District 9: narrative

Plot and story: the documentary frame that tells the story out of order and hints at Wikus's fate early.
Structure: cause and effect, the fluid as the inciting incident, plot points, and the exosuit battle as the climax.
Techniques: enigmas about Wikus and the fluid, withholding and releasing information, and an open ending.
Characters and their functions (Wikus as an unlikely hero, Christopher, MNU and the gang as villains), themes of segregation and what it means to be human, and how the narrative positions us.
A worked answer to a practice Section A question on narrative, part by part: the short parts that ask you to identify and explain, and the 15-mark final part on a key sequence.
How to answer each part: the marks, and what the short identify and explain parts need as well as the extended answer, since naming a technique instead of a specific example from the film loses marks there. Practice questions to try, each headed 'Practice question' with its marks.
Quote only short lines of dialogue you're sure of, a few words at a time, and base every point on what happens in the finished film.

What you need to know