Continuity mistake: Near the end of the movie, when Christopher is pulled from the armored car and questioned about his plan, his arms are tied behind his back. A little later, when he is kneeling and the order is given to kill him, his arms are still tied. When Dinkus returns, Christopher is still on his knees, even after a soldier to his left explodes. A moment later, Dinkus arrives in front of him and Christopher is still on his knees, but now his arms are free.
District 9 (2009)
Directed by: Neill Blomkamp
Starring: Sharlto Copley, David James, Jason Cope, Nathalie Boltt
Genres: Sci-fi
Deliberate mistake: After the SAD unit shoots down the command module, Christopher falls to his knees in sadness. In the next shot, the mercenary supposed to be pointing his gun at his head is looking and pointing as if Christopher was still standing, as revealed when he actually gets back up again.
Continuity mistake: A news announcer mentions that the suspect, Wikus, has been on the run for a week but moments later the screen shows "72 hours after exposure" meaning he's been on the run for 3 days at most.
Trivia: The topic of xenophobia runs strongly throughout the film. This is a very real issue for South Africa as evidenced by the xenophobic violence in early 2008 where approx. 30 foreigners living in South Africa were murdered and hundreds left injured and/or destitute. In fact there are still displaced foreigners living in homeless shelters, churches, etc today.
Trivia: There have been protests against the alleged stereotyping of Nigerians in the movie. Two of the more sensitive issues are the Nigerian prostitutes soliciting 'prawn' customers; and the character name Obesandjo (which is closely linked to the former Nigerian President's name Olusegun Obasanjo).
More trivia for District 9
Automated MNU Instructional Voice: When dealing with aliens, try to be polite, but firm. And always remember that a smile is cheaper than a bullet.
Wikus Van De Merwe: This whole's thing's under your shack? For 20 years, you've had this fookin' thing hidden out here? This is, this is very illegal, I mean, this is... This is a fine.
Wikus Van De Merwe: Get your fokkin' tentacle out of my face!
Question: Something I couldn't figure out. The black fluid (in the glass cylinder) made Wikus start turning into an alien. If the aliens were mainly interested in going back to their planet, why had they been developing a substance that could turn humans into aliens? How would this help them go home?
Question: I remember seeing a trailer for the movie, in which a human man is questioning an alien. The alien tells him that they just want to go home. I just watched the movie for the first time and that scene wasn't in there. Was it deleted for some reason?
Answer: This isn't actually remotely uncommon. Trailers are almost invariably released before the final edit for a movie is locked in place, so it's not at all unusual for shots in the trailer to be from scenes that ultimately don't make it into the finished product, or to be from alternate takes of scenes that do appear. As to why this particular scene was rejected, who knows, most likely was just for pacing, or they might simply have not liked some aspect of the acting or whatever.
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Answer: That's more of a side effect of the fluid. See, only the Prawns could use their technology; it was "genetically activated", so to speak. So the fluid which powers their tech is like Prawn-gene concentrate. When Wikus was sprayed with the stuff it affected his genetic makeup.
Phixius