Lunopolis

Plot synopsis:
Footage on the news shows what seems like proof of a paranormal event. Twelve days earlier, on December 9, 2012, a conspiracy-themed radio show takes a call from a man who claims to work at Area 51. After the caller describes a secret civilization on the moon, he is cut off. George Larson, the host, dismisses it as a hoax until he receives a photo album that contains enough evidence that he hires a documentary crew headed by Matt and Sonny to investigate the claims. Matt and Sonny realize a decades-old Polaroid photograph depicts a man in modern clothing; on the back, it has a series of numbers written on it. They decode these as GPS coordinates that are less than an hour away from where they leave in Louisiana.
There, they find a hatch that leads to an underground warehouse. After searching the mostly empty structure, they find a mysterious device none of them can identify. Intrigued, they grab it and flee what they believe are approaching people. Documentation provides little explanation of the device but identifies it as a harness and allows them to turn it on; this turns out to be disastrous. Sonny, who is wearing the harness, disappears for a second and suffers injuries that require a brief hospitalization. Worried that they are over their heads, they take the harness to Dr. Orin Raymond, a local professor. While examining it, Dr. Raymond finds a glowing, green crystal he identifies as found only on the moon. As they leave, a member of the Church of Lunology harasses them and hands them a flyer.
Interviewees describe the Church of Lunology, which claims to be the fastest growing religion. Members believe that a civilization lives on the moon, and the US government has been covering it up. While Matt and Sonny investigate a Church of Lunology building, one of their camera operators, Nate, takes exterior shots. Separately, both groups are confronted by Church of Lunology members, who demand the return of their time machine. The filmmakers regroup and flee, chased by the Lunology members. Unable to outrun the Lunology members, the filmmakers stop their car and demand an explanation. Instead, the Lunology members' car takes off into the sky. Stunned and unsure of what happened, the filmmakers debate what to do next.
A note leads them to David James, a former member of the lunar colony who explains its history. The lunar colony and Church of Lunology are separate; the colonists are from the future, and Lunology cultists are normal people. Using the lunar rock, J. Ari Hilliard invents immortality and time travel, and, on December 21, 2012, he sends the first mission back to 350 BC, where they begin changing the timeline. This created unintended changes, resulting in a desire to repeatedly tinker with the timeline. Dissidents opposed this, fearing it could result in more unintended changes and weakened dimensional barriers between the changed timelines. The scientists' rationalizations became Lunology.
Hilliard, himself disillusioned, left the lunar colony and tried to reveal the truth, to no avail. Convinced that immortality was too great a power for any one person, he tried to murder himself before he could become immortal. The lunar colony, wise to his plans, prevented his first attempt in 1947, when he was born. His next attempt resulted in the Roswell UFO incident, as he fled the lunar colony back to Earth with the crystal. The crystal exists only in one place across all timelines, so the lunar colony must recover it before they can time travel any further. When Lunologists track down James, the filmmakers flee. Dr. Raymond and Larson both disappear. When the filmmakers return to the spot where they found the harness, it seems to have changed.
James recommends they give the crystal to Hilliard himself. The CEO of Lunology plays stupid, but they set up a meeting with Hilliard. At the meeting, James reveals himself as the immortal, future version of Hilliard. Hilliard says the crystal was a test; James comes to the realization that they failed the test and kills Hilliard, his alternative self, to prevent further time travel. In a possible alternate timeline, people discover the documentary footage. Meanwhile, the anachronistic man from the Polaroid walks into the meeting room, with both timelines intertwining behind him, and picks up the crystal. He also picks up the camera and stares into it, with his eyes glowing green momentarily behind his sunglasses.

Tags: cult

Review:
Lunopolis cannot be explained....
Lunopolis must be seen.There are very few films that re-define a genre, or re-design one at least.
But Mathew Avant accomplishes this feat with his instant science fiction documentary classic, Lunopolis.Lunopolis fuses SCI-Fi with conspiracy, re-launching mockumentary style with an original twist of institutional authenticity.Put simply: Lunoplois introduces facts that MAY be fictitious, but offers factual proof for those facts...
fictitiously.You have to see it to believe it: Two filmmakers find a strange lair, a cool 60's retro device, and an unlikely Polaroid picture.
