Moon (2009)

Think more 2001 less Star Wars, as this one-man thriller will take you through the longevity of loneliness while challenging what you perceive as real and fiction and what it means to hold onto hope.

Sam Bell, played excellently by Sam Rockwell, is an engineer that has been stationed on the Moon for a 3 year engagement to mine minerals to send back to Earth so it may be powered. His only companion is a rather boxy ugly robot (voiced by Kevin Spacey) who turns out to have more flexibility in its AI than you would normally have expected from space robots, Hal for example.

Everything appears absolutely normal at first. Getting up each (Earth) day, checks messages from home, does some exercise, washes, dons his space suit and heads out to the large machines that are mining ore for later return to Earth.

One day though he gets himself into an accident and the routine is disrupted. Things go from bad to worse and without giving too much away, he discovers he is in fact a clone when a new ‘Sam’ is revived.

The inter play between the sick Sam and the newly created Sam is absolutely fantastic and clever in parts. Imagine coming face to face with yourself, as everything you thought was real starts to crumble around you. Confirmation is made when the sick Sam manages to bypass normal protocols and make an unauthorized call back to Earth only to discover his daughter now grown up and his wife dead. Reality kicks him hard.

As both of them discover the room full of all the other Sam’s awaiting for awakening, they then realize they are in a loop that needs to be broken and hatch a plan to send one back to Earth in the next consignment.

What I love about this movie is some of the issues it raises and makes you think about the value of life. For example, is it truly a self sacrifice if its your clone that decides to die? How do you out think yourself?

With only a budget of $5M, Moon managed to make nearly $10M in worldwide takings. So while it wasn’t a runaway box office hit, it proved that small thought provoking movies are worthy to be made with minimal special effects, even if set in space.

If you are in the mood for a thinking science fiction then you can’t go wrong with Moon and you will be impressed at the ending and the debate it leaves you with to wrestle yourself. I love a story that isn’t scared to ask a series of questions without offering any answers.