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There are a number of reasons why the tribe is big in numbers and the Navajo Nation land area is larger as well.I am going to try to state here some of the complex interactions that led the the Navajo tribes being big in land base and in population of enrolled members. I am going over the views and reasons from the outside. First, I would like to point out that in many spots I say they were lucky, that this or that factor happened. I think it is worth mentioning that in traditional Navajo conception of this issue, luck has nothing to do with it. In this view, it is more that the four original clans were created in this land by Changing Woman. The emergence place is in the San Juan Mountains. The Navajo people are supposed to live between the four sacred mountains, always moving clockwise round the two center mountains. The other clans came and joined them over time to be in this special place. Today, the 60 or so clans are where they are supposed to be living and this is why they have grown.The corn pollen path is about growth. The traditional thinkers believe in a very causal world. The attempt to live a life in Hózhǫ́ is what has led to the increase in population, health and prosperity and well being. Hózhǫ́ is the attempt to balance the always dynamic and multiple forces to be in harmony, peace, health, beauty, happiness, goodness, wholeness. There is not really just lucky breaks in this view. Having thoughts and plans, speech and actions that are in both inner and outer ways in hózhǫ́ is what has brought the tribe whatever measure of vitality and happiness it has. There is true and value in this view. Personally, I think hózhǫ́ is profound.All Native Americans suffered terrible population losses from epidemics after contact with Europeans. People who suffered this early, and at the same time were not in direct contact with Europeans and not pushed out of their land, were at times were able to have their populations increase again. In places where we have documentation that is more like modern times, such as the NW smallpox epidemic of 1862, the death rates were 40–75% from village to village. In that one, in six months about half the people from Vancouver Island north to Alaska died. Many of those who survived were maimed, blinded or sterile. There were dozens of diseases that had this sort of effect from the 1520s to about 1900. The epidemics came year after year.The Navajo had first contact in the 1540s with the Spanish. There is some evidence that epidemics came north in the 1520s from the trade routes that connected the SW to what is now Mexico. The cultures that suffered the worse were ones with dense populations in villages or towns. The Navajo lived spread out across the landscape in extended family agricultural settlements. They did not live in towns. They also had a tradition of ritually abandoning any dwelling that had someone die in it. The dead body was left there. These practices limited spread of diseases.The Navajo also benefited immensely from the successful Great Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Most of the Pueblo towns rose up together and killed and drive off all the Spanish in the SW. They had to withdraw all the way to what is now Mexico. When they returned, they were more careful. They attempted to recolonize the Hopi Mesas which are surrounded by Navajo lands in 1699. The next year they were all killed by the Hopi in 1700. The Spanish and the Mexican government after them never had colonial control of any of the Navajo lands.In part this was due to geographic luck. The land is high and dry and rugged. It ranged from 3,000 ft to over 10,000 feet. It is cold with snow in the winter. There is one rainy period (called locally the monsoons) for a sort time in the summer. It was not really good for the sort of agriculture that Europeans wanted to practice. The Grand Canyon and the Colorado and San Juan river made it unsuitable as a way to get to the Pacific or cross the continent. A area just to the north that once was in part Navajo lands, the Bear Ears area, has one of the last places in the lower 48 to be explored by Americans. The Henry Mountains in Utah (in Navajo Dził Bizhiʼ Ádiní) were explored by Americans in 1872. The last wolf was killed in the Abajos in the 1930s. These are remote areas. There are no navigable rivers and no good way build roads or later to lay train tracks.When the Mexicans transferred the lands to the Americans in the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. they did not in fact control the Navajo lands. There was no military or political or linguistic or religious control of the area. Legally, they probably didn’t really have the right to transfer the land. In any case, the area was not colonized by any Europeans to any great extent until after the Civil War.In 1864, the Americans fought a war with the Navajo. Most were interned in a camp for four years and many died. This is called The Long Walk. Perhaps half the population died of starvation and disease in the camp. At this point the Navajo lucked out. It also turned out that for some reason their culture was easy for some American leaders in the army and other parts of the government to sympathized with. The government plan had been to force them all to leave their land and move them to Oklahoma. While they were in the camp at Bosque Redondo there was a pretty big scandal. Funds were being misappropriated. Navajo were not being fed and dying. Disease was rampant. It was an area where crops would not grow.People who sympathized with the Navajo made this get to the national press and it became a scandal. It got into national news. The President already had a number of scandals. When the US tried to close the camps and move the Navajo, the important Navajo leaders told them they would rather die than leave their homeland. Not many Americans had much use for the Navajo lands. The leaders stuck to their position and more deaths wold have been bad politically. Many American people who were in contact with them admired their culture and argued for their case. At this point Navajo had an economy of corn and squash, and sheep herding, and weaving. They lived in small family settlements. It was not very different in some ways from many American farmers. A number of locally and nationally connected important people spoke for them.The result was that they were allowed to return to a portion of their traditional lands on June 18, 1868. Some who had escaped the War and interment came out of hiding. They started to rebuild their herds and fields. A cultural decision was made by Navajo to give up the raiding part of their masculine identity. As their culture also always valued corn (and pollen) and in the last two hundred years become to value herding. The cultural value of ritual and philosophical knowledge for men was also an existing role. There was clear way to be Navajo that no longer had raiding as part of the mix. This vision helped traditional society to recover in a way that some tribal nations could not.Navajo culture also has a trait that tends to assimilate and Navajo-ize many new ideas they come in contact with. Rather than letting new cultural practices hurt them, they make them Navajo. In the huge culture clash with Spanish and Anglo culture this has helped them retain self identity. Almost everywhere in the world where this sense of culture is damaged, populations decrease and have problems. Sheep and fry bread and weaving and silver jewelry and horses and velvet skirts and pickups and cowboy hats and rodeos and pageants much more all came from other cultures. Now they are very Navajo.After returning to their land in 1868 they were largely left alone until the 1930s and their population grew from then on. Their culture continued to win over people who were supposed to supervise them or “Americanize” them. Their culture and philosophy has a fairly unique emphasis on balance, harmony and beauty. Because of this appeal to non Navajos who advocated for them, and because of vibrant Navajo leaders, their land base was expanded 13 times between 1868 and 1934. Here are some of the land gains:They only lost land in a checkerboard pattern in the eastern part. It was in 1887 the Navajo lost some land in the eastern New Mexico area. Powerful New Mexico political interests opposed having the land given to the Navajo in that area. Some areas were rescinded. The Dawes Act passed and land was allotted to some families there. The government said that land "left over" after all members had received allotments was to be considered "surplus". This was sold to non Navajo or given to state or BLM or other uses. Some places the subsurface and surface rights are owned by different entities. The allotment program continued until 1934. The eastern part is today called the “Checkerboard Rez”. Here are where the losses were. The pink is Navajo land.Here are today’s Navajo Nation lands. The area that is tan in the lower left is not Navajo land but the Hopi reservation. The Navajo Nations today is the size of Holland and Belgium combined or the states of Mass, Conn, VT, NH, and RI combined. The tribe continues to buy back land. The latest was 605.10 km2 in 2016.On the whole their land base grew. They did not