Moon in fiction

The Moon has been the subject of many works of art and literature and the inspiration for countless others. It is a motif in the visual arts, the performing arts, poetry, prose and music.

Fantasy

In many fantasy stories, full-Moon means vampires and werewolves running loose.

Literary

• The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, a 10th-century Japanese folktale, tells of a mysterious Moon Princess growing up on Earth as the adopted daughter of a bamboo cutter and his wife, dazzling human Princes and the Emperor himself with her beauty, and finally going back to her people at "The Capital of the Moon" (Tsuki-no-Miyako 月の都), leaving many broken hearts on Earth. It is among the first texts of any culture assuming the Moon to be an inhabited world and describing travel between it and the Earth.
• John Heywood's Proverbes (1546) coined the famous phrase that "The moon is made of a greene cheese", "greene" meaning "not aged", but Heywood was probably being sarcastic.^[1]
• One of the earliest fictional flights to the Moon took place on the pages of Ludovico Ariosto's well-known Italian epic poem "Orlando Furioso" (1516). The protagonist Orlando, having been thwarted in love, goes mad with despair and rampages through Europe and Africa, destroying everything in his path. The English knight Astolfo, seeking to find a cure for Orlando's madness, flies up to the Moon in Elijah's flaming chariot. In this depiction, the Moon is where everything lost on earth is to be found, including Orlando's wits, and Astolfo brings them back in a bottle and makes Orlando sniff them, thus restoring him to sanity.
• Edward Young's poem entitled The Complaint, and the Consolation; or, Night Thoughts" (1742-1745), was a favorite of poets and painters of Romanticism including William Blake and Samuel Palmer.^[2][3]
• In the Great Moon Hoax of 1835, a newspaper reporter concocted a series of stories purporting to describe the discovery of life on the Moon, talking of such creatures as winged humanoids and goats.
• Johnny Gruelle's 1922 children's book, The Magical Land of Noom, relates the adventures of two Earth children among the inhabitants of the far side of the Moon.
• Roverandom by J. R. R. Tolkien was written in 1925 to console his son Michael, then four years old, for the loss of a beloved toy dog. In the story, the dog has flown to the Moon and had a whole series of amusing adventures there. The story was only published posthumously. In addition, Isil and the guidesman Tilion in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth cosmology are based in Tolkien's familiarity with Norse and Gaelic myths of the moon.
• Doctor Dolittle in the Moon (1928) was intended to be the last of Hugh Lofting's Doctor Dolittle books. The Doctor, with his unique ability to communicate with animals, arrived in the Moon on the back of a giant moth and finds a considerably different kind of fauna (for example, Moon insects are far bigger than the local birds), and more startlingly, intelligent plants whose language he learns (as he never did with earthly plants). He also meets the Moon's single human inhabitant, a prehistoric man who has grown into an enormous giant due to lunar foods and conditions (which soon happens to the doctor himself). But it is doubtful whether he would ever be allowed to return to Earth.
• Goodnight Moon (1947) by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Clement Hurd.
• Winter Moon, a poem by Langston Hughes.
• Moon Palace (1989) by Paul Auster, one of his best-known and most complicated novels.
• Cloud Atlas. In a future Korea, a projector on Mount Fuji beams projections of advertisements onto the Moon's face.

Theatre

• The End of the Moon by Laurie Anderson is a 90-minute monologue created as part of Anderson's two years as NASA artist-in-residence. It premiered in a two-week run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theater in March 2005.
• Far Side of the Moon by Robert Lepage, a theatre creator/performer from Québec.

Science fiction

Literature

Early stories

Lucian's Icaromenippus and True History, written in the 2nd century AD, deal with imaginary voyages to the moon such as on a fountain after going past the Pillars of Hercules. The theme did not become popular until the 17th century, however, when the invention of the telescope hastened the popular acceptance of the concept of "a world in the Moon", that is, that the Moon was an inhabitable planet, which might be reached via some sort of aërial carriage. The concept of another world, close to our own and capable of looking down at it from a distance, provided ample scope for satirical comments on the manners of the Earthly world. Among the early stories dealing with this concept are:

