| Movie DescriptionIn March 1982, a large alien mothership comes to Earth, hovering motionless above Johannesburg, South Africa. Reports suggest that the craft became stranded after a command module separated from it and dropped to Earth. After three months, a team breaks into the ship, discovering a group of over a million malnourished insectoid extraterrestrials, who are then given refuge on Earth. The aliens, derogatorily referred to as "prawns", are confined to a government camp inside Johannesburg called District 9. The camp is secured with a massive police presence, and it soon turns into a slum.
In the first decade of the 21st century, the South African government hires Multinational United (MNU), a private military company under the direction of its CEO, Dirk Michaels, to relocate 1.8 million aliens to the new District 10. In 2010, Wikus van de Merwe (Sharlto Copley), a young MNU employee, is appointed by Piet Smit (Dirk Minnaar), an MNU executive to lead the relocation with the serving of illegal eviction notices.
Meanwhile, three aliens (Christopher Johnson (Jason Cope), his son, and a friend), search for alien technology from which they distill a mysterious fluid, storing it in a small canister. Later, while raiding the shack of Christopher's friend, Wikus discovers and seizes the container, which when tampered with sprays an unidentified substance onto his face. Christopher's friend breaks Wikus' left arm as he attempts to escape, and is subsequently killed by Koobus Venter (David James), a soldier leading the operation.
Wikus later starts to feel ill, with black fluid emerging from his nose and his fingernails falling off. That night, he passes out and is taken to a hospital. There, his left forearm is revealed to have mutated into an alien appendage. He is immediately taken into MNU custody, where it is discovered that he can now operate alien weaponry due to his mutating DNA. They force Wikus to test various weapons and subject him to physical torture to answer their quesitions, including forcing him to kill a real-live prawn, much to his horror. The MNU scientists then decide to vivisect Wikus, but he overpowers his captors and escapes. Smit lies to the press, stating that Wikus is infected with an alien STD and highly contagious. He also sends Venter and his men to capture him.
Now a fugitive, Wikus finds refuge in District 9 and eventually seeks help from Christopher. Christopher reveals to Wikus that the canister he was sprayed with is causing the mutation. He also states that the canister would allow him to reactivate the dormant mothership and, using its equipment, he could reverse Wikus's mutation. He then reveals the lost command module hidden under his shack, and agrees to help Wikus if he retrieves the canister from MNU. Wikus reluctantly agrees to the plan, and tries to buy weapons from the local Nigerian gang. There, he is captured and brought before their paralyzed warlord, Obesandjo (Eugene Khumbanyiwa), who seeks to gain Wikus' ability to operate alien weaponry by consuming the infected arm. Wikus manages to grab an alien firearm and escape with a cache of weapons. |
