Corrected entry: It was mentioned once in the movie that the aliens were on earth for about 20 years, meaning the film would've been set about 20 years in the future. Despite this, at about hour 5 minutes, you'll notice a 2010 Soccer World Cup logo at the top of a building.
Corrected entry: Wikus van de Merwe's accent is not even close to sounding South African, which has a slight Australian-style lilt on many suffixes (compare it to the newsreaders who are SA or at least more convincing). Even if van de Merwe is supposed to be a foreigner, his somewhat French-sounding accent is punctuated by heavy Irish accented swearing (particularly with the f-word) which is highly unrealistic and improbable.
Correction: Rubbish. Sharlto Copley, the actor who plays Wikus, is South African, has lived there all his life and, as can be seen by watching interviews of him, is using his natural accent in the film. Try telling him that his accent is not authentic...
Corrected entry: During the credits roll, there is a spelling mistake for one of the crew categories. On the left side of the screen "effects" is spelled "effeects".
Correction: "Effects" is spelled corectly on the DVD version.
Corrected entry: It is barely credible that Wikus can get from the MNU lab to District 9 in his condition, given that we know that District 9 is at least 12 kilometres from MNU Headquarters. It is not in the slightest bit credible, however, that he could get BACK, carrying a prawn weapon, with a similarly armed prawn trotting alongside him, after the whole city had been warned that he was a dangerous, escaped sexual deviant! Maybe people would avoid them as they walked through busy city streets (MNU HQ is in downtown Johannesburg) but not one single person calls the authorities in time to have them intercepted.
Correction: First, something requiring suspension of disbelief does not make it a mistake. Second, we are not shown how Wikus and the prawn get to MNU HQ. Perhaps they stole a vehicle. Not everything has to be shown on screen.
Corrected entry: If starting up the buried vehicle with the fluid canister was so straightforward and quick, why not do it as soon as the canister was prepared at the beginning of the movie instead of hiding it for later? Christopher could have easily closed the floor hatch and started the vehicle.
Correction: Since we don't know the details of Christopher's original plan, this is simply a question, not a mistake.
Corrected entry: In case of all the intelligent aliens dying, the ship is to find the nearest life sustaining planet. However, in the movie, the surviving aliens are unable to get off their own ship and thus require not only the planet to sustain their lives, but to sustain the lives of inhabitants with the ability to fly and cut through alien space crafts. (Thankfully, they didn't land on Earth pre-1900 or they would all simply die - not much of an emergency plan.)
Correction: Poor planning on the part of the aliens does not make it a movie mistake. Clearly, something went wrong on the ship.
Corrected entry: Wikus is running away in the suit, after the alien that he is helping is captured and on the ground surrounded by the MNU forces. Just before Wikus comes back, there is a shot of the alien with what looks like red blood around his left eye. In the following shots, like in the craft, the "blood" is now gone. Also, near the start of the movie the alien blood is established as a black color, so shouldn't be red around his eye.
Correction: You're assuming the red is blood and that it belongs to the alien. There was plenty of human carnage in that scene to account for red substances on anyone.
Corrected entry: At the very end of the movie Christopher returns to the mother ship and pilots it away. No explanation as to how he could have done so with a giant hole in the side from the original rescue of the aliens.
Correction: All a hole in the side of the ship would do is decompress a section of the ship around the hole. Force fields and/or pressure doors would limit that to a very small part of the ship (this is an advanced alien spaceship we're talking about, even submarines and ships of ours have them). And even if these didn't work, Christopher and his son are inside a self contained module.
Corrected entry: When we see Wikus start to lose his fingernails we see a shot that looks to be through the security cameras. The date is on the lower right as 2010/09/08 (8th of August 2010). When Wikus and Christopher break in to MNU, the date is shown on the security cameras to be 2010/13/08 (13th of August), four days later (roughly 96 hours). After escaping and going back to District 9, Wikus is captured and it displays "72 hours after exposure" on screen.
Correction: In order to accurately calculate the time span as 96 hours later, you'd need to know that both scenes occured at the same exact time of day. The closer you are to midnight, the less time you would need for the date changeover.
Corrected entry: We see Chris distill a drop of fuel, and he states that after 20 years of searching he finally has enough fuel. Later on, Wikus opens the fuel cell and is sprayed with a good amount of fuel. Though Chris knows that the fuel is responsible for changing Wikus into a prawn, Chris doesn't mention once that he'll now need to get more.
Correction: We do not know that what sprayed Wikus is in fact the fuel. It makes no sense that the fuel itself would make that kind of change (DNA restructuring). It is entirely possible that was just a defense mechanism to protect the small amount collected.
Corrected entry: In the movie it is stated that around one million aliens are ferried off of the mothership into camps on the ground. Presumably this occurs in helicopters or some other light air transport that can actually land on the ship. Considering that light aircraft can carry very limited loads, and that the stated purpose of the MNU incursion was to obtain weapons technology, it does not make sense that they would allow the aliens to bring technology and weapons with them to the camps. Further, since the aliens were not allowed to travel to most parts of the city or hold jobs like humans, it seems impossible that they would be able to obtain the raw materials and tools to construct advanced heavy weapons, mechs, and shuttles (!) in the camps.
Correction: News footage shows the shuttle dropped from the mothership early on and buried itself, clearly an emergency procedure of some kind. It is certainly large enough to carry a compliment of weapons and other needed equipment. The weapons and shuttle were not created in the camp.
Correction: It is also mentioned that the aliens landed in 1986, which puts the movie in 2010. This is seen on camera timestamps throughout the movie.
Brad ★