Moon: Rage Against the Dying of the Light

Those of us with phobias of space, Moon is pretty gentle, but it's still going to be a rough ride. Never thought I'd find respiratory breakdown so scary.

On my flight to California I was able to cross two movies off of my bucket list: Moon and The Nice Guys. For the sake of simplicity I’ll start with Moon.

Thinking about my own mortality and impermanence is always a strange exercise for me. Truth be told I would be lying if I said that I entirely looked forward to my own inevitable physical (and likely mental) decline, but in a strange way I look forward to it. I want to live for as long as possible, a hundred if I can achieve it, but the fact remains, no matter how much I’d like to will myself beyond it, that I have an expiration date. Just as the sun rises, it must set, and so darkness returns to darkness. Moon is the story of a man encountering his expiration date, and existing in spite of it. 

Sam Rockwell pulls off perhaps his most impressive performance I’ve seen from him yet (which isn’t saying much because I only know him from Iron Man 2). Probably the performance of a lifetime.

Moon begins with a glimpse into the future, a better and brighter future that we can only imagine thanks to enormous amounts of clean hydrogen energy being collected, processed and shipped from the moon. Sam Bell, the only on-site operator of the refining process on the moon, is about to finish his three-year contract. He’s essentially totally isolated from others with exception to synthetic company in the form of a robot and the occasional video call from home or his corporate supervisors. Everything’s going well, but he begins to crack and have a breakdown. He hallucinates, seemingly has migraines, rapidly loses weight, and begins to pale. Shit really hits the fan when he gets in an accident, flipping his space buggy, but he wakes in the infirmary after an indeterminate period of time. However, soon after it’s revealed that this is not the Sam Bell we followed in the introduction, somehow being a younger Sam after he discovers “our” Sam still trapped in the buggy. After the elder is resuscitated the two get down to getting acquainted with each other, and that goes as well as can be expected given that the two are drastically different people from each other. They come to blows, and (given that young Sam doesn’t look like he’s fucking dying) younger Sam overcomes older Sam, in the process causing him to bleed profusely. Quickly after this the two assess their situation and decide to get to the bottom of this flummery, eventually discovering the truth of their entire existence before deciding what exactly to do about it. Throughout this the older Sam continues to horrifically decline in health before our eyes, and in these moments of acute decline the younger assists him. There’s an interesting dynamic between the two and their sole robot companion, and in a way Moon is thus also a story of both the horrors and humanity-in-miniature of technology in the future and present day. Despite at first appearing quite untrustworthy and dishonest, Gertie (the robot) is unsettlingly honest and helpful. He’s pretty damn honest when asked direct questions, and unfailingly breaks protocol, with his only answer as to why he helps either Sam being “I’m here to help you Sam :)” (probably the only non-psychotic robot I’ve seen before 2001). On top of this, both Sams in the end help the other. The first Sam helps the other rapidly mature and overcome his aggressive personality, whereas the younger gives his elder both hope and confirmation of his destiny. In the end, the elder sacrifices his opportunity to see his beloved Earth for the first and only time to his younger double. It’s almost like the knowledge that they are ultimately expendable enabled each of the three to act more selflessly to assist each other. 

There’s an unmistakable theme of self-sacrifice throughout Moon. While Gerty, Sam (1), and Sam (2) each sacrifice or compromise something to help each other, all three are in turn sacrifices (in a sense) to Lunar Industries.

Cinematography-wise, Moon is everything a detail-loving filmgoer would love. It’s a special film that plays both ends of the divide in terms of details; watchful viewers get information revealed through details while less discerning viewers are informed at the pertinent moment. Even before the whole twist is revealed, there’s so many details that something isn’t entirely right on this base. Walls and places are worn and dirty, certain things have a good deal of wear and tear, faded writing is on several panels, and after our introduction of the older Sam on the treadmill he seems to lose an incredible amount of weight. As one would expect, it’s a pretty damn lonely film as well, and no few shots convey this (though none is quite as striking as Sam gazing longingly at Earth from his buggy). Sam Rockwell has such a spectrum in this film, especially since he’s essentially acting by himself in two different shots that are spliced together. There’s  the expected tricks to isolate the two in individual shots, but for much of their shared screen time the pair have an incredible amount of interactivity (if that phrasing makes any sense). Similar to Alien, there’s also a great deal of grounded-seeming technology to be seen on the sets here, though the tech here seems to be firmly rooted in the nineties as opposed to the more utilitarian instruments of the Nostromo. There’s also a definite common pallet of colors throughout, with the crimson of Sam’s progressively blood-spattered condition standing out against the austere grays, whites, and soft yellows of Sarang Station.

Gerty (Voiced by Kevin Spacey) is kind of cursed for me, but man, he really steals your heart with the added emoticons.

Moon was something I had an inkling that I would like, and in truth it was, being a surprisingly well-told story of expiration dates and the human condition. Though it is admittedly hard at times to watch (you’re literally watching a man die over the course of days), it’s also relatively short , being only ninety-seven minutes long, so it’s perfect for a fast watch. In turn the lack of cryptic writing and story elements helps things be easily understandable. Moon is definitely worth a watch, especially for the novelty of an easily-relatable story in the perhaps not-too distant future (that doesn’t feel preachy).