Moonfall (2022)
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Two former astronauts and a conspiracy theorist must confront the truth when the Moon suddenly leaves its orbit.
The story
In 2011, a mysterious swarm of alien technology attacks a Space Shuttle mission, leading to the dismissal of astronaut Brian Harper. Ten years later, conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman discovers that the Moon's orbit is veering closer to Earth and shares his findings online, sparking global panic. As NASA identifies the anomaly, they discover the Moon's orbit is decaying. Amidst growing global chaos, a team including a disgraced astronaut, a conspiracy theorist, and a NASA official must launch a desperate mission to investigate the lunar surface and address the impending catastrophe as the Moon falls toward Earth.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Following a 2011 incident where an alien swarm attacked a shuttle and was covered up by NASA, conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman discovers the Moon is an artificial megastructure whose orbit is decaying. When his social media posts spark global panic, NASA's Jo Fowler launches a mission to investigate. They discover the Moon is a hollow Dyson sphere and the swarm is an AI that went rogue. As the Moon falls toward Earth, causing global disasters, Jo, Brian, and K.C. launch a mission using an EMP to correct the orbit. Meanwhile, survivors like Brian's son Sonny and Jo's son Jimmy flee to a bunker in the Colorado mountains. Inside the Moon, the AI explains the history of the human ancestors. K.C. sacrifices himself to detonate the EMP, while the others successfully return to Earth. The Moon's orbit is restored, and its rocky exterior is shed, while K.C.'s consciousness is reconstructed by the Moon's operating system.
- First release year
- 2022
- Runtime (minutes)
- 130
- Production countries
- United States; United Kingdom
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Roland Emmerich
- Writers
- Roland Emmerich · writer; Harald Kloser · writer; Spenser Cohen · writer
- Cast and characters
- Halle Berry · Jocinda Fowler; Patrick Wilson · Brian Harper; John Bradley · K.C. Houseman; Michael Peña · Tom Lopez; Charlie Plummer · Sonny Harper; Kelly Yu · Michelle; Carolina Bartczak · Brenda Lopez; Donald Sutherland · Holdenfield
- Genres
- science fiction; disaster
- Themes
- artificial intelligence; conspiracy theories; extraterrestrial life
- Tone and mood
- disaster
- Premise and plot tags
- space exploration; apocalyptic
- Source material / true-story basis
- Who Built the Moon?
- Reception
- The film received mixed reviews from critics and was a box-office bomb.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 41 · scale: 100 · review count: 45; CinemaScore · score: C+ · scale: A+ to F; PostTrak · score: 66%
- Production trivia
- The film was shot in Montreal.; The script was worked on for four years.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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