Moon (2009)

Moon, an intelligent science fiction drama, was released in 2009 by director Duncan Jones. Moon shatters multiple conventions and ideas people commonly associate with science fiction by depicting life in space in a more grounded manner. The movie features award-winning actor Sam Rockwell who delivers an imaginative performance that redefinies the One Man film concept, alongside a notable supporting cast that helps lift the production beyond what is humble. Unlike other movies of the genre, Moon does not feel like it is trying to pay tribute and be subservient to any particular classic. It is, rather, a masterpiece by itself which, unfortunately, is not appreciated enough by the culture out there. Even though it contains some aesthetic choices that draw comparison to other illumni in the genre, it does not feel like the movie was trying to pay homage to those classics.

Adopting a personal ethos, the film revolved around the expectations I had for it because I have heard of it for quite a time but never had the resources or time to watch it. After rewatching parts of Solaris and Sunshine, I figured it made sense to watch Moon next so I could have some of my own thoughts on this intelligent production. And it definitely delivered on what I was expecting. Having grand aspirations alongside being confined to a budget certainly leaves a lot of sparkle behind, but on the whole the film is presented quite well. This is not to say I am critiquing or complaining about other productions, rather they were designed with a high-concept audience in mind and thus their cast takes center stage, which is contradictory to my stance. Whatever doubts I may have had regarding the actor, I am convinced now that this is one of the strongest and most memorable performances from Rockwell, which now makes Moon strongly recommended from my end.

It is clearly evident that the production operates on a budget and its constraints are narratively and artistically visible, but the audiences get to enjoy an appealing presentation regardless. Both practical and digital effects are hilariously juxtaposed to produce a final product that is on par with its contemporaries despite an inferior capital reserve. It does lend itself to some repetition and over extension of some of the interior locations which suggests a singular set production, but absolutely works with the tone and narrative of the film. The feeling of desolation along with dismal acceptance is prominent throughout the narrative and so are the set locations, aiding the overwhelming sense of isolation. As for the narrative, you will feel like the presentational expectations are indeed there, but because this isn’t a highly rated film, it is up for debate regarding if it is met.

Sam Bell, portrayed by Rockwell, is the only worker stationed on the lunar base which acts as a mining facility for the citizens on Earth. The film sets itself on the moon in the not-so-distant future. Sam’s primary responsibility includes supervising and maintaining the various autonomous machines which harvest fuel from the dark side of the moon. The Echo Facility’s purpose is to provide a constant service and delivery to the corporation situated on Earth. There’s a strong sense of solitude, as well as a resignation felt by Bell as he nears the end of his contract before going back to his family. In the beginning segment of the film, the assistance Gerty serves as his companion. With Spacey’s voice, Gerty parallels HAL in 2001 and Mother in the first Alien film: An alien presence the audience is skeptical towards.

Sam was able to send delayed messages to his spouse and child on Earth, which was cleverly done and uses a mechanic known as time displacement where communication between certain points in space would be almost impossible for the foreseeable future.

The family dynamic between Sam and his wife Tess impacts the extent of how long he can be away from the family. It is often the case that in space exploration films, the sacrifice of being away from loved ones takes a back seat. Interstellar did portray the theme of sacrifice and loss to some degree, but here the lack of communication in real time serves to enhance the loneliness he experiences while being on the surface of the moon, blankly executing the terms of his contract while waiting for the shuttle to take him back. He is a monotonous shell of himself, and as his departure lingers, he gradually descends into further madness, hallucinating his partner, talking to him in dreams while simultaneously holding conversations that he does not clearly remember. This idea of loosening one’s grip on sanity due to being by oneself comes back around that ominous and intriguing plot established in the beginning, however, he changes before my eyes, rapidly responding to his circumstance until it culminates in an accident which triggers my assumed death. And so, this marks the point at which the film’s greater storyline unravels itself to the viewer.

Sam wakes up, back at the Lunar base, where it seems Gerty is providing medical assistance. However, there is no obvious marker of physical or mental decline that was apparent before the incident. When he goes back to the site of the accident, he discovers an injured body that is his exact double. This aspect of the film shifts its focus to the conflict between being alive and being human. It is a gradual revelation to the audience that Sam, in either iteration shown, is the result of a seemingly endless supply of hibernating clones rendered on the Lunar surface. They work three years contracts before being decommissioned, their memories apparently lost with the only continuity being Gerty, the AI whose single focus is the well being of the various Sam clones. It turns out this isn’t a dangerous AI: Gerty, who is caring of both versions of Sam, reveals that it is indeed possible to give care in the acknowledgment of two patients in the same body. Rockwell’s effective portrayal of two different personalities of the same individual really brings the point home.

