Main Cast: James Olson, Catherine Schell, Warren Mitchell, Adrienne Corri, Ori Levy
Release Year: 1969
Country: UK
Run Time: 100 minutes
Plot
A spaceman -- with a raygun -- for hire takes on a crooked land baron in this drama that moves Western themes into outer space. In the year 2021, Bill Kemp (James Olson), the first man to walk on Mars, is an astronaut for hire, renting his services to the highest bidder. J.J. Hubbard (Warren Mitchell) is a multi-millionaire who pays Kemp to help blast an oncoming asteroid out of its orbit so that it will avoid the Earth and crash into the moon. However, Hubbard's goal is hardly benevolent. The moon is being excavated for mineral resources, and since fragments of the asteroid in question resemble jewels, it will allow Hubbard to fraudulently jack up land prices on the lunar surface. Kemp also learns that Hubbard was responsible for the death of the brother of Clementine Taplin (Catherine Schell), the woman he loves. Kemp realizes that he can no longer do business with Hubbard, and he sets out to foil Hubbard's schemes before it's too late. Moon Zero Two was directed by Roy Thomas Baker, who also made a number of pictures for Hammer Films, including the respected sci-fi cult film Quatermass and the Pit. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Dudley Foster - Whitsun; Bernard Bresslaw - Harry; Joby Blanshard - Smith; Michael Ripper - 1st Card Player; Robert Tayman - 2d Card Player; Leo Britt - Senior Customs Officer; Carol Cleveland - Hostess; Roy Evans - Worker; Sam Kydd - Bar Man; Neil McCallum - Space Captain; Tom Kempinski - 2nd Officer; Keith Bonnard - Junior Customs Officer
Credit
Scott MacGregor - Art Director, Carl Toms - Costume Designer, Jack Martin - First Assistant Director, Roy Ward Baker - Director, Spencer Reeve - Editor, Don Ellis - Composer (Music Score), Paul Beeson - Cinematographer, Michael Carreras - Producer, Nick Allder - Special Effects, Kit West - Special Effects, Les Bowie - Special Effects, Roy Hyde - Sound/Sound Designer, Michael Carreras - Screenwriter, Martin Davison - Short Story Author, Frank Hardman - Short Story Author, Gavin Lyall - Short Story Author
Moon Zero Two was filmed at 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, directed by Roy Ward Baker, was filmed in Technicolor and was of 100 minutes in duration.
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 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 also Mercury and moons of Jupiter -- for profit.
Meanwhile a young woman 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 in 20 minutes using Moon 02, she convinces him to try to learn whether her brother is still alive. In doing so, Kemp learns more than he would like about some of Hubbard's schemes.
Visuals
All of the technology pictured in the film is essentially NASA Apollo-era vintage, complete with familiar-looking lunar landers and command modules. Late in production, a dialogue reference to Neil Armstrong becoming the first man on the moon was inserted (the film was released three months after the landing).
The film has stylistic similarities to the Gerry Anderson TV series UFO and Space: 1999: in the film, women wear stylish colored wigs (often purple) while on the moon -- a style also retained in UFO for its Moonbase sequences, while the uniforms worn by the pilots and civilians are similar in style to that worn in Space: 1999, another Moon-based series.