• Somnium (1541) by Juan Maldonado.
• The Dream (Somnium) (1634) by Johannes Kepler (written before 1610, but not published during Kepler's life). An Icelandic voyager is transported to the Moon by aërial demons; an occasion for Kepler to offer some of his astronomical theories in the guise of fiction.
• The Man in the Moone (1638) by Francis Godwin. A Spaniard flies to the Moon using a contraption pulled by geese.
• The Discovery of a World in the Moone, or a discourse tending to prove that 'tis probable there may be another habitable world in that planet. (1638) by John Wilkins.
• Voyage dans la Lune (1657) by Cyrano de Bergerac, inspired by Godwin.^[4] Cyrano is launched toward the moon by fireworks.
• The Consolidator (1705) by Daniel Defoe. Travels between China and the Moon on an engine called The Consolidator (a satire on the Parliament of England).
• A Voyage to Cacklogallinia (1727) by Samuel Brunt
• Syzygies and Lunar Quadratures Aligned to the Meridian of Mérida of the Yucatán by an Anctitone or Inhabitant of the Moon (1775), by Franciscan friar Manuel Antonio de Rivas
• Newest Voyage (1784) by Vasily Levshin. A protagonist flies in a self-constructed winged apparatus.
• The improbable adventures of Baron Munchausen (1786) included two voyages to the Moon, and a description of its flora and fauna.
• A Voyage to the Moon (1793) by Aratus (the penname of an anonymous British author, not the original Greek scientist)
• The Conquest by the Moon (1809) by Washington Irving. An invasion story meant as an allegory about treatment of Native Americans by European settlers in America.
• A Flight to the Moon (1813) by George Fowler.
• Land of Acephals (1824) by Wilhelm Küchelbecker. Flight in a balloon.
• A Voyage to the Moon (1827) by George Tucker.
• "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall" (1835) by Edgar Allan Poe features a repairer of bellows in Rotterdam who creates a giant balloon and an 'air compressor' to allow him to travel to the Moon.
• "The Galoshes of Fortune" (1838) by Hans Christian Andersen. A watchman unknowingly fits on a pair of magic galoshes that can grant people's wishes. As he wishes he could visit the moon the shoes send him flying there. There he meets several moon men who all wonder whether Earth is inhabited and decide this must be impossible. Back on Earth the lifeless body of the watchman is found and he is brought to a hospital, where they take his shoes off, breaking the spell again. He awakens and declares it to have been the most terrible night he had ever experienced.
• "Recollections of Six Days' Journey in the Moon. By An Aerio-Nautical Man" (1844). Published in the July and August issues of the Southern Literary Messenger.

First voyage

The first flight to the Moon was a popular topic of science fiction before the actual landing in 1969.

• From the Earth to the Moon (1865) and its sequel Around the Moon (1870) by Jules Verne, in which a projectile is launched from Florida and lands in the Pacific Ocean, not unlike the Apollo Program.
• In Les Exilés de la Terre (Exiled from Earth, 1887), by Paschal Grousset (writing as André Laurie), a Sudanese mountain composed of pure iron ore is converted into a huge electro-magnet and catapulted to the Moon where the protagonists have various adventures.
• The First Men in The Moon (1901) by H. G. Wells in which a spaceship gets to the moon with the aid of Cavorite -a material which shields out gravity. It is inhabited by insect-like Selenites who are ruled by a Grand Lunar, and who prevent Cavor from returning to Earth after learning of humanity's warlike nature.
• Na srebrnym globie [The Silver Globe] (1903), by Polish writer Jerzy Żuławski in which a first expedition from Earth gives birth to a lunar society. The story was continued in Zwycięzca [The Conqueror] (1910) and Stara Ziemia [The Old Earth] (1911). This so-called Lunar Trilogy was the first modern Polish SF story. It was adapted to the screen as On the Silver Globe by Andrzej Żuławski.
• Trends is a 1939 short story by Isaac Asimov in which religious fanatics oppose a fictional first flight to the Moon in the 1970s.
• Prelude to Space is a 1951 novel by Arthur C. Clarke recounting the events leading up to a fictional first flight to the Moon in 1978.

Robert A. Heinlein

Robert A. Heinlein wrote extensively, prolifically, and inter-connectedly about first voyages and colonization of the Moon, which he most often called Luna.^[5] He also was involved with the films Destination Moon and Project Moonbase.

