“Elysium,” the new movie starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, depicts a world where Earth is a destitute planet, covered in slums and plagued by disease, home to only the poorest of souls.
The more fortunate get to live on a space station called Elysium, where the air is pure and medical problems can be zapped with the flip of a switch.
This isn’t the first time that income inequality has been tackled on the big screen.
NPR’s Linda Holmes takes us through some of the classic examples, including “Titanic” and the more comical “Trading Places.”
Guest
- Linda Holmes, writes NPR’s pop culture blog “Monkey See.” She tweets @nprmonkeysee.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.