''Moon 44'' is a 1990 English-language German

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

action film from Centropolis Film Productions, directed by

Roland Emmerich Roland Emmerich (; born 10 November 1955) is a German film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is widely known for his science fiction and disaster films and has been called a "master of disaster" within the industry. His films, most of wh ...

and starring

Michael Paré Michael Kevin Paré (born October 9, 1958) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the films ''Eddie and the Cruisers'' (1983), '' Streets of Fire'' (1984), and '' The Philadelphia Experiment'' (1984), and on the series ''Starhun ...

and Lisa Eichhorn alongside

Brian Thompson Brian Earl Thompson (born August 28, 1959) is an American actor. His career began with a small role in the 1984 film ''The Terminator''. He played the villainous "Night Slasher" in the 1986 film ''Cobra (1986 film), Cobra''. His first named r ...

and

Malcolm McDowell Malcolm McDowell (born Malcolm John Taylor; 13 June 1943) is a British actor, producer, and television presenter. He is best known for portraying Alex DeLarge in ''A Clockwork Orange.'' He was born in the Horsforth suburb of Leeds and raised i ...

. The film is set on a futuristic mining site on Moon 44, where convicts and teenage technicians are partnered. An undercover agent (Paré) must discover what has happened to missing corporate shuttles.

Plot

By 2038, all of Earth's natural resources have been depleted. Multinational corporations have taken control of the galaxy and rival companies battle each other for access to mining planets. A major battle is for Moon 44, a fuel mining operation in the Outer Zone. It is the only installation still controlled by the Galactic Mining Corporation. Moons 46, 47 and 51 have recently been overtaken by the Pyrite Defense Company's battle robots. Galactic Mining had its own defense system, helicopters capable of operating in the violent atmospheres of the moons, but it was cancelled as too many pilots died while in training. The company sends new navigators to Moon 44 to assist the pilots. However, there is still a shortage of pilots, so the company is forced to use prisoners. Galactic Mining regards its fleet of mining shuttles as even more important, so if the base is attacked, the shuttles are ordered to leave the crews behind. Galactic Mining hires Felix Stone, an undercover agent, to investigate the disappearance of two shuttles that went missing under mysterious circumstances. Stone travels to Moon 44 and meets chief navigator Tyler, who suspects the shuttles were stolen by somebody after they modified the flight computers. The mining operation's defence director, Major Lee and his assistant, Master Sergeant Sykes are the prime suspects. Stone later catches Sykes reprogramming a mining shuttle shortly before its departure. Sykes attacks Stone with an axe, but is quickly gunned down by Lee, who then refuses to hand over the modified computer to Stone, citing "company orders". Having concluded his investigation, Stone prepares to leave, but the mining operation is attacked by a Pyrite ''Medusa''-class battle cruiser. Major Lee sabotaged the alarm systems and then orders all of the mining shuttles to return to Earth. Stone manages to single-handedly shoot down the entire first wave of enemy attack drones, while prisoner O'Neal stays behind to destroy the remaining drones as Lee's actions at the base are discovered. Lee tries to sabotage the last remaining mining shuttle, but he is trapped in an elevator by Stone and blown up by his own bomb. The others return safely to Earth, where Stone informs the Galactic Mining chairman that Lee was bribed by Pyrite to redirect the mining shuttles to a planet in the Outer Zone.

Cast

as Felix Stone * Lisa Eichhorn as Terry Morgan *

Dean Devlin Dean Devlin (born August 27, 1962) is an American screenwriter, producer, director, and actor of film and television. He is best known for his collaborations with director Roland Emmerich, and for his work on the ''Librarian'' and ''Leverage' ...

as Tyler *

as Jake O’Neal * Leon Rippy as Master Sergeant Sykes *

Stephen Geoffreys Stephen Geoffrey Miller (born November 22, 1964), known professionally as Stephen Geoffreys, is an American actor. Rising to prominence in teen films in the 1980s, Geoffreys is perhaps best known for his role as high school misfit-turned vampire ...

as Cookie *

as Major Lee *

Jochen Nickel Jochen Nickel (born 10 April 1959) is a German actor. He has appeared in more than 160 films and TV series since 1988. Life Nickel, a trained road builder, came to the stage in 1981 and was a member of the theater group Theaterpathologisches In ...

as Scooter Bailey *

Roscoe Lee Browne Roscoe Lee Browne (May 2, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American actor and director. He resisted playing stereotypically black roles, instead performing in several productions with New York City's Shakespeare Festival Theater, Leland Hayward ...

as Chairman Hall.

Production

The film was shot by cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub and scored by composer

Joel Goldsmith Joel King Goldsmith (November 19, 1957 – April 29, 2012) was an American composer of film, television, and video game music. Biography Joel Goldsmith was born on November 19, 1957, in Los Angeles, California, the third of four children o ...

. It was filmed in color with Dolby Stereo sound. ''Moon 44'' is the first collaboration between Devlin and Emmerich. Emmerich ran out of money before he could shoot an important establishing shot, so he improvised using mirrors and the production crew as extras.

Release

''Moon 44'' was released in West Germany on February 15, 1990. The film was released direct-to-video in the United States.

Reception

In a contemporary review, ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' referred to the film as "boring, uneventful" and "feeble sci-fi effort from West Germany". ''

Time Out Time-out, Time Out, or timeout may refer to: Time * Time-out (sport), in various sports, a break in play, called by a team * Television timeout, a break in sporting action so that a commercial break may be taken * Timeout (computing), an engine ...

'' wrote that "the film looks nice but unoriginal ... the model work is okay but laboured; the acting is stunningly mediocre." ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news. The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008. Corporat ...

'' rated it 1/5 stars and wrote, "It's eye-filling, to say the least, but there's not much tension or sense of danger."

Kim Newman Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English journalist, film critic and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's ''Dracula'' at ...

of ''

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

'' rated it 2/5 stars and wrote, "The plot unravels in unwieldy dollops, and, despite some adequate special effects (for the time), the whole thing is really a bit of a bore."

References

Footnotes

Sources

External links

* * * {{Roland Emmerich 1990 films 1990 action thriller films 1990 independent films 1990s science fiction action films West German films German independent films German science fiction action films 1990s English-language films English-language German films Cyberpunk films German dystopian films 1990s prison films Space adventure films Warner Bros. films Films directed by Roland Emmerich Films scored by Joel Goldsmith Films set in 2038 Mining in space 1990s German films 1990s dystopian films