Solitary Life in Lockdown — We are all Sam Bell

It’s easy to see the parallels in lifestyle between Moon’s lone worker and those of us in living solitary isolation — but we must take inspiration from Sam as we prepare to return to the world. (Warning — Spoilers!)

Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009), is an SF film set in the not too distant future. Sam Bell (played by Sam Rockwell) is a blue-collar working man supervising a lunar mining operation, with his only companion being an industrial robot, Gertie (voiced by Kevin Spacey). We join Sam as he approaches the end of his three-year posting, visibly physically and mentally deteriorating as he prepares himself for the return flight.

However, when Sam suffers what is presumed to be a fatal accident whilst away from the base, we discover that he is a clone, one of hundreds in storage. The newly awakened Sam makes an unauthorised trip and is shocked into this realisation when he rescues his injured predecessor. Both have to recognise that everything they thought was true was in fact a lie, their beautiful wife has been dead for years and their baby daughter is a teenager being raised by the original, real Sam. Previous incarnations have lived and died on the base, incinerated believing that they would wake up on Earth.

With the aid of Gertie, they hatch a plan, returning the dying clone to the accident site, and awakening…