Introduction

Moonfall is a 2022 science fiction disaster film co-written, directed, and produced by Roland Emmerich. The film stars Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, John Bradley, Michael Peña, Charlie Plummer, Kelly Yu, and Donald Sutherland.

A mysterious force knocks the moon from its orbit around Earth and sends it hurtling on a collision course with life as we know it.

Outline

In 2011, astronauts Brian Harper, Jocinda Fowler and newcomer Marcus are on a Space Shuttle mission to repair a satellite when Harper witnesses a mysterious black swarm attack the orbiter, killing Marcus and incapacitating Fowler before Harper can re-enter the shuttle and take control. Although he is initially hailed as a hero for successfully returning the shuttle to Earth, Harper tries to tell his story, which is dismissed by NASA and, after an eighteen-month long investigation, human error is blamed for the incident as Harper’s account remains widely disbelieved. When Fowler fails to defend him during the hearing, Harper is fired.

Ten years later, conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman, who believes the Moon is an artificial megastructure, steals time on a research telescope and discovers that the Moon’s orbit is veering closer to Earth. He attempts to share his findings with Harper, who dismisses him, leading Houseman to go public on social media. NASA independently discovers the anomaly and mounts a mission on an SLS Block 2 to investigate the abnormality. The same swarm that had attacked Harper’s mission reappears, killing all three crew members after they drop a probe into a kilometres-deep artificial hole in the Moon.

As the Moon’s orbit continues to deteriorate it falls closer to Earth, it causes cataclysmic disasters such as tsunamis, gravitational abnormalities, and atmospheric dissipation. Fowler, now the deputy director of NASA, learns that Apollo 11 had discovered surface abnormalities on the Moon during its landing, and that a two-minute radio blackout was meant to conceal how the Moon resonated strongly when the spacecraft’s fuel tanks were jettisoned, suggesting a hollow interior. A military program code-named ZX7 had created an EMP in an attempt to kill the swarm, but was abandoned for budget reasons. Fowler orders the EMP brought out of storage and brings the retired Space Shuttle Endeavour out of its museum to serve the mission. Harper, Houseman, and Fowler launch with the EMP, narrowly escaping a tsunami that destroys Vandenberg Space Force Base.

As the crew enters the Moon’s interior, they discover that the swarm is siphoning off energy generated by a white dwarf at the centre of the Moon, causing the artificial megastructure’s orbit to destabilize as its power source is depleted. Harper learns that the megastructure was constructed by the ancestors of humanity, who were more technologically advanced than their present-day descendants. The Moon was constructed billions of years in the past as an ark to repopulate humanity, which was being hunted by a rogue artificial intelligence that grew too strong. The swarm in the Moon is one of those AIs, which responds to electronic activity in the presence of organic life. As the moon continues to approach the Earth, the President of the United States gives the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Jenkins orders to launch a nuclear strike towards the Moon. However, the Air Force Chief of Staff General Doug Davidson refuses to carry out the nuclear strike order so he can save the lives of his ex-wife (Fowler), as well as both Harper and Houseman, sacrificing his own life in the process.

Meanwhile, Harper’s son Sonny escorts Fowler’s son Jimmy and their nanny Michelle in an attempt to reach Davidson’s military bunker in Colorado. They reach Aspen and reunite with Harper’s ex-wife and Sonny’s mom Brenda, as well as his step-family, but are caught in the disasters caused by the Moon’s rapid destruction. As the group makes their way towards the bunker, they fight off other survivors and increasingly deadly natural disasters before reaching a safe mountain tunnel. Brenda’s husband Tom sacrifices himself to save his youngest daughter, suffocating as the Moon’s gravitational pull strips the atmosphere of oxygen during its pass.

Houseman uses the EMP and the crew’s lunar module to lure the swarm away from the spacecraft before detonating the device, killing himself, destroying the AI, and allowing Fowler and Harper to escape. With power restored, the Moon begins to return to its regular orbit, bringing an end to the destruction on Earth. The operating system of the Moon, itself a benign AI created by humanity’s ancestors, reveals that it stored a copy of Houseman’s consciousness; appearing to him as his mother, the AI states that they need to get to work. Fowler and Harper return to Earth and reunite with Sonny, Jimmy, Michelle, and Brenda.

