plug: Moon (2009)

Corporations probably won't save us.

Moon (2009) gives us a future with clean energy without impending doom, all thanks to a corporation and the dark side of the moon. Director Duncan Jones wonders “Who would have thought? All the energy we ever needed right above our heads.” before showing us what an efficient, dehumanizing nightmare of optimization looks like. And at the center is Sam Bell, played by Sam Rockwell, the sole miner extracting energy for the past three years.

Sam dreams of home and sends videos with his wife and daughter. And he’ll get to go home and see them soon because he’s almost done. But then Moon, maybe a little predictably asks, but what if this isn’t as it seems? And, of course, it’s not. It’s the moon, after all, where it’s cold and dark and lonely.

And then Sam meets Sam. It was bound to happen eventually. If you stay up on the moon all alone long enough, you’re going to come face to face with yourself and realize that the story you keep telling yourself just might not be true. Anyway, this is that story and it makes for a really neat, interesting film that wonders Who would have thought? Corporations won’t save us after all.