| Æon Flux | |
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 Æon Flux movie poster |
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| Directed by | Karyn Kusama |
| Produced by | David Gale Gregory Goodman Gale Anne Hurd Gary Lucchesi |
| Written by | Phil Hay Matt Manfredi |
| Starring | Charlize Theron Sophie Okonedo Marton Csokas Jonny Lee Miller Ralph Herforth Frances McDormand |
| Music by | Graeme Revell |
| Cinematography | Stuart Dryburgh |
| Editing by | Peter Honess Plummy Tucker Jeff Gullo |
| Studio | MTV Films Lakeshore Entertainment |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | December 2, 2005 |
| Running time | 93 min. |
| Country | United States Germany |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $62,000,000 |
| Gross revenue | $52,300,000 |
Æon Flux is a 2005 science fiction film directed by Karyn Kusama. The film is a loose adaptation of the animated science fiction television series of the same name, which was created by animator Peter Chung (who had a minor role in this film version of his work) and stars Charlize Theron as the title character. The film was released on December 2, 2005, by Paramount Pictures.
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In a post-apocalyptic future, after a virus in 2011 wiped out 99% of the Earth's population, all the survivors inhabit Bregna, a walled city-state, which is ruled by a congress of scientists. Although Bregna is idyllic, people are disappearing and everyone has bad dreams. Æon Flux is an assassin-member of the 'Monicans', an underground rebel organization who communicate telepathically through the use of pills and are led by The Handler. After a mission in destroying a surveillance station, Æon comes home to find her sister Una killed, supposedly mistaken for a Monican. When Æon is sent on a mission to kill the government's leader, Trevor Goodchild, she discovers that she is unwittingly playing a part in a secret coup.
This discovery brings into question the origin and destiny of everyone in Bregna; and in particular, Æon's personal connection to Trevor. It turns out that every single person in Bregna is actually a clone, created with the recycled DNA of the dead. With the dead constantly being reborn into new individuals and still bearing parts of the memories of the previous clones, this has lead to the populace's troubling dreams. The recycling and cloning became necessary because the antidote for the original virus made humans infertile. Trevor's experiments and those of all his previous clones have been trying to cure this infertility. Æon learns that she is in fact a clone of the original Trevor's deceased wife, Katherine, and that after 400 years she is somehow the first Katherine clone.
One of Trevor's experiments, Una, had been successful though; she had become pregnant. However, Oren Goodchild, Trevor's brother, had had her killed and then destroys Trevor's research in an attempt to stay in power and live forever through his clones. Furthermore, in a confrontation with Trevor and Æon, Oren reveals that humanity itself has started to heal anyway and that some women were becoming pregnant on their own. Oren had them all killed to maintain the Goodchild reign. Æon is now forced to go up against both her former allies, who want to kill Trevor, and Oren, but she manages to convince the other Monicans not to listen to The Handler and to take her side to kill Oren and his men. In a final act, Æon prepares to destroy the housing facility where the DNA used for cloning is stored, a dirigible constantly floating in the sky. She meets the old man who monitors the DNA and discovers that he was the doctor who preserved her DNA all those years ago when Oren ordered it to be destroyed, not wanting Katherine to ever influence Trevor in any way. The subsequent crash breaks the wall surrounding the city and for the first time in centuries the population is able to expand into the outside world.
The screenplay was written by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi (writers of teen drama/romance Crazy/Beautiful and action–comedy The Tuxedo), and directed by Karyn Kusama (Girlfight). The character of Æon Flux was played by Oscar-winner Charlize Theron. This film was produced by MTV Films. It is unusual for an MTV Films production in that it is an action film.
In the early stages of production, actress Michelle Rodriguez was considered for the part of Æon. This was perhaps due to her previous partnership with director Kusama in Girlfight.
Karyn Kusama had originally suggested filming in Brasília, Brazil because the architecture of that city fit with her vision of Bregna. The idea was rejected because Brasília lacked the infrastructure and technical expertise to facilitate a major film production. After scouting several cities around the world, Berlin, Germany was chosen as the location for filming. This was also appropriate as the original television series also featured a divided city. Berlin had several locations that fit into the organic yet structured world of Æon Flux. The crew was able to gain access to several locations that had never allowed filming before including the Treptow Crematorium, the Trudelturm wind tunnel facility and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt ("House of the World's Cultures"). Additional locations include the handler space, a dissection theatre built in 1790 to train veterinarians, set in the Berlin animal shelter.[1]
Filming was temporarily suspended for a month during September 2004 while Theron recovered from a neck injury she suffered during stunt-work on the tenth day of shooting while performing a back handspring. She was hospitalized in Berlin for five days and it took about six weeks of physiotherapy to recover.
Paramount Pictures chose not to screen Æon Flux for critics prior to its release. The film opened at #2 at the U.S. Box office making $12,661,112 USD in its opening weekend, held off the top spot by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. "Aeon Flux" suffered a decline of 63.97% in box office earnings, going down to #6 the following week. On February 9, 2006, it completed its theatrical run, grossing a domestic take of $25,874,337 and a worldwide box office total of $52,304,001.[2] Critical reaction was mixed to negative. The film holds a 10% 'rotten' rating on Rotten Tomatoes[3] and a score of 36 out of 100 on Metacritic.[4] The film was considered a financial failure as the film's earnings were lower than its $62 million budget.
Although Peter Chung was optimistic about the film and was impressed with the sets upon visiting the production,[5] he ultimately described it as "a travesty," adding: "I was unhappy when I read the script four years ago; seeing it projected larger than life in a crowded theatre made me feel helpless, humiliated and sad. ... They claim to love the original version; yet they do not extend that faith to their audience. No, they will soften it for the public, which isn't hip enough to appreciate the raw, pure, unadulterated source like they do."[6] Screenwriters Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi claimed in an interview[7] that the film was re-cut by the studio prior to release and that original director's cut contains nearly 30 minutes of additional footage, which Chung acknowledged in his criticism of the film.[6]
In late 2005, Dark Horse Comics published a four-issue comic book limited series tying in with the movie. The storyline serves as a prequel to the film and is a mixture of Peter Chung's original TV series designs and characters combined with the setting and story elements of the movie. (There are some alterations: the comic book version of Æon only loosely resembles Theron, while her colleague Sithandra, played by a black actress in the film, is depicted as a caucasian in the comic book). The first issue sets up Æon Flux's mission for the miniseries: sabotage the Bregnan government's plan to destroy the forest outside of Bregna's walls. The last two issues of the limited series were published after the film had been released, and by the time the final issue came out, the film had already ended its run in most areas. Dark Horse has not announced if any further Æon Flux-based comics will be published.
On November 15, 2005, a video game adaptation of the same name was released in North America for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox gaming consoles.
Æon Flux was released on DVD on April 25, 2006. As of July 16, 2006, the DVD has grossed $31.80 million in rental sales.[8]
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Aeon Flux (2005) is set 400 years in the future, when disease has wiped out the majority of the earth's population except for one walled, protected city-state, Bregna, ruled by a congress of scientists. The story centers on Aeon Flux (Charlize Theron), the top operative in the underground 'Monican' rebellion - led by The Handler (Frances McDormand). When Aeon is sent on a mission to kill a government leader, she uncovers a world of secrets.
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