In 1969, NASA accomplished what seemed to be impossible: they landed humanity on the Moon. It’s been some time since we’ve been back, but thanks to director Roland Emmerich, “in 2022, the moon will come to us.” Though as we see in the first teaser for the Independence Day director’s latest film, Moonfall, it won’t be coming in peace. And all that stands between Earth and mysterious destruction is Academy Award winner Halle Berry.
Moonfall starts out by invoking President John F. Kennedy’s iconic pledge to visit that celestial body, from his “Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort.” But the visuals soon shift to exactly what you’d expect from a Roland Emmerich movie, in this trailer released by Lionsgate. Concerned control rooms, a raging ecosystem, and a very shocked Michael Peña all play out the drama that comes from a movie from a man that helped reintroduce the world to a full and proper invasion.
And it definitely looks like an invasion is afoot in Moonfall. The central plot revolves around Halle Berry’s “NASA executive and former astronaut” Jo Fowler, who discovers the fact that something’s knocked the Moon out of its normal orbit and into a collision course with Earth. Some think it’s a conspiracy, but the evidence starts to mount, as an unexpected lifeform looks like it’s behind our planet’s worst day since Independence Day: Resurgence.
Which is an odd enough comparison when you take a look at both Roland Emmerich’s legacy-quel and Moonfall’s teaser trailer. The latter includes a stoic presidential speech as background to unidentified life forms potentially taking over the likes of Midway’s Patrick Wilson, not to mention the ensuing environmental madness that comes from the Moon heading towards us like a planetary cue ball. With that approach in mind, take a look at the teaser for 2016’s Independence Day: Resurgence:
This isn’t a knock on Roland Emmerich, but rather a note that the man has a particular style. It’s that style that Moonfall is clearly operating within the parameters of, and to be honest, it’s kind of comforting. Every now and then, the Earth needs to be knocked down a peg in a movie such as this, so that Halle Berry can stand up, glare at the Moon in the most heroic way possible, and help save humanity. It’s a concept that’s arriving at the right time, both in terms of the box office calendar, as well as the recent wave of blockbuster action that Berry has been riding.
Good, old fashioned, world destroying fun is headed our way once again, and in only a couple of months, as Moonfall comes to our planet on February 4th, 2022. So it’s not too early to check out that 2022 release schedule, just in case the Moon starts to look a little funny in the days to come. You never really do know what’s out there in the vastness of space.
