Moontrap

Moontrap
Theatrical release poster by Tom Jung
Directed by	Robert Dyke
Produced by	Robert Dyke John Cameron James A. Courtney
Written by	Tex Ragsdale
Starring	Walter Koenig Bruce Campbell Leigh Lombardi Robert Kurcz John J. Saunders
Music by	Joseph LoDuca
Studio	Magic Films
Distributed by	Image Entertainment (laserdisc) Malofilm Home Video Shapiro-Glickenhaus Home Video (video)
Release date(s)	June, 1989
Running time	92 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Moontrap is a 1989 science fiction movie from Magic Films. It was written by Tex Ragsdale and directed by Robert Dyke. A comic book adaptation was released on the same year by Caliber Comics. The cast features Walter Koenig, Bruce Campbell and Leigh Lombardi. To date, this is Koenig's only starring role.

Plot

On July 20, 1969, during the last phase of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon, a cybernetic eye emerges from the lunar soil and takes notice of the landing module as it takes off. The eye buries itself again. Decades later, the Space Shuttle Camelot encounters a derelict spaceship in orbit around Earth. Mission commander Colonel Jason Grant (Walter Koenig) leaves the shuttle to investigate, and discovers a reddish-brown pod and a mummified human corpse. Both the pod and its contents are brought back to Earth, where it is found that they originated on the Moon some fourteen thousand years ago. Shortly thereafter, the pod comes to life and using its surroundings, builds itself into a cyborg with parts from the lab and pieces of the ancient corpse. It kills a lab technician and exchanges fire with security guards using an unknown weapon before Grant sneaks up on it using the ventilation system of the building and destroys it with a shotgun blast to the head.

Using the last completed Apollo spacecraft, Grant and fellow astronaut Ray Tanner (Bruce Campbell) go to the Moon on a search and destroy mission. They discover the ruins of an ancient human civilization. Inside, they found a woman in suspended animation who identifies herself in a rudimentary fashion as Mera (Leigh Lombardi) and later reveals the name of the killer cyborgs — the Kaalium. They survive the attack of a spider Kaalium and return to the landing module, with Mera wearing her own spacesuit, but it turns out that the Kaalium have stolen the module. The Kaalium also shot down the command module, leaving the astronauts stranded on the Moon. They kill Tanner, and use his body and other surroundings as building material, take Grant and Mera prisoners, and head to Earth.

Grant frees himself and rescue Mera from a cyborg that tried to cut her down for spare parts. In the meantime, the Space Shuttle Intrepid is launched to intercept the approaching ship. Grant and Mera look for the control room and find the landing module, which has been adapted into the alien machinery. Grant supposes the module was the last piece of equipment that the Kaalium needed to complete their ship. He starts the module's self-destruct sequence and uses his gun as a rocket to escape with Mera through a hole in the hull and towards the Intrepid. The ship explodes after they have reached a safe distance. Some time later, Grant and Mera are shown as a couple. She now speaks English and explains that she was put in stasis to warn others about the Kaalium. Grant tells her that she does not have to worry anymore, that it is over, and hugs her. Little they know that one of the pods survived the explosion and is now on a junkyard, building itself a body. Memorable quote throughout the film by Grant, "We don't take no shit from no machines."

See also

• Virus (comics)
• Borg (Star Trek)

External links

• Moontrap at the Internet Movie Database
• Moontrap at AllRovi