suffer as much as most tribes from the Dawes act. The Act was largely a ruse to take Native land under the pretense that it would “help” Native people by making them part of the market economy and “Americanize” them. In most parts of their land Anglo settlers were not pushing to take their land. The one exception is the Mormons. They did try to push south and take Navajo land. And the succeeded a great deal in what is now Utah. But here again the Navajo were lucky. The Mormons were in a conflict with the US government during these times. Most Americans did not trust them. They had tried to create their own country. Polygamy and theocracy were seen as immoral. In large part US government agents push Mormon settles back out.With that expansion of the Navajo land base into a portion of their original territory came some natural resources. For the time from 1868 to about 1970 they could not negotiate royalties on their own. Many disgraceful deals were made by the US Secretary of the Interior and the BIA. What money that was collected as royalties was often mismanaged or lost. The courts finally recognized this and a portion of those funds that should have been in trust have been returned under the Cobell settlement in 2009. The tribe is using some of that money to buy back land. The tribe has over time been able to strike better deals for its coal, oil and natural gas. It now also has the largest contiguous irrigated farm in the US. Navajo Agricultural Products IndustryIn the 1930s they had a large setback when a misguided Depression are program forced them to reduce livestock herds. This impoverished the Navajo who had not been really not affected by the Depression because their economy was not as cash based as other places. Until 1940 the majority of Navajo lived there and most spoke only Navajo and practiced only Navajo culture.The result of being in a large remote area, that few Americans wanted to steal (except for Mormons), meant that they really did not have much contact with outside American culture until many men joined WWII. Even until 1970 many parts of the reservation had no paved roads and were incredibly remote. Having their culture and language and land base intact meant that the population could rebound at a normal rate.They also did not face the efforts to terminate tribes that happened in the 1950s. As their numbers grew they became a voting block as well. Native people had been refused the vote in New Mexico and Arizona. But court cases helped them gain the vote in 1948. In Utah, Native people have largely been frozen out of the political process until this year. In any case, politicians on both sides began to see advantage in courting the Native vote in these states. Even Barry Goldwater was a big supporter of the Navajo tribe when he was a Senator from 1952 to 1987. In New Mexico the Republican party hoped to court the Native vote and even got Nixon to return important tribal lands to the Taos, Hualapai, Havasupai.They were also lucky in that when they began to have more contact with the rest of American culture they also began to get healthcare. Having a bigger population helped with this too. It made sense to build healthcare infrastructure. So, as they had big families they did not have as high death rates. Today they have inpatient, emergency, outpatient, public health, and other services at four hospitals: Chinle Comprehensive Health Care Facility, Crownpoint Health Care Facility, Gallup Indian Medical Center, and Northern Navajo Medical Center (Shiprock, NM). There are a total of 222 hospital beds. The Kayenta Health Center in Kayenta, AZ began operating as an Alternative Rural Hospital in late 2017 by offering ten short stay nursing beds and ambulatory surgery. There are also has seven full-time health centers providing outpatient, community health, preventive health, and other services. There are also five part-time health stations. The IHS also has contracts and compacts with Tribal health corporations authorized by the Navajo Nation, These include Fort Defiance Indian Hospital/Tsehootsooi Medical Center, Winslow Indian Health Care Center, Inc., Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation, Sage Memorial Hospital, and Utah Navajo Health System, Inc. As well as western medicine, traditional Navajo ritual medicine, which treats spiritual, social, philosophical, and mental health issues that have effects of physical health, is still widely practiced and followed.There is a problem with alcohol (and more recently drugs) on the Navajo lands. But, the tribe was so remote before the 1950s most places could not get alcohol very easily. The were lucky in that the issue hit them very late. Today the tribe is dry and it is illegal to sell alcohol. In many places it would be a two or three hour drive to get a beer. The rates of alcohol problems are going down and the drinking patterns are almost identical to white Anglo rural ranching populations in New Mexico and Arizona. This is different than newer urban American styles of drinking but it is not as intense a problem as some places.On the Navajo Nation they did have boarding schools. But because the population was bigger, many were on the Navajo reservation. This meant they were still near Navajo speakers. They did face laws and attitudes against Native languages and religions but the had a critical mass of a larger population in a very remote area. A number of people who came to be missionaries even left their religion, married Navajos and their kids are Navajo. Many federal agents like Navajo culture and did not really enforce restrictions as much. And most Navajo did not live in towns. They lived in remote hogans. In those places nobody was trying to control them. There were many trading post operators who ended up speaking Navajo and advocating for Navajos.The Navajo Nation did have to deal with forced foster care and forced adoption. But again, with a growing population, the effect was less. The biggest problem was the LDS church forcing such practices starting in 1947. That ended in the late 1980s. Who can adopt a Native child?After the Long Walk the Navajo population was about 8,000 to 11,000 people. Around 1908 they had grown to 29,000. Today there are 332,129 enrolled members in 2010. About 160,000 to 200,000 live on the reservation or right near it. The Navajo constitution says that to be and enrolled Navajo yo must have the equivalent of at least one grandparent (25%).The Navajo language is still spoken by about 60% of the population and one can hear it everywhere. Traditional religion is still practiced by at least 1/3 of the population. They now have full control of their government. The new religion (for the Navajo since the 30s) of Native American Church (NAC) is practiced by many as well.Navajo art and culture are alive and thriving. There is modern Navajo bands and music and art as well. They have a regular justice department but have also developed an alternative court system based on traditional values. They have radio and a newspaper. They run schools and have a tribal college, Dine College, which was the first tribal college in the country in 1968. They also have Navajo Technical University in 3 locations.Most other places and tribes this was not the case. Land was taken over and over. People were forced to places far away from traditional lands. In some cases peoples traditional economic base such as places focused on bison, was destroyed. People were forced off native lands and into boarding schools. Language was suppressed. With smaller populations it was harder to hold onto. Every where west of the Mississippi became full of European immigrants and the descendants of slaves. Tribes were terminated. People of a similar ethnic groups were separated. In other places many unrelated people were forced together. Religion and culture was suppressed. Christianity was imposed. Settlement patterns and social and family structures were disrupted. People had no economic or political power. They faced slavery in the early period until the mod 1700s. They were deported and sold as slaves in the Caribbean. They faced planned genocide in places like California. Places where people lived in compact towns, like the Mandan or the Haida suffered terribly from epidemics. In many places every time a tribe would start to get back on their feet the colonial powers would take more away or forced them to move again.If the Native people had not faced massive displacement, disruption of economies, genocide and epidemic and had been allow a normal population increase the US population today would have at least 130 million Native Americans. Even with conservative assumptions, Native Americans would account for around 35 percent of US population in today. The Navajo were lucky and post 1868 were largely left alone. This allowed their population to rebound as all other Native populations should have been able to as well.

