District 9 thought

[Sarevok]

When I first watched District 9 I thought the Prawns were crew members or perhaps workers. Lately an intriguing alternative possibility has entered my mind. Consider the following facts.

- The Prawn starship had a massive armory full of small arms, explosives and battlesuits. All perfect for large scale land combat on a planet.

- The average Prawn was extremely dimwitted. But they could all instinctively use high tech weapons.

- The average Prawn also had zero initiative. They relied on a leadership cast without whose direction they would rather starve to death than fetch food.

- A certain black fluid is key to controlling the Prawns and their tech.

Now does that sound familiar to fans of Star Trek Deep Space Nine ? Does the word Jemhaeder ring a bell ?

Consider the Jemhaeder.

- They had extreme growth rate. Just like the Prawns who numbered into the millions in a matter of years.

- The Jemhaeder was genetically indoctrinated with all the knowledge needed to be a Dominion soldier. Just like how the Prawn genetic memory of how to use their weapon technology.

- Jemhaeder had very little initiative on their own. They need a Vorta around to function effectively. Sounds a lot like the Prawn leadership cast.

- Most interesting the Jemhaeder are kept loyal by their addiction to Ketracel white. Without the white the Jemhaeder go insane to an even worse degree than the Prawn. Could it be that the black fluid perform the same function to the Prawns ? Now when I rewatch the movie the Prawns remind me of the Jemhaeder stragglers of a crashed starship who ran out of the white. Their behavior while not exactly same does raise some interesting familiarities.

So could it be that the the ship we saw was a troop transport carrying a genetically engineered army like the Jemhaeder ? It's supply of the fluid was contaminated by the enemy and the troops massacred the leadership cast ? Like how the Jemhaeder kill the Vorta when they go crazy after the white runs out ?

It could explain a lot of things. Like for one why no one gave a crap about the average Prawn. To the leadership cast they merely lost a troop transport to an accident. The loss of the slave army is hardly concern for them because like the Vorta they don't care the lives of their soldiers. Which explains why in nearly 30 years not a single rescue mission came looking for the stranded Prawns. It would explain why Christopher or other Prawns are not particularly enraged by the sadistic treatment they receive from humans. They are genetically designed to take abuse without question from their immediate superiors. Just like the Jemhaeder.

[Srelex]

I believe that the filmmakers described the Prawn 'weapons' as repurposed engineering tools, or something. Make of that what you will.

[Bakustra]

Alternatively, the whole dimwitted aspect, the conceit that the 'prawns' were starving inside the ship, the concept of a leadership caste, were all propaganda devised by MNU and the South African government to justify their oppression and control of the 'prawns'. Since the movie explicitly draws upon apartheid and current sentiment against African immigrants within South Africa, I'm hesitant to take the "stupidity" of the 'prawns' at face value. It's possible that no rescue mission was sent because the people back home didn't realize anything had gone wrong, or assumed that it was an accident rather than a case of slavery and oppression. Similarly, Christopher probably was able to retain hope because he still had the lander and thus a chance of escape, while the other 'prawns' didn't have that and also had ready access to drugs (which MNU probably discreetly encouraged or let slide when it came to local operators).

The black fluid also isn't the key to controlling 'prawns' at all, as far as the film shows. All it does is mutate humans into a hybrid form, and serve to activate certain machinery.

[Sarevok]

A battlesuit with guided missiles don't seem like an engineering tool to me.

[Bakustra]

A battlesuit with guided missiles don't seem like an engineering tool to me.

Mining equipment for demolition work. Lightning gun carves out small areas, missiles used for precision collapses, and magnet used to clear tools from the working area.

[Sarevok]

I dunno it's like using an armored division for mining.

[Shroom Man 777]

@Bakustra, Sarevokerritch, Srelex:

Maybe by repurposed engineering tools, the film makers meant that they took engineering tools and modified them to look badass so they could use them as movie props. Like how the pulse rifles from Aliens used a modified SPAS-12 in prop construction, though no one is saying that the actual pulse rifles in the Aliens-verse was based on modified 20th century shotguns used in Jurassic Park.

