Mooooooon

Moon like so many other science fiction films questions "what is human?" We have seen this theme in previous films including Bladerunner and 2001: A space Odyssey. In Bladerunner the humans in question are the replicants and in 2001: A space odyssey the humans in question are, well, the humans. In 2001, the humans show no emotion and just go through the motions, much like a computer would do. In moon the clones who are both identical to each other are obviously different people. That adds to their humanity, however they are obviously clones and are born and die alone. By the end of their short life, about 3 years the clones begin to decompose, their nails fall out, they talk to themselves and their general health declines. The viewer wants to distance themselves from these sickly sad excuses for human beings. Much like the viewer in Bladerunner wants to distance themselves from the dangerous replicants. Until we learn our protagonist is a replicant and they are enslaved and abused by real humans who lack the charisma of the replicants. In 2001: A space odyssey the humans are boring. They do nothing interesting or out of the ordinary. They are not the driving force of the movie, HAL drives the movie as he has an alternative agenda. He is the most interesting character and yet he's a computer. The viewer even feels sad for HAL as one of the humans un plugs him.

In all three movies the human element is exposed and questioned. There is no criteria for what is human, it is based solely on the viewers analysis of what is human and for most of us our analysis has to do with how deep their emotions go. The filmmakers realize this therefore the "humans" evoke empathy from the viewers. Sam cries, the replicant girl cries and HALs voice is muffled as he is shut off, almost as if he really dying. Moon draws elements of its theme from these other science fiction films.

What really made moon stand out as a science fiction film though was the fact that it was totally believable. Everything about moon seemed as though it was true story. And the ending newsreel sounded like a newsreel that you hear everyday "people exploiting others for profit. " it was definitely a science fiction film, there's no doubt about that, but what made it interesting was the fact that it sounded like something humanity would and could do within the next century.