Duncan Jones's Moon: Starring Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey

Who is Sam Bell? That is the overriding question in Duncan Jones's directorial debut, Moon, starring Sam Rockwell. Rockwell (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Choke) plays a lone miner on the far side of the moon named Sam Bell, who slides into cosmic identity crises. Not just of the human variety, but (warning: Plot Spoiler) as a human clone. Moon is a philosophic exploration into the complex notion of human cloning juxtaposed against the solitude of space exploration.

Duncan Jones's academic background is rooted in philosophy and it was only later that he took his burning questions to the big screen. Jones shows a promising launch as a filmmaker; a preferred platform for philosophers in the Twentieth Century. The questions of 'what is consciousnesses' and 'how do we acknowledge identity' are prominent in Moon. The genre of Science Fiction is no surprise for Jones, whose academic thesis was, How to Kill Your Computer Friend: An Investigation of the Mind/Body Problem and How It Relates to the Hypothetical Creation of a Thinking Machine.

These age old questions of philosophy have become even more complicated by biotechnology. How will we approach the notions of a soul and consciousnesses with the prospect (or nightmare) of human cloning on the horizon? The film plays out this philosophical sci-fi drama on an ideal stage; the baron landscape of earth's only natural satellite. In Moon Sam Bell (Rockwell) is alone on the rock during a three year contract with a mining company gathering Helium-3 (a non-radioactive isotope of Helium) off its surface. Jones has done his homework, as in actuality there are scientists who believe that helium-3 is abundant on the Moon, and could be used as an energy source in nuclear fusion.

The other dose of reality Jones gives us is with human cloning, a not-so far fetched leap from our mammalian friends here on earth. Cloning advances the question of what makes a person human; is it flesh and blood, memory, or actions? All these themes are explored by the various "cloned" identities of Sam Bell in Moon. As the plot unfolds, Sam comes to realize that he is not the original Sam Bell, but an awakened clone. When two of the clones are confronted with each other, we, along with the Sams, must come to terms with what makes us human.

Each of the clones has an implanted memory, and seem to harbor a distinct personality trait of Sam. The physical features of cloning are a given quality, yet the clones begin to acknowledge each other as distinctly Sam-like in their actions. Such as when one clone tells the recently awakened one that he used to have quite a temper also. It has been noted in cloning research that a cloned mammal may take on certain traits of its source. This was revealed by a Texas rancher who gave his dying Bull, Chance, over to a cloning experiment. The rancher said in the public radio program, This American Life that the cloned Chance took on distinct traits of the original bull. It might not be hard boiled scientific data, but fuel enough for a science fiction drama to feel as close to home, as say, the moon.

The truly riveting power behind this sci-fi film is that it is not anymore far fetched than landing on the moon. Is it so far fetched to say that a mining corporation would store clones on a moon base to keep travel expenses low, and that those clones would rebel? Wouldn't the human nature of rebellion against repression be an inherited trait in our clones? These are miners nonetheless, and a miner's clone would see no difference in unionizing on the Moon than in Michigan.

Though, the film conjures up comparisons to the barometer of science fiction drama; Stanislaw Lem's Solaris. Three years alone on the moon can send anyone into vivid hallucinations and mental breakdown. We are left to wonder if Sam Bell the human being is dying and this is his last reining nightmare. Or perhaps, like in Stanley Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyessy, Sam Bell's consciousness is divided by the lack of gravity that is humanity. In solitude a man is divided amongst himself, and his breakdown symbolizes how the mind may diminish, incubate, or escape insanity. Fitting to Jones's academic thesis, Moon features Sam Bell's only companion as a computer program, voiced by Kevin Spacey, a friendlier face to Kubrick's all-seeing eye, Hal, in 2001.

In Moon, Duncan Jones seems to draw on these classic sci-fi masterpieces more as an obvious synapse to the collective consciousnesses, and not direct influences. As if to say, 'duh, being in outer space by yourself will make you nuts.' Rockwell's performance as Sam Bell does this with the greatest of sincerity. The film's philosophical atmosphere is undoubtedly the genesis of a new director's touch, rooted in academic meanderings of the mind. Yet, Jones makes another nod to the collective consciousnesses of David Bowie, as Jones's (aka Zowie Bowie) is his son. There is no defining Bowie-like influence in the film, but Jones does take on some galactic proportions with a sense of humor, much like his father's creative endeavors.

The Moon itself is also a piece of collective consciousnesses when it comes to science fiction and not just a convenient setting for a budding director. The Moon was the premise for the first science fiction film, the 1902 French film from George Melies Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon). Even more deeply rooted is the 1620 story by astronomer Johannes Kepler, Somnium (The Dream), considered by both Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov as the first science fiction story. It depicts the tale of a student transported to the moon by demonic forces. Duncan Jones has carried the torch of social enlightenment through science fiction, by once again raising pertinent questions on the moon.

Of course the Moon, and its Latin root of Luna, is basis for the idea of Lunacy, an integral part to Moon's exploration of the dark side of humanity. There is individual lunacy as seen in the character Sam Bell's descent into insanity and there is the lunacy of corporations taking extreme measures to mine on the Moon. All of which are themes that artists have illuminated by the light of the moon. Whether deeply explored in film or literature or in music, such as Pink Floyd's masterful album, Dark Side of the Moon.

Watching Duncan Jones's Moon is not something we should take great strides to measure in a cultural context. It'd be like trying to measure the distance to the Moon with a yardstick. We should instead lay our heads back and gaze up into its illuminating light. To simply imagine the man in the moon and ask "who are we", instead of going loony trying to mine the depths of consciousnesses on its surface.