Moontrap

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Movie
German title Moontrap
Original title Moontrap
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1989
length 92 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Robert Dyke
script Tex Ragsdale
production Robert Dyke,
John Cameron
music Joseph LoDuca
camera Peter Klein
cut Steven C. Craig
occupation

Moontrap is an American science fiction film directed by Robert Dyke from 1989. The film was produced in the USA for video and later television release. Copies were sent to cinemas in Germany. Despite the original age rating of 16 and over, the film had a surprisingly great success.

content

1969 is the first man on the moon - a sensation. But nobody suspects that not only do millions of spectators watch the moon landing on earth, but also that someone on the moon itself becomes aware of it.

In the 1990s, the space shuttle's flights were just routine. The Astronaut Jason Grant is disappointed that space is no longer an adventure. But when he and his pilot Ray Tanner want to repair a satellite , a huge object suddenly crosses the flight path of their space shuttle: a badly damaged spaceship, apparently of extraterrestrial origin. Behind a tear in the outer shell there is a container in the shape of a large football and the mummified corpse of a person.

The container and the corpse are examined on earth. Both are 14,000 years old and took off from the moon by spaceship. The astronauts try to convince government official Haskell that a new lunar expedition is about to start. While he, Grant, Tanner and their supervisor are discussing with the scientist Barnes in a lounge, the strange container suddenly comes to life: it extends metallic, tentacle-like probes, fuses with various laboratory inventory to build a body, and then destroys it the laboratory. Shortly afterwards, the giant robot runs amok at NASA's base. It can be stopped at the last second with the help of security staff and Grant.

Government circles are now convinced that a new expedition to the moon must be carried out to ensure that the earth is not threatened by these strangers and that this sophisticated technology does not fall into the hands of the Soviets , who in two years' time are themselves an expedition to the Want to send moon. Grant, Tanner and Major George Beck, who is supposed to stay in lunar orbit, are sent off in a Saturn rocket . While Grant and Tanner drive off in the lunar car to explore the area, their lunar module is examined by a robot that moves beneath the lunar floor.

When the astronauts reach a crater rim, they see an alien base built into the crater, which emits a light signal. As they approach, they find human corpses and robot parts, apparently no one is alive here. You still arm yourself with submachine guns and enter the base. There they find a room in which they find more human, skeletonized corpses and a kind of glass sarcophagus in which a woman lies. The woman wakes up and introduces herself as Mera. Mera recognizes old companions in the dead and mourns. Then she takes his bracelet and puts it on. At that moment they are radioed by Beck from orbit: the lander is moving, they should return. Grant and Tanner are still thinking about what to do with Mera, but then she opens a compartment from which she takes a spacesuit that even works.

When they are at the landing site, the lander is gone. Mera points to the tracks in the moondust and says "Kaalium!", The name of her opponent. They follow the tracks with the moon car until the batteries fail, but shortly afterwards they find the huge spaceship that is just about to get ready for take-off. While Grant and Tanner are still discussing what to do, they are attacked by the robots, and Tanner is killed. At the same time, the orbiter is attacked with unknown rays, causing it to crash. Frustrated about the loss of his two friends and colleagues, Grant stomps back with Mera to the moon car, takes a self-inflating igloo out of the trunk, sets it up and climbs into it. When Mera follows him, he wonders aloud whether he was really the right person for this mission, or whether someone should have been sent a younger person. Grant had been so keen on this mission because he was scheduled for a lunar project back in the 1970s, but it was never realized because NASA stopped the whole series. When Grant mourns the loss of his colleagues and the whole situation seems hopeless, Mera comforts him. Then they kiss and sleep together. At the same time, Ray Tanner's dead body is dragged away by the robots.

Soon after, Grant and Mera are attacked by giant robots and dragged into the spaceship. This is now on its way to earth. Grant wakes up chained next to Mera in a huge room with compartments full of human body parts in the wall. Humans are spare parts for robots. When a robot comes with a circular saw and threatens Mera, Grant manages to free himself from his bonds and beat the robot ready for scrap. He and Mera put on their spacesuits again, flee and find the stolen lander that has been integrated into the ship. Grant opens a flap on the ferry, inside there is a self-destruct mechanism with a timer that he activates; with Mera he is waiting for the end of the countdown.

