Aeon Flux is a science fiction action film directed by Karyn Kusama. The film is a loose adaptation of the animated science fiction television series of the same name, which was created by animator Peter Chung. It stars Charlize Theron as the title character. The film was released on December 2, 2005 by Paramount Pictures in the United States.
When government agents murder her family, Aeon Flux (Charlize Theron) swears revenge. A highly trained soldier on the front lines of a war against the perfect society, Aeon is one of the few to suspect that this perfect life is hiding a perfect lie.
Set in 2415, “Aeon Flux” is a startling vision of a future in flux from Karyn Kusama, director of the acclaimed “Girlfight.” “Aeon Flux” is written by Phil Hay & Matt Manfredi, based upon characters created by Peter Chung in the pioneering MTV animated series.
About the Production
“When her family is killed by government agents, Aeon Flux is eager to take revenge; but, before she can complete her mission, she uncovers secrets that change everything,” says Charlize Theron, who portrays the title character in the new film “Aeon Flux.”
As the top operative in an underground rebellion against the dictatorial leaders of Bregna – a walled future city – everything Aeon knows is challenged when she receives her latest assignment: the assassination of Trevor Goodchild, ruler of Bregna.
“This is the mission she has been waiting for her entire life,” says producer Gale Anne Hurd, who previously produced the sci-fi classics “The Terminator,” “Aliens,” and “The Abyss.” According to Hurd, Aeon Flux is the only agent who can perform such a mission.
“Aeon is able to do things that others can’t – she is the best on every possible level – but what she discovers shakes her beliefs about how the world operates.”
“Aeon is ruthless – all she cares about is the mission,” says Theron. “She gave up the idea of a normal life long ago – she is a professional killer. As far as she’s concerned, she’s on the planet for one reason: to avenge the murder of her family.”
Producer David Gale, who is also Executive Vice President of MTV Films, agrees that “Aeon Flux” will live up to expectations of the fans of the series while also being accessible to new viewers. “It’s very rare to have such a smart, strong female character that isn’t your typical two dimensional action hero. Karyn, Charlize, Phil and Matt have brought a unique and exciting vision to the screen that’s true to Peter Chung’s original concept and incorporates many of the original and groundbreaking ideas that were so memorable in the series.”
“Aeon Flux” began life as a series of animated short films on MTV’s “Liquid Television.” These shorts gave the filmmakers ample inspiration to bring the unique character to life. “The animated Aeon Flux is a provocative, sexy, and acrobatic character – and she isn’t bound by the laws of man or nature,” Hurd says. “Our challenge was to pay homage to that, to live up to the high bar the series set, while also grounding her in the world that an actress – one of Charlize’s talent and considerable flexibility – could play. Aeon is iconic – there’s no doubt about that – and it was thrilling to present a living action heroine unlike any other.”
“I think what really distinguishes Aeon from a lot of other women in the genre is that she has so much free will; she’s so self-determining,” says director Karyn Kusama, who previously helmed the indie hit “Girlfight.” “The story of `Aeon Flux’ grapples with some of the provocative themes that often inhabit science fiction, and it was important that she read as a complex and morally ambiguous character. Her sexuality, for instance, is just one element of that; very powerful and ultimately unapologetic.”
In her first action-heroine role, Theron called upon her unique skills as a ballet dancer to bring the character to life. “I was a ballerina for 12 years – it took me that long to figure out why I loved ballet so much. It wasn’t because I liked the technical aspect of it; I liked to get on stage and tell a story. For years, I did that, just using my body. For me, the physical aspect is as important as any line of dialogue.”
“No one else could have played the role,” says Kusama. “We needed someone who had an incredible physical grace and strength, but not an over-muscular kind of strength. Charlize fit perfectly.”
“Charlize made the stunt work an integral part of the character,” says Hurd. “Her incredible physicality, due to her training as a dancer, let her create a performance from beginning to end, not only in the dramatic scenes, but in almost every moment of action that you see in the film.”
