** SPOILER ALERT **
If you have NOT seen the film Elysium yet and you do not want to know the plot, please bookmark this page and read it AFTER you see the film. I wouldn't want to spoil it for you!
Lately I've been hooked to ancestry.com, finding hints about my ancestors and creating my family tree. It's a blast! During one of my late-night searches, I discovered that my 7th great grandmother's family was born, raised, and died in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. I also found out that they are buried in the cemetery of an Episcopal church I have attended. The church is All Hallows Episcopal Parish, and not only have I been to this church, but I know the rector Alistar and his partner. I met them at the Greek restaurant where I used to work, The Parthenon. I absolutely love encountering these little "coincidental" connections in life!
I also love Matt Damon. So this morning my partner and I decided to go see a movie in an actual theater, which is something we used to do on a weekly basis, but now very rarely. In any case, I had no idea what Elysium was about except that it was a "different kind of action movie," but since it's starring Matt Damon and Jodi Foster, I decided THIS would be our epic date-night film. Little did I know what an impact this movie would have on me.
Around 4PM I had finished doing chores around my apartment and I wanted to kill time while I waited for the movie, which would start at 6:50PM. I decided today would be the perfect day to try to find my ancestors, the Ricketts family, at the All Hallows Parish cemetery. While I was there perusing the gravestones, trying to spy ones that looked as old as the 1700s, a middle-aged man pulled up and started looking around as well. When we crossed paths I asked him whether he knew if there was a map or a directory so that I could identify people in unmarked graves. He said he didn't know, but asked me who I was looking for. We started talking and the conversation turned to religion when I mentioned that I had been to church here before, but Episcopal just wasn't my "style". He told me about Joseph Campbell and about liberation theology and Evolutionary Spirituality. I told him about the church I attend called Evolve Chesapeake. It was a nice, refreshing conversation. There is nothing quite like the feeling that comes from realizing you are not alone in the world.
By the way, the man I met at the cemetery lives in Alexandria and was only in the area because he gave a ride to a bedraggled hitch-hiker. He happened to pass by the church on his way back from dropping off the poor soul and recognized it as somewhere that his ancestors, the Sellmans, were buried. Unfortunately, I did not find the gravestones of the Ricketts family, but I know they are there somewhere.
That is the experiential perspective from which I saw this film, Elysium.
Elysium is a fast-paced film. It plays out as if a camera has been dropped smack in the middle of the hero's (Max's) life, and the audience is left to simply take in what we see and try to make sense of it as the story unfolds. Yet the story is familiar enough for us to understand fairly quickly what is going on. One hundred years from now, humanity will be pretty much exactly the same as it is now, except that the privileged class will no longer live in earthly mansions. Instead, these privileged few will orbit earth on a halo paradise known as Elysium. While citizens of Elysium enjoy perfected healthcare systems that actually cure virtually any ailment in a matter of minutes, breathe purified air, and are waited upon as well as protected by robots, the inhabitants of Earth must labor to manufacture robots and other machinery, clothing, and whatever else Elysium needs to sustain the lifestyle of its citizens. Earth is a giant ghetto.
As the story unfolds, we see one message loud and clear: It's not fair.
A mother and her crippled daughter risk their lives to board an illegal ship to cross the border to Elysium. Just as the mother lifts her daughter to the healing-pod which restores the use of her legs, they are arrested by droids and deported back to earth. But at least her daughter is healed. Of course, three ships originally left Earth, each filled with diseased or dying individuals who had paid probably their entire life's savings just to get to Elysium long enough to lay in a healing pod for a few minutes and receive the healing they needed. Only one ship made it. Only one crippled girl got her legs back. The rest lost either their money, their lives, or both.
It's not fair.
We are all looking at the Elysian citizens as if they are monsters. Ignorant monsters who have no idea what they are inadvertently doing by simply living with such extravagance. Then at some point we are supposed to realize that WE are the Elysians. Middle- to upper-class folks in first-world countries across the globe ARE Elysium. Only we don't have the technology to escape Earth and create a paradise for the privileged.
This film is ultimately a heroic tale. A mythic salvation story set in the future.
This film is also about citizenship.
The Apostle Paul told the early Christians that, "our citizenship is in heaven." He charged them with being ambassadors for Christ. Christians bear His name and represent Him wherever we are. Paul also said (in Romans 5) that ALL men have been reconciled to God. The Kingdom of Heaven is within each of us. We are all citizens of the Kingdom, thanks to Christ. Some choose to be in exile because some do not accept their citizenship. Still, none are rejected by God, though many reject God.
Elysium means paradise. In mythology it was the place where the blessed go after they die. In the film, Elysium is a Utopia, while Earth is Hell. Children on earth dream of getting to Elysium, but few, if any, ever do.
In the end, it is a heroic tale. The one where a single person must give up his life for the sake of others. Sounds familiar, right? Of course right.
According to Will, the man I met at the cemetery, the story is familiar to every human being, regardless of ethnicity, nationality, or creed. Every single culture has it's own heroic myth. Besides the Christ story, myriads of heroic tales have been told about ordinary and extraordinary people alike who are faced with the decision to either save themselves or save humanity. This is a universal theme. Good triumphs over evil. Love conquers hate.
There is a story told in the film that really sums up the ultimate theme of this movie. It goes like this:
In Africa, the food is on tall trees and the meerkat cannot reach it. So the Meerkat encounters a Hippo and asks for help. The Hippo graciously allows the Meerkat to climb onto its back so that it can reach the food.
In the film, Max hears this story and asks, "What's in it for the hippo?" To which is replied, "The Hippo wanted a friend."
In a "what's-in-it-for-me?" world, these stories remind us that at the heart of each of us is a real human being who just wants to love and be loved in return.
Max is the unlikeliest of heroes. This is probably the reason why I love this story so much. He never wanted to be a hero, but the worst (and best) part is that he really isn't a hero at all except by "chance". He just happens to get exposed to radiation which will kill him in less than a week, and then he must steal information from an Elysian citizen in order to earn his ticket to Elysium where he can be healed of his radiation poisoning (if he lives through the "border crossing"). The person he decides to steal from is the owner of the robot-manufacturing company where he got radiation poisoning from, and it turns out that this guy just re-programmed the entire system upon which Elysium is based (he is saving his dying business by helping Jodi Foster's character perform a systematic coo).
Max is desperate. He just needs to get to Elysium to save his own life. In fact, even when his childhood friend Frey asks him to help her daughter get to Elysium too (she is dying of cancer), he tells her there is nothing he can do.
In the end, the information Max has stolen is the key to making every single human a citizen of Elysium. This incredible revolution would cost Max his life. The man he stole the information from has encrypted it so that it would be lethal upon decryption. When Max transfers the information in his mind to the computer in Elysium, Frey's daughter becomes a citizen and she is cured of her cancer. Medical ships are immediately dispatched to earth with healing pods for the masses. At the cost of his own life, Max saves the people of Earth by providing them with the citizenship they needed to be healed.
The myth of our generation is a futuristic one. We dream of Utopia, but we know there will be inequality and suffering just as there is now. So we imagine a hero, however unlikely, who will ultimately bring an end to inequality and bring about healing.
Jesus healed people, he helped people, and then he died in order to make us citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. He taught us how, but we often forget.
"A new commandment I give to you: that you love one another as I have loved you."
Just like Max, we all have the capacity to love each other enough to lay down our own lives.
May we find it in our hearts to lay down our lives daily and follow Him.
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