Moon Movie 2009 Scene Sam Rockwell as Sam Bell in his astronaut suit with the rover behind him walking on the surface of moon

Moon [2009]

January 5, 2010

How to write a review for a movie that actually changed you as a person? Moon played out like a phenomenal novel written by Clark or Asimov, making me question my own existence, efforts towards a “better life” and the world in general. The whole harvester thing reminds me of Dune but that’s a way too general of a concept. This is the first feature film by writer and director Duncan Jones, and it’s truly amazing how he managed to pull this off. Not only the visuals are stunning but the story along with the dialogue is also fucking perfect.

Driven by one of the best performances in science fiction, Moon and Sam Rockwell created a timeless classic. Drenched in the retro vibe of the forgotten Moon, which was abandoned for juicier moons of Saturn, Mars, and other stellar bodies, this movie also explores the “corporate angle” of life in the future. Moon, indeed, is a harsh mistress. Although our protagonist Sam would love to have any kind of company up there.

You can feel the loneliness seeping from every aspect of this movie. And while for some this might be a frightening thought, I found it to be strangely relaxing. Perhaps because I know I’m not going to end up in that situation. Living far away from Earth in this futuristic environment and taking it for granted. I think the term I’m looking for is space escapism and it’s the thing that drew me to science fiction in the first place.

Moon is not a movie about space battles and interstellar travel but something much more familiar. In that sense, it reminded me a bit of Outland starring Sean Connery although that’s more of a space western. And while comparisons to 2002 Solaris may seem appropriate, Moon is a different beast altogether. It’s deceptively simple and straightforward but underneath it is this pulsating current of thoughts and ideas.

It is the year of our lord Luna 2035 and we began to mine the surface of the moon for resources. Astronaut Sam Bell is one of the Lunar Industries employees working there. His job is to oversee the mining operations and the end of his three-year contract is slowly approaching. As the only human on the moon, his only company is GERTY the robot. After the accident with one of the mining machines, Sam will start to realize that perhaps he is not alone…

The visual style is somewhere in-between retro and realistic leaning more towards the latter. It feels like fucking Nasa designed the whole complex and vehicles. Oddly enough, the movie was screened at NASA as they’re also working on similar projects. One of them being Mooncrete, a special substance that can be used to build structures on Moon using materials found on its surface.

I don’t want you to think that because of all of this Moon is some long and overdrawn movie because it’s not. The atmosphere soon turns from mysterious to ominous and intense so just have a little patience if this is not your thing. Trust me, it will be so worth it. After all, the running time is just ninety minutes, a bit more than one episode of the show you binged last month.