The movie Elysium is a science fiction action film directed by Neill Blomkamp and starring Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Diego Luna, and William Fichtner. The film is set in the year 2159, where a stark contrast exists between the wealthy citizens residing on a luxurious man-made space station called Elysium and the impoverished inhabitants of Earth.
Max, played by Matt Damon, is an ex-convict who has been exposed to a lethal dose of radiation while working a dangerous job on Earth's factory floor. He has only five days to live and decides to attempt to get to Elysium, where a medical device can cure him. Max makes a deal with Spider (Wagner Moura), a smuggler, to get him to Elysium in exchange for stealing information from the CEO of Armadyne Corp, John Carlyle (William Fichtner), who creates the robots that enforce Elysium's security.
Secretary Rhodes (Jodie Foster), the head of Elysium's Department of Homeland Security, is determined to maintain the strict immigration policies and protect the wealthy lifestyle of Elysium's citizens. She is willing to do anything to stop any Earth inhabitant from reaching Elysium. She deploys a sleeper agent, Kruger (Sharlto Copley), to take down any ship carrying illegal Earthlings.
Max's biological data is used by Kruger to infiltrate Spider's crew. Max, realizing that Carlyle has uploaded sensitive information on a chip implanted in his brain, is forced to seek the help of Frey (Alice Braga), a childhood friend who now works in a hospital on Earth. In exchange for a ticket to Elysium for Frey and her daughter, Matilda (Emma Tremblay), Max persuades her to help him extract the information from Carlyle's chip.
Kruger captures Frey and Matilda, but Max manages to kill him. While Spider gets Max to Elysium, Rhodes is ordered by Elysium's President Patel (Faran Tahir) to deploy missiles to destroy the stations inhabited by Earthlings, prompting Max to hijack an Elysium shuttle and upload the information on Carlyle's chip to the station's computers. As Max dies from his radiation exposure, Elysium's medical systems are reprogrammed to distribute cures to all inhabitants of Earth, resulting in massive social changes.