Sam Bell has a three year contract to work for Lunar Industries. For the contract's entire duration, he is the sole employee based at their lunar station. His primary job responsibility is to harvest and periodically rocket back to Earth supplies of helium-3, the current clean and abundant fuel used on Earth. There is no direct communication link available between the lunar station and Earth, so his only direct real-time interaction is with GERTY, the intelligent computer whose function is to attend to his day to day needs. With such little human contact and all of it indirect, he feels that three years is far too long to be so isolated; he knows he is beginning to hallucinate as the end of his three years approaches. All he wants is to return to Earth to be with his wife Tess and their infant daughter Eve, who was born just prior to his leaving for this job. With two weeks to go, he gets into an accident at one of the mechanical harvesters and is rendered unconscious. Injured, he awakens back at the station in the infirmary, he assumes assisted by GERTY. GERTY tells him that a rescue team named Eliza will come to the station to clean up the aftermath of the accident. After his recuperation, he takes an unauthorized trip back to the broken harvester, where he makes an unexpected discovery. Because of his find, he begins to doubt his sanity, then his true identity, then the company and GERTY's willingness to do what is best for him. Because of his resulting beliefs, his sole mission becomes how to get back to Earth on his own.
Genre(s): Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Runtime: 97 minutes
Rating: 8.1/10 (7,126 votes)
Release Date: 23 January 2009
Country: UK
Languages: English
Company: Liberty Films UK
Sound: Dolby Digital
MPAA: Rated R for language.
Tagline: The last place you'd ever expect to find yourself
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"I want to go home"
Duncan Jones' Moon is a magnificently beautiful character study and adazzlingly complex and ambitious sci-fi film. Aside from some rathersubtle similarities to other genre classics, the film rarely feelsunoriginal, mostly due to the masterful storytelling and superbdirection. The pace is never compromised by trite or useless scenes,but flows rather seamlessly from one harrowing moment to the next.
Sam Bell is an astronaut miner stationed on the moon. He's nearing theend of his contract with Lunar Industries. A diligent employee forthree arduous years, he has been made to remain separate from hisfamily and all interaction with others. His home has been Selene, amoon base where he has spent his time. The only one he talks to is acomputer named GERTY. Spent in complete isolation, he ponders hiseventual return to earth and his family. Two weeks prior to his return,his communication with earth fails. After an accident occurs, Samdiscovers something that forces him to doubt his own sanity and edgecloser and closer to the breaking point.
Duncan Jones and co-writer Nathan Parker are able to constantly keepthings fresh and exciting throughout. Although slow at times, thedeftly hypnotic pace allows the viewer to emotionally connect to such adegree that the film never becomes boring because of it.
Sam Rockwell has been one of my favorite actors for a number of yearsand has been brilliant in quite a few films, and yet he manages tocompletely outdo himself here. His portrayal of his character ishauntingly emotional and layered to the point where every single scenehe's in is perfectly compelling. His performance is absolutely rivetingand is clearly one of the best performances in a film in recent memory.
The cinematography is consistently breathtaking and wonderfully assiststhe direction. The score by Clint Mansell is another beautiful piece ofthis genuine work of art.
Duncan Jones is an amazing director who has debuted with an incrediblythought-provoking, hauntingly complex film that deserves any number ofawards it hopefully receives. It is truly an outstanding achievementthat should be recognized for years to come as a genre-definingmasterpiece.
"Moon", for all the comparisons to cerebral SF films of the past, boilsdown to essential human drama, albeit with a neat twist. The featuredebuts of director Duncan Jones and cinematographer Gary Shaw aren'talways impressive, as what initially seems to be a deliberately grungylook is proved by awful use of slow-motion and some very clumsytransitions to be the result of inexperienced direction, while Shaw'swork is consistently dull and plain. The effects work (model miniaturesused) is not too impressive either, even considering the low budget forthe film. However, the screenplay by Nathan Parker is absolutelyexcellent, with superb story development, dialogue, andcharacterization, and some very good ideas which are, contrary to whatmany critical reviews say, pretty well-explored (and subtly, too). SamRockwell's performance is sublime, and while the aesthetic does let thescreenplay and performance down a bit, Jones does succeed at creating agreat, suspenseful atmosphere and deserves credit for Rockwell'sperformance as well, surely, and the film is very nicely-paced. Verygood score by Clint Mansell and voice work by Kevin Spacey help thefilm succeed. A minor gem.
You don't need a big budget, big name actors, big studio, big specialeffects for a good movie… you need a good story, great acting, gooddirecting, good camera work, good cuts, good sound… and all of thiscan be found in this film.
Yes, OK, I admit it, I like the genre, but what a pleasant surprisethis film is. I'm so glad I made the effort to travel 30 miles to goand see it. This film won various awards and I would not be surprisedif there were quite a few more in store.
Details… Sam Rockwell's performance was 100% or shall I say 200%?What a talent he is, very believable, he made me care about thecharacter he was portraying, and he moved me deeply. The story was verygood and brought up a few troubling issues, no, not nightmarish stuff,but just things that we as society should really think about beforegoing forward, 'just because it can be done doesn't mean we should doit'.. and I think this film will have added to the discussion just likeGATTACA and others like it.
I am glad I saw this film, it was an enriching experience.
How long have we waited for a true sci-fi movie? Ten years ago theworld was introduced to The Phantom Menace, which killed the sci-figenre as just being eye candy for kids. Moon is a true sci-fi movie,best since Blade Runner. The film is about this guy called Sam Bell(played by Sam Rockwell) that gets a job harvesting resources on themoon, for much needed resources on Earth. He has been living andworking there for almost three years, and will go back to his family intwo weeks when suddenly he starts seeing things. His robotic assistantnamed Gerty assures him he is just imagining things, but he continuesto see these illusions and gets into an accident. After he recovers, hediscovers someone else that looks exactly like him, and isn't anillusion. The production design is through the roof, especially for afilm with this low a budget ($5,000,000? Looks like $100,000,000!) anduses barely any cgi and mostly models. This is really well directed,and I can't wait to see more from this director. Sam Rockwell'sperformance is terrific, really deserves Best Actor of the year. Therest of the cast is good too, for the three minutes they appear. Itreally feels Human, and I admit I got teary-eyed whilst watching it.It's in very few theaters, so try to find it on DVD (not pirated,that'd be wrong) and it's truly the sci-fi us true fans of the genrehave been waiting for.