''9'' is a 2009 animated

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction are genres of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astronom ...

science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses Speculative fiction, speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as Extraterrestrial life in fiction, extraterrestria ...

directed by Shane Acker in his directorial debut. Based on Acker's own short film of the same name created at the UCLA Animation Workshop, the film was written by Pamela Pettler and produced by Jim Lemley,

Tim Burton Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and producer. Known for popularizing Goth subculture, Goth culture in the American film industry, Burton is famous for his Gothic film, gothic horror and dark fantasy films. ...

Timur Bekmambetov Timur Nuruakhitovich Bekmambetov (, ; ; born 25 June 1961) is a Kazakh-born Russian film director, producer, screenwriter, and tech entrepreneur. He is best known for the fantasy epic '' Night Watch'' (2004) and the action thriller '' Wanted' ...

and Dana Ginsburg. Set in an alternate version of the

1940s File:1940s decade montage.png, Above title bar: events during World War II (1939–1945): From left to right: Troops in an LCVP landing craft approaching Omaha Beach on Normandy landings, D-Day; Adolf Hitler visits Paris, soon after the Battle of ...

, the film follows a rag doll labeled "9" who awakens shortly after the end of humanity following the uprising of machines. The film features the voices of

Elijah Wood Elijah Jordan Wood (born January 28, 1981) is an American actor and producer. Wood made his film debut with a minor part in ''Back to the Future Part II'' (1989) at the age of eight and achieved recognition in the early 1990s as a child acto ...

, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer and

Crispin Glover Crispin Hellion Glover (born April 20, 1964) is an American actor, filmmaker and artist. He is known for portraying eccentricity (behavior), eccentric Character actor, character roles on screen. His breakout role was as George McFly in ''Back to ...

, with Martin Landau and Fred Tatasciore. ''9'' was released by Focus Features in theatres on September 9, 2009. The film received generally mixed reviews from critics, earned $48.4 million on a $30 million budget and received an Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures nomination in 21st Producers Guild of America Awards. The film was released on DVD and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

on December 29, 2009.

Plot

A scientist creates a robot for his government in the name of peaceful progress, making the highly intelligent B.R.A.I.N. However, the government seizes the B.R.A.I.N. and turns it into the Fabrication Machine, an armature that can construct an army of war machines. The machines become corrupted and declare war on the humans. As a last resort, the scientist uses

alchemy Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

to create nine

homunculus A homunculus ( , , ; "little person", : homunculi , , ) is a small human being. Popularized in 16th-century alchemy and 19th-century fiction, it has historically referred to the creation of a miniature, fully formed human. The concept has root ...

-like rag dolls called "Stitchpunks", each labeled with a number, giving them portions of his own soul via a

talisman A talisman is any object ascribed with religious or magical powers intended to protect, heal, or harm individuals for whom they are made. Talismans are often portable objects carried on someone in a variety of ways, but can also be installed perm ...

. He dies upon completing the final Stitchpunk doll: 9. 9 awakens sometime after the machines have destroyed all organic life on Earth and gone dormant. He ventures outside and meets 2, an elderly inventor Stitchpunk who gives him a working voice box. The last active machine, the Cat-Beast, attacks the pair, abducts 2, and takes the talisman. One-eyed healer 5 rescues 9 and takes him to Sanctuary, the tower of an empty cathedral that is home to other Stitchpunks; the dogmatic leader 1, his large bodyguard 8, and the eccentric

clairvoyant Clairvoyance (; ) is the claimed ability to acquire information that would be considered impossible to get through scientifically proven sensations, thus classified as extrasensory perception, or "sixth sense". Any person who is claimed to ...

