I justified that in my mind by explaining to myself that greater strength and improved reflexes were part of the transformation. He was becoming more prawn than human at that point, so I thought it stood to reason that he would take on more qualities of the prawns; thus, his previous clutzy human actions were replaced by prawn strength and reflexes. It was previously established that the prawns were faster, stronger, and had quicker reflexes.
I got the impression that the Yellow one was the actual leader of that small little group and he made a command decision when he realized that these people were going to come in and investigate no matter what. Remember when Christopher was saying, “Be Cool”, he didn’t know about the large scale eviction going on.
I’m not terribly convinced of that. Big studios getting ahold of something generally are antagonistic to the process of having a coherent story at least as much, if not more than they are good at helping it along. The Production cycle really helps some scripts and some Directors and it really hinders others. Based on the crap that comes out so regularly, and experience with other films that started out without the high expectations like ‘The Matrix’ and what they ultimately turned into after they got glossed up by the studio in the sequels, I don’t know that Sony paying more attention is a good thing.
The FAQ above helps things make a lot more sense. The sense that they are worker aliens almost completely does make sense, and your view that they are next to savages makes sense as well. Just the three that were working beyond that capability are the anomalies I guess.
Apparently there’s variation among the worker class prawns. Christopher’s ability to plan being the most obvious example. I think any attempt at a sequel will suck balls like all the Highlander sequels. If Sony or Dreamworks or Lucas or any other big money get their fingers in this they will probably demand some creative control and we’ll end up with another Indepence Day or worse.
Yeah, Christopher obviously didn’t know what Wikus and the MNU were up to at that point. He’d been scavenging for fuel with his child and only knew that MNU was in the camp and the Army was above in helicopters. Apparently this sort of thing had happened before and might have been a common occurence. It looked like Wikus and his fire team were comfortable going into District 9 and confronting prawns.
On the few prawns who sported bright color: it looked to me like it was just painted on and not a congenital thing. Some of them wore bright colored clothes; Christopher with his orange vest, one prawn wore a pink brasseire and Christopher’s friend wore some yellow rags. I think they’re just attracted to bright colors and maybe shiny things too.
I got the feeling it was a play on the events surrounding the District 6 forced evictions in the 70’s.
Yes, it was like COPS in Joburg
I really need to watch this movie again because I keep mixing up details, but he didn’t he slam the door in the MNU’s face after they asked him one question? It’s clear most of the prawn’s didn’t even understand what eviction meant. Didn’t he also try to bring Christopher a cell phone when they were looking for alien parts?
The point I was trying to make is that even if Christopher’s friend was smarter than most prawns, he still was pretty dumb and had trouble following directions. So it would be nigh-impossible for Christopher to organize a wide-spread revolt.
Now that I think about it, Christopher was a pretty amazing character, that didn’t even exist. He’s completely CGI, but unlike, say, Gollum, he doesn’t even have a voice actor to back him up. He’s entirely the director’s and CGI guys creation.
That’s what I figured, too. I think this also explains how Wikus was able to pilot the ship and the mech so easily. My take on the prawns is that they don’t learn skills, they’re born knowing how to do things necessary for their roles in society. You can see this in Christopher’s kid, who knows how to operate the command module, even though the thing has been dormant for as long as he’s been alive. Part of Wikus’s transformation includes the knowledge that is encoded into prawns from birth, so he’s able to quickly understand how to work their technology.
This would also explain why the majority of the prawns are so dysfunctional on Earth. They’re bred to fulfill a specific role in their native culture, and are literally incapable of learning a new role. Christopher seems to be an exception. Possibly, he’s from a different caste than the other prawns. Obviously, a species that has no ability to gain new skills is never going to develop the advanced technology that the prawns have, so perhaps his caste is one that can learn new things. I kind of got the impression that he’s an engineer caste, while most of the others are worker caste. He has the ability to figure out how new things work, like the human legal system (he recognizes that the eviction order is illegal) or economics - the prawns who sell the mech to the Nigerians don’t seem to understand the concept of value.