If the Prawns had the knowhow to jerry rig their engineering tools into frickin' lethal weaponries, that takes the whole idea of most of them being idiots who don't know how to use their own tech and spend their time sucking on catfood totally moot. That means there are other clever Prawns aside from Christopher Johnson, who are clever enough to MacGuyver really killy shit from junk. Does this mean that the power armor in the movie was built by a Prawn in a cave with a box of scraps?


The black fluid does not display addictive properties. All it does is activate alientech and, somehow, mutate people into prawnoids.

Christopher Johnson was also befriended by a non-assholish though a bit dull and clumsy Prawn. I don't know if all the Prawns were violent idiots. Some just preferred to be left alone, and others were just doing their own thing. Then again, is it because of their nature as "subservient class", or is just because they landed on a horrible planet and have lived in poverty for years, or have been born with it (in the case of later generation Prawns). Is the testimony of that person in the movie, who speculates Prawn class distinctions, accurate or what?

[Sarevok]

It is definitely hinted that Prawn intelligence and psychology is genetically governed. The Prawns current state was not caused by their addiction to cat food. They were already in a bad state holed up inside the ship and dying. Whatever killed their leadership caste left the drones completely mentally crippled both individually and as a group. This was long before they made contact with humans.

Yet certain Prawns like Christopher, who also looked different physically, were complete unaffected. Christopher was also scarily intelligent and resourceful. I daresay he has far better planning skills than a human. I mean can you imagine a human living in those conditions pulling off a twenty year epic plan like that ? If the average Prawn had the attention span of a goldfish then Christopher makes Palpatine look like he had ADHD.

I reckon Christopher type Prawns were something like the leadership cast I mused about and characters in the movie speculated existed once aboard the ship.

[Bakustra]

It is definitely hinted that Prawn intelligence and psychology is genetically governed. The Prawns current state was not caused by their addiction to cat food. They were already in a bad state holed up inside the ship and dying. Whatever killed their leadership caste left the drones completely mentally crippled both individually and as a group. This was long before they made contact with humans.

Yet certain Prawns like Christopher, who also looked different physically, were complete unaffected. Christopher was also scarily intelligent and resourceful. I daresay he has far better planning skills than a human. I mean can you imagine a human living in those conditions pulling off a twenty year epic plan like that ? If the average Prawn had the attention span of a goldfish then Christopher makes Palpatine look like he had ADHD.

I reckon Christopher type Prawns were something like the leadership cast I mused about and characters in the movie speculated existed once aboard the ship.

Did you read my post? The parallels between D9 and apartheid leave me loathe to trust MNU about the "intelligence" of the prawns or anything else. In addition, Nat Turner was far more motivated than the typical slave. Does that mean that he was part of a "leadership caste" of Africans? Christopher's intelligence and motivation do not suggest "leadership caste" any more than Nelson Mandela's did.

[Sarevok]

Thinking of Prawns as black people under Apartheid is horribly bigoted and anthropomorphic of you.

They are another species. Many human concepts simply have no equivalence for them.

[Bakustra]

Thinking of Prawns as black people under Apartheid is horribly bigoted and anthropomorphic of you.

They are another species. Many human concepts simply have no equivalence for them.

Sarevokerritch, you have demonstrated your unfamiliarity with the terms "symbolism" and "allusion" many times in the past, but this takes the cake. You see, District 9 was adapted from the short film Alive in Joburg, also directed by Blomkamp, which was explicitly about apartheid and racial hatreds. Sharlto Copley, who played Wikus, indicated in an interview with Wired that the film was a subtle allegory for apartheid. "District 9" itself obviously comes from the District 6 area in Cape Town which was declared a "whites-only" zone in 1966 and which had 60,000 of its residents forcibly removed. Blomkamp has also indicated that he deliberately incorporated elements of modern-day racism and xenophobia- the interviews about the 'prawns' in the film are actually ones about Zimbabwean and Nigerian refugees that he filmed with people on the street.

So, in short, you missed the point of the movie, but that's nothing special.

[Sarevok]

I have no idea what you are babbling about. We are examining the film as evidence. Not authoritarian intent.

