Moon 44
A disgraced investigator infiltrates a prison-staffed mining station in 2038 to expose the saboteur behind a corporation’s vanishing robots.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Moderate
- Complexity
- Easy to follow
- Violence
- Brutal
- gritty
- paranoid
- claustrophobic
- cult sci fi night
- retro genre marathon
What critics said
Critics broadly found the film visually eye-catching but unoriginal, sluggish, poorly acted, and lacking tension.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
The 2038 setting is defined by depleted Earth resources and conflict over the last mineral-rich moons.
The mining station, automatic robots, corporate ownership, and grim technological infrastructure create a distinctly industrial cyberpunk world.
Felix Stone is secretly an internal affairs agent sent into the mining station to determine why valuable robots disappear.
Prisoners are sent to defend the station because conventional personnel refuse the dangerous assignment.
Films like Moon 44, and why
Outland
dystopian science fiction, cyberpunk production design, corporate exploitation, and militarized industrial settings
Aliens
future resource conflict, space combat, blue-collar survival, and gritty science fiction action
RoboCop
cyberpunk atmosphere, corporate corruption, investigative suspense, and heightened genre world-building
Fortress
prisoner protagonists, institutional coercion, tense group dynamics, and action-thriller structure
Movie Details
- Director
- Roland Emmerich
- Release Date
- 1990-02-15
- Runtime
- 98 min
- Rating
- 5.1 / 10 (156)
Cast
- Michael Paré
- Lisa Eichhorn
- Dean Devlin
- Brian Thompson
- Malcolm McDowell
- Leon Rippy
- Jochen Nickel
- Mehmet Yilmaz
- John March
- Drew Lucas
Common questions
- What is Moon 44 about?
- A disgraced investigator infiltrates a prison-staffed mining station in 2038 to expose the saboteur behind a corporation’s vanishing robots.
- What is Moon 44 like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Moon 44 as measured, its intensity as moderate and its storytelling as easy to follow.
- Is Moon 44 violent?
- Yes. Ember rates the violence in Moon 44 as brutal.
- What did critics think of Moon 44?
- Critics broadly found the film visually eye-catching but unoriginal, sluggish, poorly acted, and lacking tension.
- Which films are like Moon 44?
- Films with a similar feel include Outland, Aliens, RoboCop, and Fortress.
- How long is Moon 44?
- Moon 44 runs 98 minutes.
