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Before District 9, there was Alien Nation

Written by Adam A. Donaldson Thursday, 13 August 2009 13:05

The setting is the not too distant future. Several years after an alien spacecraft appeared over a major city, the aliens it ferried to Earth live amongst the human population, and more than a few humans don’t want them on our planet. Amongst a tense setting, two species struggle to understand each other and live in peace. On the surface, this may well be the description of the new movie District 9. Produced by Peter Jackson and directed by first time feature filmmaker Neill Blomkamp, District 9 is about an alien race marooned on Earth and forced to live in a cordoned off sector of Johannesburg, South Africa. But 20 years ago, someone got the same idea and produced a modest little film called Alien Nation.

The film was written by Rockne S. O’Bannon, who at the time was best known as a member of the writing staffs of Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories and the 80s version of The Twilight Zone. O’Bannon later went on to create cult sci-fi hits like seaQuest DSV and Farscape, but Alien Nation was his first success. Another Amazing Stories alum, Graham Baker, directed the film with Gale Anne Hurd, who enjoyed tremendous success working with James Cameron on Terminator and Aliens, producing. Made for about $16 million, the film was a modest though not overwhelming success, but it definitely created enough fans to see a television series based on the film emerge on the fledgling Fox Network a year later.

The concept is simply outlined in the first few minutes of the film: in the year 1991, a flying saucer crash lands in California’s Mojave Desert. Onboard are 300,000 humanoid aliens differentiated from Earthlings by their large, bald, spotted heads. Their saucer, it turns out, is a slave ship, delivering labourers to some unknown sector when technical problems force the ship down on Earth. With no way home, the aliens, now known as “Newcomers” are integrated into American society, with many of them settling in the greater Los Angeles area. Like any minority, the Newcomers have their share of detractors. The word “slag” is used as a derogatory, racial word by humans to describe the Newcomers; a section of L.A. called “Slagtown,” where many Newcomers have settled, is considered a kind of ghetto where the crime rate is high.

The film is set-up as a kind of futuristic neo-noir. James Caan is L.A. detective Matt Sykes whose partner is killed in a shoot out with a Newcomer gang. Sykes is shown as not being shy about throwing around the S-word, which is why it comes as a surprise to his colleagues when Sykes agrees to partner with the force’s first Newcomer Detective, Sam Francisco (Mandy Patinkin). Sykes’ plan is to use his new partner as an ‘in’ to the rather insular Newcomer community, rechristening Sam as “George” to knock down the whimsy-factor, Sykes begins to become more open-minded as he and Francisco follow the leads to a well-connected Newcomer (Terence Stamp) attempting to reintroduce a narcotic into the alien community, one that was given to them as a control when they were slaves.

In the midst of the film, there wasn’t mush room to explore the Newcomer culture, in fact in this take on the film noir the aliens fill the traditional role of the immigrant community or other outsider the hero must penetrate to solve the case. A few details are given, like the fact that sea water has the analogous affect on Newcomers as battery acid, and that sour milk has an inebriating effect on them. The TV series, developed by V creator Kenneth Johnson, in its one season explored many ends of the Newcomer culture, from religion and family to integration and racism to the fact that their former slave masters were amongst the Newcomer community undetected. The movie’s scant 90 minutes doesn’t leave much time to explore any of that, but Johnson said that scenes of George Francisco with his family are what inspired him when he created the series. The little moments, as it were.

But despite its flaws, the original Alien Nation was well received for its original take on the genre and for attempting something different with the typical cop movie formula. I doubt it had any bearing on what Blomkamp wanted to do with District 9, but one could argue that as F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu laid the ground work for Tod Browning’s Dracula in 1932, the same could be said for Alien Nation and District 9. Finally, it’s also worth nothing that District 9 is itself directly inspired by a short film by Blomkamp called “Alive in Joburg,” which can be watched online here: http://www.spyfilms.com/#neill_blomkamp/alive_in_joburg

Long have humans wondered whether we’re alone in the universe or if there’s company waiting out there amongst the stars. But if there’s a question to be asked immediately following that, it’s this: would we have more to fear from them, or would they have more to fear from us? District 9 will attempt to answer some of those questions on Friday August 14th in theatres everywhere.