just cause this answer has gotten very long, i’m gonna stick a disclaimer: i’m taeil biased!! big surprise haha but i tried to keep the facts pretty balanced between members/units but i know the most about taeil so he probably has the most points🤷‍♂️taeyong has a scar on his stomach which looks to be from an appendectomy. he also has a scar by his eyexiaojun’s dad dresses up in drag and sings! (he’s a performer)yangyang is taiwanese, not specifically chinese. a lot of people think he was born in germany, which is also false. he moved from taiwan to germany when he was about 11, i believe.every wayv member is multilingual. kun speaks mandarin, korean, and has been studying english extensively recently. ten is fluent in korean, thai, english, speaks mandarin, and studies japanese. winwin speaks mandarin, wenzhounese, a chinese dialect known as “devil’s language” for its complexity, korean, and is learning english from ten. lucas speaks cantonese as his native language, mandarin, basic english, a good amount of korean (i think he understands better than he speaks), and a little bit of thai. xiaojun speaks mandarin, cantonese, korean, and english, and hendery speaks mandarin, cantonese, english, and korean. lastly, yangyang speaks mandarin, german, english, korean, and said he is learning some spanish. out of every language that nct collectively speaks, wayv can speak all of them but japanese fluently.ten used to be popular in thailand before he became an sm trainee. he went by the name “tnt”jaehyun can reach the highest notes in nct (127). he doesn’t sing with them, but he can reach whistle notes.jaehyun is also one of nct’s only vocalist baritone, along with winwin, lucas, and jisung, hendery, and probably others.doyoung MCed 2017/2018 inkigayo, 2016 Mnet countdown, and probably more that i forgot about 😳only 3 out of 7 wayv members were actually born in (mainland) china: kun, winwin, and xiaojun. ten is from thailand, but of chinese descent, lucas is from hong kong, but half thai, hendery is from macau, a now chinese region, but previously portuguese territory, and yangyang was born in (as previously stated) taiwan, but lived in germany for a while.nct is rumored to debut a new unit this year (2020) consisting of jaemin, jeno, jisung, and some new members. nct is also rumored to be debuting an nct-indonesia soon with lucas, ten, and more new members.edit: this didn’t age well loltaeil had to choose between university and becoming an sm trainee, and he (obviously) chose to become a singer, but only after going to university. his professor convinced him to go to auditions he was scouted for and he joined smlots of johnny’s old friends from chicago only recently (in the last year i believe) found out that he’s become famous in korea and internationally. they said that he told them he was going to become a model in korea when he was accepted as a trainee. they also made comments about how he was in choir and that he was always sleeping in class.also this was written quite some time ago but it was probably mid-late 2019 i wrote this? i don’t remembermark used to play flute in elementary and middle school. i believe doyoung also used to play flute.yuta was training to be a soccer player before he auditioned for smto end this on a high note: JUNGWOO HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED TO RETURN FOR NCT127’S COMEBACK!!!!edit: i got more hahataeil chews with his mouth openhaechan likes spicy thingsalso, taeil said haechan showed him how to enjoy life more and have more fundoyoung has a scar by his lipjaehyun set an all time record for bowling at ISAC with a score of 143johnny’s height is still the biggest mystery in all of ncityupdate: shotaro said johnny is taller than him, but he’s taller than lucas; johnny’s height remains a mystery.hendery and lucas are the “wong brothers” (wong is the cantonese form of huang and they’re both native canto speakers)ten has openly expressed his support of the lgbt+ community! (in an online fansign)kun does a lot of composing, arranging, and producing (whether for solo projects or for other wayv members)mark is christian and gave haechan a bible for his 18th birthday. he also says he keeps nctzens in his prayersa fan asked taeil what is vocal range is and he said “i can sing pretty much everything” and i quite like those words a lot 😍😍mark and jaehyun did an interview with korean englishmen (jolly). important moments:ollie is jaehyun’s uncle“drink some water mark”national childbirth trustwinwin got just over two minutes of lines in the whole “awaken the world album,” which was the most lines he’s ever gotten in an album to this daydoyoung has been in every nct u song except for “baby don’t stop” and “new dream” (ost)edit: this was pre-resonancedoyoung also has a solo ost called “hard for me” and it’s very beautiful so you should go listen to it right nowalso listen to taeil’s solo “because of you” which he sang before he even debuted.johnny trained with the exo members so we have a lot of… interesting… selcashaechan said recently that he wants to start working out to stay in better shape since a video came out and showed his stomach a bit and he didn’t like it :(also this means you probably shouldn’t spread pictures of his tummy because he openly and clearly stated his discomfort with it and wished it hadn’t come out of the video.dj johnnylucas kept singing “kung fu fighting” in dream plan so much that it got copyrighted on youtubeten attended a british school in thailand, but continued to learn more english (skills) from johnny/mark in nct, so he has a bit of a strange accenti noticed recently that even though yuta isn’t that tall/big, there aren’t many photos of him looking tinyyangyang wants to name his son “eleven” because he’ll be better than tenwayv has two cats (louis and leon) and a dog (bella) *pardon the bad handwriting i just wrote in on my phone quicklyrenjun hosts a live radio show EVERY DAY at 9pm kst, so make sure to tune in (play it in the background if you can’t pay attention to it)edit: renjun’s radio show has ended and now chenle hosts a radio!mark farts a lot apparently ?jaemin looks like snowball from “a pet’s life”jaemin is nanajeno can do this weird push up thing where he starts on the ground, stomach side down, with his legs and arms stretched out, then pushes up and i can’t explain it well but whateverten’s dance isn’t for gurrlsjisung did a variety show with taemin called “whynot the dancer”taemin also happens to be ten’s favorite hyung (only behind johnny… maybe)anytime ten is asked about who he hangs out with, or talks to a lot, or who his best friend is (in video calls), he always says johnny which is super sweet 🥺taeil recorded the high note in kick it first try10th floor nasty 🤢5th floor 5 star hotel 😌jaehyun and jungwoo may or may not share a bedupdate: they don’t. instead their beds face each other which is almost worse cause now nctzens joke about them holding toes (like holding hands) in their sleep.yuta doesn’t close the toothpaste capsasaengs said they’re scared of doyoung and yuta and will leave if they see them come out of the dorm because they’ll cuss at them, call the police, etc (as they should). one said she doesn’t like yuta anymore because of it lmaothey all have flat butts, sorry bbsdue to popular demand: taeil, mark, shotaro, johnny, and maybe yuta and renjun are not included here.taeyong has zero meat on his bones but consistently ranks second in strength (in 127) behind only johnnyjeno carried chenle with one handhow is jeno carrying chenle one hand pic.twitter.com/8SN6SqaQtM— ㅁㄴ (@jaemintography) January 27, 2020chenle is mostly classically trained with his vocals, which explains how he has such amazing breath control and stability compared to other members without that formal training (who only trained with sm).chenle’s also a child prodigy and piano-masteryuta reads fan fiction6/7 wayv members have a personal instagram, so now wayv’s official page is “winstagram” until winwin finally gets his own account (which he said he applied for)edit: winstagram is officially open! username wwiinn_7yuta, jaehyun, and johnny also have personal instagram accountsedit: doyoung and jaemin made accounts!today (01/27/21) mark opened his account!jaehyun is an inkigayo mc with monsta x’s minhyuk and april’s naeundoyoung used to be an inkigayo mc with got7’s jinyoung and blackpink’s jisoodoyoung’s brother is also an actor (gongmyun)doyoung is always making weird faces in vlive saying “screenshot this for a meme” (recent example)jaehyun and haechan don’t believe in ghostsrenjun REALLY believes in ghosts, as well as aliens (jaehyun does believe in aliens)lucas started an instagram live because wayv got stuck in an elevator and there was a “monster” outsidehe had another live where he got the wayv members together and they threw a shoe in the air to try and hit each other’s heads. even kun joinedten, renjun, taeyong, and yuta especially draw a lot (but i’m sure other members do too)(yuta)(ten)(taeyong)(renjun)recently ncity broke because doyoung tweeted photos captioned “📸런쥔 (renjun)” but he was wearing the same clothes as in an earlier photo he said was taken by his mom, so everyone was saying they adopted renjun 😂also, doyoung used to take the foreign members of nct/smrookies to his home during the holidays because they couldn’t fly back to see their own familiesi think it was only mark, johnny, ten, and yuta at the time? or maybe we only knew about them because they chinese smrookies didn’t promote with sr15bjaemin was on a hiatus from pretty much all of 2017 for a back issue (herniated disk) so he missed two comebacks; mfal & we youngnct 127 and nct dream both