I put this on flame so as not to soil our little “Sci-Fi” corner. Beware of spoilers.

Well, once again, we have ruined the planet. Capitalism has ravaged the globe for one last time leaving the huddled, overly-massive masses to deal with the aftermath. But hey, no problem for the plutocrats, they build an enormous oasis in geostationary LEO. What better way to keep the riff raff out?

Medicine has reached the point where all injury and disease are treated at the atomic level via a machine that looks like a tanning bed. And of course, all citizens of Elysium have one of these machines in their home for treating whatever ails them. It only takes a matter of seconds and a few pennies of electricity. They are so proud of this device that they made sure no one can use it unless they have the DNA id of an Elysium citizen. Marble dwellers still have conventional medicine but at M*A*S*H*- like conditions and capacities.

You’d think the separation of a few hundred miles straight up would be enough to keep out the illegal aliens but no, LA gangs routinely take “undocumented“ “shuttle” loads of undesirables on one way trips to Elysium in attempts to use the medical services. All they have to do is get a counterfeit DNA stamp and break into anyone’s home on Elysium.

Now even among all this ludicrosity, does Elysium make a valid point? You could think of the med bed as an analogy for the entire healthcare system or just the prescription drug market. There’s actually too many levels and angles to come at the question so I’m going to bail. But you can still ask if it is an accurate portrayal of the supremely heartless nature of the wealthy? Is it fair to say the conservative “deniers” of healthcare today are the Elysians of the future?

Oh, one really cool scene…. 3D bio-printer repairs a guy with severe head injuries and then reanimates him. They should call it a Lazarus machine.