Moon (2009)
A lunar mineral worker faces a crisis of identity as his three year contract comes to a close.
Genre
Characters/Groups
Tess Bell - Dominique McElligott
Little Eve - Rosie Shaw
Nanny - Adrienne Shaw
Character thumbnails with links to profiles
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Detailed Synopsis
Lunar Industries Ltd. produces fusion energy harvested from rocks from the far side of the moon. Sam Bell goes about his usual routine while stationed at the Mining Base Sarang where he lives by himself with only a robotic assistant named [[GERTY] 3000] to keep him company. His normal routine involves retrieving fill tanks of lunar minerals, running on a treadmill, watching Mary Tyler Moore and building tiny structures out of wood chips for a miniature representation of his hometown of Fairfield. Sam receives a message from his wife Tess Bell and his daughter Eve however he cannot chat with them live as the live feed system is down. One morning Sam hallucinates a woman sitting in a chair and burns himself with boiling water. Sam also dreams of having sex with his wife. As Sam’s contracted time on the Sarang becomes shorter, he becomes more haggard looking. While recording a feed Sam thinks he sees another feed of a bearded Sam giving a live feed. While driving outside the base to retrieve an errant harvester, He hallucinates another image and crashes his vehicle into Harvester 3.
Sam wakes up in the infirmary back at Sarang. He gets out of bed and overhears a conversation between GERTY and company reps which GERTY quickly shuts off when it notices Sam. GERTY lies to Sam and tells him the live feed was down and he was recording a message. GERTY gives Sam tests to test his faculties for a few days and eventually Sam returns to work. On the main screen, Sam notices a harvester is offline but GERTY wont let him go out to check it, instead saying he will pass on the message. Headquarters tells them they want Sam to stay in and not go anywhere. Sam suspects something isn’t right and causes a rupture in an internal tube and blames it on micrometeorites. He tells GERTY he should check to see if there is external damage to the Sarang and after initially refusing, GERTY allows Sam to leave the Sarang. Sam drives to the location of Harvester 3 and finds a crashed rover vehicle, the one he was using when he crashed into the machine. He opens the top of the rover and finds someone in a suit in the vehicle that looks similar to him and he brings his doppelganger back to base.
Sam again wakes up in the infirmary. New Sam watches a feed of his wife that appears to be set previously time wise than the one Old Sam had previously watched. Old sam wakes up and sees New Sam working out and asks GERTY who New Sam is. GERTY informs Old Sam he hasn't contacted central to tell them they recovered him alive which confuses Old Sam even more. Old sam walks into the recreation room and begins a conversation with New Sam who informs him he is talking to a clone. Old Sam meanwhile refuses to acknowledge he may also be a clone. During conversations between Old and New Sam it is revealed the town miniature was in the recreation room before Old Sam arrived and while New Sam has knowledge of Tess he doesn’t appear to have knowledge of Eve. A new message arrives from central mentioning a rescue group has been sent. Old Sam again refuses to acknowledge to New Sam he is a clone and argues that the rescue group is going to take him home, which New Sam knows better. Old Sam in desperation asks GERTY if he is a clone but GERTY ignores the question and asks if he is hungry. New Sam in a rush to find where the other clones may be stored destroys the model of Fairfield which leads to a physical fight in which Old Sam is severely hurt, but more than he should be based on the punches he took. Old Sam asks GERTY if any of the over 100 messages he sent Tess have ever reached her or if he has received all of the messages Tess sent him but GERTY says it can only account for what happens on base. Gerty then finally admits to Old Sam that all his memories were implants of the original Sam Bell. Old Sam finally accepts who he is and walks away in sadness.
New Sam still wants to get to the bottom of things and thinks the company is blocking the signal from outside the base. The Sams each take a rover and drive outside the Sarang working perimeter and Old Sam approaches what is called Station 3 by the vehicle communication unit. Young Sam shortly arrives at Station 1. Old Sam’s condition continues to deteriorate and he returns to base after vomiting up blood. Old Sam tries to log onto the computer to see his file but his access is denied, GERTY then comes up and inputs the password. The first entry is from year 12 Nov 26, a feed of another Sam clone, Sam 4 plays. Each new entry is of another Sam clone, each clone appears to be in poor condition at the end of their tour and each entry ends with Sam getting into the cryogenic return pod. Old Sam or Sam 5, goes to the return pod and a video feed gives encouragement and directions for the use of the pod. As Sam 6 approaches Station 2 he prints out the coordinates and returns to base. Sam 5 and Sam 6 go to the cryogenic room and they both go down a hidden staircase to an underground storage room. The Sam find hundreds of clones each vacuum sealed with their own sets of clothes. Sam 5 asks GERTY why it helped him and GERTY tells him helping him is what it does. Sam 5 drives outside the jamming area with a laptop and a signal is picked up. He calls “home” and it is answered by an adult women who confirms it is the Bell residence. When he asks to talk to Tess he is told she passed away some years ago. He asks the girl if she is sure and the caller responds she is Tess’ daughter. The daughter calls for her dad and a man that sounds like Sam asks who is asking for mom and Sam 5 shuts off the feed. Sam 5 starts to cry and wishes he could go home. Sam 6 puts a rapidly deteriorating Sam 5 to bed and then finds the laptop. Sam 6 watches the phone recording Sam 5 made home.
Sam 6 comes up with the idea they can wake up a new Sam and put him in the crash so Sam 5 can be sent back to earth on a mineral shipment. Sam 5 suggests he be returned to the crash site and Sam 6 go back to Earth as he is in too bad of shape to make the trip and they both know they couldn’t murder a clone. Both Sams ride to the crash site and reminisce about how they first met Tess and she wanted to go out and get a drink rather than ice cream and Sam 5 faints. Sam 6 carries Sam 5 to the crashed rover and places him inside and leaves. GERTY agrees to erase its memory banks and reboot to keep the Sam’s safe so the company recovery team won't be able to check its memory banks. Sam 7 slowly wakes up. Sam 6 reboots GERTY and removes the kick me sticky note that had been placed on the back of it. Sam 6 gets into the transport pod after sending coordinates to the harvesters to crash into the jamming stations. The ELIZA Rescue Crew arrives on the Sarang and they head to the rover crash site. Sam 5 opens his eyes long enough to see Sam 6 and the transport pod streaks by in the sky before he passes away. The rescue crew find the body of the Sam 5 as the harvesters destroy the jamming stations allowing a live feed. News feeds are heard of Lunar Industries’ stock dropping over 30 percent and how Sam 6 has been giving evidence at the CEA’s board of directors, while a talking head personality complains even if the reports are true Sam 6 is an illegal immigrant and he needs to be locked up.