Lunopolis is a delightful mindblow and will be talked about for years to come..
One of the better of its genre..
Lunopolis is a superior and riveting sci-fi exploration into the docu- style which was soundly poured all over the popular film scene by The Blair Witch Project, and since carried on many times since.
But, The Witch Project has absolutely nothing on Lunopolis.
This film both pulls you wonderfully and helplessly in, yet also introduces a few mind bending quantum concepts (multi-verses, time travel, even what we call ghosts) into a gaping spectator style film perfect for the somewhat jaded elder infoweb generation.
The story involves the crew who in their relentless curiosity, unlikely find an object which may alter space, time, and perhaps all of history.
Still, this discovery becomes almost secondary to their genuine fear, insatiable childlike need to know, and pervasive want to bail out on the whole thing and save their asses after they realize that they are not alone.
They do not want to believe, yet they are forced to run when pursued by a largely ineffective sorta Mormon-esque Scientologist Lunarian hit men squad (and why so merely verbally menacing?
They meet strangely learned people, but they remain shrouded and not overly helpful.
Thankfully, no cinematic, physics or sci-fi theoretical concept is slathered in sugar and dragged excessively across the stymied crew's faces too greatly, and the pacing is quite relentlessly perfect.
It's an excellent film to gape slackjawed at, be a little wowed at, and yet still believe in it's possibility.
X Files fans might definitely like this.
The fourth wall, being broken by the nature of the film in the first place, never tires, nor is burdened by any overly prescient character narration.
It's a great watch, a late night movie to enjoy..
I picked this movie up late one night on Hulu, quite casually, not knowing a thing about it.Fast forward an hour later and I'm watching the movie with a rifle across my lap, terrified to continue but too engrossed to stop.It isn't perfect, you can tell it's low budget at parts, but that doesn't stop it from being better than it has any right to be.
The plot may be out-there, and the characters and dialogue ripped from a college campus, but Mother of God is it entertaining.
I can't really say much about what happens, but if you like a good story, and love being creeped all the hell out, then drop the hour and a half.
All in all an excellent film.
Due to its very nature and the complex ramifications it represents, there's a short segment mid-film that attempts to explain the narrative from the distorted point of view of the fictional film makers.
After all, in a way, it's a film within a film within a film...that's all within a film you are watching.
If that doesn't make sense, don't worry, that's one of the points of the film...
Even its own way of fictional complexity shows the sincerity of the filmmakers attempt at something truly unique.
It's hard to explain without giving anything away except to say that the singularly most impressive aspect of the film is its acting.
I wasn't sure I would like it at first and now it's all I've thought about since.
I was bored one night on Hulu and clicked this movie completely thinking it was gonna be a cheap cheesy Sci-Fi film made in someones basement.
I was pleasantly surprised at its quality, the in-depth story line, the immense amount of scene changes, the ability to pull you into the story and make you feel for the characters.
I believe this is one of those films that no one knows about but deserves awards for how good it is.
Needless to say I did not regret watching this movie.
The story line is a little out there but I don't think the whole plot would make sense if the story line wasn't a little out there.
So YES I would recommend it to friends and I have..
A well-crafted low-budget movie that contains some unexpectedly good special effects.
US 98m, Colour Director: Matthew Avant; Cast: Dave Potter, Jed Himel, Matthew Avant, Hal Maynor, Nathan Avant, Sarah Avant, Arte RichardA documentary styled film that is reminiscent of Alternative 3 (1977), Lunopolis is a science fiction film surrounding the discovery of a time machine.
The film maker's investigations lead them to a conspiracy involving a Scientology-like cult and their control over knowledge surrounding the settlement of the moon and time travel which is used to reshape earth's future by changing events in the past.
An excellently scripted production, Lunopolis is a well-crafted low-budget movie that contains some unexpectedly good special effects, and opening and closing scenes which neatly bookend this entertaining film (Klaus Ming July 2013)..
A great job with a low-budget.
The independent South-Louisiana filmmakers who produce this film were pretty much spot on when it comes to low-budget documentary style filmmaking.
You do have a lot of choices when it comes to documentary style films about the moon and moon conspiracies but I would say this is one of the ones to watch.
