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Did this sci-fi movie inspire Donald Trump’s Mexican wall?

26 January 2017

“It’s the biggest man-made structure I’ve ever seen … God, it’s huge”. A couple on the run are confronted by the forbidding sight of a giant wall dividing the US and Mexico. It’s the creation of British director-producer Gareth Edwards, who was also responsible for the impressive visual effects in his 2010 sci-fi film, Monsters.

Here, in devastatingly real CGI, is Donald Trump’s executive order writ large – but created seven years ago, just as the Americans were pulling out of Iraq. As Danny Leigh notes in his short film, Others (below, from his Film Now series); “You want prophetic?” We may never know if Trump saw the film but with hindsight the effect is still chilling.

So, what is Edwards doing now? His last film was Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, a highly acclaimed spin-off from the franchise. This time, the message seems more optimistic. The film is, he says, about a group of people who “band together to bring hope to the galaxy”.

Did sci-fi film Monsters inspire Donald Trump’s Mexican wall?

Danny Leigh explores the 2010 movie in this clip from his online series Film Now.

This clip is an extract from episode six of Film Now with Danny Leigh - Others, where he considers identity, fear and aliens in contemporary film.

Film Now with Danny Leigh: What the Hell Happened? / The series

  • Film

    How film itself is referenced in movies from Mulholland Drive to The Act of Killing.

  • Money

    Money, and the people who make it: Margin Call, The Wolf of Wall Street and Spring Breakers.

  • Sex

    Danny explores sex and gender in Nymphomaniac, Girlhood and Tangerine.

  • Death

    Danny explores the approach to death in United 93, Only God Forgives and It Follows.

  • Digital

    Danny examines how the digital revolution has opened up new ways of making movies.

  • Others

    From refugees to alien invasion, Danny takes the temperature of our era through its films.

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