she is going to make fun of you." Michael Caine as Jasper Palmer, Theo's dealer and friend. Caine based Jasper on his experiences with friend John Lennonthe first time he had portrayed a character who would pass wind or smoke cannabis. 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". 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. Jasper's cartoons, seen in his house, were provided by Steve Bell. Pam Ferris as Miriam Chiwetel Ejiofor as Luke Charlie Hunnam as Patric Peter Mullan as Syd Danny 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, Pablo Picasso's Guernica, and Banksy's Kissing Coppers. He mentions that he tried to save Michelangelo's Pietà, but a mob destroyed it before he could. Oana Pellea as Marichka Paul Sharma as Ian Jacek Koman as Tomasz Juan Gabriel Yacuzzi as 'Baby' Diego, the world's youngest surviving human, born shortly before the global infertility incident. At eighteen years old, he is seen as a celebrity but is stabbed to death by a deranged fan after he refuses to sign an autograph. Ed Westwick as Alex, Nigel's son Themes Hope and faith Children of Men explores the themes of hope and faith in the face of overwhelming futility and despair. 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. 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." The film does not explain the cause of the infertility, although environmental destruction and divine punishment are considered. Cuarón has attributed this unanswered question (and others in the film) to his dislike for purely expository film: