The Orange Hat

Writing Practice:

The science fiction reflection piece, Moon, is about as close as you can get to decent, authentic, science fiction in mass media. It's authentic look into what might be considered a realistic dystopia of a near future, much like Blade runner was in it's time. The characters and themes within the movie stuck home with the patient audience, and didn't over blow the plot with needless shooting or heroics.

The premiss, and if you haven't seen it, this is so full of spoilers that you should probably stop reading, involves a man, Sam, stationed on a lunar mining base for three years, and has only two weeks left to go. He is completely alone except for his robot helper Gerty who manages the general workings of the base, and his communication is all time delayed. Sam makes a trip out to one of the harvesters, crashes, and is left for dead while Gerty wakes up his clone, also Sam, and tells him to rest, that he's been in a carsh adn needs him to do some tests. The new Sam gets a little angry, and tricks gerty into letting him leave the base and ends up finding and resquing himself.

What follows is a journey of introspection and growth. Af first the two Sam's are horrified that they're even the same person, the new Sam is healthy and fit looking, and understands his predicament better than the same who's been on the moon for three years and is pale and very sickly. Younger Sam is angry, he's rejecting his reality, it sucks, and he is violent with his older clone who he views as the reality that he has to deal with. The older Sam is in placid denial, like the old man that he's portrayed to be, and still believes he's going home in a week, that all he's done is not in vain, and that there is hope for him. The dichotomy between the two, and it might just be because of my current location, reminds me of a riot where the elderly stay out believing that they were never the same as those in revolt, and the youth not understanding why their elders wouldn't do exactly what they're standing for.

The reconciliation comes from an attempt by the older Sam to placate his youthful self and attempt to see if there is anything beyond the base that he would usually travel (far beyond the harvesters) when he does find a jamming device, it's alarming and sends the older same even further out to communicate with Earth and the Daughter he though he had, who would be 3, and it turns out that she's fifteen which drives him into depression.

At this point the Sam's truly unite, acknowledging one another, the younger actually apologizes, and begins to plot how they might get back to earth. A situation which people have faces time and time again when they learn that what they had worked so hard for meant nothing, the project was scrapped, the money wasn't there, the lover died, and they have to reinvent themselves. The younger Sam devises a way so that one of them can live by going back with the ore deposits and live the life they are meant to on earth.

This is where it the similarities between Blade runner become obvious: that the clone wants what the rest of us have, or don't that subjective for a variety of reasons - but he has even less; and that's choice. He want the choice to be something other than a moon miner who's only chance was stolen by his birth.

The two Sam's discover the plot (there are countless Sam's in a hidden compartment under the base) and just hours before they're ready to pull of their plan, the older sam dies (with some indication that the clones die after three years and are incinerated) and the younger Sam takes his place to go explore earth.

The well developed character make you feel for both Sam's and the predicaments they're in. The base could easily be Plato's cave from The Republic, and the enlightenment is the earth itself (the base is on the far side of the moon). With the younger Sam pulling the older Sam into the reality that he has to face. It was a tragic moment that he died knowing the truth of his predicament, but in some way it felt good to know that he knew the truth.

The movie Moon was a enjoyable reflection and a saddening dystopia which stuck true because it isn't too far off what might be a realistic future. In the same way that other 'release' movies such as The Shawshank Redemption and La Papillon show the struggles of grasping with the idea of freedom and the desire for it, Moon creates a prison out of something that no one suspected and gives release in the most gratifying way.