Children of Men

Children of Men is a 2006 dystopian action thriller film directed and co-written by Alfonso Cuarón. The screenplay, based on P. D. James' 1992 novel The Children of Men, was credited to five writers, with Clive Owen making uncredited contributions. The film is set in 2027 when two decades of human infertility have left society on the brink of collapse. Asylum seekers seek sanctuary in the United Kingdom, where they are subjected to detention and deportation by the government. Owen plays civil servant Theo Faron, who tries to help refugee Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey) escape the chaos. Children of Men also stars Julianne Moore, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Pam Ferris, Charlie Hunnam, and Michael Caine.

The film was released by Universal Pictures on 22 September 2006, in the UK and on 25 December in the US. Despite the limited release and lack of any clear marketing strategy during awards season by the film's distributor, Children of Men received critical acclaim and was recognised for its achievements in screenwriting, cinematography, art direction, and innovative single-shot action sequences. While it underperformed at the box office, it was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing. It was also nominated for three BAFTA Awards, winning Best Cinematography and Best Production Design, and for three Saturn Awards, winning Best Science Fiction Film. It was voted 13th in a BBC critics’ poll on the best films released between 2000 and 2016 by film critics from around the world.

In 2027, 18 years of total human infertility have led to war and global depression, pushing civilization to the brink of collapse as humanity faces extinction. The United Kingdom has transformed into a totalitarian police state in which refugees are arrested and either imprisoned, deported, or executed in concentration camps.

Theo Faron, a former activist turned cynical bureaucrat, is kidnapped by the Fishes, a militant refugee-rights group led by Theo's estranged wife, Julian Taylor; the pair separated after their son's death during a 2008 flu pandemic. Julian offers Theo money to acquire transit papers for a young refugee woman named Kee. Theo only manages to obtain joint transit papers from his cousin, a government minister, and requests to escort Kee in exchange for a larger sum of money, which Julian agrees. Luke, a Fishes member, drives Theo, Kee, Julian, and former midwife Miriam towards Canterbury, but an armed gang ambushes them and kills Julian. The group escapes from the gang and the police before hiding Julian's body.

At a safe house, Kee reveals to Theo that she is pregnant, making her the only known pregnant woman in the world. Julian intended to take her to the Human Project, a secret scientific research group in the Azores dedicated to curing humanity's infertility. Luke becomes the new leader of the Fishes. That night, Theo eavesdrops and learns that Luke orchestrated Julian's death, while also intending to kill Theo and use Kee's baby as a political tool. Theo, Kee, and Miriam escape to the secluded hideaway of Jasper Palmer, Theo's friend and a former political cartoonist. Jasper lives with his catatonic wife Janice, a former journalist tortured by the government.

The group plans to reach the Human Project ship, the Tomorrow, scheduled to arrive offshore at Bexhill, a notorious refugee detention centre. Jasper arranges for Syd, an immigration officer to whom Jasper sells cannabis, to smuggle them into Bexhill as refugees, from where they can take a rowboat and rendezvous with the Tomorrow. The next day, the Fishes discover Jasper's house, forcing the group to flee. Jasper stays behind to stall them; he euthanizes Janice and their pet dog with poison before being murdered by Luke. At an abandoned school, Syd helps Theo, Kee, and Miriam board a bus to the camp. After Kee's water breaks, a guard enters the bus to select people for execution. Miriam obstructs the guard from Kee and is taken away; Theo fools him into thinking Kee just soiled herself, after which the guard leaves her alone.

In Bexhill, a Romani woman named Marichka provides Theo and Kee a room, where Kee gives birth to a baby girl. The next day, Syd tells the pair that war has broken out between the British military and the refugees, and that the Fishes have infiltrated the camp. He then reveals that Theo and Kee have a bounty on their heads and attempts to capture them. Marichka and Theo subdue Syd and the group briefly takes shelter with Marichka's friends. Heading for the rowboat, they are ambushed by the Fishes, who capture Kee and the baby. As British troops attack, Theo tracks the Fishes to an apartment building under heavy fire. Theo confronts Luke, who is killed in an explosion, and Theo escorts Kee and the baby out. Awed by the baby, the British soldiers and Fishes temporarily stop fighting and allow the trio to leave. Marichka leads them to the boat but stays behind as they depart.

