Movies that Explore the Dark Side of the Moon

The upcoming film "Apollo 18" is the newest film to explore the idea that there is much more on the Moon than what NASA and the government allowed us to know about. The idea of some type of alien life being found on the Earth's rocky satellite has been explored before on film. Some of the concepts are looked at now as being ridiculous, but at a time in history when we hadn't even made it to the Moon yet, they seemed quite possible.

"A Trip to the Moon (Le voyage dans la lune)"

The first historically important film to depict alien life on the Moon was writer/director George Melies' "A Trip to the Moon (Le voyage dans la lune)." The film was released in 1902 and was very popular at the time. It is regarded as the first science fiction film. The movie revolves around a group of astronomers who ride in a capsule fired from a cannon to travel to the Moon. When they get there, they find caves filled with giant mushrooms and are captured by a race of alien insects named Selenites. The movie was based on "From the Earth to the Moon" by Jules Verne and "The First Men in the Moon" by H. G. Wells. Humorously, "A Trip to the Moon (Le voyage dans la lune)" was criticized in it's time because many felt that the special effects overshadowed the plot.

" Cat-Women of the Moon "

Another film from the golden age of science fiction that depicted an encounter with aliens on the Moon was 1953's "Cat-Women of the Moon." This 3D movie was any man's dream come true. An expedition to the Moon discovers the last remaining eight members of a race of women aliens. Since the breathable atmosphere of the Moon is being depleted and they are running out of air, the alien women plan to sabotage the group's spaceship and hitch a ride to the Earth. Since they can't read the minds of the men, the Cat-Women take control of the female member of the expedition to figure out how to pilot the ship.

"Transformers: Dark of the Moon"

"Transformers: Dark of the Moon" used the first mission to the Moon as a springboard for man's discovery of the robots in disguise. In fact, President John F. Kennedy's entire motivation for going to the Moon is to investigate the crash-landing of an object that was detected by NASA. Neil Armstrong and crew discover the wrecked Ark, which carries former leader of the Autobots, Sentinel Prime. The Moon footage in the film was very eerie and an ingenious way to set up the film. It was used as the promotional footage for the first teaser trailers that went out online and to theaters.

"2001: A Space Odyssey"

Although the Moon is only featured in one small section of Stanly Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke's "2001: A Space Odyssey," it is worthy of being mentioned. Modern man first encounters one of the black monoliths on the Moon. Dr. Heywood Floyd and a group of scientists go to investigate the monolith, which appears to have been deliberately buried on the Moon four million years earlier.

"Apollo 18" now continues the legacy of these films that explore alien life being found on the Moon. Even though we've been to the Moon and even claimed it as our own with the planting of the American flag, there is still an air of mystery to it. There is still much of it we have never explored or even seen. That mystery and lack of knowledge is what still fuels our imagination, just as it did George Melies' in 1902.

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