• "Requiem" 1940. A lyrical story about Harriman, the man who financed the first Moon landing (see also "The Man Who Sold the Moon", below).
• Rocket Ship Galileo 1947. A physicist and several prodigy teenagers convert a sub-orbital rocket ship to reach the moon where they are profoundly surprised and have to act quickly to deal with a malignant menace.
• "Columbus Was a Dope", as Lyle Monroe, 1947. In a bar on the Moon, a chance encounter reveals both deep and practical attitudes about space exploration.
• "The Long Watch" (aka "Rebellion on the Moon", 1948). An officer in charge of a nuclear arsenal on the Moon makes tough decisions.
• "Gentlemen, Be Seated!", 1948. A dangerous leak develops in a lunar tunnel and the men devise a unique way to deal with it until a repair can be made.
• "The Black Pits of Luna", 1948. A Boy Scout visits cities on the Moon.
• "The Man Who Sold the Moon", a 1949 short story, first published in 1951. In this story, a prequel to "Requiem" (above), events revolve around a fictional first Moon landing in 1978.
• "Nothing Ever Happens on the Moon", 1949. A 21st-century Boy Scout on the Moon encounters numerous hazards and predicaments in a bid to earn Eagle Scout (Moon).
• The Rolling Stones 1952. The exceptional Stone family lives on the moon and after extensive background and preparation of their own ship they depart to tour and live in the Solar System.
• "The Menace From Earth", 1957. A lunar teenage girl's romance is disrupted by a newcomer. Extensive descriptions, most noteworthy is the muscle-power flying in a huge sealed cavern.
• "Searchlight", 1962. A short-short piece about a rescue on the Moon.
• The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966). In this Hugo Award winning novel, the moon is a penal colony, especially for political prisoners and their descendants. They revolt for independence from Earth-based control. The novel discusses issues of sustainability, health, transportation, family organization, artificial intelligence, and political governance.
• The Cat Who Walks Through Walls 1985. About a third of the book takes place on a Free Luna that is a continuation of the Luna in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (TMiaHM above). Free-enterprise is rampant Luna City is called L-City. Hazel Stone from The Rolling Stones and TMiaHM appears.

Inhabited Moon

The Moon is sometimes imagined as having, now or in the distant past, indigenous life and civilization.

• Lost Paradise (1936) by C. L. Moore. This Northwest Smith story tells how the once-fertile Moon became an airless wasteland.
• In C. S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength (1945), the Moon (Sulva) is described as being home to a race of extreme eugenicists. On the near side, the elite caste seems to have dispensed with organic existence altogether, by some means never clearly described; the only holdouts against this trend are an embattled minority on the far side. The response of the characters to this state of affairs varies according to their status: Professor Filostrato, of the wicked N.I.C.E., considers the Sulvans "[a] great race, further advanced than we", while the Christian champion Elwin Ransom describes them as "an accursed people, full of pride and lust."
• The Matthew Looney series of children's books by Jerome Beatty Jr (written 1961 - 1978) is an amusing set of stories about an inhabited Moon whose government is intent on invading the Earth.

Colonization

Human settlements on the Moon are found in many science fiction novels, short stories and films. Not all have the Moon colony itself as central to the plot.

