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Hard to say--movie people don't usually come right out and say "I am pushing an agenda here" (though sometimes they do). But I think it's fair to engage in some pattern recognition on the matter, however inescapably speculative it might be.
That said, Elysium in particular does not seem at all coy about agenda-pushing in other ways, and the same is true of Otto and Snowpiercer, so it doesn't seem like a stretch to imagine these scripts were agenda pushing in this way also.
Black Dude Dies First has largely fallen into Discredited Trope territory, I think. Vasquez Always Dies is more interesting, but both of these have the same problem as I observed with the "white savior" trope and its cousins. Based on conversation in this thread I think that focusing on death was me getting too attached to one particularly dramatic, but not essential, feature of the phenomenon I'm trying to grip. To fully invert the trope, we need a non-white person (really, a woman, but--) having their humanity restored in some way by a relationship with a young white person (ideally, a boy) to whose flourishing future they then dedicate their life/resources/etc., possibly by dying. The best examples that have been called to my attention so far are two Denzel Washington movies, Book of Eli and Man on Fire.
This isn't quite the phenomenon I'm after, I think, but "choosing your daughter's Hispanic barbarian surrogate mother over your long-dead wife" is in the same neighborhood, thanks.
What makes you say that?
The incredibly heavy-handed immigration narrative, the incredibly heavy-handed anti-corporation narrative, the incredibly heavy-handed healthcare narrative, the incredibly heavy-handed...
Well, I don't mean to belabor the point, but like... have you seen Elysium? Other than the guns, it's basically "American Leftist Narrative: The Sci-Fi Movie."
I have, just wasn't clear on what you were referring to.
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Fridged wife was black, kid is halfway between, FYI. Chris Pine was in the unenviable position of having to pick who to to resurrect and couldn’t rely on race to make an easy choice.
I saw that movie, not two months ago, and I had to go check IMDB because I thought you were bullshitting me.
People get conspicuously upset when I say things like "I often fail to notice race unless it is highlighted in some way," but here we are.
FWIW, watched the movie not two weeks ago and while I remembered Chris Pine's wife was black it did not register the barbarian was latina.
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