Moon
In some ways, Moon is kind of cheating in terms of making its way onto this list, because there is technically more than one person in the movie – it’s just that they’re both Sam Bell.
Set in the year 2035, Lunar Industries has responded to a global oil crisis by pioneering ‘Sarang’ – an automated mining base on the Moon. The base is designed to excavate and send to Earth vast quantities of Helium-3, and when we meet Lunar Industries Astronaut and Sarang Operator Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), he is two weeks from the end of a three-year shift, manning the base. It’s just him and a robot named GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey), though he does occasionally receive video messages from his wife, and briefly, a communication from headquarters.
What follows is this character’s gradual realization that he is, in fact, not who he thinks he is – but is, instead, a clone. The life he thinks he leads, and the family he thinks he has, all belong to somebody else. He discovers that the light at the end of his tunnel – his longed for trip home – is simply a mirage, designed to lead him to his own destruction – at which point, he will be replaced by another blissfully unaware clone. He is entirely interchangeable, with a limited shelf-life when operational, and is confronted, in very short order, with his own end.
The result is a heart-shattering and devastating story, compounded by a breathtaking central performance from Rockwell. In another example of an actor that we are used to seeing in supporting roles, stepping up to inhabit the whole screen for an entire movie, he leads this production with a pitch-perfect turn – moving effortlessly from hopeful, to confused, to broken, to resigned – all in the space of 97 minutes. Not to mention his Sam Bell replacement who, having saved his life, becomes more arrogant and belligerent than his predecessor – having the benefit of essentially knowing what he is early on in his awakening, without having to deal with the central conceit committed by the corporation.
Directed by Duncan Jones from a screenplay by Nathan Parker – based on Jones’ own story – Moon quickly became one of the more beloved independent movies of recent years. Its combination of a highly original story, a well-constructed, claustrophobic, isolating setting, and the deeply moving music of Clint Mansell, all work together to create exactly the right atmosphere. But, it is the work of Sam Rockwell in this film, as the solo human character, that elevates it to such an impressive level.