• Menace from the Moon (1925), by English writer Bohun Lynch. A lunar colony, founded in 1654 by a Dutchman, an Englishman, an Italian, and "their women", threatens Earth with heat-ray doom unless it helps them escape their dying world.
• Earthlight (1955) by Arthur C. Clarke. A settlement on the Moon becomes caught in the crossfire of a war between Earth and a federation of Mars and Venus.
• The Trouble With Tycho (1960) by Clifford D. Simak. A young lunar prospector seeks to find a lost expedition to the Moon.
• A Fall of Moondust (1961) by Arthur C. Clarke. A lunar dust boat full of tourists sinks into a sea of Moon dust.
• The Lathe of Heaven (1971) by Ursula K. Le Guin. In one of the alternate realities in the novel lunar bases are established by 2002, only to be attacked by aliens from Aldebaran (who in another reality turn out to be benign).
• The Gods Themselves (1973) by Isaac Asimov. The third section of the novel takes place in a lunar settlement in the year 2100.
• Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels (1974) by George R. R. Martin. This story takes place on Earth, devastated by nuclear war 500 years earlier and being explored by descendants of a small remnant of humanity that survived on a lunar colony.
• Inherit the Stars (1977) by James P. Hogan is the first book of the Minervan Experiment series. The Moon turns out to have previously orbited Minerva, a planet that exploded to form the asteroid belt 50,000 years ago.
• The Lunatics (1988) by Kim Stanley Robinson. A group of enslaved miners forced to work under the lunar surface launch a rebellion.
• Lunar Descent by Allen Steele (1991) Set in 2024, the novel describes a base called Descartes Station.
• Transmigration of Souls (1996) by William Barton. An expedition from a moon base discovers an alien base with technology that allows teleportation and time travel. ISBN 0-446-60167-5.
• Ice (2002) by Shane Johnson. A fictional Apollo 19 mission takes a disastrous turn when the LM ascent engine fails to fire. The astronauts then set out on their own as far as their new heavy lunar rover will take them. Their exploration leads miraculously to an ancient—but still functioning—lunar base.
• People Came From Earth by Stephen Baxter, printed in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Seventeenth Annual Collection.
• In the novels A Fall of Moondust, Earthlight, Rendezvous with Rama, and 2001: A Space Odyssey,by Arthur C. Clarke, colonies of various sizes and functions exist on the moon—some the size of cities
• The Moonrise and Moonwar books by Ben Bova tell the story of a lunar base built by an American corporation, which eventually rebels against Earth control. The books form part of the "Grand Tour" series.
• Moonfall (1998) by Jack McDevitt features a comet heading for a collision with the Moon just as the first base is being opened. ISBN 0-06-105036-9.
• The short story "Byrd Land Six" (2010) by Alastair Reynolds includes a Moon colony centered around mining helium-3.
• In the Hyperion stories by Dan Simmons, the Moon is one of several hundred colonized celestial bodies; however, it is left almost entirely abandoned as 99% of the existing colonized planets are preferable to the moon.
• Life as We Knew It (2006) by Susan Beth Pfeffer, a novel focusing on the effects of an asteroid colliding with the Moon and knocking its orbit closer to Earth.
• Learning the World by Ken MacLeod, a first contact novel. The humans trace their history from the Moon caves, the inference being failure of the primary.
• Luna is the capital of the Society and home of its Sovereign in Pierce Brown's Red Rising series of novels: Red Rising (2014), Golden Son (2015) and Morning Star (2016).
• Luna: New Moon (2015) by Ian McDonald, and its 2016 sequel Luna: Wolf Moon, are about several rival families which compete for helium-3 mining operations on the Moon.
• Limit (2013) by Frank Schätzing: a sf thriller concerning the mining of Helium-3 and tourism activities on the Moon.

