“Moonfall”: what if the Moon contains its own Dyson sphere and decaying white dwarf inside?
Yes, once in a while Hollywood gets to destroy New York and Los Angeles, and the premise that the Moon is falling toward Earth in a decaying orbit gives another excuse, as in Roland Emmerich’s new (Canadian sci-fi) film “Moonfall”, inspired in part by the 1998 novel of the same name by Jack McDivetr (where a comet threatens the Moon), but this time written with Harald Klosar and Spenser Cohen.
Now if all this were true, you would think we would know.
But it makes a story easily filled with screenwriting cliches of crises. Astronaut Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson) has been disgraced by an accident caused by a swarm (he was with Jacinda Fowler, aka Halle Berry) when no one believed him, and he lost his home, everything. In the meantime conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman (John Bradley), who works as a prole in the fast food business, has been promulgating the idea that the Moon is indeed a vulnerable megastructure. Harper has a somewhat delinquent son Sonny (outside of marriage) played by Charlie Plummer, and Sonny becomes a much stronger character as the mayhem of the plot progresses.
To be honest, the script is a bit corny (typical line, “I hope the Moon holds together”). But toward the end, was we finally see the megastructure, it gets more interesting. One of the best shots is of the ancient (by billions of years) civilization’s capital city that spawned the AI, somewhere else in the Galaxy. (The city may have been the capital of the one remaining civilization left from a “zero sum game” and “might makes right” ideology of Vladimir Putin, as this film came out shortly before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.) One is reminded of Max Reisinger’s alien city illustration on his YT channel to promote his company Perspectopia. (Max is quite busy in his gap year traveling and making short films, but it is all too easy to imagine him playing a lead but very clean-cut “superhero” “eternal” in a Marvel movie – but well already have other young kings like Timothee Chalamet, Tom Holland, and now Charlie Plummer – there is, as screenwriting coach Tyler Mowery once tweeted – only “the king and his court” – well, and a foppish Vladimir Putin – so much for such ramblings.)
The very ending, and outcome for the prole KC is indeed satisfying, as he may have eternal life.
Maybe we need a movie set on a real Dyson’s Sphere, like around Tabby’s Star, perhaps. What would a hotel room be like in one of the megastructure nodes? Would we get social media through Mark Zuckerberg’s wormhole?
The film was largely shot in Montreal (maybe while John Fish lived there during his gap year and shot spectacular videos, only to be disrupted by the pandemic, during which he worked on a project to make ventilators.)
Name: “Moonfall”
Director, writer: Roland Emmerich (DGC)
Released: 2022
Format: 2.39:1
When and how viewed: Alamo Drafthouse at One Loudoun, VA, 2022/2/17, 3:15 PM weekday show, I was the only patron! The vegan cookies were delicious!
Length: 130
Rating: PG-13
Companies: Centropolis, Summit Entertainment, Lionsgate (Canada)
Link: TheWrap (self-financing issue)
Stars: ***__
(Posted: Friday, February 18, 2022 at 11:30 AM EST, by John W. Boushka)