The other night we finally got to see the new British movie Moon by Duncan Jones and staring the excellent Sam Rockwell. I absolutely love this kind of intelligent sci-fi genre and have been waiting since the 40th anniversary of the Moon landings back in July to see this little movie, but its limited run has forced me to wait patiently for the film to arrive in the South East of England where we are based.
Sam Rockwell plays lone isolated astronaut Sam Bell, coming to the end of his three-year contract on a moon base supervising an automated mining operation. When he goes out on a routine mission to one of the mining machines he is involved in an accident, crashing his lunar vehicle and injuring himself trapped inside.
He wakes up back in the base with no memory of the incident but is told by the computer (voiced by Kevin Spacey) he had an accident. After a few days to recover he eventually gets out of the base and discovers his crashed lunar vehicle. He recovers an injured survivor bringing him back to the base only to discover the survivor is apparently himself.
It’s refreshing to see an old-school style science fiction tale of such intelligence and quality, despite the sometimes Earth-like gravity. The film really gets across the magnificent desolation and isolation of being on your own for 3 years so far away from Earth. It’s also an interesting look at how humanity might actually run an operation like this, even a little worrying. Why can’t there be more of these kinds of films?
My verdict: Loved every minute of it. A very good 8/10
It seems that in the future astronauts living on a Moon base will be wearing Ray-Ban Sunglasses to block out those harmful solar rays. On the Moon’s surface they would be even more lethal with no atmosphere to filter them down. Here Sam Rockwell’s character Sam Bell sports Ray-Ban 3362 Aviator Sunglasses.
He can be seen wearing his shades around the base or while driving around the surface of the Moon in this movie trailer: –
Video removed.