6. Against 1's wishes, 9 and 5 follow the Cat-Beast to a factory and rescue 2. The Cat-Beast attacks the trio, but they are saved by 7, the only female of the Stitchpunks. 9 curiously connects the talisman to the dormant Fabrication Machine, accidentally reviving it; it kills 2 by sucking out his soul, and the other Stitchpunks only barely manage to escape. 7 takes 9 and 5 to an abandoned library, where mute scholar twins 3 and 4 reveal the history of the Human-Machine war. 9 draws the symbols on the talisman, and 5 realizes the symbols match the drawings 6 is always making. 9 and 5 return to Sanctuary to investigate, but 1 reprimands them for disobeying and putting them all at risk. The Fabrication Machine begins assembling new robots; one of them, the bird-like Winged Beast, attacks the Sanctuary and burns it down. With 7's help, the Stitchpunks manage to destroy the Winged Beast and escape. Back at the library, 6, 3, and 4 search for information on the talisman. 1 says such curiosity is dangerous, and reveals that he allowed 2 to go out to his death because he feared 2's curiosity would eventually get them all killed. Meanwhile, the Fabrication Machine uses 2's corpse as a hypnotic lure for its new "Seamstress" robot, which attacks the library and captures 7 and 8. The other Stitchpunks return to the factory to save them, but 8's soul is absorbed by the machine. 9 goes in alone, saves 7, and destroys the Seamstress. He and 7 escape as the other Stitchpunks blow up the factory, destroying nearly all of the machines. The Fabrication Machine, badly damaged but still functional, emerges from the factory's ruins and absorbs 5's soul. 6 realizes that the deceased Stitchpunks' souls are still trapped inside the Machine and begs the others not to destroy it. The Machine manages to capture 6; just before it sucks out 6's soul, he orders 9 to go to the Scientist's workshop for answers. At the workshop, 9 finds a holographic recorded message from the Scientist, explaining both the Machine's and the Stitchpunks' origins, and how to use the talisman. Now knowing that the talisman can be used to transfer souls, 9 reunites with the surviving Stitchpunks. He plans to sacrifice himself to the Machine, distracting it long enough for the others to retrieve the talisman. 1 redeems himself by pushing 9 out of the way, allowing the Machine to suck out his soul instead of 9's. 9 removes the talisman and sucks the captive Stitchpunks' souls out of the Machine, destroying it. Afterward, 9 uses the talisman to release the souls of 1, 2, 5, 6, and 8. As the freed souls fly up into the sky, it starts to rain. The raindrops contain tiny flecks of bacteria, bringing organic life back into the world.

Voice cast

Stitchpunks

* Christopher Plummer as 1, the fearful, arrogant portion of the Scientist's personality * Martin Landau as 2, the creative genius portion of the Scientist's personality * John C. Reilly as 5, the gentle healer portion of the Scientist's personality *

as 6, the artistic, eccentric portion of the Scientist's personality * Jennifer Connelly as 7, the fighter portion of the Scientist's personality and the only female of the group * Fred Tatasciore as 8, the stolid and loyal portion of the Scientist's personality *

as 9, the hopeful, heroic part of the Scientists personality

Humans

Alan Oppenheimer Alan Oppenheimer (born April 23, 1930) is an American actor. He has performed numerous roles on live action television since the 1960s and has had an active career doing voice work since the 1970s. Early life Oppenheimer was born in New York ...

as the scientist, the inventor of the Fabrication Machine and later the nine Stitchpunks * Tom Kane as the

chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

, a dictator who was responsible for causing the Fabrication Machine to turn against humanity *Fred Tatasciore as the radio announcer *Helen Wilson as a news reporter

Music

The film soundtrack was released on August 31, 2009 in physical and digital formats, nine days before the film was released. It includes the themes created by

Danny Elfman Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American film composer, singer, songwriter, and musician. He came to prominence as the lead vocalist and primary songwriter for the new wave band Oingo Boingo in the early 1980s. Since scoring his ...

, Deborah Lurie's film score, and " Welcome Home" by Coheed and Cambria. The latter song was used in two trailers for the film, with minor censoring for the full song in the soundtrack. Along with "Welcome Home", the teaser trailer also features an excerpt from "The Captain" by The Knife, which was also not included in the soundtrack. Other songs within the film that were not included in the soundtrack was the traditional "Dies Irae" chant, performed by

as part of the background score, and " Over the Rainbow", the song from '' The Wizard of Oz'' and performed by Judy Garland. The song plays in a lighthearted scene when the surviving stitchpunks were celebrating the destruction of the factory and played it on a 78rpm

phonograph A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration Waveform, waveforms are recorded as correspond ...

record.

Marketing

On December 25, 2008, a trailer was released on Apple.com that features The Knife's "The Captain" and Coheed and Cambria's " Welcome Home". ''9'' is the second animated feature film to be released by Focus Features, the first being '' Coraline'', written and directed by

Henry Selick Charles Henry Selick Jr. (; born November 30, 1952) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his work in stop motion animation and for directing the films ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993), ''James and the Giant Peach (film) ...

and based on the book by

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (; born Neil Richard Gaiman; 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre, and screenplays. His works include the comic series ''The Sandman (comic book), The Sandma ...

. The trailer for ''9'' preceded ''Coraline'' when it was shown in theaters and released on DVD. A second trailer for ''9'' first appeared on G4's '' Attack of the Show'' and was later shown before '' Land of the Lost''. It is an extensive trailer which includes a bit of the background story behind the existence of the creations. In April 2009, the film's "Scientist" began making journal entries on a

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

page called "9 Scientist", including essays about each of his nine creations. The "9 Scientist" Facebook page seemingly references events leading up to the release of the film. A viral campaign promotional website for ''9'' was launched. It shed some light upon the background of the ''9'' world. The trailer featured several machines: the Cat Beast, a catlike ambush predator that appeared in the original short film; the Winged Beast, a

pterosaur Pterosaurs are an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 million to 66 million years ago). Pterosaurs are the earli ...