[Bakustra]

I have no idea what you are babbling about. We are examining the film as evidence. Not authoritarian intent.

Yes, and the majority of the symbolism and references are within the film! You're the one taking the film completely at face value- assuming that MNU has no reason to lie, that all hatred of the 'prawns' was justified, when the movie itself explicitly invokes the shadows of apartheid and modern-day racial hatreds, which extra-film information confirms.

[Starglider]

A battlesuit with guided missiles don't seem like an engineering tool to me.

Mining equipment for demolition work. Lightning gun carves out small areas, missiles used for precision collapses, and magnet used to clear tools from the working area.

I see you were the main writer for the Dead Space fluff.

[jollyreaper]

Did the writer or writers ever provide much background for the aliens? It seemed chaotic enough that I don't think there was ever really an established rationale for any of it. By way of comparison, real thought was put into the spaceships in 2001/2010 and the ISV from Avatar so you can geek out to your heart's content there. Something like the Star Destroyer was designed 100% according to "rule of cool" so you can have fun guessing what the parts do but it's all just retconning -- the designer said "This random greedling would look good here" but didn't have an explanation for it. Now you're of course free to argue as to whether the explanation provided by the creators makes sense -- I know people argued about the whole engines in front thing with Avatar -- but there's at least a solid claim made clearly that can be debated. Contrast that with the Star Destroyer. Why are the engines in back? It looks cool. Do they ever flip the ship over to slow it down? No, that doesn't look cool. How does it brake? Not important, nobody cares. Concentrate on the cool. Why is the bridge up top on the tower in the most vulnerable spot? Shut up, it's cool.

[Sarevok]

I have no idea what you are babbling about. We are examining the film as evidence. Not authoritarian intent.

Yes, and the majority of the symbolism and references are within the film! You're the one taking the film completely at face value- assuming that MNU has no reason to lie, that all hatred of the 'prawns' was justified, when the movie itself explicitly invokes the shadows of apartheid and modern-day racial hatreds, which extra-film information confirms.

Within the film it is clearly established that the species known to humans as Prawns is from another planet. They have nothing biologically similar to us.

General lack of Prawn creativity was not because they kept down by The Man. But because of their species biology. They seem to be a hive based organism where individuals are specialized. The common drones have absolutely no ability to organize or even feed themselves without leaders. Yet they have absolutely terrific innate ability to use advanced weapons and technology.

[PeZook]

And here we see Sarevok walking straight into the trap that the movie sets: he assumes all the Prawns stuck in District 9 were dimwitted idiots who couldn't tie their own shoelaces, save for a genetically adorned "leadership caste", as opposed to an abused and maltreated mob coming from an entirely alien culture, with a few exceptional individuals able to pull off long-term plans and schemes. Because they're ugly, brutish and don't conform to our social norms.

You know, like the people who invented scientifical justifications for their enslavement of black people

I wonder where Sarevok got the "no initiative" thing from. Did he perhaps forget how the Prawns actively searched for food, built shelter, designed cunning life support systems for their eggs, traded with humans and oh yeah ambushed MNU convoys moving into the district?

They may not have been a direct analogue to humans (DUH!), but all sources in the movie saying they were drones, genetically inferior, pliable, stupid etc. came from the MNU which had a vested interest in keeping them in the camp and continuing their abuse.

[Sarevok]

Did the writer or writers ever provide much background for the aliens? It seemed chaotic enough that I don't think there was ever really an established rationale for any of it. By way of comparison, real thought was put into the spaceships in 2001/2010 and the ISV from Avatar so you can geek out to your heart's content there. Something like the Star Destroyer was designed 100% according to "rule of cool" so you can have fun guessing what the parts do but it's all just retconning -- the designer said "This random greedling would look good here" but didn't have an explanation for it. Now you're of course free to argue as to whether the explanation provided by the creators makes sense -- I know people argued about the whole engines in front thing with Avatar -- but there's at least a solid claim made clearly that can be debated. Contrast that with the Star Destroyer. Why are the engines in back? It looks cool. Do they ever flip the ship over to slow it down? No, that doesn't look cool. How does it brake? Not important, nobody cares. Concentrate on the cool. Why is the bridge up top on the tower in the most vulnerable spot? Shut up, it's cool.