Yeah, I assume there’s some sort of genetics going on, since Christopher’s son seemed to be the smartest prawn (just inexperienced.)
Yeah, Prawn technology is somehow interwtined with their own biogenetics, so that a bio interface makes the tech function virtually as parts of their own bodies. It could be that operating the weapons, the mech suit, the control module, etc. is as automatic and instinctive as breathing or swallowing once the interface is made. It could even be as involuntary as making one’s heart beat in some cases. If the interface is there, it could be that the neuro-commands fire on their own, and the individual doesn’t actually have to think or know much at all.
According to Blomkamp, Christopher is a function of some kind of adaptation system which kicks in, over time, after the loss of a queen, in which some individuals can adapt or mutate to become replacement leaders. It’s something that apparently takes a while to happen, though.
What bothers me is why is everyone questions Christopher’s move about leaving the planet without the prawns… HE CLEARLY SAYS IT IN THE MOVIE. did you guys not pay attention. HE CLEARLY SAYS its going to take 3 years. I will go back home and COME BACK WITH HELP. Not Im going into my ship and picking up my people and jetting. He says he has no time to do the transformation because he has to hurry up back home and get help… Plain and simple
Also the whole thing about MNU wanting to harvest Wikus’s parts and yet the mercenary wanted to kill him.
IMO, im pretty sure most of you get the point that, if you want to harvest parts from a body… its best doing it in one piece and FRESH. Not a body that was shot at/Teared apart/Damaged organs/or took 30 minutes to get to a good lab to harvest. That is why
Also as alphaboi867 stated. Christopher coincidentally built his shack over the ship hmmmmm, He probaly was of a higher intelligence in the ship and knew his plan from the start 20 years before as the only possible way to get out of this.
And also there is no issue between having to use fuel for healing wikus or going home… it has to do with time… Oh let me just chill in the mothership for a couple weeks (however long it takes) to heal you and then let you go after they just noticed us enter the ship… its all good… And seriously yeah maybe some people would be like HELL YEAH for a 3year ride with prawns, but he wanted to be with his wife… Not disappear for 3 years… come back and its like oh… shes with another guy… or dead or something…
Even though his wife sorta betrayed him when she called to get a trace on his location, he didn’t seem to mind (not sure if he realized it though). You can make a case that it was really the father and the rest of the world putting enormous pressure on her who pushed her into doing it, but she still did it.
It’s not even entirely clear that his wife realized it. Her dad might have put a trace on the phone without her knowing it, expecting him to try to contact her.
I think that was the most tense part of the entire movie, when you realize that they’re going to cut out his heart, while he’s still awake.
She didn’t seem all that great, and her father’s an ogre. Prawn Planet, ho!
True.
Yeah, one of the doctors explicitly says they aren’t using any anesthesia. I highly doubt they bothered for all those prawn vivisections.
Sure he said it ,but thats where he is handicapped in that he , like wikus are going through severe mental turmoil, getting into a fire fight with the mercs , find the genetic key, sorta notice that you just walked into a midieval torture chamber and his mind just flipped a switch from simple plan to complications.
The thing is that he could have taken the prawns if he wanted to, put that ship into orbit and grab a couple of rocks from the asteroid belt and drop a small one on earth to get everyones attention, im pretty sure in that case we could infer that this was a demonstration strike and would be willing to talk.
If they were starving for three months before we cracked open the ship, its probable that the ships life support cannot that many prawn and Chris knew it. Hell , we probably knew it.
It takes three years to return to Earth, not to get to prawn prime. So he hits the big button and ships out to Prawn prime, and starts raving about these aliens sticking probes up their asses and two million versions of their somalis are languishing away in detention camps, or in other words is there any garuntee that the queen kahuna is going to authorize a fleet rescue , or is she just going to send him to their version of an insane asylum and send a scout to check out what ever he reported.
Wikus is from a corparate culture, Im pretty sure that he would understand what happens when you drop this into a higher paygrade lap. Chris was his only chance of returning to a normal life.
Declan
I got the impression that the first phone call was done with her Dad/authorities present and pressuring her to say certain things, and the second call was her alone not realizing it was being traced.