''Chappie'' (stylized as ''CHAPPiE'') is a 2015 American
dystopian science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
action film
Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include l ...
directed by
Neill Blomkamp
Neill Blomkamp (; born 17 September 1979) is a South African filmmaker. He employs a documentary-style, hand-held, cinéma vérité technique, blending naturalistic and photo-realistic computer-generated effects, and his films often deal wit ...
and written by Blomkamp and
Terri Tatchell
Terri Tatchell (born January 1, 1978) is a Canadian screenwriter, best known for co-writing the screenplay of ''District 9'' and was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 82nd Academy Awards.
Career
Tatchell graduated in 2001 from the Van ...
. It stars
Sharlto Copley
Sharlto Copley (born 27 November 1973) is a South African actor. His acting credits include roles in the Academy Award-nominated science fiction film ''District 9'', the 2010 adaptation of ''The A-Team'', the science fiction film ''Elysium'', t ...
,
Dev Patel
Dev Patel (; born 23 April 1990) is a British actor. His breakthrough came in 2008 with the leading role of Jamal Malik in Danny Boyle's drama ''Slumdog Millionaire'', for which Patel was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Lead ...
,
Hugh Jackman
Hugh Michael Jackman (born 12 October 1968) is an Australian actor. Beginning in theatre and television, he landed his breakthrough role as James "Logan" Howlett / Wolverine in the 20th Century Fox ''X-Men'' film series (2000–2017), a role ...
,
Ninja
A or was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included reconnaissance, espionage, infiltration, deception, ambush, bodyguarding and their fighting skills in martial arts, including ninjutsu.Kawakami, pp. 2 ...
,
Yolandi Visser
Anri du Toit, known professionally as Yolandi Visser (stylised as ¥o-Landi Vi$$er), is a South African rapper. She is the female vocalist in the rap-rave group Die Antwoord. Her partner in the group is Ninja, Watkin Tudor Jones.
Visser appea ...
,
Jose Pablo Cantillo
Jose Pablo Cantillo (born March 30, 1979) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Ricky Verona in '' Crank'', Miguel in ''Cleaner'' (2007), Pepe in ''Streets of Blood'' (2011), Detective Martinez in '' El Chicano'' (2018), Hector Sal ...
, and
Sigourney Weaver
Susan Alexandra "Sigourney" Weaver (; born October 8, 1949) is an American actress. A figure in science fiction and popular culture, she has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Gramm ...
. The film, set and shot in
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...
, is about an
artificial general intelligence
Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is the ability of an intelligent agent to understand or learn any intellectual task that a human being can.
It is a primary goal of some artificial intelligence research and a common topic in science fictio ...
law enforcement robot captured and taught by gangsters, who nickname it Chappie.
''Chappie'' premiered in New York City on March 4, 2015, and was released in U.S. cinemas on March 6, 2015. The film grossed $102 million worldwide against a $49 million budget.
Plot
A skyrocketing crime rate leads the city of
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...
, South Africa to buy a squadron of scouts—state-of-the-art armour-plated attack robots—from weapons manufacturer Tetravaal. These autonomous androids are developed by British scientist Deon Wilson and largely supplant the overwhelmed human police force. A competing project within the company is the remote-controlled MOOSE, developed by Australian soldier-turned-engineer Vincent Moore. Deon is praised for Tetravaal's success but Vincent grows envious when the police are unwilling to give his heavy weapons platform equal attention.
At home, Deon creates a prototype
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...
that mimics a human mind to the point of feeling emotions and having opinions, but Tetravaal CEO Michelle Bradley refuses to let him test the A.I. on a police robot. Undeterred, Deon steals a recently damaged robot before it is destroyed and puts it in his van, along with the "guard key" needed to update the robot's software.
On his way home with the damaged police robot, he is kidnapped by gang members Ninja, Yolandi, and Amerika. When he mentions that Tetravaal doesn't have remote controls for the police robots, they order him to reprogram the robot instead. Deon installs the new software into the damaged robot, which responds with childlike trepidation upon powering up. Deon and Yolandi calm the robot teaching it words and naming it "Chappie". Despite Deon wanting to stay with the robot, Ninja forces him out of their hideout.