Not everything needs to be spelled out in a nerdy info dump that ruins the story and smooth dialogue Just take a look at David Webers books, full of pages of technical fluff explaining how ships fight in his books, imagine that in a movie.

Lets consider your Star Destroyers being unable to slow down example. In nBSG you could say the same thing about Battlestars because they have no reverse thrusters. Except they actually do as seen in Razor. It was buried in the heavily armored hull in such a way until the thrusters were firing with enough force to rip the ship off it's mooring there was no way to tell they were there. In normal maneuvering scenes we never noticed the otherwise cool exhaust and the thruster mountings themselves. How many total seconds of footage show us ISDs in action ? They could very well have something similar in the forward part of the hull. An intelligent viewer tries infer a ships capabilities from what is shown.

... Well that is kind of nerdy but if you think that way then you should not be posting at a site like this.

[Sarevok]

And here we see Sarevok walking straight into the trap that the movie sets: he assumes all the Prawns stuck in District 9 were dimwitted idiots who couldn't tie their own shoelaces, save for a genetically adorned "leadership caste", as opposed to an abused and maltreated mob coming from an entirely alien culture, with a few exceptional individuals able to pull off long-term plans and schemes.

We see right in the beginning of the movie when the Prawn ship arrives the Prawns inside are starving to death. They do not contact anyone. They make no attempt to live the ship. They were just sitting inside and starving.

They floated above the ground for three months and slowly starved to death until someone sent a helicopter up there.

The Prawns were like this long before they set foot on Earth's soil. Whatever caused this happened on the ship before it made it's way into Earth's atmosphere.

[Bakustra]

And here we see Sarevok walking straight into the trap that the movie sets: he assumes all the Prawns stuck in District 9 were dimwitted idiots who couldn't tie their own shoelaces, save for a genetically adorned "leadership caste", as opposed to an abused and maltreated mob coming from an entirely alien culture, with a few exceptional individuals able to pull off long-term plans and schemes.

We see right in the beginning of the movie when the Prawn ship arrives the Prawns inside are starving to death. They do not contact anyone. They make no attempt to live the ship. They were just sitting inside and starving.

They floated above the ground for three months and slowly starved to death until someone sent a helicopter up there.

The Prawns were like this long before they set foot on Earth's soil. Whatever caused this happened on the ship before it made it's way into Earth's atmosphere.

You mean where we get a few minutes of unclear, dark video with an MNU voiceover? Alternatively, the ship suffered failures on arrival, and like many people today, suffered in the face of a complete breakdown in society. Or the Prawns were in cold-sleep and the ship suffered a failure. Or a great many things, which don't rely on information from an organization devoted to justifying its cruel treatment of the prawns.

Mining equipment for demolition work. Lightning gun carves out small areas, missiles used for precision collapses, and magnet used to clear tools from the working area.

I see you were the main writer for the Dead Space fluff.

I've been found out!

[jollyreaper]

Infodumps are awful but often times you'll see the writer has worked out a lot of stuff that never makes it onto the big screen. For example, character bios, especially in a continuing series. By having a firm sense of who the character is, there's a consistent portrayal even if some of those things never come up on-screen itself. There's really nothing in Avatar explaining how the ISV's work, there's no mention of the laser-assist boost phase leaving earth, etc. But it's all worked out in the production notes and makes it out to us in the fluff.

There are no reverse thrusters for the ISD's and I don't think I've ever seen anything in the fluff related to braking maneuvers. And in the games every ship has a top speed. This is understandable from a gameplay perspective since the lack of a top speed would make it damn near unplayable.

