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Moon (2009 film)

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Moon
File:Moon (2008) film poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDuncan Jones
Written byNathan Parker
Duncan Jones
Produced byStuart Fenegan
Trudie Styler
StarringSam Rockwell
Kevin Spacey
Dominique McElligott
Robin Chalk
CinematographyGary Shaw
Edited byNicolas Gaster
Music byClint Mansell
Production
company
Distributed bySony Pictures Classics
Release dates
  • 23 January 2009 (2009-01-23) (Sundance)
  • 17 July 2009 (2009-07-17) (United Kingdom)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$5 million[1]
Box office$9,760,104[2]

Moon is a 2009 British science fiction drama film directed by Duncan Jones.[3] The film is about Sam Bell (Played by Sam Rockwell), a man who experiences a personal crisis as he nears the end of a three-year solitary stint mining helium-3 on the far side of the Earth's moon.[4] It was the feature debut of director Duncan Jones, son of the British rock musician David Bowie. Kevin Spacey voices his robot companion, GERTY. Moon premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and was released in selected theatres in New York and Los Angeles on 12 June 2009. The release was expanded to additional theatres in the United States and Toronto on both 3 and 10 July[5] and to the United Kingdom on 17 July.[6]

The film was nominated for two BAFTA Awards, winning Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer for Jones. It also won the prestigious Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form (defeating Academy Award for Best Picture nominees Avatar and District 9) and two British Independent Film Awards including Best British Independent Film (BIFA) winner of the 2009 award for the Best British Independent Film.[7] It was nominated for the Saturn Awards for Best Science Fiction Film and Best Actor for Rockwell.

Plot

Sam Bell is nearing the end of a three-year work contract at Lunar Industries' largely automated "Sarang" lunar base, where he is the sole resident. Sam oversees automated harvesters and launches canisters bound for Earth containing the helium-3 they extract. Chronic communication problems limit him to occasional recorded messages with his wife Tess, who was pregnant with their daughter Eve when he left. His only companion is an artificial intelligence assistant named GERTY, who assists with the base's automation.

Two weeks before he is to return to Earth, Sam suffers from hallucinations of a teenage girl. One such hallucination distracts him while he is out recovering a helium-3 canister from a harvester, causing him to crash his rover into the harvester. Rapidly losing air, Sam dons his helmet in time, but still loses consciousness from his injuries.

Sam awakes in the base infirmary, but with no memory of the accident. He overhears GERTY receiving instructions from Lunar Industries not to let him outside the base and to wait for the arrival of rescue team "Eliza". He manufactures a fake problem with the base to force GERTY to let him outside. Inside the crashed rover he finds another, unconscious Sam Bell.

After bringing this Sam back to the base and tending to his injuries, the two Sams start to wonder if one is a clone of the other. They get into a heated argument and physical altercation, but soon work together to coerce GERTY into revealing that in fact they are both clones of the real Sam Bell, who is on Earth. GERTY had awakened a new clone after the rover crash and implanted the memories of the real Sam Bell, believing that the original clone could not be recovered. The two clones start exploring the base. They find out that communications are being jammed by antennae at the far edges of the base, and that previous clones have all started to deteriorate and become very ill after about three years of being revived -- upon which, believing they were being put into hibernation for the journey home, were simply incinerated. They also discover an enormous vault containing hundreds more clones below the base. The older Sam drives past the interference range in another rover and calls Tess on Earth, only to get Eve, now 15 years old, who informs him that Tess had died years before. He hangs up before the real Sam can answer.

The Sams realise that the incoming rescue team will kill them both if they are found together. The newer Sam suggests sending the other to Earth in one of the helium-3 canisters, but the older Sam, already in an advanced state of deterioration, knows he will not live much longer and instead suggests the newer Sam go and alert the public to what Lunar Industries is doing. The older Sam plans to return to the crashed rover and die there, so Lunar Industries will not suspect anything. They work with GERTY to erase all records of the second clone, and then revive a third clone to await the Eliza rescue team. They also program one of the harvesters to crash into a jamming antenna to enable communication with Earth. The older Sam, back in the rover, watches as the canister taking the other Sam is launched to Earth, before blacking out.

As the credits roll, news broadcasts report that the clone's testimony about Lunar Industries' illegal activities stirred considerable controversy on Earth, causing the company's stock to crash.