Film

• Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902) written and directed by Georges Méliès. Released in the US as "A Trip to the Moon". A French silent film loosely based upon the Jules Verne novel From the Earth to the Moon and the First Men in the Moon. Includes a famous scene where the rocket hits the Man of the Moon in the Eye.
• Frau im Mond ("Woman in the Moon", 1929), written and directed by Fritz Lang. Based on the novel Die Frau im Mond (1928) by Lang's then-wife and collaborator Thea von Harbou, translated in English as The Rocket to the Moon (1930). The film was released in the USA as By Rocket to the Moon, and in the UK as Woman in the Moon. A silent movie often considered to be one of the first "serious" science fiction films, in which the basics of rocket travel were presented to a mass audience for the first time.
• Things to Come (1936) was an early science fiction film and featured a spacecraft sending two people on the first manned flight around the moon launched into space by a space gun in the year 2036.
• Melody Time (1948). In the segment Pecos Bill, Pecos Bill's fiancee Slue Foot Sue gets thrown to the moon by Pecos's horse Widowmaker, where she stays for all time.
• Destination Moon (1950) was a groundbreaking science fiction film, based on a story treatment by Robert A. Heinlein and directed by George Pal.
• Project Moonbase (1953). A failed television pilot converted into a film.
• First Men in the Moon (1964) is a science fiction film loosely based on H. G. Wells' novel The First Men in the Moon.
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke. Includes a scene at a lunar administrative base in the Clavius crater.
• Moon Zero Two (1969). Billed as a 'space western', this Hammer Films production followed shortly after 2001: A Space Odyssey. In the year 2021 the moon is in the process of being colonized, and this new frontier is attracting a diverse group of people.
• Star Trek: First Contact (1996). By the 24th century there were approximately 50 million people living on the moon, and on a clear day, at least two cities and man-made Lake Armstrong were visible from Earth - as such, time-traveler William Riker, sitting in the cockpit of the first warp prototype, marvels at the sight of the "unspoiled" moon in 2063.
• Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999). Dr. Evil attempts to destroy Washington D.C. with a giant laser from his moon base, but Austin Powers is able to stop him.
• Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000). In a dream, Sherman Klump accidentally blows up the moon while trying to prevent an asteroid hitting Earth, which it does.
• Titan A.E. (2000). When an evil alien race called the Drej destroys Earth, huge chunks of the Earth collide with the Moon and break it in half.
• Space Cowboys (2000). An astronaut rides a disused Russian satellite with nuclear missiles to the Moon to prevent it from hitting Earth.
• Recess: School's Out (2001). A tractor beam is used in a school in an attempt to move the Moon into a different orbit around Earth, which would end summer and cause a new ice age.
• Millennium Actress (2001). One of the films that the actress Chiyoko Fujiwara stars in is a sci-fi one, in which a rocket launches from a base on the Moon on an interstellar voyage.
• The Time Machine (2002). The moon is destroyed by human efforts at colonization in 2037. The film is not specific as to how exactly it occurs, but the use of nuclear weapons for creating underground caverns is cited as a cause. The destruction causes humanity to divide into Morlocks and Eloi.
• WALL-E (2008) depicts human colonization on the moon by the early 22nd century.
• Moon (2009) Film about a solitary lunar employee mining for new energy resources who experiences a personal crisis as the end of his three-year contract nears. It is the feature debut of director Duncan Jones starring Sam Rockwell.
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) The Apollo 11 mission to the Moon in 1969 turned out to be a top secret mission to examine the remains of an ancient Transformer Spacecraft containing deceased alien robots.
• Apollo 18 (2011) follows a fictional Apollo 18 mission and its discovery on the Moon.
• Iron Sky (2012) Nazis attack the earth from a base on the dark side of the moon while a coalition, led by president Sarah Palin attempts to defeat them.
• Oblivion (2013) An alien race destroys the moon, causing massive earthquakes and tsunamis that cause great damage to the Earth.

Television

• Several episodes of the long-running British television series Doctor Who feature the Moon:
  • The Moonbase (1967). A four-part serial set in the year 2070, where a moonbase has been established to use a gravity-control device called the “Gravitron” to control the weather on Earth.
  • The Seeds of Death (1969). A base on the Moon is used as a relay station for T-Mat a powerful teleportation technology that has replaced all conventional forms of transport.
  • Silver Nemesis (1988). The Cybermen's Cyber-Fleet is in orbit around the moon when it is destroyed by the Nemesis statue.
  • Frontier in Space (1973). Features a penal colony on the Moon in the year 2540.
  • Smith and Jones (2007). The Judoon take London Hope Hospital to the moon as they have no rights over the Earth to arrest a Plasmavore.
  • Kill the Moon (2014). The episode reveals that the Moon is in fact a giant egg, and is set mainly on the Moon's surface, or in a Moon-based structure.
• Moonbase 3 (1973). Another British science fiction television show about a lunar base; aired only six episodes.
• Two Gerry Anderson series featured moonbases:
  • UFO (1970). A moonbase is used as the launch site for interceptor spacecraft sent to destroy invading alien spaceships.
  • Space: 1999 (ITC Entertainment, 1975–1977). Featured "Moonbase Alpha" on a Moon that had been blasted out of its orbit by a nuclear explosion at phenomenal velocity. The opening episode indicates that the base coordinated nuclear waste disposal, spaceflight operations and training, and subsequent episodes suggest mining, surface surveys and exploration, indicating a versatile base for multiple use, overseen by an international organization on Earth, the "International Lunar Commission".
• Star Cops (1987). The titular police force has its base of operations on the Moon.
• Colonization of the Moon is mentioned several times in the Star Trek franchise.
  • Star Trek: Enterprise. The Moon has already been colonized in this series.
  • The Next Generation. The character Dr. Beverly Crusher was born in Copernicus City on the surface of the moon.
  • Deep Space Nine mentions settlements on the Moon called Tycho City, New Berlin, and Lunaport. It is also revealed that Earth's moon is referred to by its Latin name, Luna, probably to distinguish it from the thousands of moons throughout the universe. It is also revealed that living on the moon is seen by many humans as something of a novelty, as Jake Sisko uses the slang term Lunar schooner somewhat affectionately when he meets a girl from there.

