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Moon

  • 2009
  • R
  • 1h 37m
IMDb RATING
7.8/10
387K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
1,519
373
Sam Rockwell in Moon (2009)
Trailer for this sci-fi movie
Play trailer2:09
13 Videos
99+ Photos
Psychological DramaSpace Sci-FiDramaMysterySci-Fi

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 ... Read allAstronaut 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.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.

  • Director
    • Duncan Jones
  • Writers
    • Duncan Jones
    • Nathan Parker
  • Stars
    • Sam Rockwell
    • Kevin Spacey
    • Dominique McElligott
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.8/10
    387K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    1,519
    373
    • Director
      • Duncan Jones
    • Writers
      • Duncan Jones
      • Nathan Parker
    • Stars
      • Sam Rockwell
      • Kevin Spacey
      • Dominique McElligott
    • 732User reviews
    • 451Critic reviews
    • 67Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Won 1 BAFTA Award
      • 28 wins & 37 nominations total

    Videos13

    Moon
    Trailer 2:09
    Moon
    Moon -- Clip #4
    Clip 1:00
    Moon -- Clip #4
    Moon -- Clip #4
    Clip 1:00
    Moon -- Clip #4
    Moon -- Clip #3
    Clip 1:11
    Moon -- Clip #3
    Moon -- Clip #2
    Clip 1:48
    Moon -- Clip #2
    Moon -- Clip #1
    Clip 1:00
    Moon -- Clip #1
    Moon
    Clip 0:59
    Moon

    Photos147

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    Top cast13

    Edit
    Sam Rockwell
    Sam Rockwell
    • Sam Bell
    Kevin Spacey
    Kevin Spacey
    • GERTY
    • (voice)
    Dominique McElligott
    Dominique McElligott
    • Tess Bell
    Rosie Shaw
    • Little Eve
    Adrienne Shaw
    • Nanny
    Kaya Scodelario
    Kaya Scodelario
    • Eve
    Benedict Wong
    Benedict Wong
    • Thompson
    Matt Berry
    Matt Berry
    • Overmeyers
    Malcolm Stewart
    Malcolm Stewart
    • Technician
    Robin Chalk
    Robin Chalk
    • Sam Bell Clone
    Gavin Rothery
    Gavin Rothery
    • Eliza Rescue Captain
    • (uncredited)
    Gary Shaw
    • Shaw, Rescue Team Member
    • (uncredited)
    Mick Ward
    • Ward, Rescue Team Member
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Duncan Jones
    • Writers
      • Duncan Jones
      • Nathan Parker
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews732

    7.8386.6K
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    Featured reviews

    10ryanboulding

    Utterly Fantastic and Inspired

    Go see this movie! I've been lucky enough to have an opportunity to see this movie down here at SXSW and I am the better for it.

    You don't really stumble upon many riveting, independent, sci-fi films that look beautiful(let alone don't contain aliens and space magic) and capture major emotional themes successfully. Moon accomplishes this, and with very little CGI at that.

    Sam Bell is an astronaut working for a corporation on the far side of the moon. His job? Maintaining a lunar facility and the automated machines which are harvesting the moon's surface for Helium 3. The harvested material is then sent back to Earth to use as energy.

    Sam is on the very last leg of a three year contract and is quite anxious to return to his wife and daughter. Barring any incidents, Sam will be able to leave his solitude. But something does go wrong.

    That said, tremendous acting by Sam Rockwell carries this film - mainly because he is basically the only person in the movie. I'm not talking about Cast Away meets the moon… This film explores loneliness much deeper than that, and with much more emotion as well. Luckily for us there are no pieces of sports equipment on which the lead dotes, but instead we're blessed with a monotonous talking robot(voiced by Kevin Spacey) reminiscent of Hal from 2001 notoriety.

    I advise that people go see this film, not only to support Duncan, the director, and Sam, but also to explore to possibilities of space and the humanity of loneliness.

    Don't go in expecting to find what I have discussed, but go in expecting to find something inside yourself.
    7mike-1145

    A worthwhile one-man show

    Originally posted to titsandgore.com, April 2009:

    Moon is an auspicious debut from Duncan Jones (née Zowie Bowie), a talented new director who happens to be the son of David Bowie (let me officially be the first person to predict that every review of this film in the mainstream press will have the tagline "SPACE ODDITY!"). Sam Rockwell gives a truly remarkable performance as Sam Bell, a lunar miner who is nearing the end of his 3-year contract at a single-man mining outpost. His only companion is the station computer, Gertie, a straight-up HAL homage that tantalizingly suggests how a culture informed by decades of watching 2001 might choose to design a companion robot.

    To say too much more about the plot would be to spoil its central conceit, and while I'm sure many reviewers will talk openly about it, I want to preserve the surprise if at all possible at least until the film gets its theatrical release this coming June.