-like machine with movable blades in its mouth; the Seamstress, a hypnotic serpent; Steel War Behemoths, large two-legged machines armed with a machine gun and poison gas missiles which can kill in a matter of seconds; the Fabrication Machine (previously known as B.R.A.I.N.), a

cyclopean Cyclopean masonry is a type of masonry, stonework found in Mycenaean Greece, Mycenaean architecture, built with massive limestone boulders, roughly fitted together with minimal Engineering tolerance, clearance between adjacent stones and with clay ...

, spiderlike machine with many multi-jointed arms; and Seekers, aerial machines with searchlights. Later trailers also reveal the existence of several small spiderlike machines. Part of the film's marketing strategy was its release date of September 9, 2009 ("9/9/09").

Video game

Shortly before the film's release, Life released a mobile game adaptation titled ''9: The Mobile Game'' for the

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

and

iPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and formerly marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a po ...

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has an overall approval rating of 57% based on 185 reviews and average rating of 5.90/10. The website's critical consensus states: "Although its story is perhaps too familiar and less complex than some might wish, ''9'' is visually spectacular, and director Shane Acker's attention to detail succeeds in drawing viewers into the film's universe." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, it holds a weighted average score of 60 out of 100 based on reviews from 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

gave the film three stars out of four, contrasting it with the works of

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist. He co-founded Studio Ghibli and serves as honorary chairman. Throughout his career, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Anime, Japanese ani ...

and saying that, "’9’ is nevertheless worth seeing... he visualsare entrancing." The general sentiment by critics is that the film is "long on imaginative design but less substantial in narrative." '' Variety''s Todd McCarthy says, "In the end, the picture's impact derives mostly from its design and assured execution."

Box office

The film performed poorly at the box office. Its opening weekend landed it at #2 behind '' I Can Do Bad All By Myself'' with approximately $10,740,446 and $15,160,926 for its five-day opening. The film has grossed

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

48,428,063 worldwide.

Accolades

Home media

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 29, 2009, three-and-a-half months after the film's theatrical release. The DVD and Blu-ray contained special features such as the director Shane Acker's original 2005 short film of the same name, cast interviews, and commentary by the filmmakers.

Possible sequel

No plans for a sequel have been made, but possibilities were mentioned via the film's 2009 DVD commentary. Director Acker has also mentioned the possibility of a sequel being made because of the lack of darker animated films, claiming that everything is G- and PG-rated with little to no dark elements. In 2009 he said that he will continue to make darker animated films, either doing so with a sequel to ''9'' or original ideas for future films. Before the theatrical release of the film, Acker and producer

stated they were open for a sequel, depending on how well the film was received. Since the film's home release, there have been no further mentions of a sequel, with Acker focusing on projects announced in 2011 ('' The Adventures of Thomas''), 2012 (''Deep''), 2013 (''

Beasts of Burden A working animal is an animal, usually domesticated, that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks. Some are used for their physical strength (e.g. oxen and draft horses) or for transportation (e.g. riding horses and camels), while oth ...

'') and other four projects aimed for older audiences of which have not been released, until ''Crusoe'', a

comic science fiction Science fiction comedy (sci-fi comedy) or comic science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction or science fantasy that exploits the science fiction genre's conventions for comedy, comedic effect. The genre often mocks or satirizes standard scie ...

short film was released in 2021. Despite the silence from Acker, in January 2017, the Facebook profile of the character "the Scientist" was updated with a rather cryptic message. The profile had been inactive since 2009, leading some to speculate the teasing of a sequel.

References

External links

* * *
9
' at the TCM Movie Database * * * {{Universal theatrical animated features 2009 films 2009 American animated films 2009 computer-animated films 2009 directorial debut films 2009 science fiction films 2009 action thriller films 2000s fantasy adventure films 2000s dark fantasy films American adult animated films American animated science fantasy films American animated science fiction films American dark fantasy films American fantasy adventure films American science fiction adventure films American robot films Animated thriller films 2000s English-language films English-language Luxembourgian films D-Box motion-enhanced films Features based on short films Films produced by Tim Burton Films scored by Deborah Lurie Animated films set in Germany Films set in Berlin Animated films set in the 1940s Animated films set in the 20th century Films with screenplays by Pamela Pettler Focus Features animated films Focus Features films Relativity Media animated films Relativity Media films Animated post-apocalyptic films Bazelevs Company films English-language horror films English-language science fantasy films English-language action thriller films English-language fantasy adventure films Alternate history films American alternate history films Animated World War II films