Cast

Production

This is the first feature film directed by commercial director Duncan Jones, who co-wrote the script with Nathan Parker.[8] The film was specifically written as a vehicle for actor Sam Rockwell.[9] The film pays homage to the films of Jones' youth, such as 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), THX 1138 (1971), Silent Running (1972), Solaris (1972), Dark Star (1974), Alien (1979), and Outland (1981).[10] Jones described the intent: "[We] wanted to create something which felt comfortable within that canon of those science fiction films from the sort of late seventies to early eighties."[11] The director spoke of his interest in the lunar setting: "for me, the Moon has this weird mythic nature to it... There is still a mystery to it. As a location, it bridges the gap between science-fiction and science fact. We (humankind) have been there. It is something so close and so plausible and yet at the same time, we really don't know that much about it." The director described the lack of romance in the Moon as a location, citing images from the Japanese lunar orbiter SELENE: "It's the desolation and emptiness of it... it looks like some strange ball of clay in blackness... Look at photos and you'll think that they're monochrome. In fact, they're not. There simply are no primary colours." Jones made reference to the photography book Full Moon by Michael Light in designing the look of the film.[12]

Moon's budget was $5 million.[1] The director took steps to minimise production costs, such as keeping the cast small and filming in a studio.[11] Moon was produced at Shepperton Studios, in London, [8] where it was filmed in 33 days.[11][4] Jones preferred using models instead of digital animation.[10] Jones worked with Bill Pearson, the supervising model maker on Alien, to help design the lunar rovers and helium-3 harvesters in the film.[13] The Moon base was created as a full 360-degree set, measuring 85–90 feet (26–27 m) long and approximately 70 feet (21 m) wide. The film's robot, GERTY, was designed to be bound to an overhead rail within the mining base since its mechanical tether was critical to the story's plot.[11] The visual effects were provided by Cinesite, which has sought cut-price deals with independent films.[14] Since Jones had an effects background with TV advertisements, he drew on his past experiences in creating special effects within a small budget.[11]

Clint Mansell's theme can also be heard in a trailer for the 2011 film The Iron Lady.[15]

Release

Sam Rockwell and Duncan Jones at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival screening

International sales for Moon are handled by the Independent sales company.[16] Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group acquired distribution rights to the film for English-speaking territories.[8] Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group was considering making Moon a direct-to-DVD release; however, after Moon premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival in January 2009, Sony Pictures Classics decided to handle this film's theatrical release for Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group.[17] Sony Pictures Classics distributed the film in the United States in cinemas,[18] beginning with screenings in selected cinemas in New York and Los Angeles on 12 June.[5] The film's British premiere was held on 20 June 2009 at the Cameo Cinema in Edinburgh as part of the 63rd Edinburgh International Film Festival. Jones was present at the screening along with other key crew members. The full UK release was on 17 July.[6] The Australian release was on 8 October.[19]

Box office

Moon grossed £700,394 from its domestic release,[20] $3,370,366 from its North American release and $9,760,104 worldwide.[2]

Critical reception

Damon Wise of The Times praised Jones' "thoughtful" direction and Rockwell's "poignant" performance. Wise wrote of the film's approach to the science fiction genre: "Though it uses impressive sci-fi trappings to tell its story—the fabulous models and moonscapes are recognisably retro yet surprisingly real—this is a film about what it means, and takes, to be human."[21] Duane Byrge of The Hollywood Reporter applauded screenwriter Nathan Parker's “sharp [and] individualistic” dialogue and the way in which Parker combined science fiction and Big Brother themes. Byrge also believed that cinematographer Gary Shaw's work and composer Clint Mansell's music intensified the drama. Byrge wrote: “Nonetheless, "Moon" is darkened by its own excellencies: The white, claustrophobic look is apt and moody, but a lack of physical action enervates the story thrust.” The critic felt mixed about the star's performance, describing him as “adept at limning his character's dissolution” but finding that he did not have “the audacious, dominant edge” for the major confrontation at the end of the film.[22]

Empire magazine praised Rockwell's performance, including it in '10 Egregious Oscar Snubs - The worthy contenders that the Academy overlooked' feature and referred to his performance as "one... of the best performances of the year".[23]

Roger Ebert gave the film 3½ stars out of 4, saying: “"Moon" is a superior example of that threatened genre, hard science-fiction, which is often about the interface between humans and alien intelligence of one kind of or other, including digital. John W. Campbell Jr., the godfather of this genre, would have approved. The movie is really all about ideas. It only seems to be about emotions. How real are our emotions, anyway? How real are we? Someday I will die. This laptop I'm using is patient and can wait.”[24]

The film currently holds an 89% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 178 reviews.[25] Moon received positive reviews at the Sundance Film Festival.[26]

Reception from the scientific community

Moon was screened as part of a lecture series at NASA's Space Center Houston, at the request of a professor there. “He'd been reading online that we'd done this film about Helium-3 mining and that's something that people at NASA are working on”, says Jones. “We did a Q&A afterward. They asked me why the base looked so sturdy, like a bunker, and not like the kind of stuff they are designing that they are going to transport with them. I said "Well, in the future I assume you won't want to continue carrying everything with you, you'll want to use the resources on the moon to build things" and a woman in the audience raised her hand and said, "I'm actually working on something called Mooncrete, which is concrete that mixes lunar regolith and ice water from the moon's polar caps."”[27]