Ninja's gang only has a few days to pay a debt of 20 million
rand
The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is finan ...
to Hippo. Yolandi sees Chappie as a child and wants to mother him, but Ninja grows impatient with his development due to both the impending deadline for the debt and Chappie's irreplaceable battery running out, giving him days to live. Ninja tries to train Chappie to be a gangster by leaving him in a dangerous neighborhood to fend for himself. After being wounded by thugs, he is followed by Vincent, who plans to deactivate all Tetravaal scouts except for MOOSE. Vincent successfully extracts the guard key for his own use, but the traumatized Chappie escapes and returns to the hideout. Yolandi scolds Ninja for this mistreatment, but he manages to earn Chappie's forgiveness by training him in martial arts and weapon handling. Ninja and Amerika trick Chappie into stealing cars for them, and lie about needing the money to replace his dying body.
At Tetravaal, Vincent uses the guard key to upload a virus, thus sabotaging and disabling all scouts including Chappie. Johannesburg's criminals immediately run rampant in the streets and Deon brings Chappie to the Tetravaal factory to fix him. After being restarted, Chappie notices a helmet used to control MOOSE. At the hideout, he re-engineers it to allow him to transfer his consciousness into a computer, so he can change bodies when his current one dies.
Ninja's gang uses Chappie to rob an armored car, an act which is caught on the news, prompting Tetravaal to pursue him. When Chappie learns that Ninja's plan to acquire the body was a lie, he prepares to kill Ninja for betrayal. However, Deon arrives to warn them that Michelle Bradley has ordered that Chappie be destroyed. At that moment, the MOOSE robot (controlled remotely by Vincent) is launched to assassinate Deon and Chappie at the hideout, at the same time that Hippo arrives to collect his debt. Amerika and Hippo are killed in the ensuing battle while Deon is mortally wounded. When Ninja is about to be killed, Yolandi sacrifices herself to save him and Chappie destroys MOOSE by detonating a bomb.
Enraged by Yolandi's death, Chappie drives Deon to the factory, storms into an office, and fiercely beats Vincent close to death. He then
transfers the dying Deon's consciousness into a spare robot through the modified MOOSE helmet. In return, the now-robotic Deon wirelessly transfers Chappie's consciousness into one of the nearby disabled scouts. Deon and Chappie go into hiding as the police discontinue their contract with Tetravaal.
While burning memorabilia of Yolandi, the grieving Ninja finds a box containing a doll copy of her and a flash drive marked "Mommy's Consciousness Test Backup" which contains a copy of Yolandi's consciousness that Chappie took while testing the device on her. Chappie hacks into Tetravaal's manufacturing facility, builds a robot resembling Yolandi, and uploads the flash drive's contents.
Cast
*
Sharlto Copley
Sharlto Copley (born 27 November 1973) is a South African actor. His acting credits include roles in the Academy Award-nominated science fiction film ''District 9'', the 2010 adaptation of ''The A-Team'', the science fiction film ''Elysium'', t ...
as Chappie, a robot. Copley acted out the scenes in front of the camera interacting with the rest of the cast and lent his voice. Contrary to a 2014 story by ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...
'',
[ Visual Effects Supervisor Chris Harvey explained that the production did not use motion capture, and Copley's performance was used only as a reference by the animators who replaced him with the CGI for Chappie.
** Copley also makes a cameo at the ending as a police officer.
* ]Dev Patel
Dev Patel (; born 23 April 1990) is a British actor. His breakthrough came in 2008 with the leading role of Jamal Malik in Danny Boyle's drama ''Slumdog Millionaire'', for which Patel was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Lead ...
as Deon Wilson,[ a programmer at Tetravaal.
* ]Hugh Jackman
Hugh Michael Jackman (born 12 October 1968) is an Australian actor. Beginning in theatre and television, he landed his breakthrough role as James "Logan" Howlett / Wolverine in the 20th Century Fox ''X-Men'' film series (2000–2017), a role ...
as Vincent Moore, a former soldier turned Tetravaal engineer.
* Ninja
A or was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included reconnaissance, espionage, infiltration, deception, ambush, bodyguarding and their fighting skills in martial arts, including ninjutsu.Kawakami, pp. 2 ...
as Ninja,[ a gang leader and metafictional version of himself from the South African ]zef
Zef () is a South African counter-culture movement. Kyle Hans Brockmann has compared zef counter-culture to many similar anarchic sub-cultures in the northern hemisphere.
Etymology
Yolandi Visser of Die Antwoord said, "It's associated with peo ...
rap-rave
Hip house, also known as rap house or house rap, is a musical genre that mixes elements of house music and hip hop, that originated in both London, United Kingdom and Chicago, United States in the mid to late 1980s.
British group the Beatmast ...
group Die Antwoord
Die Antwoord (, Afrikaans for "The Answer") is a South African alternative hip hop group formed in Cape Town in 2008.
