Elysium is a 2013 American dystopian science fiction action film written, produced, and directed by Neill Blomkamp.

The film stars Matt Damon and Jodie Foster alongside Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Diego Luna, Wagner Moura, and William Fichtner.

[5] The film takes place on both a ravaged Earth and a luxurious artificial world (Stanford torus design) called Elysium.

Spider, a hacker living in Los Angeles, runs a space shuttle operation to smuggle people into Elysium.

Elysium President Patel reprimands Delacourt for her unorthodox methods, threatening to terminate her position for any more unauthorized actions.

On Earth, parolee Max Da Costa works for Armadyne Corp when he is accidentally exposed to a lethal dose of radiation.

Kruger kills Julio, but an injured Max escapes with the copy of the program, while Carlyle's death destroys any possibility of further retrieval from his brain.

He orders his men to start killing the politicians on the station while he dons a more advanced exoskeleton suit to hunt down Max, planning to initiate the protocol himself.

It reunites Blomkamp with some of his District 9 crew, such as editor Julian Clarke, production designer Philip Ivey, cinematographer Trent Opaloch, and actor Sharlto Copley, playing one of the film's antagonists.

The art designs won over the executives at Sony Pictures, who bought the film after making a more attractive offer than the other studios.

The film's Earth-bound scenes were shot in a dump in the poor Iztapalapa district on the outskirts of Mexico City.

[15] Futuristic designs were executed by Philip Ivey after long periods of researching and studying older science fiction films.

[16] Weta Workshop created the exosuits for Damon and Copley's characters, while the complicated visual effects were handled primarily by Image Engine (who also collaborated on District 9) with additional work by Whiskytree, MPC, The Embassy and Industrial Light and Magic, some of the software that was used for the visual effects were Autodesk Softimage.

[17] The film's music score was composed by newcomer Ryan Amon and recorded at Abbey Road Studios with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

In October 2013, a lawsuit was filed by Steve Wilson Briggs accusing the producers of copyright infringement, claiming he wrote a screenplay that was substantially similar to the movie.

[11] It later set an official release date for March 8, 2013,[21] before moving one week earlier to prevent competing against Oz the Great and Powerful.

The site's critical consensus reads, "After the heady sci-fi thrills of District 9, Elysium is a bit of a comedown for director Neill Blomkamp, but on its own terms, it delivers just often enough to satisfy.

"[28] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on 47 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

[30]In a research article entitled "Elysium as a Critical Dystopia", Tanner Mirrlees and Isabel Pedersen argue that "Elysium communicates a 'critical dystopia' that illuminates and interrogates present day global capitalism's worst social, political, ecological and technological conditions, but shows them being resisted and changed, for the better.