Accolades

BAFTA Awards 2010
  • Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film - nominated
  • Carl Foreman award for special achievement by a British director, writer or producer in their first feature film
British Independent Film Awards 2009
  • Best British Independent Film
  • Douglas Hickox Award for Duncan Jones
  • Best Actor nomination for Sam Rockwell (nomination)
  • Best Director nomination for Duncan Jones (nomination)
  • Best Screenplay nomination for Nathan Parker (nomination)
  • Technical Achievement, Original Score nomination for Clint Mansell (nomination)
  • Technical Achievement, Production Design nomination for Tony Noble (nomination)
Chlotrudis Awards 2010
  • Best Actor nomination for Sam Rockwell (nomination)
  • Best Production (nomination)
Fantastic'Arts 2010
  • Special Prize
  • Critics' Prize
Hugo Awards 2010

Sequels

Jones is planning a follow-up graphic novel, titled Mute, which will serve as an epilogue to Moon. Should the project progress to a film, "Sam has agreed to do a little cameo in the next film", says Jones, who ultimately hopes to complete a trilogy of films set in the same fictional universe.[27][28]

References

  1. ^ a b Spelling, Ian. "How David Bowie's son wound up making an indie movie about the Moon". SCI FI Wire. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
  2. ^ a b "Moon (2009)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 4 July 2010.
  3. ^ "DVDs: Moon is one small step for David Bowie Jr. Join our fan community today". National Post. 15 January 2010. Retrieved 31 January 2010. [dead link]
  4. ^ a b Scott, A. O. Movie Review: Moon, New York Times, 12 June 2009. Retrieved 12 August 2010.
  5. ^ a b "MOON: A Film by Duncan Jones". Sony Pictures Classics. Retrieved 11 June 2009.
  6. ^ a b Clarke, Cath (29 May 2009). "First sight: Duncan Jones". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 11 June 2009.
  7. ^ "2009 Winners". British Independent Film Awards. Retrieved 8 January 2010.
  8. ^ a b c Siegel, Tatiana (5 May 2008). "Sony lands 'Moon' rights". Variety. Retrieved 27 December 2008. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  9. ^ Dawtrey, Adam (14 January 2009). "U.K. co-productions storm Sundance". Variety. Retrieved 15 January 2009. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  10. ^ a b "News Etc". Empire. February 2009. pp. 20–21.
  11. ^ a b c d e Douglas, Edward (23 January 2009). "Sundance EXL: Duncan Jones & Sam Rockwell on Moon". ComingSoon.net. Coming Soon Media, L.P. Retrieved 24 February 2009. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  12. ^ Macnab, Geoffrey (23 October 2008). "Moon rising: Two new lunar movies are taking viewers back into orbit". The Independent. London. Retrieved 27 December 2008. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  13. ^ Marshall, Greg (16 January 2009). "Sundance goes sci-fi with 'Moon'". Park Record. Media News Group. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ Dawtrey, Adam (7 November 2008). "London's CG houses share digital wealth". Variety. Retrieved 27 December 2008. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); no-break space character in |accessdate= at position 17 (help)
  15. ^ The Iron Lady Movie official homepage [1]
  16. ^ Dawtrey, Adam (11 March 2008). "Independent flies to 'Moon'". Variety. Retrieved 27 December 2008. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  17. ^ Goldstein, Gregg (23 January 2009). "10 Days of Sundance: Moon waxes Theatrical With Sony". MCN Blogs. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  18. ^ Swart, Sharon (23 January 2009). "Sony Classics nabs 'Moon'". Variety. Retrieved 24 January 2009. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  19. ^ Stratton, David. "At the Movies: Moon". ABC. Retrieved 5 November 2009.
  20. ^ http://www.screenrush.co.uk/films/film-136189/box-office/
  21. ^ Wise, Damon (24 January 2009). "Poignant tale of starman waiting in the sky". The Times. London. Retrieved 24 February 2009. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); no-break space character in |date= at position 3 (help)
  22. ^ Byrge, Duane (26 January 2009). ""Moon" a well-assembled sci-fi thriller". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 11 June 2009. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  23. ^ White, James. "10 Egregious Oscar Snubs". Empire. Retrieved 6 April 2010.
  24. ^ Ebert, Roger (17 June 2009). "Moon". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 26 June 2009.
  25. ^ "Moon". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 16 January 2010.
  26. ^ Flynn, Gaynor (24 January 2009). "Brits in the thick of it at Sundance". The Independent. London. Retrieved 24 February 2009. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  27. ^ a b Stewart, Ryan (11 June 2009). "Duncan Jones (a.k.a. Zowie Bowie): Moon". SuicideGirls. Retrieved 11 June 2009.
  28. ^ "Sam Rockwell Will Have A Cameo In Moon's Quasi-Sequel". SFX. 11 December 2009. Retrieved 28 January 2010.

External links

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