    Suffice it to say that Jones admirably mixes together stock genre tropes, paying tribute to a number of classic science fiction features while retaining his own idiosyncratically dark vision. Familiar filmic concepts of the "clean future" and the "dirty future" are mixed together to create a unique atmosphere; the milieu is suitably claustrophobic, the cramped quarters of the mining station serving the film's conceptual purposes while masking the shoestring budget. In fact, it may be hard to spare a glance at the meticulously designed sets with your eyes glued to Rockwell for the duration of the picture. His performance is utterly mesmerizing, inhabiting the role so completely that it is impossible to imagine any other actor having the chutzpah to pull it off.

    Which is not to say that Moon is without its problems; the pacing is hardly consistent and Jones' reliance on Rockwell tends to undersell his direction. Parts of the film veer dangerously close to identical thematic elements in Steven Soderbergh's recent adaptation of Solaris, without being as emotionally potent. But what it lacks in originality is mostly compensated for by the sheer audacity of its central performance and the careful economy of its direction.

    Moon may be dressed in familiar clothing, but it is a singular experience, a clever, darkly funny and genuinely moving journey into the nature of individuality. Jones is already at work on a second science fiction feature, and it is welcome indeed to see such a promising new talent continue to develop his voice by working in genre film-making!
    8AlsExGal

    This is sci-fi that sticks to our own sensibilities

    Lunar Industries is mining an alternate fuel, helium-3, when a massive oil crisis exists on Earth. The station is run by a single man, Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) with the help of Gertie, a Hal-like computer who drags itself around with a chain that has rollers on the ceilings of various compartments of the station.. He has a lilting voice (Kevin Spacey) just like Hal and is completely benevolent helping Sam in any way he can. I would prefer this thing over Hal any old day. Sam runs tests and makes reports, drives a mobile unit to the mines and packs canisters of H3 and sends them back to Earth. But he is nearly done with all this. Sam Bell is getting short, as they say, having only two weeks before going home after a three-year tour of duty. Then things begin to unravel.

    This is sci-fi that sticks to our own sensibilities. It's futuristic in a most limited sense. There are no extravagant elements, time travel, parallel universes, or monsters that walk through walls. Sam Bell would probably have the same attitudes towards these things that we do. In other words, it takes place in "real" life. The interior of the station is clever but there is an admirable restraint. It's like Alien in this way.

    There are other credits, but Sam Rockwell has 99% of the burden. A wonderful resume item, succeeding as he does not only carrying the film but holding it up like Hercules who has the world on his back. He imbues Sam Bell with an exuberant child-like demeanor that pulled me into the movie. He bobbles around the room to his favorite rock n' roll. But he's not irresponsible or a ne'er do well with his job. He is deadly serious, but wavering with the events of his life in these last two weeks.
    9hrstar24

    A great Sci-Fi movie

    The Moon has always been a source of wonder and mystery. It is so far away, yet much closer than the stars. Man has reached the Moon, but there is still so much that is unknown about it. It is a bridge between mystery and fact, and director Duncan Jones uses it as a brilliant setting for his science fiction film Moon.

    The movie stars Sam Rockwell as a lunar astronaut also named Sam stationed alone on the Moon for three years. He isn't entirely alone, because the AI computer GERTY (Kevin Spacey) is constantly following him. Energy companies have discovered vast amounts of Helium on the Moon, and they now mine that Helium in order to power the Earth. As Sam begins his last two weeks stationed in the mining facility, his mind begins to break down and he soon realizes he just might not be able to make it back.

    It is quite obvious that the main intention of Moon was to pay respect to the older science fiction movies like Alien and 2001: A Space Odyssey, and it is a great homage to the genre indeed. GERTY is possibly one of my favorite AI computers ever in a movie, because it constantly shows its mood through a series of different smiley faces, and has Kevin Spacey's voice. The overall story of Moon is pretty good, and it definitely tugs a bit on your emotions because the main character Sam is so real and relatable. It is a bit more of an art film, but I have found that the mixture of art and Sci-Fi is a brilliant combination.

    The absolute key ingredient to making Moon was finding a capable actor because it is essentially a one man show, and they picked a winner with Sam Rockwell. Rockwell gives one of his best performances to date, and while it might be a little early to predict I can see him getting an Oscar nomination for his role. The other great thing about this picture is the special effects. Since the budget was so low this could have been a disaster, but the shots of the Moon Rovers and Harvesters were astonishingly realistic, and a typical movie goer would think this had at least a 40 million dollar budget. It is amazing how much more was accomplished with this tiny budget compared to the $200 million dollars poured into Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

    Overall Moon is a complete film. It isn't groundbreaking, but it accomplished everything it set out to be, which are a great homage and a chance for Sam Rockwell to really show his acting prowess. I found myself leaving the theater with a great feeling of satisfaction that I have only received from a couple movies this year so far.

