Plot
Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet's power problems.
Release Year: 2009
Rating: 8.0/10 (104,268 voted)
Critic's Score: 67/100
Director:
Duncan Jones
Stars: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey, Dominique McElligott
Storyline 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...
Writers: Duncan Jones, Nathan Parker
Cast: Sam Rockwell
-
Sam Bell
Kevin Spacey
-
GERTY
(voice)
Dominique McElligott
-
Tess Bell
Rosie Shaw
-
Little Eve
Adrienne Shaw
-
Nanny
Kaya Scodelario
-
Eve
Benedict Wong
-
Thompson
Matt Berry
-
Overmeyers
Malcolm Stewart
-
Technician
Robin Chalk
-
Sam Bell Clone
Taglines:
250,000 miles from home, the hardest thing to face...is yourself
Filming Locations: Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK
Box Office Details
Budget: $5,000,000
(estimated)
Opening Weekend: £157,867
(UK)
(19 July 2009)
(57 Screens)
Gross: $5,009,677
(USA)
(15 November 2009)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
In addition to the name of the station "Sarang" meaning 'love' in Korean, at the end of the farewell message from Lunar to Sam, the spokesman says "Annyong hi gye se yo!" which means 'Goodbye' in Korean.
Goofs:
Factual errors:
They are harvesting H3 on the far side of the moon, but a few times the Earth can be seen in the sky near the base. Since the moon does not rotate (relative to earth) there is one side where the Earth is always above the horizon (the side facing earth) and one side where the moon is always below the horizon (the side that points away). The Earth cannot be seen from any part of the far side. The Earth is always below your feet.
Quotes: Sam Bell:
Are you OK with that? GERTY:
I'm here to keep you safe, Sam. I want to help you.
User Review
Small in scope, Grandiose in concept
Rating: 10/10
While book racks are brimming with thought provoking, high concept
science fiction, the movie genre tends to be populated by invading
aliens, intergalactic wars, and adventure, which makes Director and
co-writer Duncan Jones' Moon that much more of an oddity.
Not since Steven Soderbergh's much overlooked 2002 rendition of
Stanislaw Lem's Solaris has a movie firmly rooted in the sci-fi realm
delivered reflections on the human condition, which Moon does deftly.
It tells the story of Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), the only inhabitant of
an automated lunar mining base extracting Helium-3 from lunar rocks to
be shipped back to Earth to fuel the energy starved planet.
Sam's isolated three year posting is about to come to an end and he
longs to return to Earth to see his wife. His only company throughout
this sojourn has been that of Gerty, the base's HAL-like robot voiced
by Kevin Spacey. Unfortunately, the final weeks and days are proving to
be the most difficult, and Sam finds himself going a bit squirrelly,
leaving both he and the audience to wonder if what's unfolding is
actually happening, or merely a drama taking place in his addled mind.
That's about as much plot detail as I'm going to deliver, for to delve
any deeper into the story would give too much away. Be prepared,
however, for a thought provoking narrative that touches on issues such
as scientific ethics, corporate greed, human identity, and compassion.
There are no aliens, lasers/phasers, wormholes, warp engines or jump
drives here, just a lonely space age concierge, an unflappable monotone
robot, and a whole lot of fodder for your brain to chow down on.
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