Steeped in the tradition of sci-fi action, “Aeon Flux” presents a future world where nothing is what it seems. Aeon’s assignment is to assassinate Trevor Goodchild, the leader of Bregna, a seemingly utopian future society with no disease, no hunger, and no war. “When you think of sci-fi, you think of a grimy, dirty, future – a world in decay. That’s not the case in `Aeon Flux’ – Bregna looks perfect,” adds Hurd. “We created imagery that was perfect to look at. Only later do we reveal that it contains the perfect lie.”
“Aeon Flux” began life as an animated series created by Peter Chung as part of MTV’s “Liquid Television.” In 1991, “Aeon Flux” debuted as a series of six two-to-three-minute short films, then reappeared in 1992 with five more three-to-five-minute shorts. In 1995, MTV aired ten 30-minute animated episodes.
“I’d always wanted to do animation for adults,” says Chung. “I’d seen a lot of animation from Japan and I’d seen a lot of graphic novels from Europe. They were sophisticated in their storytelling; they weren’t about good vs. evil, heroes vs. villains. Those were my main influences as I tried to create something people hadn’t seen before. Aeon isn’t a crime fighter; she isn’t a government agent. She’s not a hero in the classical sense. Instead, she’s a force for personal freedom.”
“I wanted to take the elements that Peter Chung created for Aeon and celebrate them as much as possible – physically, where we could, but also who she is,” says Theron. “Aeon is a very strong woman, quite a free-thinker, who questions the things happening in the society she lives in. She thinks that this one mission will change her life, but as it turns out, she has to make some tough decisions.”
Chung is thrilled to see Theron bring his vision come to life. “It’s very exciting to see something I worked on such a long time ago to be given a new lease on life and introduced to a whole new audience,” he says.
Bringing this vision to the screen is director Karyn Kusama, who previously directed “Girlfight,” the critical hit starring Michelle Rodriguez as a young Latina woman using her fists in a fight for personal dignity. “Girlfight” took the 2000 Sundance Film Festival by storm, sharing the Grand Jury Prize at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival and winning the Directing Award in Dramatic Competition. Kusama was also nominated for a 2000 Spirit Award for Best First Feature.
Though “Aeon Flux” marks Kusama’s first foray into science fiction, Hurd says that Kusama was just the person to bring this story to the screen. “It’s a perfect combination of material and director,” says Hurd. “In many ways, `Girlfight’ was the perfect calling card for this film, because, like Aeon Flux, the character that Michelle Rodriguez brought to life is tough, uncompromising, and larger than life.”
About the Characters
The title character, Aeon Flux, is – as her name implies – a dynamic operative working for a group (called the Monicans) rebelling against the overly sanitized government of Bregna, led by her archenemy, Trevor Goodchild. Tall, sexy, and lethal, Aeon is given a mission to assassinate Trevor: a mission she has been waiting to receive for her entire life. “She thinks this one mission will change her life and make everything better, but nothing is that simple,” says Charlize Theron, who brings Aeon to life.
The role was the first that Theron took on after her Oscar-winning performance in “Monster.” She also recently starred in the drama “North Country.” “I was looking for something completely different,” says Theron. “I felt this part was quite a challenge to take on.”
Theron notes that “Aeon Flux” is a very different kind of film than any she’s done before. Looking at Peter Chung’s animated series, she found inspiration, but also enough room to make the character her own. “I wanted to stay as true as I could to Peter’s creation, but – like he told me – she’s constantly evolving,” says Theron. “I had a blueprint for the role from Peter, but I was able to mold it, like a piece of clay, and play around with it. It was important to me that the character would come from a real place – I couldn’t think of it as far-fetched or futuristic.
“Aeon is a very human character,” says Kusama. “She’s reckless and unpredictable, but she also has a sense of humor and honor. I wanted to make sure that those human elements came through.”
Bregna is ruled by Trevor Goodchild, a benevolent dictator whose rule is absolute but who claims to have the best interests of Bregnans at heart. As Aeon closes in on Trevor – the target of her secret mission – the assassin and the target are struck by a connection to each other.
Marton Csokas, who previously played Celeborn, husband to Galadriel, in “Lord of the Rings,” brings Trevor to life. “Trevor knows a lot more about Aeon than Aeon knows about Trevor,” said the Hungarian-born actor. “There’s something undeniable between the two of them and she has a certain memory or feeling that triggers the past, not that she would necessarily identify it as that.”