released live albumsnct dream still hasn’t gotten a full length album, wtf smnct 127’s emojis are:🌕/🌙 taeil🐻/🐱 johnny🌹 taeyong🐙/🍒 yuta🐰 doyoung🍑/🍞 jaehyun🐥 winwin🐶 jungwoo🐯/🦁 mark🐻/☀️ haechanyuta described taeil as “unique,” “very sure on things,” and “sleeps well”127’s maknae line is jungwoo, mark, haechan, and taeil (the ’04 liner)also called the “moonmoons” because they’re taeil’s biggest fansdream members also call taeil dream’s maknaejungwoo called yuta his son because he spills things on himself and doesn’t tidy up127 haven’t ever gone on a trip together without cameras, they’ve only traveled for work :(taeyong decorated a bag for haechan onceyuta like hard rock music and concepttaeil LOVES edm music and hip hop because he can “feel his heart thumping”doyoung called “dreams come true” his ultimate favorite song (from them) but idk if he was just referring to that album or for their whole discographyyuta and johnny both said “love song” is their favorite nct b-sidemark said “not alone” wasn’t a song he naturally gravitated towards, but it really hit him hard when he listened to the final chorus and it grew on himtaeil likes “another world” a lot which makes me superrrrr happy because he absolutely bodied that song and it’s one of my favorites to this day. he said he wanted to perform in in neo city tour but he was upset he didn’t get a chance to and wants to still perform it live somedayi always find it really cute when taeil is trying to explain something cause the other members just have this nervous energy about what he’s trying to say and he doesn’t really make a lot of sense but he’s DEAD serious and it’s adorabletaeyong has tattoos under each elbow that say “under” and “stand,” as well as a cute little drawing of his dog ruby on his inner elbow area, and an alien/ufo drawing on his other inner elbowjohnny has a tattoo of a sunflower on his forearm, and an unconfirmed tattoo on his shoulder (as in we don’t know if it’s real)update: it is realten has a forearm tattoo as well as a chest tattoo that covers a scarlucas has a tattoo on his torso and allegedly backin a recent interview taeyong was talking about being a leader and how sometimes with the foreign members, even though they’re fluent in korean they may have difficulty understanding harder words so he will often keep reexplaining and trying to translate things in different ways to help them out (yuta was mentioned specifically)taeil and jungwoo like to “compete” with word play/puns often. they said taeil wins, and johnny added that jungwoo purposefully loses for taeil but taeil said jungwoo tries really hard but he still loses and comes back to start a new competition. but the final verdict is “taeil always wins”mark sleep talks in english and korean, and doyoung sleep talks too (in just korean) but doesn’t mumble— he clearly speaks (according to taeyong)127 thought their dorm/one of the rooms was haunted because taeil would sleep walk and bang his head on the door/cabinet, but they moved dorms now so it’s not their problemyuta can’t handle spicy foodtaeyong played violin when he was a kidyangyang also played violintaeyong really likes the beach/sea, called it his favorite place and has it as his phone backgroundtaeyong has pet fish in the dormtaeyong also recently said he felt stressed so he bought a new fish tank and is thinking of what type of fish to put in ittaeil has a scar on his cheekmark apparently wasn’t aware that there were international fans on lysn bubbleshotaro had a popular tiktok where he danced (and is REALLY good), and there were rumors saying he only trained for a few months because he was casted with his tiktok dance for “kick it”he really went from being an nctzen to being in nct. he even said he went to one of 127’s concerts in japan and decided he wanted to perform on stage with themsungchan is like really talli hit on it earlier but he’s taller than lucasnct 2020 album will have a pt 2 in novemberedit: it’s out lolsungchan likes soccershotaro is japanese so now yuta has a japanese friend!yuta also seems to have introduced shotaro to his japanese friend circle because pentagon’s yuto talked about how cute shotaro was when they met.jeno is allergic to cats, be he still has three of them! bongshik, nal, and seolten has had a lot of dogs throughout his life, at least 5 within his family (but now he has another dog with wayv ☺️)yuta also has a dog named rapunzel. i think she’s a toy poodletaeyong had a dog named ruby who had been with him for a very long time, but in early september of this year (2020), she passed away :( he was so upset over her death that he almost thought of removing his tattoo of her, but he’s healed well now and loves the tattoo even moretaeil is the official leader of the vocal line according to their vlive introducing nct 2020winwin is the leader of one of nct u’s new units, but he said he didn’t want to be and was forced into that position hahait was 90s love fyitaeil said he doesn’t like to do cover songs because he wants to release his own music, but sm is a butt and won’t even give him an sm station 😒with that being said, taeil often goes to his friend (yuhwa)’s house/studio to work on making his own musictaeil also said he wants to sing in a musical, do rnb or pop songs, and that he wants to do variety shows that makes you use your body (like running man)renjun and chenle have a self-written and composed song called “a new beginning” which they made in order to graduate from beijing contemporary music school (in may 2020 i believe) and they were top students!kun wanted to be an astronaut and fly planes when he was younger. at least one of his dreams came truewill I shut up about pilot Kun? no I don't think so pic.twitter.com/6dftY122h5— 𝐍𝐂𝐓 ༉‧₊˚✧ | johnten au 📌 (@qlcxmxi) October 6, 2020kun’s also a magiciankun produces, composes, and arranges music too (kun can literally do it all istg)sungchan and yangyang were friends as traineesjungwoo and sungchan were friends as trainees toohendery has been a trainee since 2015 and used to watch jisung dance because he thought he was so goodhendery also said he hasn’t grown (in height) at all since then 😭renjun’s radio station ended on sunday 10/11/2020xiaojun is stronger than winwinwinwin took an mbti test and got INFJ-Aten, mark, and jungwoo also are INFJs, jisung took it twice and got INFP and INFJhaechan, lucas, and xiaojun got ENFPchenle made mark take his MBTI test for him which got him INFP but there’s absolutely no way chenle’s an introverthe said he likes crowds because there’s a lot of people 😐 and he liked jumping from waiting room to waiting room when recording with nct 2020 because everywhere he went he knew someonetaeil and jeno or ISFPs (but i personally think taeil is INFP)doyoung and jaemin are ISFJjaehyun got ESTP a couple years ago, but he said since then he retook it and got ESFP (but the 16personalities test isn’t exactly accurate)taeil is besties with TVXQ yunho and went out to a party to surprise him and surf together around december 2019TAEIL GET UP N DROP IT LOW pic.twitter.com/6P1zHa51HO— eep☾ (@xiutaeil) September 19, 2019(taeil is the one in black and wearing a hat)op at a fanmeet asked changmin about yunho and taeil hanging out and said he (changmin) looked jealous 😂taeil and chen both said they’d like to collab with each otherkun also wants to collab with chenwinwin and renjun both had crooked teeth/a snaggle tooth but got lingual braces to correct ittaeil also had braces when he joined the company and has a permanent retainer (that is glued behind your teeth). ten has one toowe’re missing out on SO much doyoung eyebrow :(haechan has said multiple times that he doesn’t like to show skin or his stomach so please don’t spread pictures that show itughh i can’t remember what i’ve already written 😔jaehyun and johnny hosted a radio show “nct night night”everyone thought jungwoo’s dog was white bc of the filter but it was just whitewashed 🙄ten likes to clean and has been called a neat freak!taeyong has A LOT of unreleased solo songs that he personally wrote/composed! you can find compilations of them on twitter or youtubetaeil is known as “nct’s representative luxury vocalist”haechan has scars above both of his eyes and on his eyebrowone time as isac taeil got his hands zip tied together by taeyong and taeyong had to ask a fan to borrow scissors to cut him loosexiaojun was in a musical before he joined SMtaeil and haechan made a bet playing kart rider and said whoever loses has to shave their eyebrows. haechan lost but their manager stopped him before he could shave too much offhendery has a phobia of frogsjungwoo can eat a lot! mark says he starts planning his dinner during lunchwayv members said lucas always texts “i love you” in their group chat whenever he’s on different schedules (with superm for example)lucas had a solo song he performed on superm tour called “bass go boom” but there’s no studio recordingtaeyong and mark also had solo stages for the superm tourjisung said when they were trainees taeil danced to shinee’s lucifer so well that it shocked himten said when he first met taeil he wanted to take care of him because he thought taeil was younger than himin the summer of 2019 taeyong started to learn to play ukuleledoyoung ate a lot of nuts as trainees because he was trying to lose