As British fighter jets conduct airstrikes on Bexhill, Theo and Kee row to the rendezvous point in heavy fog. Theo reveals that he was shot and wounded by Luke earlier; he teaches Kee how to burp her baby. Kee tells him she will name the baby girl Dylan, after Theo's and Julian's lost son. Theo smiles weakly, then loses consciousness as the Tomorrow approaches. As the screen cuts to black, children's laughter is heard.

The option for the book was acquired by Beacon Pictures in 1997. The adaptation of the P. D. James novel was originally written by Paul Chart, and later rewritten by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby. The studio brought director Alfonso Cuarón on board in 2001. Cuarón and screenwriter Timothy J. Sexton began rewriting the script after the director completed Y tu mamá también. Afraid he would "start second guessing things", Cuarón chose not to read P. D. James' novel, opting to have Sexton read the book while Cuarón himself read an abridged version. Cuarón did not immediately begin production, instead directing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. During this period, David Arata rewrote the screenplay and delivered the draft which secured Clive Owen and sent the film into pre-production. The director's work experience in the United Kingdom exposed him to the "social dynamics of the British psyche", giving him insight into the depiction of "British reality". Cuarón used the film The Battle of Algiers as a model for social reconstruction in preparation for production, presenting the film to Clive Owen as an example of his vision for Children of Men. In order to create a philosophical and social framework for the film, the director read literature by Slavoj Žižek, as well as similar works. The 1927 film Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans was also influential.

A Clockwork Orange was one of the inspirations for the futuristic, yet battered patina of 2027 London. Children of Men was the second film Cuarón made in London, with the director portraying the city using single, wide shots. While Cuarón was preparing the film, the London bombings occurred, but the director did not consider moving the production. "It would have been impossible to shoot anywhere but London, because of the very obvious way the locations were incorporated into the film", Cuarón told Variety. "For example, the shot of Fleet Street looking towards St. Paul's would have been impossible to shoot anywhere else." Due to these circumstances, the opening terrorist attack scene on Fleet Street was shot a month and a half after the London bombing.

Cuarón chose to shoot some scenes in East London, a location he considered "a place without glamour". The set locations were dressed to make them appear even more run-down; Cuarón says he told the crew "'Let's make it more Mexican'. In other words, we'd look at a location and then say: yes, but in Mexico there would be this and this. It was about making the place look run-down. It was about poverty." He also made use of London's most popular sites, shooting in locations like Trafalgar Square and Battersea Power Station. The power station scene (whose conversion into an art archive is a reference to the Tate Modern), has been compared to Antonioni's Red Desert. Cuarón added a pig balloon to the scene as homage to Pink Floyd's Animals. Other art works visible in this scene include Michelangelo's David, Picasso's Guernica, and Banksy's Kissing Coppers. London visual effects companies Double Negative and Framestore worked directly with Cuarón from script to post production, developing effects and creating "environments and shots that wouldn't otherwise be possible".

The Historic Dockyard in Chatham was used to film the scene in the empty activist safehouse.

The Shard tower was digitally added to London's skyline based on early architectural drawings as when the film was made the skyscraper had not yet been built but would have been by the time of the film's setting.

"In most sci-fi epics, special effects substitute for story. Here they seamlessly advance it", observes Colin Covert of Star Tribune. Billboards were designed to balance a contemporary and futuristic appearance as well as easily visualizing what else was occurring in the rest of the world at the time, and cars were made to resemble modern ones at first glance, although a closer look made them seem unfamiliar. Cuarón informed the art department that the film was the "anti-Blade Runner", rejecting technologically advanced proposals and downplaying the science fiction elements of the 2027 setting. The director focused on images reflecting the contemporary period.

References to the 2012 Summer Olympics were included in the film as London had been announced as the host city in July 2005, a few months before filming took place.

Children of Men used several lengthy single-shot sequences in which extremely complex actions take place. The longest of these is a shot in which Kee gives birth (3m,19s); an ambush on a country road (4m,7s); and a scene in which Theo is captured by the Fishes, escapes, and runs down a street and through a building in the middle of a raging battle (6m,18s). These sequences were extremely difficult to film, although the effect of continuity is sometimes an illusion, aided by computer-generated imagery (CGI) effects and the use of 'seamless cuts' to enhance the long takes.