You're correct in that it's better to leave things open for audience inference but part of the analysis is realizing whether there's anything to analyze. If there's writing on the walls in the alien temple, it's important to know whether or not the production designer actually worked out a language or is just making random doodles before you try making sense of it all. If there's a system to it, great. If it's random doodles, you're just wasting your time. Tolkein worked out two full elvish languages and we only heard a few passages in the movie. It's good that they didn't stop to give us a grammar lesson but the geek knows he can get one from the appendices if he's so inclined. Someone could try and divine the grammar and syntax of the cybertronian language from the recent movies but it was all random gibberish and trying to gain any meaning from it is a waste of time. Actually, the same could be said of the movie itself.

[Sarevok]

You mean where we get a few minutes of unclear, dark video with an MNU voiceover?

There is no reason to doubt the video account was fabricated.

Alternatively, the ship suffered failures on arrival, and like many people today, suffered in the face of a complete breakdown in society. Or the Prawns were in cold-sleep and the ship suffered a failure. Or a great many things, which don't rely on information from an organization devoted to justifying its cruel treatment of the prawns.

Conjectures; none of which are supported by the film.

In any case the Prawns behavior once on the ground do not prove they are capable of independent thinking similar to humans. The drones are idiot savants - instinctively capable of building and operating high technology beyond what human science can even imagine. But at same time completely incapable of looking after their welfare.

Primitive scum like MNU were able to subvert the crew of an advanced starship precisely because of this reason. The crew had absolutely no desire or even any idea about resisting. The MNU did not outwit the Prawns - they were extreme dimwits to begin with. This is the only reason stone age (by standards of a star faring society) barbarians like MNU were able to make mockery out of the crew of an interstellar vessel.

[aieeegrunt]

A mob of first world humans dumped into the same oppressive shanty town conditions as the prawns wouldn't have done half as well as the prawns did.

[Sarevok]

The Prawns let themselves be used as bargaining chips amongst those who wanted their high tech. They made absolutely no attempt to safe guard their technology. They made no demands to humans. No pleas for help or assistance. They never asked for their rights either and as seen in the movie the concept was of rights as we humans understand it was alien to them. On their own they had a ship, they still had DEWs and battlesuits and made even no token attempt to protect themselves. If humans had not moved them from that ship every single Prawn aboard would have happily starved to death.

It is difficulty to see how the drone caste Prawn were anything but quite simply apathetic. Without the leader caste they were extremely vulnerable. With the leaders however I reckon they make fantastic soldiers, The average Prawn is like a Covenant Elite in terms of size, strength and speed. He wields formidable arsenal of weaponry that can punch through armor and cover like it is not even there. They are very fast breeders too meaning they can take very heavy losses and recover fast. No apparent training is required either for the Prawns to use their weapons technology.

If you are in the business of invading planets the Prawns would make a awesome fighting force.

[Bakustra]

You mean where we get a few minutes of unclear, dark video with an MNU voiceover?

There is no reason to doubt the video account was fabricated.

You use that word: "doubt". I do not think it means what you think it means.

Alternatively, the ship suffered failures on arrival, and like many people today, suffered in the face of a complete breakdown in society. Or the Prawns were in cold-sleep and the ship suffered a failure. Or a great many things, which don't rely on information from an organization devoted to justifying its cruel treatment of the prawns.

Conjectures; none of which are supported by the film.

In any case the Prawns behavior once on the ground do not prove they are capable of independent thinking similar to humans. The drones are idiot savants - instinctively capable of building and operating high technology beyond what human science can even imagine. But at same time completely incapable of looking after their welfare.

Primitive scum like MNU were able to subvert the crew of an advanced starship precisely because of this reason. The crew had absolutely no desire or even any idea about resisting. The MNU did not outwit the Prawns - they were extreme dimwits to begin with. This is the only reason stone age (by standards of a star faring society) barbarians like MNU were able to make mockery out of the crew of an interstellar vessel.

Alternatively, they didn't resist because they were starving and initially dependent on humans. I mean, you're so hung up about the musings of a propaganda video that you ignore the clear sullenness of the 'prawns' in Wikus' raid, knowing that they have no recourse with which to fight or prevent the destruction of their children. The 'prawns' are deliberately Other at the beginning, but through Wikus' transformation and time spent with Christopher, we realize that they are essentially human- or at least Blomkamp hoped we would. He failed in your case, and horribly too.