Directed by Neill Blomkamp
The year is 2154. Earth is a ruined, overcrowded wasteland. The wealthy have long since abandoned it, retreating to Elysium, a pristine space station orbiting above where the air is clean, the lawns are perfect, and every home contains a medical pod that can cure any disease or injury in seconds. Down on Earth, former car thief turned factory worker Max Da Costa receives a lethal dose of radiation in a workplace accident, and is given five days to live. His only hope is to reach Elysium and its miraculous medical technology. What follows is a brutal, earnest action film about the lengths people will go to for survival, and the systems that keep life-saving technology out of reach of those who need it most.
This page discusses key plot points from Elysium. The film is not subtle about its themes, and knowing where the story goes will not diminish it much. But it is a solid sci-fi action movie worth watching on its own terms.
Elysium is, as the book acknowledges, a rather earnest film. It deals with enormous social issues and takes itself very seriously, to the point where its portrayals of inequality and its proposed solutions are both quite simplistic. And yet, for all that, it shines a powerful light on one of the most important questions of our technological age: what happens when transformative technologies benefit only those who can afford them?
The chapter uses the film's medical pods as a launching point for exploring real advances in bioprinting and regenerative medicine. Scientists are genuinely working on the ability to 3D-print replacement tissues and organs, using a patient's own cells to create biological structures that the body will not reject. While we are a long way from the instant-cure pods of Elysium, the trajectory is real. Bioprinting has the potential to revolutionize medicine by eliminating transplant waiting lists and enabling repairs to damaged organs. The question is who will have access to these technologies when they arrive.
The film also provides a lens for examining automation and robotics, and the impact these technologies have on workers. Max works in a factory building the very robots that police the impoverished Earth, a pointed metaphor for workers whose labor creates systems that ultimately work against their interests. The chapter explores how automation is already reshaping the job market, displacing workers in manufacturing, transportation, and service industries, and asks how societies can adapt to a future where machines do more of the work that humans used to do.
At its core, though, the chapter uses Elysium to explore social inequality in an age of technological extremes. The film was made in the wake of the Occupy movement, and it dramatizes the growing gap between haves and have-nots that has become one of the defining issues of the twenty-first century. The chapter connects this to the economist Joseph Stiglitz's observations about the top one percent and asks whether emerging technologies are more likely to narrow inequality or widen it. The honest answer, without deliberate intervention, is that powerful new technologies tend to flow first to those who can pay for them, reinforcing existing advantages.
The chapter also raises the question of intergenerational responsibility. The ruined Earth of Elysium did not happen overnight. It is the result of decisions made by previous generations who prioritized short-term gain over long-term sustainability. This connects directly to real-world debates about climate change, resource depletion, and the kind of world we are leaving for our children.
Elysium's focus on technological inequality connects to Limitless (who gets access to cognitive enhancement?) and Ghost in the Shell (who controls the technologies that augment your body?). The theme of intergenerational responsibility runs through The Day After Tomorrow. And for more on the tension between corporate interests and public good, see Jurassic Park.