The group comprises rappers Watkin Tudor "Ninja" Jones and Anri "Yolandi Visser" du Toit, a male/female duo, and producers ...
.
* Yolandi Visser
Anri du Toit, known professionally as Yolandi Visser (stylised as ¥o-Landi Vi$$er), is a South African rapper. She is the female vocalist in the rap-rave group Die Antwoord. Her partner in the group is Ninja, Watkin Tudor Jones.
Visser appea ...
as Yolandi,[ a gang member and metafictional version of herself from the South African zef rap-rave group Die Antwoord.
* ]Jose Pablo Cantillo
Jose Pablo Cantillo (born March 30, 1979) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Ricky Verona in '' Crank'', Miguel in ''Cleaner'' (2007), Pepe in ''Streets of Blood'' (2011), Detective Martinez in '' El Chicano'' (2018), Hector Sal ...
as Amerika, a gang member.
* Sigourney Weaver
Susan Alexandra "Sigourney" Weaver (; born October 8, 1949) is an American actress. A figure in science fiction and popular culture, she has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Gramm ...
as Michelle Bradley, the CEO of Tetravaal.
* Brandon Auret
Brandon Auret (born 27 December 1972) is a South African actor known for his role as Leon du Plessis in the SABC3 soap opera ''Isidingo''.
Early life
Auret was born 27 December 1972 in the South African city of Johannesburg. He currently r ...
as Hippo, a powerful gangster that Ninja's group owe money to.
* Anderson Cooper as himself
* Eugene Wanangwa Khumbanyiwa as King
Production
''Chappie'' is Blomkamp's third feature-length film as director. He wrote the screenplay along with his wife Terri Tatchell
Terri Tatchell (born January 1, 1978) is a Canadian screenwriter, best known for co-writing the screenplay of ''District 9'' and was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 82nd Academy Awards.
Career
Tatchell graduated in 2001 from the Van ...
, who also co-wrote ''District 9
''District 9'' is a 2009 science fiction mockumentary film directed by Neill Blomkamp in his feature film debut, written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. It is a co-production of New Zea ...
''. It was unofficially based on Blomkamp's 2004 short film ''Tetra Vaal''. They wrote ''Chappie'' in two weeks, while Blomkamp was doing '' Elysium''. Filming
Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography.
Cinematographers use a lens to foc ...
began at the end of October 2013 in Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...
, South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
. One scene was shot at the Ponte building. Filming was completed in February 2014. Re-shooting for the film took place in British Columbia, Canada in April 2014. The film was shot with Red Epic
Red Digital Cinema (''Red Digital Cinema Camera Company'') is an American company that manufactures professional digital cinematography cameras and accessories.
The company's headquarters is in Foothill Ranch, California, with studios in Holly ...
cameras, using Panavision
Panavision is an American motion picture equipment company founded in 1953 specializing in cameras and lenses, based in Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk as a small partnership to create anamorphic projection lenses dur ...
anamorphic
Anamorphic format is the cinematography technique of shooting a widescreen picture on standard 35 mm film or other visual recording media with a non-widescreen native aspect ratio. It also refers to the projection format in which a distorted ...
primes. Richard Muller said:
Lighting was handled by Kino Flo Celebs. The visual effects company was Image Engine
Image Engine (also known as Image Engine Design Inc.) is a visual effects and animation studio based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1995, the studio specializes in character/creature design and animation, digital environments, V ...
, located in Vancouver. The name of the weapons company in ''Chappie'' – "Tetravaal" – is a reference to Blomkamp's 200
short film of the same name
which centers on a police robot in Johannesburg with a similar design to Chappie. Blomkamp has said that ''Chappie'' is "basically based" on ''Tetra Vaal''. Blomkamp also employed a robot with a similar design in his 2005 shor
''Tempbot''
and both ''Tempbot'' and his 2006 short/advertisement ''Yellow'' deal with a thinking and learning robot which tries to assimilate into society.
Blomkamp has cited the '' Appleseed'' character Briareos as an influence on the design of Chappie.
Release
On February 6, 2015, IMAX Corporation
IMAX Corporation is a Canadian theatre company which designs and manufactures IMAX cameras and projection systems as well as performing film development, production, post-production and distribution to IMAX-affiliated theatres worldwide. Founde ...
and Sony announced that the film would be digitally re-mastered into the IMAX format and released into IMAX theatres domestically on March 6, 2015. The film was released in the United States on March 6, 2015.
