About a month ago I visited a local theater to see District 9, a “summer blockbuster” that I thought was directed by Peter Jackson. While I don’t give Jackson as much credit for King Kong as the rest of the viewing population did, his work on The Lord of the Rings was nothing short of spectacular. Aside from the director, I was also drawn in by the concept of District 9. It had occurred to me recently that we’ve seen far less alien films this decade than we did in the ’90s. In fact aliens were one of the top subjects for entertainment in the ’90s, in all available formats, from The X Files to Independence Day.
The alien subject interests me because of a theory I’ve been developing. It relates to the idea that our alien shows and movies actually say more about the human race than they do about aliens. How we react to or interact with aliens in fiction is a sort of indicator for how far we’ve progressed as a species. This theory was directly inspired by the “Pinewood Derby” episode from season 13 of South Park (original air date 4/15/09), in which an alien arrives in our favorite animated Colorado town. Stan’s dad Randy has just cheated on their pinewood derby race, using some kind of nuclear reactor to send the car into space at light speed.
The alien guest is a criminal on the run after stealing money from the Intergalactic Bank. He demands that the citizens of South Park hide him from the Space Police, or else he’ll kill them all. He also asks that they fix the light speed on his ship, since he’s aware of Stan’s pinewood derby accomplishment. The city of South Park lies to the Space Police, who then leave temporarily. But Randy is too proud to admit he cheated on the derby car, so instead of showing the alien how they did it, they kill him and South Park seizes his Space Cash. They divide it up among the world leaders, but ask everyone not to spend it. Naturally, everyone does. The Space Police return and ask again about the alien and the cash. The citizens deny everything. To make it brief, the criminal alien isn’t dead after all, but is actually working with the “Space Police.” Every time a new planet discovers light speed, they pay a visit to evaluate the species. Human beings have failed their test unforgivably, and are banned from the Intergalactic Alliance forever.
I personally have no trouble whatsoever believing this outcome. As South Park has brilliantly displayed throughout its 13 seasons, people are stupid. By mastering the art of unrelenting satire, South Park has become one of the most important shows of our time. Of course, if aliens ever did show up on Earth, it would be a lot less…well…cartoon-ey. Enter District 9, which, as I later found out, wasn’t actually directed by Peter Jackson. He produced, while relative newcomer Neill Blomkamp directed and co-wrote the film. As the story goes, aliens arrived in South Africa about 25 years ago in an emergency landing. The interaction was peaceful at first, and the aliens actually lived among human beings. But conflicts soon arose, much in the same way that human groups have clashed throughout history. As a result, the aliens are congregated in District 9, a disgusting slum where they’ll be separated from human society.
The film starts as a fictional documentary, with Wikus Van De Merwe leading us through the process of relocating the aliens to a concentration camp disguised as a clean community. The corporation that built the camp is legally obligated to serve eviction notices to the aliens, who most humans refer to with the derogatory term “prawn.” The first hour of the film is extremely tense and at times difficult to watch. To provide another short synopsis, Wikus is contaminated with some fluid biotechnology that causes him to slowly transform into an alien. This makes him a target, because the corporation has been trying in vain to find a way to use the alien weaponry. Only the aliens can use it, since it reacts to their biological makeup. When the company attempts to harvest his body parts, Wikus escapes and flees into District 9 as a fugitive. This is where the film becomes both interesting and, in some ways, even more frustrating. (Here the filmmakers suddenly and inexplicably abandon the fake documentary format for a standard action movie presentation, only to return to the documentary style at the film’s end.)
Wikus befriends the alien who had produced the fluid biotechnology, partly because the alien says he can reverse the transformation. It turns out he is a leader amongst the aliens, and he’s trying to fly his hidden vessel up to the hovering mothership. Then he will travel to his home planet, seek help, and return to save his kinsmen. Wikus agrees to the exchange of services, and helps the alien recover the confiscated fluid from the corporation. But when Wikus discovers that it will be three years until this alien can return and change him back to a human, he basically throws a fit and blows the plan.
Now District 9 was far from a clunker; it’s currently #65 overall on IMDB with an average rating of 8.5. And judging by the 8.0 score on Metacritic, professional critics were also fond of the film. I’m not saying I hated it or anything. Even if poorly executed, the topic is still interesting to me. Plus, the special effects were pretty phenomenal. But in terms of philosophical weight, the movie provided little payoff. The lasting effect, in my opinion, was little different than the aforementioned South Park episode. District 9 succeeded most at showing how stupid people are. South Africa does little to help the aliens get back home or make them more comfortable, but instead entrusts a corporation to corral them into a concentration camp. The corporation is only interested in unlocking the power of the alien weapons in order to make a fortune selling them around the world. Wikus is too selfish to wait three years for help, so he tries to sabotage the plan altogether.
What a fucking pathetic race we are. Of course we don’t need alien films to show us that. Just turn on the TV, look at a newspaper, or read the headlines scrolling across your email browser. I’m just not sure if it’s more painful having this stupidity demonstrated in a film inspired more by Halo (yes, the video game) than anything else, or in an episode of South Park. Both leave me with a sunken feeling and the conviction that, if given the chance to enter some kind of Intergalactic Alliance, human beings will consciously reject it. (Somehow I’m reminded of Dostoevsky’s Notes From Underground, which I’ve written about here.) People would destroy an alien alliance just to prove to themselves that they could. Humans could never cooperate with aliens until we collectively acknowledge that we’re no different. We are an alien life form with no origin and no destination, and that pisses us off. As a result, we scorch the Earth.
I think you get what I’m edging towards. When we eventually have alien fiction in which Will Smith doesn’t welcome the beings to Earth with a punch in the face, it might be a sign that we’ve finally evolved. What we will evolve into is another question entirely, but until it happens, there’s no way to hide the most prevalent (and embarrassing) characteristics of the homo sapien. And both South Park and District 9 lay them out clearly for all to see.
You can watch the entire “Pinewood Derby” episode online here.
