* No middle class just poor v rich.
* Enslavement but not quite. Society is run by a combination of warlords and CEOs. Zero political consciousness.
* Gig economy assassins. But even they live in squalor.
* Cyberpunk + trash aesthetic. Iraq war aesthetic across the whole world.
* Nothing works because why would you want it to, when you're stuck below? Meanwhile super advanced microchips.
* The robots while they don't violate Asimov's principles, they're really passive-aggressive and catty.
* The ghetto robot interface surgery. High tech microchip heists. Hacker culture is the one thing that did advance but they're limited by seemingly 1980s computers they have to scrap together.
* The comedy of Matt Damon's leading man stoicism reacting to all of this zaniness, demoralization, and hopelessness.
* (The big thing the film is missing a VR component to make life bearable below, giving some people the sedative illusion of a false Elysium. Like... WHAT IF you could wear a goggle over your eyes that shows the same busted up world except everything is green and beautiful, and everyone has deepfake smiles.)
* Most interesting is the poor v rich spend all their time plotting and fending each other off. Consider the discomfort that both their views are each other.
* Dysgenics on Elysium. Ie, it's not the geniuses who built Elysium but their grandkids who grew up there ruling it, making its destruction inevitable. 'Good times create weak men' etc...
* There is still spiritual consciousness but only below.
* Above is no utopia. They are not particularly more educated or gifted, but susceptible to primitive coups, corruption, bureaucracy. You kind of feel bad for them as being born there is being trapped, they're unprepared for any sort of reality.
* Opposite down below the most resilient survive and scrap by through friendship and brotherhood. Creates some kind of American revolution feeling.
I feel that there should be a series with this universe that explores the down vs up, because they struck prophetic gold on the whole thing. Plus it is epic. The flaws that were glaring back in 2013 feel minor compared to how incredible the production and concept is.
* Enslavement but not quite. Society is run by a combination of warlords and CEOs. Zero political consciousness.
* Gig economy assassins. But even they live in squalor.
* Cyberpunk + trash aesthetic. Iraq war aesthetic across the whole world.
* Nothing works because why would you want it to, when you're stuck below? Meanwhile super advanced microchips.
* The robots while they don't violate Asimov's principles, they're really passive-aggressive and catty.
* The ghetto robot interface surgery. High tech microchip heists. Hacker culture is the one thing that did advance but they're limited by seemingly 1980s computers they have to scrap together.
* The comedy of Matt Damon's leading man stoicism reacting to all of this zaniness, demoralization, and hopelessness.
* (The big thing the film is missing a VR component to make life bearable below, giving some people the sedative illusion of a false Elysium. Like... WHAT IF you could wear a goggle over your eyes that shows the same busted up world except everything is green and beautiful, and everyone has deepfake smiles.)
* Most interesting is the poor v rich spend all their time plotting and fending each other off. Consider the discomfort that both their views are each other.
* Dysgenics on Elysium. Ie, it's not the geniuses who built Elysium but their grandkids who grew up there ruling it, making its destruction inevitable. 'Good times create weak men' etc...
* There is still spiritual consciousness but only below.
* Above is no utopia. They are not particularly more educated or gifted, but susceptible to primitive coups, corruption, bureaucracy. You kind of feel bad for them as being born there is being trapped, they're unprepared for any sort of reality.
* Opposite down below the most resilient survive and scrap by through friendship and brotherhood. Creates some kind of American revolution feeling.
I feel that there should be a series with this universe that explores the down vs up, because they struck prophetic gold on the whole thing. Plus it is epic. The flaws that were glaring back in 2013 feel minor compared to how incredible the production and concept is.