Animation

• Space Brothers is a Japanese anime based on the manga of the same name. Two young brothers see a UFO, inspiring them to become astronauts and go to the moon. While the younger brother (Hibito) eventually becomes a JAXA astronaut, the older brother (Nanba) loses his motivation and becomes wrapped in mundane life. The story follows each brother as Nanba finds his inspiration, struggles through the JAXA tests and NASA training, while Hibito becomes the first Japanese astronaut to walk on the moon but afterward wrestles with his unwanted fame and his crippling fears from a close brush with death.
• Sailor Moon. In this Japanese anime and manga series, the Moon was once home to the Silver Millennium (Moon Kingdom in the dub). Eventually conflict destroyed the Kingdom and caused the Moon to take its current form. Usagi Tsukino (Serena Tsukino in the dub) is a play on words for Moon Rabbit, the translation for "tsuki no usagi" in Japanese, is the current incarnation of the show and manga's titular character. Her attacks are based on love and justice.
• Mr Moon is a 2010 children's TV series in which the main character is anthropomorphism of the moon exploring the Solar System which his friends.
• In the manga and anime series Naruto, the primary antagonist Madara Uchiha's goal, known as the "Eye of the Moon Plan", involves casting an illusion on the moon, allowing him to gain dominance over everyone in the world. According to the series' mythology, the moon was created when the originator of ninjutsu imprisoned the body of a powerful demon within it.
• Planetes (2003). A Japanese anime TV series set at a time when travel to the Moon has become an everyday occurrence.
• Mobile Suit Gundam. Throughout most of this anime saga, the Moon has been extensively colonised, with underground cities built inside of the larger craters.
• Exosquad. In this American military science fiction series, the Moon is the site of the fiercest battle between Terran and Neosapien forces. The victory achieved by the Terrans on the Moon soon leads to the liberation of Earth.
• Futurama. By the year 3000, a theme park has been constructed on the moon inside a giant dome with an artificial atmosphere, and an artificial gravity.
• Megas XLR. on one episode the Glorft attempt to convert the moon into a Missile. Coop also ends up Blowing half the moon up. (in the credits he's seen putting the moon back together)
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Among the recurring characters are The Mooninites, which hail from the moon.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. The moon is used by the Anti-Spirals as the "Human Extermination System", and is designed to fall on the Earth once a million humans live on the surface. It is later discovered that the moon is actually one of Lord Genome's battleships.
• Origin: Spirits of the Past. An anime movie set in Japan 300 years in the future. An apocalypse was brought about by extensive genetic engineering on trees, conducted at a research facility on Earth's moon, in order to produce trees capable of growing in harsh, arid conditions. The trees became conscious and spread to Earth in a fiery holocaust, wiping out most of modern civilization and fragmenting the moon.
• The Tick. Supervillain Chairface Chippendale attempts to create the ultimate act of vandalism by writing his name on the moon's surface with a powerful laser. He is only able to write "CHA" before being thwarted by The Tick. Some time later a mission to the moon is mounted with the intent of repairing this damage. The Tick is given a backpack full of explosives and told to wait in the carved-out "C". When the backpack explodes, The Tick is hurled out of the Solar System, but the "C" is repaired, leaving "HA" still visible from Earth.
• In Despicable Me the world’s #1 super villain, Gru, decides to steal the moon in an attempt to prove himself better than his arch-rival (#1 super villain), Vector.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender: In this Nickelodeon cartoon series the Moon is a major part of the lore and spirituality of the Water Tribes. According to legend the first waterbenders learned how to bend water by watching the moon push and pull the water and were eventually able to do so themselves.
• In Space Jam, Mr. Swackhammer, the villain of the film gets sent there at the end of the game by the Monstars.
• In Transformers: Armada, The Mini-Con ship Exodus crash-landed on the Moon, scattering its stasis-locked passengers all over Earth. Later, the Decepticons would set up a base inside the derelict ship, from where they would teleport to various locations on Earth to search for the Mini-Cons.
• In official supplemental materials for Neon Genesis Evangelion, the impact that created the Moon - known in-universe as First Impact - is revealed to have been caused by the "Black Moon", an artificial construct carrying the Angel Lilith; as an allusion, Rei Ayanami is frequently depicted in the series and in official artwork with a full moon motif. During Third Impact as depicted in The End of Evangelion, Lilith's blood is shown to splatter onto the moon from low Earth orbit. In the Rebuild of Evangelion movies, the existence of NERV's Tabgha Lunar Base is revealed. Various features depicted on the surface in the first film include a large red stain not unlike the one created by Lilith in The End of Evangelion, a series of coffin-like objects - one of which is revealed to contain Kaworu Nagisa - and a large humanoid entity resembling Lilith's original depiction. In the second film, Gendo Ikari and Kozou Fuyutsuki travel to the base in a large spacecraft but are denied entry; they subsequently observe the giant entity from above, revealing it as the under-construction Evangelion Mark.06.
• In the popular animation show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, the moon and the sun are raised each day and night by two alicorn princesses called Luna and Celestia, respectively. A thousand years prior to the first episode, Luna grew jealous that the ponies living in the world slept during her night, and tried to make the night last forever, taking the name 'Nightmare Moon'. Celestia subsequently banished her to the moon, and arranged for the show's main characters to assist in redeeming her.
• In the anime series Inazuma Eleven GO, antagonist Bitway Ozrock seals the Moon away to demonstrate his true strength, and uses the effects of its absence on the Earth to coerce the World's joint governments to agree to his demands.
• At the end of the Arthur episode "The Boy Who Cried Comet", Arthur and his friends are shown unmasking themselves, showing them as aliens who live in a city on the far side of the Moon.
• In the Teen Titans Go! episode "Starfire the Terrible," Starfire says she has rigged the Moon to explode, which Cyborg dismisses. Cut to the Moon covered in dynamite seconds before it explodes, shocking the other Titans Starfire laughs/gargles before she really does down the milk carton, telling them that she only did it because Robin loved the Moon so much.
• SpongeBob SquarePants. In "Sandy's Rocket," SpongeBob and Patrick take Sandy's rocket to what they think is the Moon, but they're still in Bikini Bottom. Trouble endues when they capture all the citizens, thinking they're aliens. In "Mooncation," Sandy goes to the moon for a vacation with SpongeBob.