Box office
''Chappie'' grossed $31.6 million in North America and $70 million in other territories for a total gross of $102.1 million, against a budget of $49 million.
The film earned $4.6 million in its opening day, $5.3 million on its second day, and $3.5 million on its third day, totaling $13.4 million in its opening weekend, while playing in 3,201 theaters. It had a $4,155 per-theater average and finished first at the box office.
Critical response
Review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
reported a 32% approval rating, based on 227 reviews, and a rating average of 4.90/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "''Chappie'' boasts more of the big ideas and visual panache that director Neill Blomkamp has become known for – and, sadly, more of the narrative shortcomings." On Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, the film has a score of 41 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". According to CinemaScore, audiences gave the film a grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.
Justin Chang of ''Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' wrote, "Intelligence, artificial or otherwise, is one of the major casualties of ''Chappie'', a robot-themed action movie that winds up feeling as clunky and confused as the childlike droid with which it shares its name." Todd McCarthy of ''The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...
'' wrote, "With unappealing one-note characters, retread concepts and implausible motivations, ''Chappie'' is a further downward step for director Neill Blomkamp."
Tim Grierson of '' Screen International'' wrote, "...despite his ambitions, ''Chappie'' is a bucket of bolts, Blomkamp's desire to say meaningful things outdistancing his ability to say them compellingly." Manohla Dargis
Manohla June Dargis () is an American film critic. She is one of the chief film critics for ''The New York Times''. She is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
Career
Before being a film critic for ''The New York Times'', ...
of ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' wrote that Blomkamp "struggles with the material" but "even at his shakiest, Mr. Blomkamp holds your attention". Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan (; born October 27, 1946) is an American retired film critic, author, and lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California. He was a film critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' from 1991 ...
of the ''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' called it "cartoonish and preposterous, and not in a good way".
Mick LaSalle
Mick is a masculine given name, usually a short form ( hypocorism) of Michael. Because of its popularity in Ireland, it is often used in England as a derogatory term for an Irish person or a person of Irish descent. In Australia the meaning broad ...
of the ''San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...
'' rated it three out of four stars and wrote of Blomkamp, "It's hard to say how much he's doing consciously and how much he's doing through intuition, but he's doing really interesting things in ''Chappie'', and right from the beginning." Tom Huddleston of ''Time Out London
''Time Out'' is a global magazine published by Time Out Group. ''Time Out'' started as a London-only publication in 1968 and has expanded its editorial recommendations to 328 cities in 58 countries worldwide.
In 2012, the London edition becam ...
'' rated it four out of five stars and wrote that "this hugely entertaining oddity could never be mistaken for the work of any other filmmaker".
Ryan Lambie, from denofgeek.com, gave the film a positive review stating, "Despite the ragged edges of its story, ''Chappie'' nevertheless has real heart beating under its shabby exterior. If you liked the director's previous films, you owe it to yourself to see this one too." IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
reviewer Josh Lasser also gave Chappie a positive review, with a 'Good' score of 7.6 out of 10. He praised Sharlto Copley's performance and the "big questions" it asks, but criticized its failure to answer those questions.
Several reviewers compared the Chappie character unfavorably to Jar Jar Binks
Jar Jar Binks is a fictional character of the Gungan race from the '' Star Wars'' saga created by George Lucas. Jar Jar appears throughout the ''Star Wars'' prequel trilogy – as a major character in '' Episode I: The Phantom Menace'', with ...
of '' Star Wars''. Sameen Amer of ''The Express Tribune
''The Express Tribune'' is a daily English language, English-language newspaper based in Pakistan. It is the flagship publication of the ''Daily Express (Urdu newspaper), Daily Express'' media group. It is Pakistan's only internationally affiliat ...
'' opined that the film disregards logic as certain "existential quandaries" are randomly thrown in without straightening out any of the themes before moving on to the next.
Accolades
Cancelled sequel
Blomkamp said he "wrote ''Chappie'' as a trilogy" and expressed interest in making sequels if they were "economically feasible". Eventually, Blomkamp confirmed that a sequel would not be made after the film did not perform well enough.
Notes
References
External links
*
*
*
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*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chappie
2015 films
2015 action thriller films
2015 science fiction action films
American action thriller films
American science fiction action films
Brain–computer interfacing in fiction
Features based on short films
Films scored by Hans Zimmer
Films about artificial intelligence
Films about consciousness transfer
Films directed by Neill Blomkamp
Films set in South Africa
Films shot in Gauteng
American robot films
Media Rights Capital films
Columbia Pictures films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films