This part of the film provokes empathy when, after few unforeseen twists, Sam makes contact with his daughter and wife on Earth. This establishes a real-time communication to an extent where both of them can see each other. The twist here being, relatively much more time has passed than his original assumption. His child has aged far more than expected as well, while the original version of him is still happily living with his family. It is revealed around the end, when the anxiety of having the company’, who are meant to sanitize the facility, grows until the final moments of the film forcing Sam to place his faith on Gerty, the AI presence. In all her, presumed termination, fuctionality. Ther point of most interest enters at ‘the end’, where the audience is asserting the reality of Diana’s suicide. Whose affirmation manners the nature of his essence and unveiling of the naval crudspawn exposes far more than intended. Killing him forms the ID of the next worker in issuing Sam’s awakening, monologing his escape, mining samples capsule. While simultaneously erasing his memories of Gerty. The key point worth noting here is, it entirely conceals the pretense of normality for the judicially intending sanitation officials. With a single heartbeat of grabbing to Earth, Sam wishes to sound the alarm of the reality, or to say, the true power they have exposed too easily. And finally after the statement of preserving monitors the conversation starting below reaches a stucking. The shift to lose is in fact the most alarming part.

The movie, for a budget as low as this compared to other films, is remarkably well executed. It truly deserves much more recognition than it regularly receives as an independent movie. Of course, there are a few aspects such as the filming location and set pieces that feel a bit limited but above everything else, the external shots of the base are commendable and the overall effects are great. Any post-production budget issues that were apparent when utilizing practical model effects were managed well in the post production by the Cinesite, giving this film a solid aesthetic to this universe and feel. While I don’t want to get into the debate of practical versus digital effects and the advantages of either side, it is undeniable that very impressive models have their own unique benefit when dealing with landscape set pieces. There is presumably a reason why directors like Ridly Scott, after all the peak and foundation of science fiction, tend to use physical props whenever possible as seen in his movie ‘Blade Runner’.

In Moon, some scenes such as the outer shots of space where the Earth is visible, are produced during post-filming. However, the base itself and the surface were fabricated in a sound stage and miniatures were pulled across the fabricated moon surface on wires before being taken off after.

It operates and stands out as an innovative piece of Science Fiction that ditches the genre’s clichés and chooses to envision space exploration and human efforts set in the not-so-distant future. In 2015, “The Martian” made use of this approach by casting Matt Damon in the role of a botanist abandoned on Mars due to a catastrophic storm. He had to use real science to ration his resources until he was rescued. NASA viewed the film Moon after its purchase and noted that the portrayal of monotonous and repetitive routine work in extraordinary environments was incredible. One can tell that there is real passion and understanding of this genre and topic in Jones’s words when he, the director, explains the logic behind killing the light so to film on the far side of the moon. It is very easy to dismiss Science Fiction as a genre to some extent due to the ridicule that more popular films like the Star Wars and Marvel franchises tend to attract.

As a fan of the genre, realities and environments of films like Moon or Sunshine should be held at the pinnacle as they do weave fictional narratives but try to project a future within the realms of current technology advancement. This not only makes the production more believable, but it makes the viewer feel far more enveloped into the experience.

For the exteriors, we built this chunk of lunar terrain, about 30 foot by 40 foot, as well as a bunch of model miniatures for us to pull around. So, those effects were done the old fashioned way. We had the advantage of being able to work with a post company like Cinesite that beautified and fixed all the obvious things like us pulling trucks across the lunar landscape and expanding the landscape digitally. However, we tried to do as much of it in-camera as we could in an effort to save costs and to give the film a different, hybrid look that was just more authentic.

Sadly it’s a bit uncomfortable watching nowadays with one of the few supporting characters, the bases robot GERTY, being portrayed by disgraced actor Kevin Spacey. It brings up the question of being able to separate the artist from the work which is an almost impossible thing to do in today’s world but a necessary step if one hopes to find pleasure and appreciate his role in the film.