weight, and taeyong said dy was able to meet his goal quickly so he was happy for himdoyoung also happened to buy really expensive matching rings for him and taeyon (~$3000usd each)doyoung and taeyong were given the song “switch off” as a gift when they were trainees. taeyong also performed it with kun as well, and that song was later released as “light bulb” in the first resonance albummark was born in vancouver but lived in toronto, new york, and LA as a kidsungchan used to play soccer as a kid!kun is the only (known) member with a bachelor’s degree! he majored in pop vocals at beijing contemporary music academy and graduated at the top of his class! he was even invited to make a speech at graduationrenjun has a birthmark on his hand that looks like a bruisejeno learned acrobatics so he could perform them at the dream show concertsjaehyun has a “secret” (or so he called it) mole on his nape, but it had already been revealed multiple times by other members 😂jaehyun and mark have matching moles on their faceidk if i’ve put it before but shotaro was a professional dancer back in japan! he was a backup dancer for Gackt who is a really famous japanese artist/dancer. he also came from a famous dancing academy in japan where he was scoutedNCT Shotaro during GACKT 20th ANNIVERSARY LIVE TOUR 2020 KHAOS.IT'S REALLY TRUE 😭😭It amazes me that he was once a backup dancer of Gackt, a legendary Japanese artist. pic.twitter.com/WTruvb0QEa— ❇️ B ¡ ¡ ❇️ (@shiinkiier) September 22, 2020shotaro also said he started dancing when he was 5 because his mom enjoyed dancing and he was put into an academy :)taeil apparently has what’s called a “preauricular pit” which is a small hole near the top of your ear and it’s apparently really rare! i just thought it was a mole at first 🤷‍♂️jisung, haechan, sungchan, mark, winwin, and even taeil himself called taeil nct’s hidden dancing machineQ. Member who is hidden dancing machine.#JISUNG: "I chose #TAEIL hyung! When Taeil was a trainee, I remember he danced so well to 'Lucifer' by Shinee that I got very shocked"TAEIL MAIN DANCER!!!!🕺🏻 pic.twitter.com/1r3Vcb1eUN— ³³문단세의 문탤루¹²⁷🦄🌛 (@Moon_Taerru) November 22, 2020

Children of Men is a 2006 science fiction action-thriller film[4][5][6][7] co-written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón. The screenplay, based on P. D. James' 1992 novel The Children of Men, was credited to five writers, with Clive Owen making uncredited contributions. The film takes place in 2027, when two decades of human infertility have left society on the brink of collapse. Asylum seekers seek sanctuary in the United Kingdom, where they are subjected to detention and refoulement by the government. Owen plays civil servant Theo Faron, who must help refugee Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey) escape the chaos. Children of Men also stars Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Pam Ferris, and Charlie Hunnam.The film was released on 22 September 2006 in the UK and on 25 December in the US. Critics noted the relationship between the US' Christmas opening and the film's themes of hope, redemption, and faith. Despite the limited release and lack of any clear marketing strategy during awards season by the movie's distributor,[8][9][10] Children of Men received critical acclaim and was recognised for its achievements in screenwriting, cinematography, art direction, and innovative single-shot action sequences. It was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing. It was also nominated for three BAFTA Awards, winning Best Cinematography and Best Production Design, and for three Saturn Awards, winning Best Science Fiction Film. In 2016 it was voted 13th among 100 films considered the best of the 21st century by 117 film critics from around the world.[11]Plot[edit]In 2027, after 18 years of total human infertility and global depression, the world is on the brink of collapse and humanity faces extinction. The United Kingdom, one of the few nations with a functioning government, is deluged by asylum seekers fleeing radiation and plague. In response, the UK has become a police state as the British Army rounds up and imprisons or executes immigrants. Theo Faron, a former activist turned cynical bureaucrat, is kidnapped by the Fishes, a militant immigrants' rights group. They are led by Theo's estranged wife, Julian Taylor, from whom he separated after their son's death during a 2008 flu pandemic.Julian offers Theo money to acquire transit papers for a young refugee, Kee. Theo obtains the papers from his cousin, a government minister who runs a state-sponsored collection of salvaged art. Theo agrees to escort Kee in exchange for a large sum. Luke, a Fishes member, drives Theo, Kee, and former midwife Miriam towards Canterbury. They are ambushed by an armed gang, and Julian is killed. When the group is stopped by the police, Luke kills the officers and the group hides Julian's body before heading to a Fishes safehouse.Kee reveals to Theo that she is pregnant, making her the only pregnant woman on Earth. Julian had intended to hand Kee to the Human Project, a supposed scientific group in the Azores dedicated to curing infertility. However, Luke persuades Kee to stay, and he is voted as the new leader of the Fishes. That night, Theo eavesdrops on a discussion and learns that Julian's death was orchestrated by the Fishes so that Luke could become their leader; they intend to kill Theo and use the baby as a political tool to support the coming revolution. Theo wakes Kee and Miriam, and they steal a car, escaping to the secluded hideaway of Theo's ageing friend Jasper Palmer, a former political cartoonist turned pot dealer.The group makes plans to board the Human Project ship, the Tomorrow, which will arrive offshore from a refugee camp at Bexhill-on-Sea disguised as a fishing vessel. Jasper proposes having Syd, a camp border guard to whom he frequently sells drugs, smuggle them into Bexhill, masquerading as refugees. The next day, when the Fishes discover Jasper's house, the group flees while Jasper stays behind to stall the Fishes. Luke shoots and kills Jasper as Theo watches from the woods. The group meets Syd at an abandoned school, and he helps them board a bus to Bexhill - an entire city converted to a concentration camp. When Kee experiences contractions at a checkpoint, Miriam distracts a guard by feigning religious mania and is taken away.Inside the camp, Theo and Kee meet a Romani (gypsy) woman, Marichka, who provides a room where Kee gives birth to a baby girl. The next day, Syd informs Theo and Kee that war has broken out between the British military and the refugees, led by the Fishes. Having learned that they have a bounty on their heads, Syd attempts to capture them, but Theo bludgeons him to death and they escape. Amidst the fighting, the Fishes capture Kee and the baby. Theo tracks them to an apartment building under heavy fire; he confronts Luke, who is killed in an explosion, and escorts Kee and the baby out. Awed by the baby, the British soldiers and Fishes temporarily stop fighting and allow the trio to leave. Marichka leads them to a hidden boat, but stays behind as they depart, despite Theo imploring her to come along.As British fighter jets bomb Bexhill from a distance, Theo reveals that he was mortally wounded by Luke. He teaches Kee how to burp her baby, and Kee tells Theo she will name her Dylan after Theo and Julian's lost son. Theo dies as the Tomorrow approaches.As the credits roll, the sound of children laughing and playing can be heard in the background.Cast[edit]Clive Owen as Theo Faron, a former activist who was devastated when his child died during a flu pandemic.[12] Theo is the "archetypal everyman" who reluctantly becomes a saviour.[13][14] Cast in April 2005,[15] Owen spent several weeks collaborating with Cuarón and Sexton on his role. Impressed by Owen's creative insights, Cuarón and Sexton brought him on board as a writer.[16] "Clive was a big help", Cuarón told Variety. "I would send a group of scenes to him, and then I would hear his feedback and instincts."[17]Julianne Moore as Julian Taylor. For Julian, Cuarón wanted an actor who had the "credibility of leadership, intelligence, [and] independence".[16] Moore was cast in June 2005, initially to play the first woman to become pregnant in 20 years.[18] "She is just so much fun to work with", Cuarón told Cinematical. "She is just pulling the rug out from under your feet all the time. You don't know where to stand, because she is going to make fun of you."[16]Clare-Hope Ashitey as Kee, an asylum seeker and the first pregnant woman in eighteen years. She did not appear in the book, and was written into the film based on Cuarón's interest in the recent single-origin hypothesis of human origins and the status of dispossessed people:[19] "The fact that this child will be the child of an African woman has to do with the fact that humanity started in Africa. We're putting the future of humanity in the hands of the dispossessed and creating a new humanity to spring out of that."[20]Michael Caine as Jasper Palmer, Theo's dealer and friend. Caine based Jasper on his experiences with friend John Lennon[16] – the first time he had portrayed a character who would pass wind or smoke cannabis.