Moon Zero Two
| Moon Zero Two | |
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Film poster
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| Directed by | Roy Ward Baker |
| Produced by | Michael Carreras |
| Written by | Michael Carreras Martin Davison Frank Hardman Gavin Lyall |
| Starring |
James Olson Catherine Schell Warren Mitchell Adrienne Corri |
| Music by | Don Ellis |
| Cinematography | Paul Beeson |
| Edited by | Spencer Reeve |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Warner-Pathé (UK) Warner Bros.-Seven Arts |
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Release date
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Running time
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100 min |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | £500,000 |
Moon Zero Two is a science fiction film produced by Hammer Films and released in 1969. It was billed as a space Western.
Moon Zero Two was filmed at the ABPC Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, England. The screenplay was by Michael Carreras from an original story by Gavin Lyall, Frank Hardman and Martin Davison. It was produced by Michael Carreras and directed by Roy Ward Baker.
In the year 2021, the moon is in the process of being colonized, and this new frontier is attracting a diverse group of people to settlements such as Moon City, Farside 5 and others.
Two such denizens of this rough and tumble lunar society are the notorious millionaire J. J. Hubbard and former-astronaut-turned-satellite-salvager Bill Kemp. The first man to set foot on Mars, Kemp has now left the Space Corporation because he wants to do space exploration whereas his former employer only wants to do commercial passenger flights to Mars and Venus (the first manned mission to Mercury has not yet been made since there is no compelling financial interest). When Hubbard hears of a small 6000-tonne asteroid made of pure "ceramic" sapphire that is orbiting close to the moon, he hires Kemp to capture it using Kemp's old "Moon 02" space ferry and bring it down to the lunar farside although it would be against the law. However, Kemp has little choice since he has learned that his flight license soon will be revoked due to protests from the Corporation. Hubbard also reveals that he plans to use the sapphire as a rocket engine thermal insulator; he would build more powerful rockets capable of finally colonizing Mercury and the moons of Jupiter—for profit.
Meanwhile, a young woman named Clementine arrives looking for her brother, a miner working a distant patch of moonscape at Spectacle Crater on the lunar farside. Unfortunately, the trip from Moon City on the nearside would take six days by lunar buggy. Since Kemp could go there more quickly using Moon 02, she convinces him to try to learn whether her brother is still alive. As the terrain is not entirely suitable for landing Moon 02, Kemp and Clementine travel the remaining distance by vehicle. The two discover that Clementine's brother is dead and soon find out that it was murder, especially as he had found a vein of nickel that would have made him a rich man. They do not have long to dwell on these revelations, as they are shot at by some of Hubbard's men, as the millionaire was unhappy to discover that Kemp was leaving to assist Clementine. It is eventually revealed that Hubbard is responsible for the brother's death. He needed the claim to be abandoned in order for him to take control of the land as it was the projected landing site for the asteroid and Clementine's brother would never have left the land after discovering the nickel vein. Hubbard blackmails Kemp into completing the job by threatening the lives of Kemp and Clementine, but in the process Kemp overcomes the millionaire. The film ends with Kemp telling Clementine that as her brother's next of kin she now has ownership of the nickel vein and all of the sapphire, making her a wealthy woman.
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