Moon ***

Directed by Duncan Jones.
Released 2009 - seen in theater.
Written by Duncan Jones, screenplay by Nathan Parker
With Sam rockwell, Kevin Spacey, Matt Berry, Robin Chalk,


I really enjoyed this movie. It's a science fiction film, but it is more like the sci-fi films of the 70's. More about psychological drama and less about aliens and explosions.

The plot is a little convoluted, especially since the film reveals information in a rascally way. It only lets you know things when it wants you to know. That said, the film is not that hard to follow.

An energy company has found that they are able to obtain fuel from Moon rocks. Something to do with their ability to absorb energy from the sun. The actual science is besides the point of the story. All that we need to know is that there is a worker, Sam, that works the operation, seemingly alone, which is in my opinion a plot flaw because I would think that they would want more than one person and a computer, voice by Kevin Spacey, to operate such a large operation. But I'm ready to suspend belief for the sake of the film.

So Sam has a three year contract and is excited to go home to see his wife and child back on Earth. He begins to have visions and his sanity is beginning to unravel, and so it would since he's been alone for three years now. When he's out in his lunar vehicle, he has a vision of a woman out on the moon scape, (his wife or daughter) and crashes because he's so distracted.

He wakes up in the infirmary. He wants to go check on one of the energy collectors, but the computer won't let him. He fools the computer into letting him outside and comes across the crashed lunar vehicle. He finds the man (himself) injured in the vehicle and brings him back to base.

So now there are two Sams on ship, one that is injured and one that is healthy and fresh. Clones. It takes them a while, but eventually they figure out that they are clones, and that they all have the memory of the original Sam "injected" into their memories. It turns out that the corporation has grown clones to work the moon, so when the 3 years are up, they wake up a new clone. Of course, we know that clones are human beings and not robots and the two are quite distressed and the rest of the film is the two Sams trying to figure out what to do.

Kevin Spacey has a nice part of the computer voice with an ability to show human emotions - demonstrated by emoticons on his screen. He's like a Hal from 2001 Space Odyssey, but he turns out to be nicer.

A highly recommended film.


A trailer of the film...