A future where the earth is overpopulated is a definite possibility. Elysium is set in 2154 where due t overpopulation most of the citizens live in poverty, The rich however live on a man made space station known as Elysium. The space station has technology that can heal any disease and even reverse ageing, none of these facilities are given to the citizens on the planet. The residents of earth understandably want to use the Elysium’s technology to cure themselves, the residents of the Elysium however object.
The movie revolves around Max Da Costa an assembly line worker who lives in LA, he works for Armadyne which produces Elysium’s weaponry and police robots. He’s an ex convict that is usually bullied by the robotic police. During a shift Max is accidentally trapped in a kiln and exposed to a lethal dose of radiation, he is rescued but told that he has only five more days to live. Max tries to request John Carlyle the CEO of Armadyne to help, Max is instead given medication to cull the symptoms until his death.
Max unwilling to die tries to enlist the help of human smuggler Spider to get him onto Elysium. Meanwhile 2 out of 3 ships carrying immigrants are shot down by agent Kruger, he’s a government operative acting on the direct orders of Défense Secretary Delacourt. The president Patel reprimands Delacourt and threatens to fire her, Delacourt makes a deal with Carlyle to make her the president. Carlyle developed Elysium and can program it to think that Delacourt is the president, he agrees and stores the program in his brain.
Spider agrees to smuggle max to Elysium if he can steal the information from Carlyle, Max agrees to the deal and an exoskeleton is surgically attached to him. Max and spider’s men shoot Carlyle’s pod down and engage in a fight with the ships robotic guards, in the firefight max is injured and he downloads Carlyle’s program to his suits neural link. Agent Kruger is deployed to kill Max and recover the program. An injured max contacts his childhood friend Frey a nurse, after nursing Max back to health Frey begs him to take her daughter Matilda who suffers from terminal leukaemia to Elysium. Agent Kruger arrives and interogates Frey for Max’s location, realising Matilda to be ill he takes her and Frey onto his ship.
Max delivers the program to spider who reveals that the program can be modified to make everyone residents of Elysium. Max bargains with Kruger to be taken to Elysium, Spider uses this opportunity to board a ship to Elysium. Kruger is injured in a fight on his ship which disables the ships engines. After crashing on Elysium Max is knocked out and Frey tries to use Med bay to cure Matilda but discovers that the Med bays work only for the Elysium’s citizens. Max, Frey and Matilda are taken to Delacourt by Kruger, she orders Frey and Matilde to be taken away and also orders the decryption of Carlyle’s program knowing it will kill Max.
Kruger kills Delacourt and his henchman start killing the other political officers to seize control of Elysium. Max uses this chaos to escape his confinement and vows to use the program to help everyone, he frees Matilda and Frey and kills one of Kruger’s henchmen. Spider has Matilda and Frey escorted to a Med bay while he accompanies Max to the Elysium’s core. After a brief fight with Kruger the duo reaches the core, Spider realises that the codes activation will kill Max. Max makes the sacrifice by activating the program, the program registers every earth resident as an Elysian citizen. Matilda is cured by a med bay and a fleet of ships leave for earth to treat all the residents.
The movie is an amazing play on one of our possible futures. Our world might be heading in the same direction, the technological aspect would be welcomed by all but the financial and social aspect is something we must lookout for. The current pandemic gave us a pretty good look at what happens to the general public, the rich on the other hand keep getting richer. Something has to be done to bridge the gap and make amends while possible or stay ready for an Elysium like world.
