District 9

"You are not welcome here."

2009 1h 52m EN

👍

7.5

SOLID

🔥

90%

CERTIFIED FRESH

💯

METACRITIC

⭐

7.9

IMDB

★7.5TMDB · 10,701🍅90%Rotten Tomatoes●81Metacritic★7.9IMDB · 748,028

Science Fiction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Thirty years ago, aliens arrive on Earth. Not to conquer or give aid, but to find refuge from their dying planet. Separated from humans in a South African area called District 9, the aliens are managed by Multi-National United, which is unconcerned with the aliens' welfare but will do anything to master their advanced technology. When a company field agent contracts a mysterious virus that begins to alter his DNA, there is only one place he can hide: District 9.

“You are not welcome here.”

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Cast

Sharlto Copley
Wikus van de Merwe
Jason Cope
Christopher Johnson / Grey Bradnam / Trent
Nathalie Boltt
Sarah Livingstone - Sociologist
Sylvaine Strike
Dr Katrina McKenzie
Elizabeth Mkandawie
Interviewee
John Sumner
Les Feldman - MIL Engineer
William Allen Young
Dirk Michaels
Nick Blake
Francois Moraneu - CIV Engineer Team

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Neill Blomkamp
Writers: Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell, Anthony Burdon
Languages: Afrikaans, Chichewa; Nyanja, Sotho, Xhosa, Zulu, English
Countries: New Zealand, South Africa, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 7.0× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 17 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 6 languages: Afrikaans, Chichewa; Nyanja, Sotho, Xhosa, Zulu, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 3 countries: New Zealand, South Africa, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CAST

Did you know

615+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Neill Blomkamp, shot by Trent Opaloch. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Original score by Clinton Shorter. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Julian Clarke shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Neill Blomkamp directs. Trent Opaloch behind the camera. Clinton Shorter scores. Julian Clarke cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in New Zealand, South Africa, United States of America. Dialogue in Afrikaans, Chichewa; Nyanja, Sotho, Xhosa, Zulu, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Made its money back 7.0× over at the box office.
2Released 17 years ago.
3Dialogue crosses 6 languages: Afrikaans, Chichewa; Nyanja, Sotho, Xhosa, Zulu, English.
4International production across 3 countries: New Zealand, South Africa, United States of America.
5615+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
6Directed by Neill Blomkamp, shot by Trent Opaloch. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by Clinton Shorter. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor Julian Clarke shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Sharlto Copley and Jason Cope and Nathalie Boltt carry the top of the cast.
10Marketing tagline: "You are not welcome here.".
11IMDB entry: tt1136608 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
1210,701 TMDB user ratings logged — serious cultural footprint.
13Classified under 25 themes, including "street gang", "government", "genetics", "slum".
14Released under 19 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Trent Opaloch
Original score: Clinton Shorter
Editing: Julian Clarke
Production design: Philip Ivey
Costume design: Diana Cilliers
Makeup / hair: Jaco Snyman
VFX supervisor: Justin Lavery
Sound: Gilbert Lake
Stunt coordinator: Grant Hulley
Runtime: 112 min · 1h 52m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $30,000,000
Box office: $210,888,950
Return: 703% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: District 9 (2009)
Rotten Tomatoes: 90% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 81/100
IMDB rating: 7.9/10 · 748,028 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

Nominated for 4 Oscars. 32 wins & 117 nominations total

Saturn Award for Best International Film

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Neill Blomkamp

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

talisencrw2016-08-16
★ 9/10
This was an outstanding debut by the New Zealander Blomkamp. Consistently enthralling and keeping one at the edge of his seat. THIS is a recent film, like 'Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World', that should have spawned sequels. Much better than his follow-up, 'Elysium' (I haven't watched any others he's made since; hope he doesn't end up a cinematic one-trick pony like M. Night Shyamalan...).
Kamurai2020-07-19
★ 9/10
Great watch, will watch again, and highly recommended. This has a wonderfully exciting premise: alien refugees on Terra, how Terrans react and how the aliens react. The premise, as delivered, has some odd holes in though: it's specified that all of the crew have died, mysteriously, and no one knows how to operate the ship, but it's been in the air for some time. The idea of gravity alone should have motivated Johannesburg to evacuate, but their government interaction seems decidedly weak. The advantage of setting the story in South Africa, for an American audience, is that it's a very capitalistic society where they speak chiefly English: it's very similar to being set in Mexico and using Mexican Cartels instead of Nigerian gangs. So if we accept that we haven't been able to extract an incident report, that we're not able to move the ship, and none of the xenos can move the ship, then the premise includes that one xenos knows what to do. One would think that he just talks to someone and he gets all his people off planet, but since he's smart enough to do what he's been doing for 20 years, then he knows not to trust anyone. But this self-serving principle is key to understanding character motivations going forward. The writing in this is so good, along with the effects, and performance delivery. As Vickis deals with his transformation, it prompts so many philosophical questions of what it is to be a person / human / xenos, a citizen, a government agent. It also sort of resembles a gangsta / heist movie at parts, as opposed to a anti-government escapee. If any of the deep stuff worried you, then be at ease that this movie has plenty of explosions, gunfire and sci-fi goodness. It's also filled with some silly cliches that serve the points of the story, but there are several points in this movie that I have to shake my head at. The motivations don't make sense unless you're reminded that everyone, including the protagonists, are (forced) in a self-serving mindset and it's about what they can do for themselves, even when working together with the contrast being, of course, that only when anyone is cooperating that anyone gets anywhere. This is such a great watch, and if you like sci-fi styled stuff, and don't mind the South African setting ("Chappie" is another one), then definitely give this a watch.
AstroNoud2022-01-15
★ 9/10
A gritty and original story that is as entertaining as thought-provoking, combining xenophobic satire and political allegory with raucous action. 8/10