Watch the bold first trailer for 'Elysium' with Matt Damon and Jodie Foster

After making a big splash at last year's Comic-Con, Neill Blomkamp's anticipated sci-fi film Elysium has mostly been hidden from eager eyes. Sony began to lift the curtain in the last few days, revealing a new poster and presenting ten minutes of footage to select journalists yesterday. Now the first trailer has finally arrived, and it looks like another ambitious, high-concept spectacle from the District 9 director.

Delving once again into the social issues that dominate our world today, Blomkamp has set the film in the year 2159, where the economic disparity between the rich and poor has never been greater. The poor struggle to survive on a scarred, overpopulated Earth lacking in natural resources, while the rich live in the lap of luxury aboard a disease-free space station called Elysium. Matt Damon is Max de Costa, a regular guy stricken with cancer and mounts a desperate gamble to get aboard the ship and find a cure. Jodie Foster is the woman responsible for maintaining Elysium's lifestyle, with Sharlto Copley as her attack dog hired to keep immigrants out.

Carly Pope, Wagner Moura, William Fichtner, and Alice Braga will co-star when Elysium opens on August 9th.


Elysium with Matt Damon - Official Trailer by FanReviews