Csokas says that Trevor’s ultimate goal is to find a balance between security and liberty. “In some ways, what he is doing to maintain the human race is good – after all, humanity is surviving,” said Csokas. “But, at the same time, he is denying people a certain degree of free will and choice.”
Trevor’s right hand man in ruling Bregna is his brother, Oren Goodchild, played by Jonny Lee Miller. A relationship that has become strained over the years, the brothers’ trust in each other wanes as the film progresses. “There’s a bit of a Cain and Abel story in the relationship between Trevor and Oren,” Marton Csokas explains. “There are a lot of dynamics at work. You have a triangle between Trevor, Oren and Aeon that none of them are aware of at the beginning of the story. When Aeon suddenly reappears to Trevor, it unleashes a chain of events that takes all of them on a life-altering journey.”
Academy Award nominee Sophie Okonedo plays Sithandra, Aeon’s protégé. “My character is a soldier and completely in awe of Aeon. She’s very focused, like a machine, and not one to improvise or change direction, as Aeon does,” says Okonedo. “For Sithandra, Aeon is a perfect person whom she idolizes. As Aeon makes her choices, Sithandra doesn’t quite know how to cope with it. She’s not very good at coping with any sort of emotion.”
In the film, Sithandra has elected to modify her body in order to be a more effective soldier. She has surgically altered her feet to make them hands, or “fands” (a contraction of “feet-for-hands”), and Okonedo learned to walk in a new way – as if on hands. “I experimented and put on music and played around trying to find a different way of walking,” said Okonedo. “It’s much tougher than you’d think.”
Okonedo trained for four to five hours a day for five weeks, focusing on flexibility and balance. Yoga, gymnastics, running, cycling, and wire harness practice were part of the daily regimen. “I’ve never in my life played anything like this,” said Okonedo. “I never had to learn to fight or train so intensely. It’s all completely new to me. When I got the part, I didn’t let them know that I was quite scared of heights, but as an actor, you tend to say, `Yes, I can do everything!’ So, on my first day on set, I was raised 50 feet in the air on a wire. It certainly cured my fear of heights quickly.”
Frances McDormand plays The Handler, Aeon’s commander in the Monican rebellion. “She’s an ambiguous character,” says McDormand, noting that The Handler controls Aeon, though Aeon is fighting for personal freedom. “How much of the plot does she actually know? How much can she direct Aeon, and how much is left in Aeon’s hands? What is predestined, and what can they control? I think that ambiguity fits the themes of the film.”
One final character holds the key to the Goodchilds’ hold on Bregna and the answers to all of Aeon’s questions. The Keeper, as the name suggests, is the individual Trevor and Oren have entrusted with accessing and securing information on of all Bregna’s citizens. Unknown to all but the Goodchilds, the Keeper lives in a floating memorial high above Bregna.
Academy Award nominee Pete Postlethwaite sees his character as someone who has rebelled against the government he serves for a long time: “The Keeper is someone who has fought against the system, really,” Postlethwaite says. “Generations ago, he saw this was the wrong way to go. I think he decided to stay alive so long in the hope and with the knowledge that there were people still available who could put this right, one of them being Aeon Flux.”
Training
After gaining 30-plus pounds for her Academy Award-winning turn in “Monster,” Theron was eager to take on the physical challenges of “Aeon Flux.” “I got very excited about how far I could actually push myself, and how many new things I could learn to do on my own on this film to really physically feel like I was this character,” she says. “I got excited about pushing my body to that limit.”
Theron trained for almost four months prior to the start of production. “When I began training, I hadn’t done anything with my body for two years,” says Theron. “I had to lose weight and build muscle, get some strength back. I wanted to get to a place where I felt stronger and more capable of doing the things that I had to do in this film.
To lose the final pounds and build long, lean muscle, Theron combined gymnastics, trampoline and acrobatic work and dance with elements of karate, judo, Capoiera and Krav Maga, the Israeli fighting style. The aim was to build flexibility and strength.