    9/10
    10KnatLouie

    Excellent low-budget sci-fi drama with an amazing cast! ;)

    Okay, here's the basic plot (without the twist-spoiler):

    Place: The moon. Time: A future not long from now (2030-ish I think). Sam Bell, astronaut, is working on a lunar base of some sort. He is the only person on the entire base, only assisted by an all-knowing robot called GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey). He has been stationed on the base for almost 3 years, his contract nearing an end, and with his flight back to earth scheduled only 14 days away, he can't wait to get back home to see his wife and daughter again. However, suddenly one of the automated moon-vehicles (harvesting rock-samples or whatever) goes awry, and he goes outside of the base to investigate it... but then something unexpected happens, and he has to change his perspective on everything.

    • End of basic plot summary.


    Bell is played by the brilliant Sam Rockwell, whom you probably know from "Charlie's Angels", "The Green Mile", "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind", "Matchstick Men" or the equally brilliant sci-fi movies "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" and "Galaxy Quest". This is probably his biggest part in a movie EVER, and I doubt if he will ever get a role as big as this again (not because he's not capable or worthy of it, but because it was a HUGE performance). If you're a fan of Rockwell (or perhaps of Kevin Spacey's voice), then you will not be disappointed, as they're both great in "Moon".

    For sci-fi lovers, this movie is really a blast. It takes some inspiration from such classics like "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Outland", "Silent Running", "Alien", and others, but still manages to be unique and original, something which has become increasingly rare in the recent big-budget/massive special effects/quick fix-tradition of Hollywood nowadays. "Moon" achieved something great for a budget of approximately 5 million dollars, which is ridiculously low by regular movie-standards, where a feature film usually would cost ten times that amount.

    As for the theme of the movie, the subjects of alienation, solitude, dehumanization and disbelief are risen (among others), which often leads to some of the best movies (in my opinion), as is the case here too.

    All in all, this movie definitely ranks among my personal top-20 all-time sci-fi favorites, and I will presume it will be placed equally high on most sci-fi aficionado's lists. An excellent debut directorial by Duncan Jones, and clearly one of the 5 best sci-fi movies made in the last 10 years. Already looking forward to his next feature film, which allegedly is also going to be a sci-fi movie (although with a much bigger budget).

    Final rating: 9.5/10 - a nearly flawless movie.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Originally, writer/director Duncan Jones wanted to cast Sam Rockwell in what eventually became Mute (2018). However, Jones and Rockwell could never come to an agreement on which part he should play, and scheduling conflicts made an immediate collaboration on that film difficult. Because they got on so well and Jones wanted to work with Rockwell so much, he asked him what would interest him; when Rockwell named the blue collar characters from Outland (1981), Silent Running (1972) and Alien (1979) as the sort of role that he wanted to try, Jones wrote this film for him. Rockwell would later make an uncredited cameo in Mute as his Sam Bell character from Moon.
    • Goofs
      Sam realizes that he has lost a tooth when feeling around in his lower jaw. However, the tooth that he pulls out of the toilet has three roots, meaning that it is a maxillary (upper) molar. Mandibular (lower) molars only have two roots, unless the person is of Asian or Native American descent.

      He first felt his upper row of molars where the tooth came out of, then tried wiggling some from the bottom row to see if any more were loose.
    • Quotes

      GERTY: I hope life on Earth is everything you remember it to be.

    • Crazy credits
      The fictional company which owns and operates the lunar base is called Lunar Industries Ltd. As a nod to this, the production company used to make the movie is also called Lunar Industries Ltd (UK Companies House company number 06346944), whose company directors are Duncan Zowie Hayward Jones (the movie's director) and Stuart Douglas Fenegan (one of the movie's producers).
    • Connections
      Edited into Race for Space (2010)
    • Soundtracks
      Flute and Harp Concerto K299 2nd Mvt.
      Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (as Wolfgang A. Mozart)

      Published by Boosey & Hawkes Production Music

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    FAQ27

    • How long is Moon?Powered by Alexa
    • why was there a rescue mission?
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    • Why is Sam-5's health deteriorating?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • July 10, 2009 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • United Kingdom
      • United States
    • Official sites
      • Official Facebook
      • Sony Classics (United States)
    • Languages
      • English
      • Spanish
    • Also known as
      • En la Luna
    • Filming locations
      • Dockweiler State Beach - 12001 Vista del Mar, Playa del Rey, Los Angeles, California, USA(B-Roll)
    • Production companies
      • Sony Pictures Classics
      • Stage 6 Films
      • Liberty Films Entertainment
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $5,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $5,010,163
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $136,046
      • Jun 14, 2009
    • Gross worldwide
      • $9,760,107
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 37 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
      • Dolby Atmos
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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