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Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009)

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Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009) Empty Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009)

Post by Admin Sun Oct 18, 2015 9:11 am

Identify the genre(s) [if applicable], the main plot points and the clichés [if any].

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Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009) Empty Re: Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009)

Post by KevinK23 Wed Oct 21, 2015 7:32 pm

Moon

Moon follows an astronaut named Sam Bell (played by Sam rockwell) who is on the moon harvesting Helium-3 (He-3) for a company called Lunar Industries. The Helium-3 is used to power fusion reactors back on earth. Sam has a three year contract to be on the moon of which he only has two weeks remaining. Sam's only companion is GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey), a talking robot who is there to aid him. Moon is a science fiction drama. The elements that make Moon a sci-fi film include the location of the entire film, which is the moon. Sam Bell is surrounded by sci-fi elements including GERTY, the base he lives in (which is mostly white and quite futuristic looking), the lunar rover he travels around in, his astronaut suit and mainly the fact he lives on the moon by himself harvesting a resource so the people on earth can continue to have power. Moon is also a drama film because of the nature the story is told. It is a serious film which has the main character in danger in many situations. The character of Sam Bell is realistic, Sam rockwell plays him well and the audience can connect with Sam, he has real life ordeals even in a sci-fi film. He misses his family and it is easy to sympathise with him as it is shown how lonely he is and how much he would rather be on earth.

After Sam and GERTY are introduced their usual day is shown which involves Sam making sure the equipment is running fine and GERTY assisting him. Everything is going well until Sam sees a woman who is not really there, as a result Sam spills boiling water on himself. However shortly after Sam sees the woman again which results in Sam crashing his lunar rover. Sam awakes in the base he is situated in with no memory of what happened. He wanders out of the medical part of the base and overhears GERTY in a conversation with Lunar Industries in which it is revealed that a rescue team will be sent. Sam is suspicious of what is happening so he explores outside without letting GERTY know his true intentions. Sam finds the crash site and enters his lunar rover where he discovers an identical man who is seriously injured and unconscious.

The identical man awakens and it is revealed he is also named Sam Bell. Each Sam accuses the other of being a clone and after the two get into a fight GERTY reveals the truth which is that they are both clones of the original Sam Bell. The Sam who woke in the medical facility was awoken by GERTY after the lunar rover crash and told him that he was at the beginning of his three year contract. The two Sams conclude that there is a room full of Sam bell clones and that there must be a communication jammer on the moon to prevent the Sams from contacting earth. They discover both of these hidden locations and discover there has been four Sams prior to them and they are all killed when their three year contract is up. The older Sam attempts to call his wife from a second lunar rover but instead of contacting her he is instead speaking to a teenage girl who turns out to be his daughter. It is then revealed that Sam's wife has been dead for a while, a voice is heard of screen talking to the teenage girl and from the voice it is recogniseable as Sam (the original Sam Bell).
The two sams realise they will be killed when the rescue team arrives. The younger Sam suggests that the older Sam take a Helium-3 pod and escape back to earth and expose Lunar Industries. However the older Sam is already extremely ill and tells the younger Sam to switch places with him. They cover their tracks and the older Sam lives to see the younger Sam take of and begin his journey back to earth. The end scene has news reports coming on (only the voices) explaining that Sam has testified against Lunar Industries and is taking them down.

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Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009) Empty Re: Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009)

Post by Achidlow95 Wed Oct 21, 2015 7:49 pm

The clichés in the film Moon are very apparent to any viewer. It's a sci-fi film which means we expect spacemen, spaceships, robots and well you guessed it, the moon. This 97 minute film possesses endless sci-fi film clichés however it also diverts from them in a number of ways.



One if its first clichés is the purpose of Sam bells character, a human who is on a mission to help save the earth. He’s not exactly fighting aliens or destroying evil planets, but his job on the moon base to send back parcels of a new and clean energy source for the earth is certainly heroic in this day and age. Sam’s character doesn't seem like your common sci-fi hero, but his intentions defiantly qualify as cliché.



Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009) Z



The films structure somewhat fits to the basic three act structure of a beginning, middle and end. The beginning being the setup which consists of us learning about Sam’s role on the space station, what he gets up to in the day and we also learn about his family at home. The middle being the confrontation/main event in the film, when he has an accident and wakes up in the ships infirmary. And finally the resolution, however, this is when the films structure differs from other films. Sam returns to the site of the accident to find an exact clone of himself in the wreckage. After the clone awakens the two Sams realise that things aren’t what they thought they were. This plot twist really encages the audience as we don't know what to expect. The films story line isn’t following a set structure which tells us that anything could happen.



In the end, after several break ups and make ups between the two clones, there is a victory. Although we sadly loose one Sam as he gradually becomes more and more ill throughout the film, we discover the unsettling truth behind the two clones and Sam finally gets to go home, a goal which had been in place front the start of the film. The audience also has closure even though it was achieved in a slightly obscure manner.

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Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009) Empty Re: Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009)

Post by Admin Sun Nov 15, 2015 9:43 pm

There has been a tendency across all the threads to make plot summaries, which was good but needed to be related to the main plot events, the structure of the plot. This seems to be missing from almost every post. I would like you all to reflect on that, check the slides on the hero journey and the three act structure. I will copy this in all the other threads, just in case people are only reading one thread.

The clichés in here are more genre conventions, the cliché would be a genre convention that it is not needed in the plot and it is there "just because there is always one in this kind of film", not because it has a function. For example, if in a film noir we have a corrupt cop but this does not affect the plot in any way nor does it add to the darkness of the film and he could have as well been a normal cop. If it has a function, it is more a convention than a cliché. For example, you might find that in some films an inspirational speech is not at all that inspirational and sounds fake. I particularly and personally think that the one in Snowhite and the huntsman pertains to this kind. It is there because there is a need to change the direction of the film, from almost being defeated to picking up herself and attack. However, the delivery is not believable and does not really sit well with the character storyline so far. She has been isolated (thus we might expect she is not too versed on public speech), she has not been able to defend herself very well, yet we are to believe that she is going to inspire others to fight for her when other characters seem more suitable. In any case, that is my own opinion anyway, but for me, that would be a cliché because it is not needed there or has been badly made. Another cliché in crime films, for example, is that hackers are lonely geeks with glasses working from their bedrooms, ignoring often the whole cyberpunk hacker culture.  I do however understand that this point is confusing, as some books separate conventions from clichés, whilst the internet often puts them both together.

Good work, however, the summaries are good and include the main plot points, very well done achidlow95 for mentioning plot structures! However, the infirmary would be the first turning point and the resolution is right at the end, when we see the pod entering the atmosphere and we get to know the reactions on Earth. Remember that the three act structure is not equally divided, the first and the third part are usually 25% each and the resolution comes at the end of the third part.

Thank you for your work!

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