Move over Han Solo and Snake Plissken – here’s why District 9 protagonist Wikus van de Merwe deserves recognition as one of the sci-fi genre’s best antiheroes. Clear-cut, do-gooder heroes are all very well but more often than not an antihero makes for much more compelling viewing. In contrast to heroes, antiheroes are generally defined as protagonists who don’t demonstrate typical heroic traits. They’re characters with an ambiguous moral compass that are motivated more by their own self-interests than by doing the right thing.
When fans think of antiheroes in sci-fi movies it’s often characters like Star Wars’ snarky space smuggler Han Solo or Escape From New York's Snake Plissken – cynical rogues who come good in the end. Or maybe it’s someone like Max Rockatansky from the Mad Max franchise or Riddick from The Chronicles Of Riddick – characters that do questionable things and kill a lot of people but that viewers still find themselves rooting for.
One sci-fi antihero who doesn’t get anywhere near as much recognition as he should is Wikus van de Merwe from Neill Blomkamp’s directorial debut District 9. Released in 2009, this South African sci-fi is set in an alternate present some years after an extra-terrestrial race - derogatorily referred to as “Prawns - land in Johannesburg and are forced by the government to live in a slum known as District 9. After tensions arise between the aliens and locals, the government tasks weapons manufacturer Multinational United (MNU) with moving the Prawns to a new camp with bureaucrat Wikus van de Merwe (Sharlto Copley) appointed to lead the relocation.
Unlike Riddicks or Snake Plissken, Wikus van de Merwe isn’t some hulking, self-assured antihero. Rather, he’s a bumbling, not very bright pen-pusher who's a bit of a bigot and most definitely a coward. When Wikus is accidentally infected with an extra-terrestrial fluid that causes him to gradually transform into a Prawn himself, he teams up with alien Christopher (Jason Cope) not because his eyes have suddenly been opened to the injustices they face, but because he’s desperate to return to normal and Christopher knows a way to cure him back on his mothership.
Sure, Wikus van de Merwe does some heroic things in District 9. At the end of the movie, Wikus helps Christopher and his son escape from MNU mercenaries and get back to their ship but even then he’s acting out of self-interest rather than bravery because he really, REALLY wants that cure. He’s not a particularly likable protagonist and lacks the rugged charm and tough-guy persona typical of so many movie antiheroes in the genre but that’s precisely what makes him such an interesting – yet underrated – character.