Theron insists that stunt work is a necessary part of finding the character. “It was important to me – if I could believe in myself doing these things, then it wasn’t so unrealistic,” says Theron. “That was a question that I asked myself every time we did a stunt. The physical aspect sometimes is so much more important than my lines of dialogue – and that’s the case for a character as physical as Aeon. I know I am being helped at times by a wire and mats – there has to be a security blanket – but I think it is important to get as close as you possibly can to doing it yourself. I think it helps tremendously with playing a character like this.”
“We were very fortunate that we got Charlize,” said stunt coordinator Charlie Croughwell. “She is as dedicated, strong, and as capable as you could hope for in any actor. Aeon Flux is a human being with a purpose and a great deal of knowledge, skill and discipline. Charlize’s physicality is very flexible.”
Theron trained with Cirque du Soleil gymnast Terry Bartlett, who guided her through the acrobatic, trampoline, and wire work. Mika Saito was on-hand to help with strength training and other stunt work.
Bregna
The characters of Aeon Flux live in the walled city of Bregna, ruled by Trevor and Oren Goodchild. The filmmakers’ vision for Bregna was far from the overpolluted, gritty future worlds seen in other films; rather, they strove for a hyper-sanitized environment – one that dissembles the sinister intentions of its rulers.
“I wanted to portray an organic world, one that’s less hardware-driven, “ says the director, Karyn Kusama. “I wanted to create a sunny, beautiful world on the surface, where we discover secrets and strains as we venture deeper into the story.”
As Kusama and her production designer, Andrew McAlpine, began their process of designing a world four centuries in the future, they first looked to history. “To understand 400 years in the future, you have to look some 400 years in the past,” said McAlpine. “You discover that many things have remained the same – like utensils, tools, plates, beds, shelves, windows – and you start moving from there.”
Bregna is a walled city that protects its citizens from nature. The last city on earth, it is surrounded by overgrowth. It’s a small, protected place with no interaction with the outside world.
The filmmakers found what they were looking for – that combination of yesterday and tomorrow – in the buldings and gardens of Berlin and Potsdam, Germany. The Bauhaus architectural style, which Walter Gropius popularized as director of the Bauhaus art school from 1919 to 1928, exemplified what Kusama wanted to achieve on screen. The Bauhaus belief, that the union of art and technology could bring about new social conditions through the creation of new visual surroundings, underscores the principles that guided Kusama’s choices in creating the look of the highly controlled and contained city-state of Bregna, where ordinary citizens are constantly under surveillance and nothing is quite as it appears to be.
With clean, unbroken lines, the geometric modernism of Bauhaus design fit perfectly with the stylized but organic look of “Aeon Flux.” “We’re looking at the most beautiful thinking on form anywhere,” McAlpine said of the Bauhaus Museum, which doubles as Una Flux’s apartment complex. “It’s the last building Gropius ever built and we’re working with some of the most pure architecture imaginable. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
Location managers Christian Alexander Klempert and Matthias Braun combed the buildings and gardens of Berlin and Potsdam, and found an almost surreal combination of stunning modern and historic architectural wonders. “There were astonishing places that had never been photographed, ranging from the 1700s to the 1960s,” says McAlpine, noting that, until recently, these places had been behind the Iron Curtain. “We had access to amazing 400-year-old architecture as well as incredible modern designs, all of which had beautiful curvatures and geometric shapes to them.” The filmmakers’ chosen locations include the parks and palaces of Potsdam’s Schloss Sanssouci and Buga Park and Berlin’s Maria Regina Martyrum.
Peter Chung, creator of the animated series, feels that the filmmaker’s dedication to “getting it right” paid off. “In Berlin, I saw the crew filming Charlize on several sets, all of which were in real historical structures with all the texture and functionality of lived-in spaces,” says Chung. “The locations of the movie look and feel very real, while seeming to have been lifted straight out of the animation.”
That was exactly the impact such images had on Frances McDormand. “Karyn used Berlin’s amazing architecture to create a stunning filmic statement,” she says. “It was really the perfect city to film this film.”
