Moon 44

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title Moon 44
Country of production Germany
original language English
Publishing year 1990
length 99 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Roland Emmerich
script Oliver Eberle ,
Dean Heyde
production Roland Emmerich,
Dean Heyde
music Joel Goldsmith
camera Karl Walter Lindenlaub
cut Tomy Wigand
occupation

Moon 44 is a science fiction film produced by Roland Emmerich . The film, which was made with a low budget , was the last to be made in Emmerich's Swabian homeland. It was completely filmed in a disused tank factory in Renningen near Leonberg within just under six months . Emmerich was supported by Dean Heyde as production manager , who was already on the staff at Hollywood Monster , as well as, for the first time, model maker and trick technician Volker Engel , who later received several awards for his special effects at Independence Day . With 180,000 visitors, Moon 44 stayed below the 400,000 mark set with Joey . The film opened in German cinemas on February 15, 1990.

action

In the year 2038 all raw material deposits on earth will be exhausted, mankind has therefore started to look for raw materials in the depths of space. They found what they were looking for on moons on planets outside the solar system, which are largely uninhabitable and on which the ore is therefore mined by automatic conveyor robots that also serve as passenger transporters. The dismantling and removal - as soon as the storage tanks are full, the conveyor robot starts its return flight to earth - also takes place automatically.

Above all, the Galactic Mining Corporation operates the mining of the raw material moons; their biggest competitor - Pyrite - does not shy away from using force to obtain raw materials or production facilities. After the moons 51, 47 and 46 were recently attacked by Pyrite and the entire crew of the Galactic Mining Corporation was killed in the process, an attack pattern by Pyrite can be seen, resulting in the next attack on moon 44.

Since conveyor robots have disappeared on their way back from Moon 44, an internal security agent - Felix Stone - is assigned to clarify their whereabouts. In return, he is offered to free him from his contract with the internal security he doesn’t like. Due to the extreme weather conditions of the raw material moons and the associated deaths, new pilots are being sought to defend the last remaining raw material moon 44 against Pyrite. Due to a lack of volunteers, convicted convicts - former pilots - are obliged to: serve as fighter pilots and remission or return to prison. Stone is smuggled undercover with a group of prisoners into the facility at Moon 44, but the station commander on duty, Major Lee, is informed of this.

Attack helicopters are used for defense due to the extreme weather situation and the narrow rocky canyons on moon 44. A flight team always consists of a pilot and a navigator who leads the pilot from the base through the misty canyons of the moon. In this way, Stone meets his contact, the navigator Tyler, who had previously informed Galactic Mining about the disappearance of the conveyor robots. Tyler suspects that the conveyor robots were stolen by changing the destination of the flight computers; the robots do not fly back to earth, but to another place. It soon turns out that the station's top executives - Major Lee and Master Sergeant Sykes - are implicated in the disappearance of the conveyor robots. After Stone slowly tracks down the two conspirators, Lee tries to get Stone out of the way in an "accident". In a simulated duel between Stone and his adversary Jake O'Neill, Sykes equips O'Neill's helicopter with live ammunition; Stone narrowly escapes the attack.

Some time later, Stone catches Sergeant Sykes in the act reprogramming the flight computer of a conveyor robot just before it takes off. Sykes attacks Stone with a fire ax, but is shot by Major Lee. Lee pretends to be surprised and accuses the dead Sykes of being solely responsible for the missing robots, but for "technical reasons" does not give Stone the plug-in programming unit that Sykes used.

Now that Stone has apparently resolved the case, he prepares to return to Earth, but is surprised by the anticipated attack by Pyrite on Moon 44. Major Lee sabotages the alarm systems so that the crew is not informed of the attack. Originally, the conveyor robots should automatically return to earth in the event of an attack, even without the crew. Lee, who actually works for Pyrite, reprograms all of the conveyor robots so that they don't return to Earth, but to a secret collection point where all of the missing robots for Pyrite are parked.

After Stone and Tyler see Lee sabotaging the alarm systems, Tyler reactivates the alarm as Stone faces the first wave of Pyrite combat drones; In the long run, however, the resistance to the superiority of Pyrite is hopeless. Stone finds one last conveyor robot that has not yet been reprogrammed and informs the rest of the crew about this escape route. But since a pilot and a navigator have to stay behind to cover the escape of the others, O'Neill and the navigator Cookie take on this task.

Meanwhile, flight trainer Morgan Lee surprises with how he wants to reprogram the last conveyor robot and remove all traces of the theft with a bomb. He gets into an elevator with her as a hostage. Stone arrives with the bomb activated by a counter , grabs the programming unit and leaves the bomb behind; Stone and Morgan flee, Lee is killed in the elevator by the explosion.

O'Neill and Cookie are killed defending the fleeing crew, and the rest of the crew are able to escape Moon 44 using the last remaining conveyor robot. After Stone informs the chairman of Galactic Mining of Lee's betrayal and denounces the company's policy that the mining robots are more important than the crew, after his return to Earth, he leaves the room to look for a new job.

Reviews

“Simple sci-fi action by the 'German Spielberg ' Roland Emmerich (' Joey ', 'Hollywood Monster'), who once again proves to be a skilled hobbyist and diligent looter of great genre models. With a small budget and a lot of imagination in the home was Sindelfingen futuristic space setting in foam polystyrene cast. "

- video week

Trivia

  • Originally the film was supposed to be called “ Wings ”, but because there is already a US silent film with this title, the expected title protection trouble was avoided.
  • The consistently bad reviews of Moon 44 prompted Emmerich to move to Hollywood.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for Moon 44 . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , December 2009 (PDF; test number: 63 148 V).
  2. ^ A b c Heinz Heinemann (text), Wilhelm Mierendorf (photos): “Film scenes in the Heckengäu : The hot battle on a strange star”, Stuttgarter Zeitung , February 18, 1989
  3. ↑ Rolf Giesen : “The Lord of Things. Special effects: Volker Engel shows how one can create cinematic worlds without wasting tens of millions ”, Die Welt , December 18, 2002 ( online version . Accessed September 27, 2013)