In the Shadow of the Moon (2019 film)

In the Shadow of the Moon
Official poster
Directed by	Jim Mickle
Written by	Gregory Weidman Geoff Tock
Produced by	Brian Kavanaugh-Jones Ben Pugh Rian Cahill Linda Moran Jim Mickle
Starring	Boyd Holbrook Cleopatra Coleman Michael C. Hall
Cinematography	David Lanzenberg
Edited by	Michael Berenbaum
Music by	Jeff Grace
Production companies	42 Automatik Nightshade
Distributed by	Netflix
Release dates	September 21, 2019 (2019-09-21) (Fantastic Fest) September 27, 2019 (2019-09-27) (United States)
Running time	115 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

In the Shadow of the Moon is a 2019 American science fiction thriller film directed by Jim Mickle and written by Gregory Weidman and Geoff Tock. It stars Boyd Holbrook, Cleopatra Coleman, and Michael C. Hall. The film had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest on September 21, 2019. It was later released on September 27, 2019, by Netflix.

Plot

In 1988, several people simultaneously hemorrhage to death in Philadelphia, their brains disintegrating and causing massive blood loss. Police officer Thomas Lockhart and his partner Winston Maddox investigate the case with Lockhart's brother-in-law, Detective Holt. Lockhart concludes that the deaths are connected when he finds similar puncture wounds on each victim. Lockhart and Maddox find an assault victim with the same wounds; before dying, she describes her assailant as a black woman with a wounded hand. Lockhart and Maddox find the suspect and chase her into a subway, where she subdues Maddox. When Lockhart confronts her, the suspect reveals details about his life, including that his wife will give birth that day. She predicts her own death just prior to a struggle, which ends with a train striking and killing her. Although confused about the many unexplained details, the police close the case. Meanwhile, Lockhart's wife dies in childbirth.

Nine years later in 1997, an apparent copycat begins another killing spree. Lockhart, now a detective caring for his young daughter Amy, can find no apparent motive or connection between the victims. Lockhart traces keys retrieved in 1988 to an aircraft manufactured in 1996. Naveen Rao, a physicist, insists this is proof of time travel, but Maddox and Lockhart ignore him. After tracking the copycat to an airfield, Lockhart is shocked to find the same suspect from 1988, who is alive and has not aged. She unintentionally kills Maddox and takes Lockhart hostage, again revealing knowledge about his life she could not know. After warning him off, she disappears.

In 2006, Lockhart is a private investigator obsessed with solving the case, which he now believes involves time travel and Dr. Rao, who has disappeared. The teenage Amy lives with Holt, and Lockhart maintains only occasional contact with her. Lockhart discovers a previously unrecorded victim from the 1988 murders and visits the victim's wife, who reveals her husband ran a white nationalist militia group. Lockhart meets Holt and advances the theory that the suspect is moving back in time as they are moving forward, killing each terrorist group member, but Holt dismisses the theory and insists Lockhart get psychiatric help. Lockhart steals Holt's badge, uses it to impersonate a police officer, and tracks down the former girlfriend of the white nationalist leader, arriving at her home to find she has been murdered by the suspect. Lockhart chases the suspect and wounds her hand with a bullet before she disappears in a time machine. Lockhart is arrested by Holt as an unseen Rao watches.

In 2015, while waiting for the woman on the beach, Lockhart listens to a voice message from Amy asking him to come to the birth of her child. Suddenly, he is kidnapped by Rao. Rao admits to developing the technology the woman uses to kill her victims, an injection whose effects can be remotely triggered through time. He says he now believes her cause is justified, and that she is actually killing those whose future actions are going to cause a horrific event. However, Lockhart, still convinced the woman needs to be stopped, manages to escape. He returns to the beach and confronts the woman. To his horror the woman produces his daughter's charm bracelet, explaining that it belonged to her mother. She is Rya, Amy's daughter and his granddaughter who is due to be born that very day.

Rya explains that in 2042, Lockhart convinced a 27 year old Rya to take the mission after the militia group's terrorism triggered a new civil war in 2024. With the help of Rao and his future company, they were able to determine the group of people who caused the militia's actions. Rya is traveling backwards in time, appearing every nine years in reverse chronological order. From her perspective, the events of 2006 have yet to occur, and her hand is not yet wounded. Overcome with guilt over causing his own granddaughter's death, Lockhart confesses that he killed her in 1988. He tries to get her to go back, but she sadly informs that there is no way to go back, and she knew when she volunteered that it was a one-way trip. Convinced that her cause is just, he lets her complete her mission. Rya briefly comforts a now sobbing Lockhart before departing leaving behind the charm bracelet. In 2042, an elderly Rao triggers the injections, killing Rya's targets and erasing her timeline from existence. A voiceover by Rya explains that when she was 9, a man parked a van with explosives on a busy city street and detonated it, killing 11,000 people. This caused a chain of events that resulted in a civil war that killed millions of people and left the entire country broken. However, through Rao's invention and Rya's sacrifice the bomb is never detonated and the war never breaks out. Back in 2015, Lockhart arrives at the hospital and reunites with his family. The film ends with Lockhart holding an infant Rya, who is wearing the charm bracelet, smiling and telling her that everything is going to be okay. The same words he said to Amy when she was born.

Cast

• Boyd Holbrook as Thomas Lockhart
• Michael C. Hall as Holt
• Cleopatra Coleman as Rya
• Bokeem Woodbine as Winston Maddox
• Rudi Dharmalingam as Naveen Rao
• Rachel Keller as Jean
• Al Maini as old Naveen
• Quincy Kirkwood as Amy, aged 9 yrs
• Sarah Dugdale as Amy, aged 18/27 yrs
• Ryan Allen as Palmer
• Tony Nappo as Clark
• Philippa Domville as Arlene
• Tony Craig as Sgt Williams (1988)
• Gabrielle Graham as Tabitha
• Julia Knope as Candice
• Nicholas Van Burek as Officer Redmond
• Murray Farrow as Hansen
• David Macinnis as driving cop (1988)
• Stuart Dowling as short order cook
• Jennifer Graham as bus driver
• Gregory Miller as concert pianist
• Colton Royce as George
• Billy Otis as crime scene photographer
• Trisha Blair as nurse (1988)

Production

The project was announced in February 2018, with Jim Mickle directing and Boyd Holbrook set to star in the lead role. The film would be produced and distributed by Netflix. In June 2018, Michael C. Hall joined the cast of the film. In July 2018, Cleopatra Coleman and Bokeem Woodbine joined the cast.

Speaking about the project, director Mickle declared:

“Gregory [Weidman] and Geoff’s [Tock] script is such a great mind bender and beautifully weaves together all my favorite genres, Boyd [Holbrook] is going to eat this role alive and show why he’s one of the best young actors working today. We’re lucky to have an incredibly talented producing team and a home like Netflix that’s excited to take chances. Any studio that makes Okja has a permanent place in my heart.”

Principal production commenced on July 2, 2018 and ended on August 27, 2018 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Release

The film had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest on September 21, 2019. On September 27, 2019, the film was available to stream on Netflix.

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 57 based on 53 reviews, with an average of 5.7. The website's critical consensus reads, "In the Shadow of the Moon isn't always successful at balancing its assorted elements, but its struggles may be diverting enough to warrant a stream." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 48 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". High on Films website wrote "Certainly not on par with Jim Mickle’s previous directorial efforts".

External links

• In the Shadow of the Moon at IMDb
• In the Shadow of the Moon at Rotten Tomatoes
• In the Shadow of the Moon on Netflix