Isn’t it implied by the end of the film that this kind of public outcry is exactly what happened?
Even better: They’ve apparently got some pretty good AI tech going. Just have it done by robots then.
Unfortunately your speculation is contradicted by the actual movie.
I’m sure the pod just enters Earth’s orbit to be picked up by a surprised retrieval team and don’t just rain down on the planet.
As someone already pointed out, it’s not about “twists” or “surprise endings”. It’s about the character.
And from their reactions apon meeting each other, I have to assume cloning is practical technology in their time. They aren’t all “WHO IS ZAT MAN IN MY HOWSE!!” like Arnold in The Sixth Day. New Sam is pretty much “godmanit…one or both of us is a clone” pretty much from the beginning.
The robot was played by K-PAX Kevin Spacey, not Se7en Kevin Spacey.
The problem is that it isn’t clear how shipping a hundred clones up to the moon along with the infrastructure to destroy old clones and rejuvinate new ones saves any money. Especially since the surface isn’t that inaccessible (they send several bad guys up quickly enough once things start going wrong) and getting back is apparently even easier since you can just hitch a ride in one of the H3 tubes. And with the clones you have to deal with them getting sick every three years, and having the facade of the wife and kids back on Earth.
I’ll believe in a corporation that does evil to make money, but this evil corporation seemed to be taking a loss in order to go out of their way to find the most morally questionable method available to staff a mining outpost.
Sam’s labor is free, though; they don’t pay any of the clones a dime, nor is there any healthcare to worry about.
Can you be more specific?
Not sure how the interpretation I placed on events is any less about character. I can see it’s got one more “twist” than the usual interpretation, but meh, so what?
By giving the robot Kevin Spacey’s voice, mannered in the particular way it is mannered, and giving it an unquestionably creepy and unsettling way of showing emotion (or “emotion”) the movie practically invites us to think it possible the robot is not telling the whole story at least. The film doesn’t force us to think this by the end, and indeed invites us to think it had Sam’s interests truly in mind all the time. But it seems to me to be only that–an invitation. Maybe Gerty was good, maybe Gerty was evil. The movie, in my opinion, doesn’t settle the matter.
I see the movie as being basically about a person in conflict with himself. (Oversimplification alert.) Both interpretations are completely consistent with this. (Indeed, thinking of the movie as being open to both interpretations cements this idea about what the movie is “basically about” since taking away Gerty as an external support or anchor for Sam leaves him that much more to his own (and his cloned self’s) devices–making his conflict with himself all the more central to what’s happening in the film.)
True enough, but it still seems like a strange risk to take. Cloning may be commonplace, but at the end of the movie we see it’s not like everyone in the world just thinks its hunky-dory to mistreat them.
ETA regarding your idea that the pod could be picked up by a retrieval team in orbit, presumably that retrieval team works for the company, so Sam’s chances wouldn’t be very good in such a scenario.
I mean, I can paint a picture in which things turn out well for him. But I’m just saying, the film doesn’t by any means force us to think such a scenario came about.
But listen, let’s be clear. I think Sam survives. Just not either of the two versions we were with for most of the film. It’s the third sam (probably) who survives. Though note that at the end he’s there with the bad guys stomping around at the same time. If they see him seeing an open communication line to Earth… who knows. There’s a lot more that the movie leaves open as being able to happen after its ending. It seems we’re told there at the very end that in fact some Sam does make contact with Earth somehow. I just don’t think it’s necessarily any of the Sams we saw.
The robot was played by K-PAX Kevin Spacey, not Se7en Kevin Spacey.
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Its an insane amount of effort to go to to get out of paying one guys salary. How many people do you have to hire to make the clones, build the hibernation pods, set up the incineration chamber, film the videos to make the clone think its in contact with Earth, staff the “rescue teams” for when the clone needs to be removed and then ship all that stuff the the farking moon.
I really can’t think of any scenario where the scheme begins to get close to breaking even.
For all we know, all the clones were grown by GERTIE on the moon from a single DNA sample sent there.
Granted, but what kind of character is he playing in the movie?
buh dum dum!
They didn’t spend a dime making those videos; those are the videos from the real Sam’s tour of duty before the clone brigade took over. That’s what the premise is, that this army of clones relives the real guy’s 3-year service over and over and over.
That job may well be the worst job in human history. To be the only person on an entire planet for 3 years? No way in hell. You’d have to pay an ungodly fortune to get anyone to do it. I could see the startup costs being recouped within 20 years, easy, and then the profit from then on would be substantial.
Also, the need for rescue teams doesn’t magically go away when you man the post with real, non-clone humans. I’d say the support costs would go up dramatically, since now you have to go rescue the guy whenever he gets hurt or in trouble. Barring a disaster like the crash, you never have to go rescue the clone. Instead, just burn him and unwrap a fresh model.
I think those costs would be dwarfed by the cost of sending crews back and forth to the moon.
I’m not getting this argument. Using clones means virtually never sending anyone to/from the moon. Only when they crash a rover does a team need to go up. For every other situation, tell the clone to get in the emergency escape incinerator, unwrap a new one, problem solved with no commute.
