CHILDREN OF MEN
Year: 2006
USA: Universal Studios
UK: UIP (UK)
Cast: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Charlie Hunnam, Clare-Hope Ashitey, Pam Ferris, Danny Huston, Peter Mullan, Oana Pellea, Paul Sharma, Jacek Koman
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
USA & UK: 109 mins
USA Rated: R for strong violence, language, some drug use and brief nudity
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong bloody violence and strong language
USA Release Date: 5 January 2007
USA Release Date: 25 December 2006 (Limited Release)
UK Release Date: 22 September 2006
UK Distributor
Synopsis
Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón (Y TU MAMa TAMBIeN, HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN) creates a startling vision set two decades into the near future, which sends a wake-up call to the world of today, with the mesmerizing thriller CHILDREN OF MEN.
Earth, 2027: hope for the future has become a dwindling resource. It has been nearly 19 years since the last baby was born, and with each passing year of inexplicable, global childlessness, mankind edges closer to giving up all claims to a future. While most people choose to embrace the inevitable and descend into separatism, lawlessness and nihilism, others fight on for a unified planet and the rights of the dwindling populations.
Great Britain is the one county that has managed—through a policy of militaristic imperialism—to survive the ever-increasing internal strife and, in turn, is seeing a tremendous influx of illegal refugees landing on its shores. But with a firm, totalitarian hand, these "fugees" are herded into detainment camps and deported.
For Theo (Clive Owen), all of this matters little, having allowed himself to settle into a state of numbness. The former activist turned bureaucrat has steeled himself against his painful past and the reality of a senseless future by simply ceasing to care. His existence is enlivened only by visits to his old friend, Jasper (Michael Caine), who lives in the remote countryside miles from London. There, they remember happier times as comrades-in-arms, activists who once took up against the coming tide but now find themselves checked out from a society that no longer provides any answers.
All of that abruptly changes when Theo finds himself thrown in the back of a van and brought before Julian (Julianne Moore). Once his partner in both love and war, she is now the head of a covert group fighting for the rights of the remaining refugee population. Julian has surfaced long enough to ask for a favor—for Theo to obtain transit papers for Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey), a young woman within her organization who must be seen safely out of the country.
Theo agrees—for Julian's sake, and for the 5,000 pounds he'll collect—and soon finds himself accompanying Kee and a handful of Julian's comrades on a treacherous journey past several security checkpoints to the coast. There, members of the near mythic Human Project—some of the greatest minds of the world working toward a new society—are prepared to help them. But when Theo's group is set upon by terrorists, it quickly becomes clear that the streetwise Kee is more than just a refugee...she is someone others are willing to die for.
She is, in fact, eight months pregnant and now stands as the miracle the whole planet has been waiting and hoping for.
In their race to sanctuary from both anarchists who will risk everything for a cause and those who would use her child for political gain, Kee and Theo become the unlikely champions of a future generation.
Universal Pictures presents a unique and striking look at the world of the near future—and one man's fight to save it—in Children of Men, which stars Academy Award® nominees Clive Owen (CLOSER, SIN CITY) and Julianne Moore (THE HOURS, FAR FROM HEAVEN) and Oscar® winner Michael Caine (BATMAN BEGINS, THE CIDER HOUSE RULES), under the direction of visionary filmmaker, Academy Award® nominee Alfonso Cuarón. Cuarón co-writes the screenplay along with Timothy J Sexton (LIVE FROM BAGHDAD, BOYCOTT), which is based on the novel by global best-selling author P D James.