[21] Cuarón explains, "Once he had the clothes and so on and stepped in front of the mirror to look at himself, his body language started changing. Michael loved it. He believed he was this guy".[21] Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune notices an apparent homage to Schwartz in Orson Welles' film noir, Touch of Evil(1958). Jasper calls Theo "amigo"—just as Schwartz referred to Ramon Miguel Vargas.[22] Jasper's cartoons, seen in his house, were provided by Steve Bell.Chiwetel Ejiofor as LukeCharlie Hunnam as PatricPam Ferris as MiriamPeter Mullan as SydDanny Huston as Nigel, Theo's cousin and a high-ranking government official. Nigel runs a Ministry of Arts programme "Ark of the Arts", which "rescues" works of art such as Michelangelo's David (albeit with a broken leg), Pablo Picasso's Guernica, and Banksy's British Cops Kissing. He mentions that he tried to save Michelangelo's Pietà, but a mob destroyed it before he could.Oana Pellea as MarichkaPaul Sharma as IanJacek Koman as TomaszThemes[edit]Hope and faith[edit]Children of Men explores the themes of hope and faith[23] in the face of overwhelming futility and despair.[24][25] The film's source, P. D. James' novel The Children of Men (1992), describes what happens when society is unable to reproduce, using male infertility to explain this problem.[26][27] In the novel, it is made clear that hope depends on future generations. James writes "It was reasonable to struggle, to suffer, perhaps even to die, for a more just, a more compassionate society, but not in a world with no future where, all too soon, the very words 'justice', 'compassion', 'society’, 'struggle', 'evil', would be unheard echoes on an empty air.".[28] The title can therefore be explained as such: children are representing new life, with new chances, choices and possibilities, however with the flip side that they carry the burden of mankind.The film switches the infertility from male to female[25] but never explains its cause: environmental destruction and divine punishment are considered.[29] This unanswered question (and others in the film) have been attributed to Cuarón's dislike for expository film: "There's a kind of cinema I detest, which is a cinema that is about exposition and explanations ... It's become now what I call a medium for lazy readers ... Cinema is a hostage of narrative. And I'm very good at narrative as a hostage of cinema."[30] Cuarón's disdain for back-story and exposition led him to use the concept of female infertility as a "metaphor for the fading sense of hope".[25] The "almost mythical" Human Project is turned into a "metaphor for the possibility of the evolution of the human spirit, the evolution of human understanding".[31] Without dictating how the audience should feel by the end of the film, Cuarón encourages viewers to come to their own conclusions about the sense of hope depicted in the final scenes: "We wanted the end to be a glimpse of a possibility of hope, for the audience to invest their own sense of hope into that ending. So if you're a hopeful person you'll see a lot of hope, and if you're a bleak person you'll see a complete hopelessness at the end."[32]Religion[edit]Like Virgil's Aeneid, Dante's Divine Comedy, and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the crux of the journey in Children of Men lies in what is uncovered along the path rather than the terminus itself.[33] Theo's heroic journey to the south coast mirrors his personal quest for "self-awareness",[34] a journey that takes him from "despair to hope".[35]According to Cuarón, the title of P. D. James' book (The Children of Men) is an allegory derived from a passage of scripture in the Bible.[36] (Psalm 90 (89):3 of the KJV: "Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men") James refers to her story as a "Christian fable"[26] while Cuarón describes it as "almost like a look at Christianity": "I didn't want to shy away from the spiritual archetypes", Cuarón told Filmmaker Magazine. "But I wasn't interested in dealing with dogma."[32]Ms. James's nativity story is, in Mr. Cuarón's version, set against the image of a prisoner in an orange smock with a black bag on his head, arms stretched out as if on a cross.—Manohla Dargis, [37]This divergence from the original was criticised by some, including Anthony Sacramone of First Things, who called the film "an act of vandalism", noting the irony of how Cuarón had removed religion from P.D. James' fable, in which morally sterile nihilism is overcome by Christianity.[38]The film has been noted for its use of Christian symbolism; for example, British terrorists named "Fishes" protect the rights of refugees.[39] Opening on Christmas Day in the United States, critics compared the characters of Theo and Kee with Joseph and Mary,[40] calling the film a "modern-day Nativity story".[41] Kee's pregnancy is revealed to Theo in a barn, alluding to the manger of the Nativity scene; when Theo asks Kee who the father of the baby is she jokingly states she is a virgin; and when other characters discover Kee and her baby, they respond with "Jesus Christ" or the sign of the cross.[42] Also the Archangel Gabriel (among other religious figures) is invoked in the bus scene.To highlight these spiritual themes, Cuarón commissioned a 15-minute piece by British composer John Tavener, a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church whose work resonates with the themes of "motherhood, birth, rebirth, and redemption in the eyes of God". Calling his score a "musical and spiritual reaction to Alfonso's film", snippets of Tavener's "Fragments of a Prayer" contain lyrics in Latin, German and Sanskrit sung by mezzo-soprano, Sarah Connolly. Words like "mata" (mother), "pahi mam" (protect me), "avatara" (saviour), and "alleluia" appear throughout the film.[43][44]In the closing credits, the Sanskrit words "Shantih Shantih Shantih" appear as end titles.[45][46] Writer and film critic Laura Eldred of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill observes that Children of Men is "full of tidbits that call out to the educated viewer". During a visit to his house by Theo and Kee, Jasper says "Shanti, shanti, shanti". Eldred notes that the "shanti" used in the film is also found at the end of an Upanishad and in the final line of T. S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land, a work Eldred describes as "devoted to contemplating a world emptied of fertility: a world on its last, teetering legs". "Shanti" is also a common beginning and ending to all Hindu prayers, and means "peace", referencing the invocation of divine intervention and rebirth through an end to violence.[47]Contemporary references[edit]Children of Men takes an unconventional approach to the modern action film, using a documentary, newsreel style.[48] Film critics Michael Rowin, Jason Guerrasio and Ethan Alter observe the film's underlying touchstone of immigration.For Alter and other critics, the structural support and impetus for the contemporary references rests upon the visual nature of the film's exposition, occurring in the form of imagery as opposed to conventional dialogue.[34] Other popular images appear, such as a sign over the refugee camp reading "Homeland Security".[49] The similarity between the hellish, cinéma vérité stylized battle scenes of the film and current news and documentary coverage of the Iraq War, is noted by film critic Manohla Dargis, describing Cuarón's fictional landscapes as "war zones of extraordinary plausibility".[50]In the film, refugees are "hunted down like cockroaches", rounded up and put into roofless cages open to the elements and camps, and even shot, leading film critics like Chris Smith and Claudia Puig to observe symbolic "overtones" and images of the Holocaust.[24][51] This is reinforced in the scene where an elderly refugee woman speaking German is seen detained in a cage,[52] and in the scene where British troops strip and assault refugees; a song by The Libertines, "Arbeit macht frei", plays in the background.[53] "The visual allusions to the Nazi round-ups are unnerving", writes Richard A. Blake. "It shows what people can become when the government orchestrates their fears for its own advantage."[33]Cuarón explains how he uses his imagery to cross-reference fictional and futuristic events with real, contemporary, or historical incidents and beliefs:They exit the Russian apartments, and the next shot you see is this woman wailing, holding the body of her son in her arms. This was a reference to a real photograph of a woman holding the body of her son in the Balkans, crying with the corpse of her son. It's very obvious that when the photographer captured that photograph, he was referencing La Pietà, the Michelangelo sculpture of Mary holding the corpse of Jesus. So: We have a reference to something that really happened, in the Balkans, which is itself a reference to the Michelangelo sculpture. At the same time, we use the sculpture of David early on, which is also by Michelangelo, and we have of course the whole reference to the Nativity. And so everything was referencing and cross-referencing, as much as we could.[16]Production[edit]The adaptation of the P. D. James novel was originally written by Paul Chart, and later rewritten by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby. The studio brought director Alfonso Cuarón on board in 2001.