Using real people instead of clones means many many many more trips to and from the moon, not just to change shifts every three years but anytime s/he needs any kind of medical assistance or they start to go crazy or what have you.
There are a lot of possible explanations for the cloning. Maybe this one guy has a rare/unique psychological makeup that makes it possible for him to be alone for so long without going nutso. The company recognized this and decided to keep him.
Moon took the Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form.
If anyone has the dvd, I’d recommend watching the commentary, it’s both informative and laugh out loud funny.
The BR finally went on sale this week to under $20, so I picked up a copy and watched it tonight.
I have to agree with Indistinguishable agreeing with Jayrot agreeing with the OP.
I purposefully avoided any trailers or even reading this thread, but the “twist” was telegraphed way too early, I thought. I still thought it was a creepy, interesting movie, and I fully intend to watch it about 100 times. I thought both Sam’s were believable, and enjoyed Rockwell’s performances quite a bit.
My only complaint was the ending. I’d have ended the movie on a completely different tone, if it were my film.
There was no twist to telegraph.
I agree. No “twist.”
It was a straightforward story of the dehumanization of ‘disposable’ workers in a faceless corporation.
If there is no “twist”, why is the audience introduced to Sam[1] in such a way as to make him seem to be Sam[0], i.e. after awakening him, GERTY informs him that he’s been in an accident (hence his “amnesia”), and only later does he discover Sam[0], still in the crashed rover on the surface?
I agree with those who say that the film is basically a Twilight Zone-esque story; atmospheric and internally consistent in terms of its basic theme, but not really holding up to a critical inspection. It is basically a screed against exploitation by obfuscation; making the Sams each believe they were unique individuals on a three-year tour, when in reality each was simply a cog in an endless line of Sams. However, the film itself doesn’t really make sense. Although GERTY is constrained to moving along his track, there seems little reason that it wouldn’t be much easier to make multiple GERTYs, capable of independent motion and performing the array of maintenance tasks. (Somehow, in a way not explained in the film, GERTY is able to move a new clone into the medical bay.) The Sams don’t really seem to do much other than go recover [sup]3[/sup]He pods when they are filled; because there is only one of them (at a time) any heavy maintenance would have to be performed by a maintenance crew from Earth. The cost of building the facility to support and store the Sams seems prohibitive (and nearly impossible to conceal) versus just using automated technology and occasional maintenance crews from Earth. As for Sam[1] surviving the trip to Earth, one assumes that they’ll soft-land the [sup]3[/sup]He cargo, and Sam[1] is shown loading a gas cylinder into the payload bay of the return craft, so it doesn’t seem too unbelievable. However, the film basically uses this as a gag; instead of exploring the distinction between “natural” and “manufactured” humans (as in Blade Runner), the closing radio commentary basically makes a joke of the situation. (One pundit opines that Sam[1] should be considered an “illegal alien”.)
As for comparisons to 2001: A Space Odyssey, while the film develops the same kind of sterile, paranoid atmosphere, it lacks the thematic depth of Kubrick’s masterpiece. 2001 maintains its central theme that the development of humankind is dependent upon their use of found or manufactured tools (note the similar form from the bone mace to the orbiting weapon platform to Discovery itself). 2001 makes the point that as tools become more complex and autonomous, rivaling the intellectual capability of humans (note that HAL easily defeats Poole at chess, and manipulates Bowman into leaving Discovery without his helmet) humans will have to transform themselves to keep up. 2001 is a film with a lot of symbolism (some blunt, others nuanced); Moon is just a clever story.
Stranger
I don’t see this as a twist, just the progression of the story. We learn the nature of Sam’s condition along with him, but it wasn’t a 6th Sense “I thought I was watching a movie about X, but I’m actually watching a movie about Y” thing. The question that the movie presents us at the outset is basically “what’s this guy’s deal,” and we learn more and more as he does. A twist would have been if the entire movie had been centered solely around him getting back to his family and then he finds out that he’s a clone right at the end.
I don’t find the premise of the movie that unrealistic. I’m willing to accept that there are reasons for the mining corporation wanting an actual person at the lunar base at all times. Even if multiple GERTY units would be cheaper than the cloning project, we don’t know that they’d be able to repair themselves completely. It’s possible that in the event of mass robot malfunction, the time to get a repair crew to the moon would impact the mining operation to such a degree that it’s cheaper to just keep someone there.
And there are lots of advantages to the cloning project. They never have to worry about training anybody. They never have to worry about finding qualified applicants for a job that can’t be very sought-after, and would likely carry a huge salary. They never have to worry about injury or death possibly grinding the mining operation to a halt. They don’t have to worry about the welfare of the clone much at all. We also have no way of knowing how expensive cloning is in the setting of the movie. The company is doing it secretly and probably illegally, so it may not cost very much at all.
Once the fact that Sam is a clone was revealed, I was actually surprised that it hadn’t really been that long since the original Sam (Sam Prime) actually completed his service. I thought we’d find out that this has been going on for a couple hundred years or something.