"Thy road, the right, toward Pluto's dwelling goes, And leads us to Elysium. But the left Speeds sinful souls to doom, and is their path To Tartarus th' accurst"--Virgil, Aeneid
The story is set on an earth that
looks like at least part of ours.
Overcrowded, graffitied, broken down and full of angry and hopeless
people. At the same time, the upper
classes (the 1%) have relocated to a space station made into a perfect world of beautiful and healthy
people. It is called Elysium, and it is
ruled by a ruthless Senator (Jody Foster) who controls a puppet President. Her goal is to preserve their lifestyle at
all costs and she is tired of feeling threatened by the constant influx of
illegal aliens in their patched together transport ships. The transport operation is run by a damaged
yet computer literate Spyder, (Wagner Moura) who continues his mission in spite
of his ships being destroyed and his passengers killed or deported.
The hero of the story is Max, an
orphan raised by nuns, in trouble his whole life but trying to live like a
model citizen. His long term goal is
getting to Elysium, which becomes critical when he is exposed to a lethal dose
of radiation while on the job at a robotics plant. This leads him to hooking up with Spyder who
learns that a plot to reboot Elysium has been downloaded into the brain of Max’s
former boss. Max then becomes a more
than six-million dollar man and a superhero with the ability to save Earth and
create equality for all. Pretty
ambitious, even for a superhero.
Yes, it’s transparent; the
message is about equality and the status of the 99%, not only in our country,
but throughout the world. The movie was
filmed in Canada and Mexico with an international cast; the people in Max’s
area speak Spanish. In Elysium everyone
seems to look alike; of course they have machines which can cure all ailments
and correct imperfections, so that’s logical.
But the focus here is actually health care. The reason people are so eager to go to
Elysium is because every home is equipped with a machine that scans the body
and fixes what is wrong. Earth still has
under-equipped hospitals staffed by humans and people die a lot. On Elysium it appears no one has to die, at
least not of illness or injury.
Max begins with being desperate
to go in order to save his life; incidentally, he hooks up with a childhood
friend, Frey,(Alice Braga) who now has a daughter dying of leukemia. After his amazing bionic transformation into
a (dying) superhero, his mission changes to curing the world. I will not reveal the entire plot or the
ending, but suffice it to say the moral of the story is Universal Health Care.
I long for a superhero to free us
from the control of the 1% who tell us Universal Health Care is a socialist
plot. The body fixing machines of course
have no scientific basis whatsoever, but the concept is real: we now have the medical technology not only
to treat most illnesses but also to prevent many. The Affordable Care Act is a step in the
right direction, but it’s a long way from Universal coverage.
For me, my health insurance is
only there while I work; when/if I retire, I get Medicare (80%) which leaves a
lot left over. I can purchase a
supplement, which can be pretty hefty on a retirement income. My husband would have no coverage; even with
the ACA the cost of his premium, based on joint income, would be quite
high. I’m glad that lower income people
will benefit, but it’s a long way from equal coverage for all.
I’m sure many people will see
this movie as just a sci-fi action/adventure flick; while cheering on the hero,
they may miss the implication of what he really does.
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