Maps of Movies

District 9 (2009)

Where District 9 says it takes place, and where it was really shot.

The slum on screen is a real Soweto neighborhood, and the only tower you can visit is Ponte City.

Scenes and places

The mothership over Johannesburg

A ship the size of a city stops in the sky above Johannesburg and stays there. Inside, starving aliens are found, and the government moves them into a camp on the ground.

Set in Johannesburg, 1982 — An alien mothership arrives and hangs over the city. Google Maps · Apple Maps

South Africa's largest city, with the ship hovering over it in the story.

Filmed at Downtown Johannesburg (Johannesburg, South Africa) — A location-industry page says the film shot around downtown Johannesburg; the ship is CGI, and no single street is named. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there:

District 9, the fenced slum

Twenty-eight years on, the camp is a slum where humans treat the aliens as filth. The government hires a contractor to move them out by force, and Wikus is put in charge of serving the notices.

Set in District 9 camp — The camp where the aliens were settled has become a ghetto and shanty town 28 years later.

A walled-off camp that exists only in the story; the real streets are in Soweto.

Paul's shack and the black fluid

Wikus knocks on one more door, and behind it finds a container that three aliens spent years filling. A spray of black fluid hits his face, and his left arm is the first thing to change.

Set in Paul's shack, District 9 — Wikus serves a notice at Paul's shack and finds a hidden container; fuel sprays into his face.

An ordinary shack inside the camp, with something under the floor.

The underground MNU lab

Wikus wakes under test lights. The company that employed him now wants to know what is in his body, and what he sees in the lab changes how he sees the aliens.

Set in Underground MNU lab — Wikus is taken to a lab where researchers test his hybrid DNA and he finds the experiments on aliens.

A secret research floor under the company's own building.

The ship under the shack

Running from his own employer, Wikus ends up back in the camp and learns what has been under a shack for twenty years. Christopher offers a way home for his people and a cure for Wikus, if the fuel can be taken back.

Set in Christopher Johnson's shack — Wikus hides in District 9 and finds Christopher and the dropship concealed beneath his shack.

An ordinary-looking shack with a command module hidden below.

The Nigerian gang's compound

Wikus walks into a crime lord's territory because he needs guns that only his new arm can fire. The gang's leader wants that arm for a different reason.

Set in Obasanjo's compound — Wikus steals powerful alien weapons from Obasanjo, a Nigerian crime lord who believes that eating Wikus' alien arm will grant him alien abilities.

A gang's chop shop and weapons store inside the camp.

The Ponte City tower in the final shots

The film closes on the Johannesburg skyline, with the round tower of Ponte City in view.

Set in Johannesburg skyline — Final shots look over the city.

A 54-storey cylindrical apartment tower in Berea.

Filmed at Ponte City, Berea (Berea, Johannesburg, South Africa) — One of the final shots features the tower, and several scenes were shot at the Ponte building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there:

Filmed at Kliptown, Soweto (Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa) — Scene not specified in the source Google Maps · Apple Maps

Characters

• Wikus van de Merwe — A bureaucrat at the defense contractor MNU, chosen to lead the forced relocation of the aliens.
• Christopher Johnson — An alien who has spent twenty years collecting fuel to get his people home.

Questions answered on the map

• Where was the slum in District 9 really filmed?
• Which Johannesburg tower is in District 9's final shots?