Captive State: Why did director Rupert Wyatt want a human reinteraction against foreign invasions?

By Terri Schwartz

There have been countless different approaches to the history of extraterrestrial invasion, from science fiction epics like Independence Day and Close Encounters of the Third Kind to more culturally and politically commented ones. , such as the American colony. Director Rupert Wyatt, best known perhaps for his work on Rise of the Planet of Apes, opted for the latter film with his new film Captive State, which takes place in Chicago nearly ten years after militarized foreigners occupied America who are for and against extraterrestrial forces.

Wyatt, who co-wrote the story with his wife Erica Beeney, knew that they wanted to tell a more modern and timely story through the prism of science fiction. The captive state originated with the idea of ​​exploring the stories of collaborators and dissidents on both sides of an occupied state. But Wyatt and Beeney chose not to follow the path of a historical drama (which he'd already already realized in the Turn Pilot: AMC's Spies from AMC) and was are rather geared towards the near future to "create this documentary film team idea in the future and we are under occupation by a form of extraterrestrial life."

If you have not done so already, watch the Captive State Trailer below:

"I wanted to define what it means to be under occupation but on America's footprint, but I wanted to do it in a plausible way and with that idea that what you see outside of that window do you get the screen, even though in our case we are in the near future, "Wyatt told IGN during an interview at SXSW headquarters. "This is not unique of course, but [this story] less often, what happens if we lose? The extraterrestrials are the winners. They won. They won 10 years ago, and we are now facing a society that is rebuilding but looks like an orderly society, but is essentially in a captive situation. "

Although Captive State never tries to hide the fact that it is part of a very sci-fi world, it focuses a lot more on human characters than on extraterrestrials. After the brothers Gabriel (Ashton Sanders) and Rafe (Jonathan Majors), opposed to the occupation, and the insurgents to which they join forces, on one side and an extraterrestrial collaborator (John Goodman) , on the other, Captive State tells a relatively small human story. in this much larger post-apocalyptic context.

"I wanted there to be a normality, and in this way I could then explore characters less concerned with a post-apocalyptic future, but more ordinary people in everyday life, forced to do really, really, morally, high-level choice, "said Wyatt. "Do you want to be a collaborator? Will you be essentially someone who defends this erosion of civil liberties, or are you going to be someone who takes a stand and who fights, no matter the price to pay? " I think the question in the contemporary American context is really very interesting and relevant to our current situation. "

At the end of the day, though, it's a story of strangers – which means, yes, you'll see aliens. Referring to whether or not to reveal what their aliens look like as a "Jaws question", Wyatt went back to real world circumstances to try and find out what made the most sense for this movie. Originally, his team did not want to give a face to the occupant of Captive State, but realized, once the badembly process was over, that it was necessary to show the invaders that it was necessary to show what humans were facing. The extraterrestrials of this film are revealed only at a few very effective moments, which borrowed from the idea that "for an Iraqi civilian in Baghdad in 2004 … it would be very rare that they ever see [a US soldier] cross a street in convoy or by the door at 3 o'clock in the morning. But apart from that, the coalition would be sequestered and not part of everyday life. "

If you leave Captive State hoping for a sequel, do not worry, Wyatt has already started thinking about what to do next. Even though Captive State is conceived as a standalone story, it leaves the door open for future episodes of this potentially flourishing franchise – and, Wyatt confirms, "conversations" have occurred about it.

"[Captive State] has a very fine end to that which solves the greatest purpose of a particular character. … [But] it is interesting because it presents, in some ways, longer storytelling aspects; there are several characters, there is hyper-narrative, "said Wyatt. I think that some of the characters who will survive our history would enter into more global conflicts between humans and extraterrestrials – like, that is, the Arab Spring and then we will tell the story of the militarized response. And then, the final film could eventually come out of the planet. Obviously, they came from a carbon-based planet and they colonized other planets along the way, which would be great. "

To learn more about IGN, be sure to check out the captive state review by IGN below. Tell us what you think of the movie in the comments below!

Terri Schwartz is editor-in-chief of entertainment at IGN. Talk to him on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz.