Moon: All the best directors have daddy issues

In his debut feature ‘Moon,’ director Duncan Jones reminds us of what we used to like about science fiction, a hardcore journey into the human mind in the face of advanced technologies and a bleak future


There’s something very Freudian about director Duncan Jones’s debut feature that centers on a lonely astronaut on the moon. Jones is the son of David Bowie, whose fictional astronaut, Major Tom, popped into different songs throughout his career.

Duncan Jones wisely discards his original name, Zowie Bowie, and puts his signature on one of the best sci-fi movies to hit the screen in recent years. The movie is set in the future, yet that’s the only thing we know about the date in Moon. The wars in the Middle East must be over as the humans have found a new clean energy source, Helium-3. The big corporations, however, must be intact as Lunar Industries is the only corporation mining the energy in the far side of the moon.

Technology has developed sufficiently that the energy can be mined without any manpower, meaning that Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is the only human on the base supervising the operation. His three-year contract is nearly over, and he can’t wait to go home as he’s at the end of his tether. The video messages from his lovely wife and the fully functioning robot Gerty are only reminders of his lonely existence far from home.



Sam vs. Sam

One day, when he’s out on a mission in his lunar tank, Sam crashes his vehicle. He later wakes up at the base with Gerty taking care of him. Despite orders from the top to not to leave the base, he goes out once again to discover that there is another Sam in his smashed tank. Everything else about the plot from this point would be a spoiler.

Moon doesn’t rely on expensive CGI to create a future but doesn’t refrain from it either. Jones is curious about the possible impacts of new technologies, and scientific advances on the human psyche, making the movie a mind-bending psychological drama.

The film is basically a one-man show, with Rockwell playing against himself throughout the movie – except, that is, when Gerty takes his screen time. The robot is voiced by Kevin Spacey in a sympathetic yet distanced tone, reminding one of HAL of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Moon has its twists and when you’re about to guess some of the twists correctly, it doesn’t really matter. The events unfold with such craft that you’re glued to your seats anyway. Jones’s debut feature is definitely the best sci-fi of this year with District 9, and a classic in years to come.

Originally published in Hürriyet Daily News on 26 March 2010