[54] Cuarón and screenwriter Timothy J. Sexton began rewriting the script after the director completed Y tu mamá también. Afraid he would "start second guessing things",[21] Cuarón chose not to read P. D. James' novel, opting to have Sexton read the book while Cuarón himself read an abridged version.[16][32] Cuarón did not immediately begin production, instead directing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. During this period, David Arata rewrote the screenplay and delivered the draft which secured Clive Owen and sent the film into pre-production. The director's work experience in the United Kingdom exposed him to the "social dynamics of the British psyche", giving him insight into the depiction of "British reality".[55] Cuarón used the film The Battle of Algiers as a model for social reconstruction in preparation for production, presenting the film to Clive Owen as an example of his vision for Children of Men. In order to create a philosophical and social framework for the film, the director read literature by Slavoj Žižek, as well as similar works.[56] The film Sunrise was also influential.[25]Location[edit]A Clockwork Orange was one of the inspirations for the futuristic, yet battered patina of 2027 London.[25] Children of Men was the second film Cuarón made in London, with the director portraying the city using single, wide shots.[57] While Cuarón was preparing the film, the London bombings occurred, but the director never considered moving the production. "It would have been impossible to shoot anywhere but London, because of the very obvious way the locations were incorporated into the film", Cuarón told Variety. "For example, the shot of Fleet Street looking towards St. Paul's would have been impossible to shoot anywhere else."[57] Due to these circumstances, the opening terrorist attack scene on Fleet Street was shot a month and a half after the London bombing.[56]Cuarón chose to shoot some scenes in East London, a location he considered "a place without glamour". The set locations were dressed to make them appear even more run-down; Cuarón says he told the crew "'Let's make it more Mexican'. In other words, we'd look at a location and then say: yes, but in Mexico there would be this and this. It was about making the place look run-down. It was about poverty."[56] He also made use of London's most popular sites, shooting in locations like Trafalgar Square and Battersea Power Station. The power station scene (whose conversion into an art archive is a reference to the Tate Modern), has been compared to Antonioni's Red Desert.[58] Cuarón added a pig balloon to the scene as homage to Pink Floyd's Animals.[59] Other art works visible in this scene include Michelangelo's David,[33] Picasso's Guernica,[60] and Banksy's British Cops Kissing.[52] London visual effects companies Double Negative and Framestore worked directly with Cuarón from script to post production, developing effects and creating "environments and shots that wouldn't otherwise be possible".[57]The Historic Dockyard in Chatham was used to film the scene in the empty activist safehouse.[61]Style and design[edit]"In most sci-fi epics, special effects substitute for story. Here they seamlessly advance it", observes Colin Covert of Star Tribune.[62] Billboards were designed to balance a contemporary and futuristic appearance as well as easily visualizing what else was occurring in the rest of the world at the time, and cars were made to resemble modern ones at first glance, although a closer look made them seem unfamiliar.[63] Cuarón informed the art department that the film was the "anti-Blade Runner",[64] rejecting technologically advanced proposals and downplaying the science fiction elements of the 2027 setting. The director focused on images reflecting the contemporary period.[65][66]Single-shot sequences[edit]Children of Men used several lengthy single-shot sequences in which extremely complex actions take place. The longest of these are a shot in which Kee gives birth (199 seconds; 3:19); an ambush on a country road (247 seconds; 4:07); and a scene in which Theo is captured by the Fishes, escapes, and runs down a street and through a building in the middle of a raging battle (378 seconds; 6:18).[67] These sequences were extremely difficult to film, although the effect of continuity is sometimes an illusion, aided by CGI effects.[68]Cuarón had experimented with long takes in Great Expectations, Y tu mamá también, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. His style is influenced by the Swiss film Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000, a favorite of Cuarón's. Cuarón said "I was studying cinema when I first saw [Jonah], and interested in the French New Wave. Jonah was so unflashy compared with those films. The camera keeps a certain distance and there are relatively few close-ups. It's elegant and flowing, constantly tracking, but very slowly and not calling attention to itself."[69]The creation of the single-shot sequences was a challenging, time-consuming process that sparked concerns from the studio. It took fourteen days to prepare for the single shot in which Clive Owen's character searches a building under attack, and five hours for every time they wanted to reshoot it. In the middle of one shot, blood splattered onto the lens, and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki convinced the director to leave it in. According to Owen, "Right in the thick of it are me and the camera operator because we're doing this very complicated, very specific dance which, when we come to shoot, we have to make feel completely random."[70]Cuarón's initial idea for maintaining continuity during the roadside ambush scene was dismissed by production experts as an "impossible shot to do". Fresh from the visual effects-laden Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Cuarón suggested using computer-generated imagery to film the scene. Lubezki refused to allow it, reminding the director that they had intended to make a film akin to a "raw documentary". Instead, a special camera rig invented by Gary Thieltges of Doggicam Systems was employed, allowing Cuarón to develop the scene as one extended shot.[22][71] A vehicle was modified to enable seats to tilt and lower actors out of the way of the camera, and the windshield was designed to tilt out of the way to allow camera movement in and out through the front windscreen. A crew of four, including the director of photography and camera operator, rode on the roof.[72]However, the commonly reported statement that the action scenes are continuous shots[73] is not entirely true. Visual effects supervisor Frazer Churchill explains that the effects team had to "combine several takes to create impossibly long shots", where their job was to "create the illusion of a continuous camera move". Once the team was able to create a "seamless blend", they would move on to the next shot. These techniques were important for three continuous shots: the coffee shop explosion in the opening shot, the car ambush, and the battlefield scene. The coffee shop scene was composed of "two different takes shot over two consecutive days"; the car ambush was shot in "six sections and at four different locations over one week and required five seamless digital transitions"; and the battlefield scene "was captured in five separate takes over two locations". Churchill and the Double Negative team created over 160 of these types of effects for the film.[74] In an interview with Variety, Cuarón acknowledged this nature of the "single-shot" action sequences: "Maybe I'm spilling a big secret, but sometimes it's more than what it looks like. The important thing is how you blend everything and how you keep the perception of a fluid choreography through all of these different pieces."[17]Tim Webber of VFX house Framestore CFC was responsible for the three-and-a-half-minute single take of Kee giving birth, helping to choreograph and create the CG effects of the childbirth.[57] Cuarón had originally intended to use an animatronic baby as Kee's child with the exception of the childbirth scene. In the end, two takes were shot, with the second take concealing Clare-Hope Ashitey's legs, replacing them with prosthetic legs. Cuarón was pleased with the results of the effect, and returned to previous shots of the baby in animatronic form, replacing them with Framestore's computer-generated baby.[68]Sound[edit]See also: Children of Men (soundtracks)Cuarón uses sound and music to bring the fictional world of social unrest and infertility to life.[75] A creative yet restrained combination of rock, pop, electronic music, hip-hop and classical music replaces the typical film score.[75] The mundane sounds of traffic, barking dogs, and advertisements follow the character of Theo through London, East Sussex and Kent, producing what Los Angeles Times writer Kevin Crust calls an "urban audio rumble".[75] For Crust, the music comments indirectly on the barren world of Children of Men: Deep Purple's version of "Hush" blaring from Jasper's car radio becomes a "sly lullaby for a world without babies" while King Crimson's "The Court of the Crimson King" make a similar allusion with their lyrics, "three lullabies in an ancient tongue".