The concept is great and does not attempted pander or talk down to its audience.
The people being interviewed were spot on, great acting for non-actors.
But still pretty good ...
For a low-budget film the cinematography was good and I found the film to be cut quite well.
Again good job guys it's always nice to see a fellow Louisianian come up in the film industry.
Though the last thing the world needs is another documentary-style piece of science fiction, this one is at least stylistically interesting, and doesn't follow the Blair-Witch-found-footage formula by rote.
Which is not to say it follows a coherent plot, because this has to be one of the most confusing premises ever to emerge from a script-writers drug-addled mind.
Layers of nonsense science are whipped into a frothy, illogical conspiracy story that's entertaining, so long as you don't try to make sense of the mystery, much less the contrived notions of cause and effect.
On the plus side, the acting is mostly top-notch, and the photography and editing would make a really artful documentary, in the real world.
Ron Hubbard and David Miscavige.All in all, it could have been a much better movie..
A pleasant surprise, "Lunopolis" was way, WAY better than what we expected.
Reminiscent of watching a good long X-Files or Twilight Zone episode, this film begins with the laughable premise of aliens living on the moon.
But the movie's opening scenes and fast pacing were done so well and so stylishly, that we were riveted to the screen until the very end.
Now that was some pretty good story-telling!
The main fault I have with this film is the church followers of lunopolis which didn't make much sense to me and was not very believable to begin with.
Otherwise, the acting overall was solid, not very many special-effects but what special effects they did have were not flashy but got the job done - and a big plus for a great story told well.
Fantastic blend of sci-fi/action and excellent story telling..
Quite simply, his is the best movie I have seen in quite some time, easily, the best movie I've seen in 2011.Short of it: 10/10This movie is shot documentary style with some amazing special effects when you consider how low-budget the film is.
If you liked District 9, it's told in the similar style but it just doesn't have any Prawn Battlesuits at the end.
This movie actually made me creeped out by some of the events that took place.
In my book, that's a great sign of story telling, and the environment fit perfectly for this tale.Lunopolis is a perfect blend of other movies and genres that delivers.
It's like that, but has an ending 10 times better.
It has elements of the unknown as the story slowly unfolds to reveal interesting tidbits that force our main characters to take action.Another aspect of this movie that I loved was the sci-fi/conspiracy angle.
They told a great story with just enough truth to make the non- fiction parts believable to fit within the context of the script.
This movie has deservedly won a bunch of independent awards across the globe, but you cannot call yourself a sci-fi fan if you don't watch this movie..
This is just another independent mock documentary film in the same vein as Blair Witch Project, District 9, This Is Spinal Tap, Paranormal Entity, Dark Side of the Moon, the list is endless.
I fail to see anything other than another slightly above average film.
The acting for the most part is well thought out.
However I thought some scenes were off the mark.
Such as the film maker brandishing a pistol in the church?
The motive was initially just curiosity and it would seem this changes in the documentary from that to "it is up to us to save the world".The time and space paradox is never well explored.
The plot is not that hard to follow but has some real silly scientific holes in it.
Making a great deal of the film hard to swallow..
Better Quality than a Fan Fiction.
After about 40 minutes of waiting for the plot to kick in, I finally gave up and started fast forwarding.
I'm always interested in newcomers and outsiders, and while they made a lot of good choices and did some decent work, I couldn't suspend my disbelief for more than about a minute at a time.
The acting was pretty decent, (one guy even did a Bruce Willis imitation -- it had never occurred to me that was even possible) but there was too much going on in the story and I couldn't connect to the characters.
A lunar civilization conspiracy, an odd religion, time travel, green crystals, the Mayan calendar.
Turns out Elvis, Ben Franklin and Plato were time travelers, to name a few.
The initial shots of exploring the swamp were pretty vivid.
I encourage them to keep working at film.
I think a script doctor could have solved 80% of the problems up front..
If only they changed the name of this movie....
This movie comes from a long line of low budget, shoot from the hip documentaries.
What makes this one so intriguing is the in-depth mythology of the conspiracy.
I think why this movie is not popular because of the strange title.
Do I want to spend my time watching a movie about a city on the moon?
The moon city is mostly a McGuffin that ties in the action and the conspiracy.
