Moonbase, The Lunar Dump

Our moon captured our imaginations and ignited a flame of exploration inside all of us. Then we landed on the moon. NASA had reached their pinnacle. So many questions could now be answered and space exploration would take off...or so we thought. Then NASA and the U.S. Government let us all down. Lunar exploration was canned in favor of the utterly useless space shuttle program. For the next three decades the space shuttle would bore school children from all around the world with missions that promoted junk science and positioned missile systems satellites. The U.S. space program died and may never come back thanks to a misguided adherence to the shuttle. Hence 1997's "Moonbase," which may be a metaphor for all of NASA's misguided decisions. In this film, the moon is utilized as a garbage dump.

A group of violent criminals escape from a space prison. Stark (Robert O'Reilly) is the religious fanatic who leads the group. His main squeeze, the sultry Mina (Gretchen Palmer) is just as psycho. They commandeer a shuttle and head to the moon. On the moon, John (Scott Plank) commandeers the dump (really). He screwed up on Earth so this was his next assignment. Uh oh, the garbage shuttle from the prison has arrived and on it is trash....and a bunch of violent lunatics. They land and take over the moon base.

Uh oh again...also arriving is the very beautiful Dana (Jocelyn Seagrave). She is part of a secret U.S. Air Force team sent to recover warhead...oh yeah, did I mention the nuke? Yep...buried under lunar trash. The convicts now get the drop on the USAF team and Dana takes refuge with John and his team in the control room. Oh yeah, did I mention Dana and John are former lovers? Now the convicts are trying to get at Dana and the waste crew, commandeer a shuttle, and get to Earth with a nuke. As Dana and John come to terms of where their love affair went south, they also try to foil the holocaust plans of the lunatic escapees.

Will the convicts overtake John and his team and if they do, what will they do to the beautiful Air Force chick, Dana? Just what happened to end John and Dana's relationship and have him get transferred to a space-dump? If recycling programs had earned more federal funding would the plot line in this film have been possible? Sure, a mediocre film at best, but the graceful Jocelyn Seagrave makes it worthwhile. For a light scifi thriller, see "Moonbase," directed by Paolo Mazzucato.