Cast

• Halle Berry as Jocinda Fowler, a former NASA astronaut now serving as Deputy Director of NASA and Brian Harper’s colleague who once flew together on the Space Shuttle Endeavour mission.
• Patrick Wilson as Brian Harper, a disgraced former NASA astronaut and Fowler’s colleague who flew on the Space Shuttle Endeavour mission.
• John Bradley as K.C. Houseman, a conspiracy theorist, who finds out about the Moon being artificial and also discovers the incoming Moon impact towards Earth following his contact with an official from an observatory in Chile.
• Michael Peña as Tom Lopez, Brenda’s husband.
• Charlie Plummer as Sonny Harper, Brian and Brenda’s estranged son who was arrested for speeding.
• Azriel Dalman as young Sonny Harper.
• Kelly Yu as Michelle, a foreign exchange student that is also the nanny to Fowler’s son Jimmy.
• Donald Sutherland as Holdenfield, a former NASA official who found out about the dark-side of the Moon mystery that occurred during Apollo 11 mission.
• Eme Ikwuakor as General Doug Davidson, a United States Air Force Four-Star General who served as Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force and Deputy Director, as well as Fowler’s ex-husband.
• Carolina Bartczak as Brenda Harper, Brian’s ex-wife and Sonny’s mother, who currently lives with her new husband Tom.
• Maxim Roy as Gabriella Auclair, a military captain who leads the task-force mission to rescue Brian and Houseman.
• Frank Schorpion as General Jenkins, a United States Air Force Four-Star General who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and was tasked by the President of the United States to launch a nuclear strike at the Moon.
• Stephen Bogaert as Albert Hutchings, a NASA director and Deputy Director who turns over his position to Fowler at the last minute before the Moon’s impact.
• Andreas Apergis as Lieutenant Colonel Reed, a soldier tasked to deliver an EMP that was to be detonated on the Moon.
• Kathleen Fee as Mrs. Elaine Houseman, Houseman’s mother who lives at a nursing home and suffers from Alzheimer disease.

Production

In May 2019, Roland Emmerich was announced to be writing and directing the film. With a $138-146 million budget (including $40 million from Huayi Brothers, $15 million from Lionsgate, and $15 million from Germany), it is one of the most expensive independent films ever produced. Emmerich said the project had previously been bought by Universal Pictures, and once he got the rights back, Emmerich and partner Harald Kloser went to the Cannes Film Festival to get financial backers, with the independent nature helping Emmerich get creative control and a 50% share of the film. The idea came after reading Christopher Knight and Alan Butler’s novel Who Built the Moon?, which debated about the hollow moon hypothesis, a conspiracy theory about the Moon being an artificial construction, and the script was worked on for four years. In November 2019, Lionsgate acquired the North American distribution rights, and AGC International acquired the international distribution rights.

In May 2020, Josh Gad and Halle Berry were cast, with Patrick Wilson and Charlie Plummer added in June. In October, Stanley Tucci, John Bradley, Donald Sutherland and Eme Ikwuakor were added to the cast, with Bradley replacing Gad due to scheduling conflicts.

Filming began in Montreal in October 2020, after previously being planned for a spring start, and lasted for a total of 61 days. Michael Peña, Carolina Bartczak, Maxim Roy and Stephen Bogaert were added in January 2021, with Peña replacing Tucci in his role due to COVID-19 travel restrictions preventing Tucci from travelling to the production. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film had to speed up its principal photography with an additional $5.6 million spent. Among the pandemic’s restrictions were a lack of location shooting, forcing the construction of 135 different sets, built primarily on six stages on Grandé Studios. A museum in Florida contributed an original space shuttle cockpit, and NASA provided various data regarding the spacecraft.

1,700 visual effects shots were done for Moonfall, primarily handled by four companies, Scanline VFX, Pixomondo, DNEG and Framestore. Scanline was involved as early as a teaser done during the production of Midway for the Cannes pitch, a shot of the moon coming up behind the Earth that ended up in the finished film.

Release

The film held a premiere in Los Angeles on 31 January 2022. It was released theatrically in the United States on 04 February 2022. It was previously scheduled to be released on 22 October 2021. Despite having been advertised in 2021, the film’s theatrical release in Canada was cancelled because the local distributor, Mongrel Media, found it too risky to go forward with the release and spend the amount of money required on advertising when it was uncertain whether theatres in Ontario and Quebec, which account for a majority of film sales in the country and were shut down due to the pandemic, would be open in time.

Lionsgate spent approximately $35 million in promotions and advertisements, including $12.2 million on TV ads. Social media monitor RelishMix said online reactions were “mixed to negative” while “awareness stats” were below average. The film had a social media reach of 88.9 million interactions (including 51.1 million views on YouTube) from 31 videos shared online, which featured brand deals with Omega SA and Lexus. RelishMix also said “traction ran thin” and that online audiences “questioned the use of the Space Shuttle which has been out of commission since 2011 and chatted about rumors that the movie was heading straight to Netflix”, while Emmerich was drawing backlash “for ‘hating the earth’”.

Box Office

As of 20 February 2022, Moonfall has grossed $17.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $17 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $34.9 million.

In the United States, Moonfall was released alongside Jackass Forever, and was projected to gross $8-11 million from 3,446 theatres in its opening weekend, with Boxoffice Pro predicting a $9-14 million three-day debut. The film earned $3.4 million on its first day, including an estimated $700,000 from Thursday night previews. Around 300 theatres were closed on Thursday due to a winter storm impacting most of the Midwestern United States. It went on to gross $9.9 million in its opening weekend, finishing second. The film suffered a 70% decline in its second weekend after earning $2.9 million. Moonfall dropped out of the box office top ten in its third weekend with $1.1 million.

Outside the US and Canada, the film grossed an estimated $9.37 million overseas in its opening weekend.

Sequels

In January 2022, Emmerich spoke about the possibility of filming two sequels back-to-back if the first film was a success. The following month, star John Bradley said that “if Roland goes down the direction that he wants to”, the sequels would be “even more batshit crazy than the first”.

