The question has to be asked: What does Roland Emmerich have against the Earth? Between Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, and 2012, Emmerich’s films turn humanity’s destruction into cinematic spectacles that have been big hits at the box office. Emmerich’s latest movie, Moonfall, is upping the ante by literally bringing the moon down upon the planet we call home.
Lionsgate has released the first trailer for Moonfall, which is full of Emmerich’s trademark brand of mayhem. There’s almost nowhere to run that’s safe when Earth’s largest natural satellite comes crashing down. Regardless, there are hints that the moon isn’t what it seems to be. A flashback to one of the original lunar missions reveals something alien that could even be alive. And a journey into the moon itself suggests that it’s an artificial structure, like a Dyson sphere. In laymen’s terms, that’s a hypothetical structure that could be built around a star to harness its power. But if the moon isn’t a natural phenomenon, then who created it and why?
Surprisingly, the trailer touches upon a real piece of lunar history. The Apollo 11 astronauts lost contact with Earth for about two minutes in 1969. Naturally, this gave way to conspiracy theories. A character named Holdenfield (Donald Sutherland) suggests that there was never a communication gap at all. Instead, the U.S. government used that window of time to perform its own readings and experiments. Unfortunately, that knowledge could have helped prevent the Earth’s imminent destruction if it hadn’t been kept secret for over five decades.
Fortunately, there’s still some hope that humanity can be saved. Former astronaut and current NASA executive Jo Fowler (Halle Berry) thinks she has the key to stopping the moon’s descent. She will be joined by another former astronaut, Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson), as well as a conspiracy theorist named K.C. Houseman (John Bradley). Together, they manage to take a shuttle to space and voyage inside the moon itself. But this may be a one-way mission even if they are somehow able to restore the moon to its proper place in the heavens.
Michael Peña also stars in the film as Tom Lopez, with Charlie Plummer as Sonny Harper, Kelly Yu as Michelle, Eme Ikwuakor as Doug Davidson, Carolina Bartczak as Brenda Lopez, Maxim Roy as Captain Gabriella Auclair, and Stephen Bogaert as Albert Hutchings.
Moonfall will crash into movie theaters February 4, 2022.
