Moon

A serious contender for film of the year, Moon is one of those blissful sci-fi films more concerned with ideas than blowing up stuff. Like just about any sci-fi with brains, it inevitably has echoes of illustrious predecessors (Silent Running, 2001, Solaris, Alien et al.) without actually feeling like a blatent rip-off of any of them. For people of a certain age, the sequences of vehicles trundling across the moonscape irresistibly recall Space 1999. Best of all, it has a terrific performance - or two - from the great, underrated Sam Rockwell (go and watch Confessions of a Dangerous Mind or Lawn Dogs to see just how good he can be) He has to carry the film on his own, and it's a measure of his talent and versatility that the film remains gripping from beginning to end.
At it's heart, the film ponders the question of identity, and what it means to be human. Whereas Marcus in Terminator Salvation was unaware that he was a machine, the two Sams in Moon don't realize that they are clones. In fact, it's only a bloody-minded stubborn streak in Sam 2 that reveals the existence of two identical Sam Bells, each convinced that *he* is the real Sam and that the other is a clone. As it turns out, they are both wrong (and right) Moon is surprisingly moving, and the first of its tear-inducing moments comes when Sam 1 - who we've followed from the start, sympathizing with his desire to return to Earth after a 3 year contract mining Helium 3 on the Moon - discovers that he isn't "real", that he's also a clone, that everything he held dear has been torn from him. An even more heratbreaking moment occurs later when Sam 1 finally makes contact with Earth, only to discover that his "wife" is long dead and his baby "daughter" is a 15 year old girl.
The moral implications of what Lunar Industries has done resonates deeply because we react to the Sams as people, not clones, not pieces of disposable equipment - a distinction the company doesn't make. It ensures live contact with Earth is impossible so that noone, least of all Sam, is aware of what is actually happening. To Lunar, the clones are a cheap and efficient method for the mining operation. At the end of their contract, each Sam is convinced he's returning home but tapes reveal the disturbing truth: the clone disappears in a flash of vaporising light. The question inevitably arises: how can this not be murder? There is also a suggestion that perhaps the clones have a finite lifespan anyway, much like the replicants in Blade Runner, but the fact remains that for the 3 years of the contract each Sam is totally convinced that he is human and that he loves and misses his family. The callous disposal of each unit is deeply unsettling. And this is a film where a rescue mission is something to be feared as Sam 2 quickly realizes that in addition to fixing the equipment, the task will be to get rid of the inconvenient clones (in effect malfunctioning equipment). GERTY might be a computer but he has no HAL-like priorities. Rather he's programmed to protect Sam, and this allows Sam 2 to formulate a plan. GERTY even makes helpful suggestions to ensure its success.
The film might end on an optimistic note but mostly it's very poignant, constantly circling around issues of memory and identity. If a clone has the memories and emotions of "Sam Bell", does he then become Sam Bell? The clones believe they are Sam for their 3 year period of life and most never know otherwise. For Sam 1 and 2 though the destruction of that illusion is horribly cruel. Their pain and confusion aren't lessened because they are clones. They are, in other words, human...