One location took on a special importance for the filmmakers. A majority of the film’s exterior and interior government complex scenes were filmed at Tierheim, a privately funded animal rescue shelter and veterinary center outside Berlin. Members of the crew, who enjoyed shooting at the location and wanted to give something back, organized a fundraiser for the shelter, which depends on donations to survive. A group of singers and musicians on the crew began meeting on their only day off to practice for a one-night performance at Berlin’s Hard Rock Cafe. The sold-out show, attended and supported by the rest of the cast and crew, raised more than $3,000 for the no-kill shelter.
The Costumes
Peter Chung’s animated series “Aeon Flux” was as notable for how he dressed his characters – especially his leading lady – as anything they did. Preferring the provocative to the plain, Aeon is not shy about using her sexuality as just one weapon in her arsenal.
Beatrix Aruna Pasztor was handed the enviable (and some might say easy) job of making Charlize Theron sexy. The veteran costume designer, who previously provided the stylish and striking threads for such diverse films as “Alfie,” “Vanity Fair,” “Good Will Hunting,” and “To Die For” (among many others), says that Theron had many ideas about how to bring the character’s unique costumes to the screen. “Charlize has very good taste; she’s very fashion-conscious and she knows what looks good on her,” said the costume designer. “She needed to do a lot of running and excessive movements, so we had to think about comfort and practicality. She had a lot of input on her look.”
Fans of the animated series will find one costume that particularly represents the Aeon Flux of the animated series: the revealing costume that Aeon sleeps in early in the film. “I think that might be the sexiest costume ever,” says Gale Anne Hurd, the producer. Which is not to say that Aeon’s other costumes – in particuar, the black ensemble that she wears during her invasion of the government complex – don’t make the star look drop-dead gorgeous.
In keeping with the director’s vision of an organic future, the costume designer shunned synthetic materials in favor of natural fibers. “Cotton is still around,” says Pasztor. “It makes sense – people would rather wear cotton than vinyl.”
Pasztor designed a total of five outfits for Aeon, including a white body suit and a long, flowing costume with a cowl. Another stands out for Pasztor: “I love the unique costume Aeon wears in the marketplace,” says Pasztor. “The chest plate on that costume is leather, hand painted… It’s gorgeous.”
In addition to her striking costumes, Aeon Flux’s other notable physical feature is her hair. In the animated series, Peter Chung drew her locks in ram-like, gravity-defying curls. Those curls were impractical for live action, but the filmmakers did their best to give Aeon an exclusive `do. The task of transforming Theron’s long blond hair to a short, brunette bob fell to hair artist Enzo Angileri, who designed and colored Theron’s own hair for the film. “We left some strands of longer hair framing her face, which is a nod to those ramrod curls, which never moved,” Angileri said. “We knew the character would be in motion and we knew we wanted the hair to be in motion as well, not stiff and strange looking, so we had to change it a bit.”
In designing the looks for Trevor, Oren and other members of his government, Pasztor found herself turning her ideas inside out. At an early fitting with Csokas, Pasztor turned a `40s-style coat inside out to show Kusama some ideas about cut and structure. Both Kusama and Pasztor were struck by the inside-out look and Kusama encouraged her designer to start with the 1940s look and mix it up with modern stretch fabrics and unusual proportions.
“It was basically a combination of a `40s coat with 18th century cuts and distinctive stitching,” said Pasztor. “With Marton, we also made a shorter jacket, which is a little bit more modern design. We didn’t want to go with big shoulders, so we found that this cut had a militant look, which sits very tight with the body.”
The overall effect Kusama sought was that very slick silhouette: “The costumes have an Old World elegance and sophistication,” says Csokas. “The attention to detail is remarkable, whether it be through the embroidery or the cut of the cloth.”
These production notes provided by Paramount Pictures.
Aeon Flux
Starring: Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand, Marton Csokas, Pete Postlethwaite, Johny Lee Miller
Directed by: Karyn Kusama
Screenplay by: Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi
Release Date: December 2, 2005
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of violence and sexual content.
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Box Office Totals
Domestic: $25,874,337 (49.5%)
Foreign: $26,429,664 (50.5%)
Total: $52,304,001 (Worldwide)