When analyzing the movie, both actors gave notable performances, with Rockwell portraying multiple versions of a single character, often acting alone. Most viewers would have guessed Spacey want to perform in this movie as well, but for most of its time, he does not. He spends all of his efforts trying to get the viewers to get the understanding that there is a deeper connection between the AI presence and the clones of the worker. It tries to keep them alive well beyond the orders it gets from superiors on Earth. I personally found pleasure in watching Sam Rockwell’s performance, especially the way he chose to tweak the character slightly, and how he ended up acting very distinguishably from the first injured clone. The first clone seemed exhausted and haggard, while the second one looked more polished and regimented. Despite this, they all came to this epiphany of their true existence during the end, but all of them showed different sides of them during the reveal scene. That aside, I guess the budget limitation did not afford them too many notable performances or actors. A familiar face, at least for those who are fans of the more serious branches of the science fiction genre, Benedict Wong plays a minor role as one of the support workers from earth contacting the lunar base. He happens to be in almost all of the hard science fiction films mentioned in this work, and that is a nice little detail to add.

The film’s problems, like most other pieces in this genre, stems from the alienated focus the story seems to narrow down to in comparison to the grounded themes displayed in The Martian, Sunshine as well as Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. The setting along with the NASA’s intent of exploring and settling on the Lunar surface is an entire story in itself. The latter half of the film shows life at an astounding setting. Life in an astounding setting. However, I did not buy into the reasoning behind the clome elements, the faceless conglomerate on Earth that decides the fate of the moon’s inhabitants, or the savior party that captures a menacing vibe. It seemed like unneeded suspense. Just like the political structure of The Martian and the investigate the sister ship side mission in Sunshine, here the grappling with the problem of existence is, at best, contrived.

It’s great to see Jones expand and add on to this particular universe and idea beyond film with the Netflix exclusive film Mute where the same character appeared in a minor role. Likewise, the environment in all these movies is pretty much a character and a menace in itself, Sunshine found some level of credibility with its more fatalist interpretation of the dangers of space, here Moon also works to depict the threats of isolation and the cost of human life. At times, the journey offers much more value than the destination, and in this case, the narrative elements in conjunction with the astounding production and setting nearly spoiled everything.

When you sit down to watch Moon, prepare to take a deep dive into a world of science fiction intellect. What on the surface seems to be a story about loneliness and fatigue when working in space soon turns into a frenzied debate on the concept of existence. It’s both complex and captivating. The overall presentation coupled with visuals is remarkably similar to numerous other films, with the set design strongly resembling 2001 and Alien. With this said, it becomes evident that Moon does not lack inspiration nor does it need to pull ideas from these films, as it created its own path. Alongside the phenomenal soundtrack is one of the best uses of model work I have seen, leaving a sense of authenticity with the production as well. This stunning film overcomes the restrictions of its budget, and achieves greatness beyond what so many believed it could do. I do not wish to reveal too much, as the film is best enjoyed free of context and preconceived notions.

I was slightly unsure on how much I would appreciate this, given that the whole story seems to hinge on the character of Bell, played by Sam Rockwell. Of all the listed movies beside him, my most concrete memory is his rather inconsequential role as the Red Shirt Guy Fleegman in the Star Trek homage Galaxy Quest. I will respectfully admit that he gave two incredible and different performances of the same role, which is no easy feat since it is quite challenging to portray different sides of the same character and pass it off as believable. For one, all the characters are believable and distinct individuals, a testament to Spacey’s remarkable restraint in performing that particular character; although the events of the last few years have taken their toll on him, it is earned a robotic character that guides the story as HAL from 2001 does.

During the movie, you might be wondering if it actually harms Bell in any way, but the choice made towards the end really evokes emotion when you see how close the machine and man have gotten.

Perhaps other films released in the recent years with a similar plot and setting have been more joyful and fascinating than this one. The concept of cloning alongside the existence of a labor class has indeed shown to be more dramatized in Pieces such as Quantic Dream’s release, “Detroit: Become Human”. The game focuses on the development of robotics, but simultaneously presents the concept of a cheap, disposable workforce. Rockwell’s performance is what breathes warmth and essence into the film – and fortunately, he does deliver while portraying his two characters. The first one is a deeply lazy personality of a clone, while the second one has a devil-may-care attitude. I cannot say this is particularly an entertaining film. It does not feature a lot of humor or fun, and perhaps that is where the essence of humanity in this film lies. However, it is along the lines of entertaining as the scene where we see Bell unveil the truth about his family is nothing short of heart-wrenching. As the audience, we can feel how disturbing it is to face the truth about the existence of humanity and the facade behind it.

Like every Spacey film, one has to actively disconnect the artist from the art and at certain scenes buying into the character of Gerty is a little uncomfortable but it succeeds in this case because of the bond between the two you do find yourself engrossed in its characters and story and you forget about its stars and boundaries. Definitely gave praise when myself consumed in the universe and here it does so with merit.

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