Ever since Star Wars hit movie theaters in 1977, the science fiction genre has been dominated by epic stories of warring universes, big explosions, bigger explosions, and the most competitive special effects contest in the industry. But this June, in a film about one man and the empty moonscape that surrounds him, we are reminded that just as captivating as intergalactic space chases and skyscraper-jumping robot races is the journey through the soul of one man and the battle for something as simple as a return ticket home.
At the center of Moon is Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), an astronaut who is nearing the end of his three year contract at a Helium 3 harvesting station on the moon. With little ability to communicate with earth and his only companion an emoticon-animated robot named Gerty (voiced by Kevin Spacey), as Sam says, he just wants to go home. But with only two weeks left until his scheduled return and a chain of accidents and hallucinations culminating in Sam’s discovery of injured man who looks remarkably like himself, what we quickly discover is that his return home may not be as simple as clicking together his ruby slippers. And as Sam begins to question everything from his sanity to his own existence, so unfolds a quiet tale of one man’s search for identity, relationship, and an assurance of the value of life.
Although Moon is a movie that almost never sees more than one actor on screen at the same time, central to its story is relationship. As Sam dreams of his wife and reaches out to her image on his monitor, both his conscious and subconscious reflect a longing for companionship that almost overrides every other desire. As a disembodied voice tells him how proud he’s made his family during his time there, we are told that even his superiors recognize the motivational power relationship provides whatever we spend our days doing. But with live communication perpetually down and relationship only known in memory, what we soon see is that the reality in which Sam lives simply cannot sustain him anymore.
Cue a shocking change of Sam’s day-to-day reality when another man joins him on the space station. Although Sam previously went about his job with little question, with the arrival of the injured man, Sam’s priorities shift. Although initially suspicious and on edge, the two men slowly move to a place of connection and understanding. For a time, Sam seeks to help the other man survive just as he has. But when the unfolding mysteries begin to make Sam think that all he has ever worked for may be no more than a cruel joke, he instead takes it upon himself to set the other man free.
A story about a man who literally mines the moon for the energy that will give mankind life, his deterioration outside of relationship, his hope of one day returning to relationship, and the actions that one man takes in order to help another do just that, Moon is a tale that reaches deep into what it means to be human and what it looks like to live. But in the same way that its story about one man alone on the moon is one that reaches out to all mankind, Moon is a film which cannot help but bring to mind the greater story of mankind and our relationship with God.
Like the situation in which Sam finds himself at the beginning of the movie, the unfortunate reality of human existence is that we all will find ourselves separated from God at some point. The lives we lead will carry us to distant places. The influences that surround us will make us feel like our cries to Him are going nowhere and the communications He sends our way are don’t even exist. And in the same way that Sam’s Helium mining is marketed as a harvest of life, as we see in the toll that it takes on his mind and body, the problem with so many of the so called “fuels” we seek to give us life is that they actually take it away.
But at the same time that Sam’s draining job and solitary life align his plight with that of mankind, the multiple sacrifices Sam makes also establish him as sort of a Christ figure. Before any of the film’s complicating events have even occurred, Sam’s simple act of giving three years of his life to harvest Helium—along with Helium 3 harvesters Matthew, Mark, and Luke—aligns his character with a sacrificial figure from day one. As Christ was separated from God for three days to be resurrected and reunited with Him at the end of the third, Sam has been separated from his friends and family for three years to be reunited with them at the end of the third. And as Sam’s sacrifice of significantly more than just a determinate portion of his life is revealed, we are confronted with both the inhumanity of forcing any human to give so much and the awe that anyone might actually volunteer to make such an incredible sacrifice.
Although as the commercial that opens the film indicates, Helium 3 is purported to be the ultimate source of energy, life, and hope for everyone on earth, the message at the movie’s end is that life, both that which runs through our veins and that which we live, requires something much more complex. Ultimately, Helium 3 is revealed to be nearly as life-depriving as it is life-giving. But as the film recognizes throughout, in relationships of love is an infusion of life and hope that seems to never fail. With the knowledge of relationships of love awaiting us in a place called home, we can endure almost any trials and find motivation to complete almost any task. As we see when the promise of that hope comes under question for Sam, its lack of existence is almost enough to pound the final nail in his coffin right then and there. But thankfully for us, we need not fear the illusion of the love and hope we have been promised.
As Jesus tells his disciples in John 14:2-3: In my father’s house there are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you with me that you also may be where I am. Despite the many false sources of life the world may offer us, God offers us life which will neither destroy us or let us down. As Jesus tells a Samaritan woman in John 4: 13-14: Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
And no matter what may try to separate us from His life and hope, His sacrifice has determined that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor ruling spirits, nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers, nothing above us, nothing below us, nor anything else in the whole world will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8: 38-39).