At the same time, a space shuttle approaches the alien spaceship that is attacking. Meanwhile, Grant and Mera are still waiting for the self-destruct mechanism to explode. They are attacked by a Kaalium . When Grant shoots him, the recoil pushes him and Mera out through an opening in the belly of the ship. Now they can safely leave the danger zone and drift to the space shuttle. Shortly thereafter, the self-destruct mechanism explodes and tears up the alien spaceship. Back on Earth, Mera learned Grant's language and told how she was chosen as the last guardian, even though she would have preferred to die with the others. But now it is all over and the danger averted. But one of the containers lies on the ground in a junkyard and immediately begins to build a robot body.

production

The production of Magic Films was directed by Robert Dyke and written by Tex Ragsdale . The music was composed by Joseph LoDuca .

In contrast to many other science fiction productions, attention was paid to the laws of physics: Wherever there is no atmosphere, there are no noises. When Grant shoots a robot on the moon, nothing is heard, just as the orbiter crashes onto the lunar surface. Only when the spaceships are in flight can a kind of soft roar be heard from time to time.

Actress Judy Levitt , who plays the commander of the shuttle that tries to stop the Kaalium ship by force of arms, is Walter Koenig's wife.

Publications

  • The film was released on April 28, 1989 in US cinemas. It was released on May 12, 1989 at the Cannes Film Market. The German cinema premiere followed on June 8, 1989 (Metropol-Filmvereih). The film was also released in the UK, Japan, Italy, France, Russia and Canada, among others.
  • In 1989, Caliber Press released a comic book adaptation of the film in the United States. In addition to the film comic, the booklet also offers background information on the film. In the same year "Caliber Presents" # 2 was published, an anthology which, in addition to "Moontrap", also includes the comics "Gideon's", "Thrill-Kill", "Deadworld", "Treads" and "Cuda".
  • “Moontrap” was released on September 21, 1989 in Germany on VPS on VHS videocassette. The film stayed in the top 10 German distributors for months, with the highest ranking being second.
  • The film was broadcast for the first time on January 1, 1991 on RTL Television and was later repeated several times on RTL II .
  • "Moontrap" was released by Digidream Studios in Germany on April 7, 2014 on double DVD and Blu-ray Disc with bonus DVD. The bonus material includes the original trailer, HD trailer, slide show, about the restoration, artwork gallery, interview with Walter Koenig, interview with Bruce Campbell, advertising advice, comic for the film as a slide show, audio commentary with Robert Dyke and Tex Ragdale, cinema poster photos, from the newspaper, LOL comics, production photos, foreword by Walter Koenig and Bruce Campbell, foreword and afterword by Ekkehardt Belle , reprint of the American film comics and a German behind-the-scenes booklet.
  • In the US, “Moontrap” will be released on BD / DVD in the course of 2014 by Olive Films.

criticism

The lexicon of international films described the production as “a little imaginative standard science fiction product” , characterized by “extensive [...] moon wanderings and some space skirmishes” .

Kino.de writes: “Director Robert Dyke enriched his remarkable science fiction debut with plenty of horror elements. Dyke used the experiences he made while working on films such as Tanz der Teufel II - Now there is more dancing and Bigfoot and the Hendersons . For the leading roles he brought in the genre stars Bruce Campbell ( Tanz der Teufel I-III, Maniac Cop I-II) and Walter Koenig ( Star Trek I-VII), who you can almost see the fun of this effective and exciting production. Dyke burns off a firework of tricks and special effects and almost loses sight of the story, which doesn't give the title the endearing charm of early science fiction films like Metaluna IV ... "

Others

  • After "Moontrap" (1989) Robert Dyke made two more SF films with the well-known main characters from the first part, namely Timequest (2002) with Bruce Campbell and InAlienable (2009) with Walter Koenig.
  • The Apollo spaceship is simply called the orbiter in "Moontrap", but it should logically be Apollo 18 .
  • Apollo 18 (film) was inspired by "Moontrap" and was released by Universum on BD and DVD.
  • The film Virus - Schiff ohne Wiederkehr (1999), which was released on BD and DVD by Concorde , also includes a similar theme as “Moontrap” .

continuation

The sequel Moontrap: Target Earth was released on DVD in 2017.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097911/
  2. ^ Moontrap. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed July 5, 2013 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 

Web links