Computer and video games

• Battlezone - Set during the 1960s with an alternative history plot, in which the space race is used to cover up the military deployment of US and USSR into space, the moon is set a stage as the first mission in the NSDF Campaign.
• Call of Duty Black Ops - The moon is one of the maps available through the Rezurection map pack.
• Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge - In one of Soviet Campaign missions, the general was assigned to establish his base there in order to destroy Yuri's Lunar Command Center to prevent the Earth from falling under his psychic mind control.
• Darius II - The moon is inhabited by enemy forces and underground bases players must confront on the fourth level.
• Dead Moon - Aliens crash land on the moon and use it as their headquarters for invading Earth.
• Descent – the main character (the Material Defender) has to clean the Solar System of infected PTMC mines, starting from the moon. Consequently, the first three levels of the game take place in an outpost, a sci-lab, and a military base on the moon.
• Destroy All Humans! 2 - The final area of the game takes place on a Russian moon base called "Solaris".
• Donkey Kong Country Returns - After the final boss, Donkey Kong is blasted into space, as he falls, he powers up a punch and punches the moon, causing to fall on the Volcano.
• Duke Nukem 3D - The second episode of the game, Lunar Apocalypse, takes place on a series of space stations that lead to the moon's surface.
• Final Fantasy IV/II (U.S SNES version)- in the last part of the game the characters travel to the moon to confront the final boss.
• Infinite Undiscovery - The main antagonist has enchained the moon in order to gain its power.
• The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - Link, the protagonist, must prevent the Moon from crashing to Earth within 3 days. The Moon carries a face that dreads its inevitable destruction.
• Mass Effect - One of the sidemissions is set on the Moon.
• Metal Black (video game) - After a massive alien invasion on Earth, the moon is overtaken by the aliens so as to involve it in their plot and its darkside sets the scene for the second level boss fight.
• Military Madness – moon colonization wars exist between the Union and Xenon.
• Moonbase – add-on for SimCity Classic to build a lunar colony rather than an earthbound city.
• Moonbase Commander
• Moon Patrol (Irem)
• Moon Tycoon - A colony building game, Claims to be the first 3-D Sim game ever.
• Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door - Mario must journey to the moon to recover a Crystal Star.
• Portal 2 - Chell, having learned that moon rocks are very good portal conductors, fires a portal at the moon to save herself from death.
• Rebel Moon Rising, a PC game by Fenris Wolf and GT Interactive.
• Star Control 2 – features a now uninhabited moon base.
• Star Ocean: Till the End of Time – features a moonbase.
• Sonic Adventure 2 - Dr. Eggman destroyed half the moon with the ARK's Eclipse Cannon.
• Strikers 1945 - In the original Japanese release of the game, players are rocketed towards the enemy's real headquarters situated on the moon's surface for the last two levels.
• Terra Diver - In the future, the moon is one of many points of galactic resources utilised by companies on Earth and hosts a company owned outpost stationed on a nearby asteroid where the fourth boss awaits.
• Virtue's Last Reward - The ending of the game reveals that the events actually take place on the moon in the year 2074 in a moon base.
• Wolfenstein: The New Order - The game takes place on a secret Nazi moon base near the end of the game.