Trivia

• In the scene where KC is presenting information to a small group of people at a hotel, the wallpaper pattern in that hotel matches the iconic wallpaper pattern in The Shining.
  • This seems to be a nod to the rumour that the moon landing was fake and directed by Stanley Kubrick (director of The Shining).
• During the flight chase inside of the moon, KC mentions Ludicrous Mode, assumedly in reference to the Tesla car mode of the same name due to the amount of times KC references or praises Elon Musk throughout the film.
  • However, the term Ludicrous Mode is not a Tesla invention but rather a direct reference to Spaceballs, in which the same term was used for Dark Helmet’s spaceship’s fastest mode of transportation.

Production & Filming Details

• Director(s):
  • Roland Emmerich.
• Producer(s):
  • John A. Amicarella … associate producer.
  • Daniel Auclair … co-producer.
  • Alastair Burlingham … executive producer.
  • Spenser Cohen … executive producer.
  • Roland Emmerich … producer (produced by) (p.g.a).
  • Ute Emmerich … executive producer.
  • Tobias Gutzwiller … associate producer.
  • Harald Kloser … producer (produced by) (p.g.a).
  • Carsten H.W. Lorenz … executive producer.
  • J.P. Pettinato … executive producer.
  • Gary Raskin … executive producer.
  • Michael Ritter … associate producer.
  • Marco Shepherd … executive producer.
  • Omar Soto … associate producer.
  • Karl Spoerri … executive producer.
  • Gina Maria Taylor … associate producer.
  • Viviana Vezzani … executive producer.
• Writer(s):
  • Roland Emmerich.
  • Harald Kloser.
  • Spenser Cohen.
• Music:
  • Harald Kloser.
  • Thomas Wanker.
• Cinematography:
  • Robby Baumgartner … director of photography.
• Editor(s):
  • Ryan Stevens Harris.
  • Adam Wolfe.
• Production:
  • Centropolis Entertainment.
  • AGC Studios.
  • H Brothers.
  • Huayi Brothers Media.
  • Lionsgate.
  • Street Entertainment.
  • UK Moonfall.
• Distributor(s):
  • Lionsgate (2022) (USA) (theatrical).
  • Entertainment Film Distributors (2022) (UK) (theatrical).
  • Entertainment Film Distributors (2022) (Ireland) (theatrical).
  • Ascot Elite Entertainment Group (2022) (Switzerland) (theatrical).
  • Central Partnership (2022) (Russia) (theatrical).
  • China Film Group Corporation (CFGC) (2022) (China) (theatrical).
  • Cinemundo (2022) (Portugal) (theatrical).
  • Constantin-Film (2022) (Austria) (theatrical).
  • Diamond Films (2022) (Argentina) (theatrical).
  • Diamond Films (2022) (Bolivia) (theatrical).
  • Diamond Films (2022) (Brazil) (theatrical).
  • Diamond Films (2022) (Chile) (theatrical).
  • Diamond Films (2022) (Colombia) (theatrical).
  • Diamond Films (2022) (Mexico) (theatrical).
  • Diamond Films (2022) (Peru) (theatrical).
  • Dutch FilmWorks (DFW) (2022) (Netherlands) (theatrical).
  • Edko Films (2022) (Hong Kong) (theatrical).
  • Golden Village Pictures (2022) (Singapore) (theatrical).
  • HKC Entertainment (2022) (Pakistan) (theatrical).
  • Italian International Film (2022) (Italy) (theatrical).
  • Kinepolis Film Distribution (KFD) (2022) (Belgium) (theatrical).
  • Kino Films (2022) (Japan) (theatrical).
  • Lenta (2022) (Bulgaria) (theatrical).
  • Leonine Distribution (2022) (Germany) (theatrical).
  • Long Shong Entertainment Multimedia Company (2022) (Taiwan) (theatrical).
  • Lucisano Media Group (2022) (Italy) (theatrical).
  • Metropolitan Filmexport (2022) (France) (theatrical).
  • Mongkol Major (2022) (Thailand) (theatrical).
  • Noori Pictures (2022) (South Korea) (theatrical).
  • PT. Prima Cinema Multimedia (2022) (Indonesia) (theatrical).
  • PVR Pictures (2022) (India) (theatrical).
  • Roadshow Film Distributors (NZ) Ltd. (2022) (New Zealand) (theatrical).
  • Roadshow Films (2022) (Australia) (theatrical).
  • Selim Ramia & Sons (2022) (Lebanon) (theatrical).
  • Spentzos Films (2022) (Greece) (theatrical).
  • Sun Distribution (2022) (Uruguay) (theatrical).
  • Ukrainian Film Distribution (UFD) (2022) (Ukraine) (theatrical).
  • Vertical Entertainment (2022) (Czechia) (theatrical).
  • Vertical Entertainment (2022) (Hungary) (theatrical).
  • Vertical Entertainment (2022) (Romania) (theatrical).
  • Diamond Films España (2022) (Spain) (all media).
• Release Date: 04 February 2022 (UK).
• Rating: 12A.
• Running Time: 130 minutes.
• Country: US.
• Language: English.

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