[75]Amongst a genre-spanning selection of electronic music, a remix of Aphex Twin's "Omgyjya Switch 7", which includes the 'Male Thijs Loud Scream' audio sample by Thanvannispen,[76] not present on the original (nor indeed on the official soundtrack) can be heard during the scene in Jasper's house, where Jasper's "Strawberry Cough" (a potent, strawberry-flavoured strain of marijuana) is being sampled. During a conversation between the two men, Radiohead's "Life in a Glasshouse" plays in the background.A number of dubstep tracks, most notably Anti-War Dub by Digital Mystikz, as well as tracks by Kode9 & The Space Ape, Pinch and Pressure are also featured.[77]For the Bexhill scenes during the film's second half, the director makes use of silence and cacophonous sound effects such as the firing of automatic weapons and loudspeakers directing the movement of "fugees" (slang in the film's timeline for refugee).[75] Here, classical music by George Frideric Handel, Gustav Mahler, and Krzysztof Penderecki's "Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima" complements the chaos of the refugee camp.[75] Throughout the film, John Tavener's Fragments of a Prayer is used as a spiritual motif to explain and interpret the story without the use of narrative.[75]A few times during the film, a loud, ringing tone evocative of tinnitus is heard. This sound generally coincides with the death of a major character (Julian, Jasper) and is referred to by Julian herself, who describes the tones as the last time you'll ever hear that frequency. In this way, then, the loss of the tones is symbolic of the loss of the characters.[78]Release[edit]Children of Men had its world premiere at the 63rd Venice International Film Festival on 3 September 2006.[79] On 22 September 2006, the film debuted at number 1 in the United Kingdom with $2.4 million in 368 screens.[80] It debuted in a limited release of 16 theaters in the United States on 22 December 2006, expanding to more than 1,200 theaters on 5 January 2007.[81] As of 6 February 2008, Children of Men had grossed $69,612,678 worldwide, with $35,552,383 of the revenue generated in the United States.[82]Critical reception[edit]Children of Men received critical acclaim; on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a 92% approval rating based on 251 reviews from critics, with an average rating of 8.07/10. The site's critical consensus states: "Children of Men works on every level: as a violent chase thriller, a fantastical cautionary tale, and a sophisticated human drama about societies struggling to live."[83] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 84 out of 100, based on 38 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[84]Dana Stevens of Slate called it "the herald of another blessed event: the arrival of a great director by the name of Alfonso Cuarón". Stevens hailed the film's extended car chase and battle scenes as "two of the most virtuoso single-shot chase sequences I've ever seen".[41] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times called the film a "superbly directed political thriller", raining accolades on the long chase scenes.[50] "Easily one of the best films of the year" said Ethan Alter of Film Journal International, with scenes that "dazzle you with their technical complexity and visual virtuosity".[34] Jonathan Romney of The Independent praised the accuracy of Cuarón's portrait of the United Kingdom, but he criticized some of the film's futuristic scenes as "run-of-the-mill future fantasy".[52] Film Comment's critics' poll of the best films of 2006 ranked the film number 19, while the 2006 readers' poll ranked it number two.[85] On their list of the best movies of 2006, The A.V. Club, the San Francisco Chronicle, Slate, and The Washington Post placed the film at number one.[86] Entertainment Weekly ranked the film seventh on its end-of-the-decade top 10 list, saying, "Alfonso Cuarón's dystopian 2006 film reminded us that adrenaline-juicing action sequences can work best when the future looks just as grimy as today".[87]Peter Travers of Rolling Stone ranked it number two on his list of best films of the decade, writing:I thought director Alfonso Cuarón's film of P.D. James' futuristic political-fable novel was good when it opened in 2006. After repeated viewings, I know Children of Men is indisputably great ... No movie this decade was more redolent of sorrowful beauty and exhilarating action. You don't just watch the car ambush scene (pure camera wizardry)—you live inside it. That's Cuarón's magic: He makes you believe."[88]According to Metacritic's analysis of the most often and notably noted films on the best-of-the-decade lists, Children of Men is considered the 11th greatest film of the 2000s.[89]In the wake of the European migrant crisis of 2015, the British withdrawal from the European Union of the late 2010s, the election of Donald Trump in 2016, and the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, all of which involved divisive debates about immigration and increasing border enforcement, several commentators reappraised the film's importance, with some calling it "prescient".[90][91][92][93][94][95][96]Top 10 lists[edit]The film appeared on many critics' top 10 lists as one of the best films of 2006:[86]1st – Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post1st – Keith Phipps, The A.V. Club1st – Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle1st – Tasha Robinson, The A.V. Club2nd (of the decade) – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone2nd – Ray Bennett, The Hollywood Reporter2nd – Scott Tobias, The A.V. Club3rd – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times4th – Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times4th – Wesley Morris, The Boston Globe5th – Rene Rodriguez, The Miami Herald6th – Manohla Dargis, The New York Times7th – Empire7th – Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter7th – Ty Burr, The Boston Globe8th – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times (tied with Pan's Labyrinth)8th – Scott Foundas, LA Weekly (tied with L'Enfant)8th – Scott Foundas, The Village VoiceUnordered – Dana Stevens, SlateUnordered – Liam Lacey and Rick Groen, The Globe and MailUnordered – Peter Rainer, The Christian Science MonitorUnordered – Mark Kermode, BBC Radio 5 LiveIn 2012, director Marc Webb included the film on his list of Top 10 Greatest Films when asked by Sight & Sound for his votes for the BFI The Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time.[97] In 2015, the film was named number one on an all-time Top 10 Movies list by the blog Pop Culture Philosopher.[98] In 2017 Rolling Stone magazine ranked Children of Men as the best Sci-fi film of the 21st century.Accolades[edit]P. D. James was reported to be pleased with the film,[99] and the screenwriters of Children of Men were awarded the 19th annual USC Scripter Award for the screen adaptation of the novel.[100] Howard A. Rodman, chair of the USC School of Cinematic Arts Writing Division, described the book-to-screen adaptation as "writing and screen writing of the highest order", although Gerschatt, writing in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, noted that the screenplay bore very little resemblance to the novel: The gender of the baby was changed (to female), as was the character who was pregnant (Julian, in the novel); Theo, who appears to die in the film, does not die in the novel.AwardCategoryRecipientResultAcademy AwardsBest CinematographyEmmanuel LubezkiNominatedBest Adapted ScreenplayAlfonso Cuarón, Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus & Hawk OstbyNominatedBest Film EditingAlfonso Cuarón and Álex RodríguezNominatedBAFTA AwardsBest CinematographyEmmanuel LubezkiWonBest Production DesignJim Clay, Geoffrey Kirkland, and Jennifer WilliamsWonBest Special Visual EffectsFrazer Churchill, Tim Webber, Mike Eames, and Paul CorbouldNominatedAmerican Society of CinematographersBest CinematographyEmmanuel LubezkiWonAustralian Cinematographers SocietyInternational Award for CinematographyWonHugo AwardsBest Dramatic PresentationNominatedSaturn AwardsBest Science Fiction FilmWonBest DirectorAlfonso CuarónNominatedBest ActorClive OwenNominatedHome media[edit]The HD-DVD and DVD were released in Europe on 15 January 2007[101] and in the United States on 27 March 2007. Extras include a half-hour documentary by director Alfonso Cuarón, entitled The Possibility of Hope (2007), which explores the intersection between the film's themes and reality with a critical analysis by eminent scholars: the Slovenian sociologist and philosopher Slavoj Žižek, anti-globalization activist Naomi Klein, environmentalist futurist James Lovelock, sociologist Saskia Sassen, human geographer Fabrizio Eva, cultural theorist Tzvetan Todorov, and philosopher and economist John N. Gray. "Under Attack" features a demonstration of the innovative techniques required for the car chase and battle scenes; in "Theo & Julian", Clive Owen and Julianne Moore discuss their characters; "Futuristic Design" opens the door on the production design and look of the film; "Visual Effects" shows how the digital baby was created. Deleted scenes are included.[102] The film was released on Blu-ray Disc in the United States on 26 May 2009.[103]