Moon 44

Moon 44
German theatrical poster
Directed by	Roland Emmerich
Produced by	Roland Emmerich Dean Heyde
Written by	Oliver Eberle Roland Emmerich P. J. Mitchell (story) Dean Heyde (screenplay)
Starring	Michael Paré Lisa Eichhorn Dean Devlin Brian Thompson Leon Rippy Malcolm McDowell
Music by	Joel Goldsmith
Cinematography	Karl Walter
Editing by	Tomy Wigand
Studio	Centropolis Film Productions
Distributed by	Moviestore Entertainment
Release date(s)	February 15, 1990 (1990-02-15)
Running time	98 minutes
Country	Germany
Language	English
Budget	DEM 7 million

Moon 44 is a 1990 science fiction, action film from Centropolis Film Productions, directed by Roland Emmerich and starring Michael Paré and Lisa Eichhorn and co-starring Brian Thompson.

Plot

By the year 2038 all natural resources on Earth have been depleted. Multinational corporations have taken control of the universe and rival companies fight deadly battles over mining planets in outer space. One of these battlefields is the Moon 44 fuel mining operation in the Outer Zone, which is the only installation still controlled by the Galactic Mining corporation. The other moons 51, 47 and 46 have recently been conquered by the Pyrite defense company's battle robots. Galactic Mining had its own defence system—battle helicopters operating in the stormy atmospheres of the moons—but it was cancelled as too many of its pilots died during training as they had to navigate in extreme weather conditions on Moon 44. Now the company will send new young navigators to Moon 44 to assist the pilots. However, there is still a shortage of pilots as nobody wants to move to the Outer Zone, so the company is forced to use prisoners as a last resort. Galactic Mining regards its fleet of one hundred mining shuttles as even more important, and the shuttles will leave Moon 44 at the first sign of attack while leaving the Moon 44 crew behind.

In addition, Galactic Mining hires Felix Stone (Michael Paré), an undercover agent, to investigate the fate of two shuttles that recently disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Stone travels to Moon 44 with the prisoners, and meets chief navigator Tyler (Dean Devlin) who suspects they were stolen by somebody who modified their flight computers. It turns out that the mining operation defence responsible Major Lee (Malcolm McDowell) assisted by Master Sergeant Sykes (Leon Rippy) are the prime suspects. Stone survives an assassination attempt during flight training. Sykes is later caught in the act by Stone as he is reprogramming the destination of a mining shuttle shortly before departure. He desperately attacks Stone with an axe but is quickly gunned down by Lee to cover the evidence (Lee also refuses to hand over the modified computer to Stone, citing "company orders").

Having accomplished his mission, Stone prepares to return to Earth but the mining operation is finally attacked by a Pyrite "Medusa"-class battle cruiser. Major Lee secretly sabotages the alarm systems and then prepares to redirect all the mining shuttles back to Earth, as instructed by Galactic Mining. Stone manages to singlehandedly shoot down the entire first wave of enemy attack drones, while prisoner O'Neal (Brian Thompson) stays behind to destroy the remaining ones as Lee's betrayal is discovered by Morgan, the flight training leader. Lee also tries to sabotage the sole remaining mining shuttle, but he is trapped in an elevator by Morgan and Stone and blown up by his own bomb. The others return safely to Earth, where Stone informs the Galactic Mining Chairman (Roscoe Lee Browne) that Lee was bribed by Pyrite to redirect the mining shuttles to a planet in the Outer Zone.

Cast

• Michael Paré as Felix Stone
• Lisa Eichhorn as Terry Morgan
• Dean Devlin as Tyler
• Brian Thompson as Jake O’Neal
• Leon Rippy as Master Sergeant Sykes
• Stephen Geoffreys as Cookie
• Malcolm McDowell as Major Lee
• Jochen Nickel as Scooter Bailey
• Roscoe Lee Browne as Chairman Hall.

Production

The film was shot by cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub and scored by composer Joel Goldsmith. It was filmed in color with Dolby Stereo sound. Production design and visual effects bear signs of significant inspiration by aesthetics of notable 1970s/80s science fiction films like Alien, Aliens, Blade Runner or The Terminator.

Reception

It received mostly negative reviews from critics. it was criticized since its release for being a blatant rip-off of Star Wars, Blade Runner and Aliens, also it was criticized for it's clichéd plot, the one dimensional stereotype characters and the cheesy special effects. however it was successful on home video and retained a cult status.

External links

• Moon 44 at the Internet Movie Database
• Moon 44 at Rotten Tomatoes
• Moon 44 at AllRovi