
      • Dolby Surround 7.1
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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