Comics

• In the DC Universe, the Moon is the location of the Justice League Watchtower until its destruction by Alexander Luthor and also a former home of Eclipso.
• In an early Ibis the Invincible story the Moon has members of a humanoid race composed of stone that competed with humanity over the Earth and were exiled to the Moon thousands of years ago where they are frozen. A Professor makes a rocket ship to go to the Moon with Taia, and Ibis follows them. Two of the creatures are taken on the ship, and revive on a journey back to Earth, but are killed when the spaceship crashes.
• De Avonturen van Pa Pinkelman (1945) by Godfried Bomans and drawn by Carol Voges has the characters set foot on the moon, where they spent a long time and meet an entire society, even with his own national anthem.
• In Hergé's Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon (1953–1954), Tintin and his companions make the first voyage to the moon and Tintin becomes the first Explorer on the Moon.
• In The Adventures of Nero story "De Daverende Pitteleer" (1959) by Marc Sleen Nero and his friends accidentally land on the Moon. They meet a moon man there too, before continuing their flight to their original destination on Earth. The Moon is depicted just like Earth, with the characters walking around without having to use a space helmet or undergoing any effect of gravity loss.
• In The Adventures of Nero story "De Paarse Futen" (1968) Nero and his friends travel at sea and pick up a pair of American astronauts who crash-landed in the ocean after their attempt to travel to the moon once again failed. Adhemar uses a magic wand to send them to the moon and says: "This time the Americans beat the Russians." Near the end of the story a US military official arrives to congratulate Adhemar for what he has done and awards him a medal.
• In the Marvel Universe, the Moon contains the Blue Area, the home of the Inhumans. It was built by the Skrull race, in events which led to their Inter-galactic war with the Kree race. The powerful Watcher, Uatu, watches the Solar System from a base on the Moon. In FF #13 the Fantastic Four make the first landing on the Moon (this was published before 1969), and battle the communist villain the Red Ghost and his Super-apes.
• In Judge Dredd the moon is the site of a small colony named Luna City One.

See also

• Colonization of the Moon
• Moon
• Moon landings in fiction
• The Moon is made of green cheese
• List of real astronomical locations in fiction

References

• Davis, Peter G. 'Weird Science', New York Magazine (March 14, 2005) [A review of Laurie Anderson's The End of the Moon]
• James, Clive. Be Careful When They Offer You the Moon (1970) Retrieved May 12, 2005

External links

• Popular moon songs
• Reviews of Lunar Science Fiction
• Index on the Moon TV Tropes.com

Footnotes

1. Adams, Cecil (23 July 1999). "How did the moon=green cheese myth start?". The Straight Dope. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
2. Attlee, James (15 March 2011). Nocturne: A Journey in Search of Moonlight (1 ed.). University Of Chicago Press.
3. Attlee, James (25 March 2011). "Satellite of love and fear: How the moon has lit up the human imagination: The frenzy in cyberspace over the 'Super Moon' reveals the enduring pull of lunar myths". United Kingdom: The Independent.
4. Bennett, Maurice J. (1983). "Edgar Allan Poe and the Literary Tradition of Lunar Speculation". Science Fiction Studies 10 (2): 137–47.
5. Cowan, M. E. (2007). "Heinlein Concordance". Venice, California: The Heinlein Society. Retrieved 2010-09-11. Luna[:] Name used for the moon, as colonized by humans, in most of Heinlein's novels and stories. Rarely do characters refer to 'the moon' if it's inhabited.