Film

Moonfall

Name: Moonfall
Genre: Science Fiction, Adventure, Action
Released: 2022
Cast: Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, John Bradley, Charlie Plummer, Kelly Yu

Moonfall is a spectacle-driven sci-fi disaster film about humanity's frantic race against an apocalyptic deadline. Director Roland Emmerich stages enormous set-pieces with genuine scale and momentum, even as the plot veers into increasingly absurd territory. It's built for viewers who want spectacle first and logic second—massive destruction, wild twists, and a B-movie spirit wrapped in a blockbuster budget.

TMDb rating

3.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love big, gleefully overblown disaster spectacle where the carnage is the point and the science is cheerfully ignored, and a human story sits in the middle of the wreckage.

Skip it if you want logic, restraint or a slower build; the film is loud, leaps quickly between jeopardy and exposition, and its dialogue can be hard to take seriously.

What it asks of you: Two hours and eleven minutes of mostly brisk escalation, with little quiet room between set pieces; it keeps moving and rarely lingers.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Independence Day1996

Emmerich's template for disaster spectacle: alien threat, multiple perspectives, humor amid chaos, and genuine moments of wonder. It's blockbuster filmmaking that remembers to be fun.

But The CGI is deeply 1996. Some characters feel more like functions than people. Runs nearly two-and-a-half hours.

20122009

Emmerich's other apocalypse-on-a-clock movie: jaw-dropping destruction sequences, family-in-peril stakes, and the same willingness to go deliriously big. If you liked Moonfall's energy, this has it in spades.

But The plot is thin and the dialogue often clunky. It asks for your brain to check out entirely, which isn't everyone's idea of fun.

Don't Look Up2021

A comet-headed toward Earth, seen through fractured institutional chaos and gallows comedy. Explores how we respond when catastrophe is visible but inconvenient to acknowledge.

But Darker and more bitter than Moonfall. Long stretches of talk. The satire can feel heavy-handed if political messaging isn't what you signed up for.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Moonfall

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World2012

Both films face apocalypse, but where Moonfall says 'fight the impossible,' this asks 'what do you do when fighting won't help?' Same deadline, opposite emotional temperature.

An asteroid is sixty days from impact. Instead of fighting it, a lonely man and woman decide to find closure—reconnecting with people they love, or should have. It's apocalypse as permission to be honest about what matters.

But A comedy-drama about death and loneliness that earns its humor by not punching. Some find that bittersweet register bleak rather than moving.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World poster

The Core2003

Gloriously ridiculous disaster sci-fi with real heart: a team descends to stop Earth's core from failing. It commits fully to its bonkers premise and doesn't apologize for the fun.

But The science is completely invented. Effects haven't aged well. It's campy in a way that requires patience and affection for that mode.

Greenland2020

Gerard Butler in a comet-strike thriller that stays grounded and claustrophobic, building dread through survival logistics rather than spectacle. Lean, propulsive, visceral.

But Grim and relentless with no humor as relief. It's about panic and collapse, which makes it exhausting rather than cathartic.

Armageddon1998

An asteroid threatens Earth, so we send a team of roughneck drillers into space. Peak late-90s blockbuster excess: oversized emotions, Aerosmith, the kind of heart-on-sleeve sincerity that's become rare.

But Aggressively sentimental. Bay's direction is as subtle as a sledgehammer. The science is nonsense and it knows it.

Deep Impact1998

A comet's coming; multiple storylines of ordinary people confronting mortality and connection. More introspective than Moonfall, interested in character over spectacle.

But Lacks action momentum. Feels more like a prestige drama than a thriller. The climax is surprisingly quiet.

Twisters2024

Roaring spectacle of natural disaster, with tangible storm visuals and charming leads. Summer blockbuster that prioritizes scale and excitement without overthinking the premise.

But Thinner plot than you'd hope. Characters mostly serve the set-pieces. Doesn't venture far from formula.

The Day After Tomorrow2004

Climate catastrophe thriller with a father finding his son across a frozen wasteland. Emmerich blends disaster spectacle with family emergency; the stakes feel personal despite the scale.

But Environmentalist message lands heavy. Pacing sags in the middle. The science is freely invented for dramatic effect.

Melancholia2011

Moonfall is about the moon falling. This is about a planet arriving. Same cosmic threat, but von Trier makes it interior—about what the disaster reveals in us, not how we stop it.

A rogue planet is heading toward Earth. Told in two acts: a wedding and then the waiting. Lars von Trier transforms disaster into metaphor for depression, cosmic horror, and the strange peace that comes with inevitability.

But Deliberately slow, painterly, and grief-focused. No action sequences, no heroes. Some will find it pretentious or punishing. Not built for entertainment in the conventional sense.

High Life2018

Both are about humans pushed against cosmic extremes by forces beyond control. But where Moonfall builds outward in spectacle, this collapses inward into silence and strangeness.

A deep-space prison ship headed toward a black hole, where inmates become unwilling experiment subjects. Claire Denis makes sci-fi that's hypnotic and unsettling, more interested in isolation and the body than plot momentum.

But Deliberately cryptic, shot in long takes, often quiet and strange. Science-fiction that doesn't explain itself. Some audiences find it glacial or impenetrable.