Highly recommend..
Lunopolis on DVD.
I know I can watch this for free on HULU...and pay for a download on Amazon....but WHY doesn't IMDb list if it's available on DVD?
I think this site was purchased by Amazon and if there was any place you would think they would advertise the fact that there was a DVD available, it would be here.....BUT NO...they only list the download for this and many other films.
Most disappointing as they try to get more people into renting rather than purchasing the films.
Is this the future of watching films at home?
I see the same thing happening with music where CD sales are almost incidental now compared to purchasing individual songs for your IPhones, etc is the dominant way most people collect their music these days.....As a result, the quality of albums tends to drop and in the future, there will probably be fewer movies available with such special features as commentaries by the actors and director....Most disheartening!.
I am a very big critic on science fiction movies, either its complete bull crap or its awesome, luckily this movie isn't bull crap.
However it is by far the most laughable sci-fi topic ever invented: Aliens from the moon.
However this movie was extremely interesting with a great twist ending and a plot that kept me biting my nails.
Documentary style/ found footage movies are a very popular genre this time, and it is not as unique as it was when "The Blair Which Project" came out.
I say that "Lunopolis" is way better acing wise and plot wise, it was just as suspenseful than "The Blair Whitch Project." I give it an 8 out of 10..
Wish they had a bigger budget..
Lunopolis had an interesting premise, and the writers and director show a lot of promise by telling a good, suspenseful story.
Unfortunately, the film is let down by it's obviously minuscule budget.
The format of the film (documentary style) does lend itself to a low-budget production, but there are many points where the lack of cash is apparent enough to pull you out of the story.
For one thing, there are a few brief special effect scenes that have zero authenticity to them whatsoever.
The director would have been better off finding another way to treat the material, because a bad effect is far worse than no effect at all.
Another thing that pulled me right out of the film was the scene at the cult compound.
They clearly had no money for extras, wardrobe or stylists, so instead of a scene featuring intimidating, creepy, authentic-looking security guards in black suits (as intended), you have a couple of dorks in cheap sunglasses and clothes that don't fit, trying their best to look tough (and failing).
Anyway, as I said, it's an interesting film.
I do wish they had the money to execute properly though, because it could have been much, much better..
Lunopolis is truly low budget sci-fi magic.
I had no expectations going into it other than to waste a little time.
It was so worth watching - I was glued to the screen, time flew by!
The time machine scenes are very cerebral and thought provoking.
The plot involves many aspects but none more exotic than the 12/12/2012 prophecy and the documentary style to which it unfolds.
Lunopolis has elements of the Twilight Zone and the Outer Limits which gives it a subtle noir tone but the film stays grounded in its own vibe.
I shutter to think what this movie would have done at the box office if it were produced on a large scale with a bigger budget.
The flying car in the movie is only referenced, never seen.
The ending is truly a mind bender, that's all I will say..
Shows you can make a good movie with a low budget.
I love low budget films.
Or maybe I hate high budget films.
I am convinced that some movies evolve out of somebody's idea for a grand and glorious special effect ...
and they build a movie around that one scene.
There is no such thing here.
they build the case for the premise while they are in fact telling the story.
even big budget spectaculars have flaws.
The biggest flaw is the far too long interview with David James but that cemented the storyline together so I let it slide.
It just didn't fit the shorter scenes in the rest of the movie.
is ever since we watched this movie we have been receiving mysterious phone calls ...
like our time-lines are messed up now.
An intelligent, well thought out sci-fi film.
I found Lunopolis as a suggestion on Netflix and gave it a shot.
What I found was quite different.The plot was unique and refreshingly intelligent.
Nothing in the film was particularly "dumbed down" for wider appeal, and I am appreciative of this.
Too often, a good idea becomes watered-down garbage so that it makes a few more dollars.
This is not the case in Lunopolis.Set in the environment of December, 2012 the film explores several typical and several not-so-typical themes regarding the 12/21/2012 mythology and ties them into a fairly intricate science fiction plot involving a team of filmmakers who tumble down a rabbit hole when they find a particular polaroid picture.
Time travel, inter-dimensional mechanics and immortality are all touched upon in a film that has surprising depth and style.The acting is better than I would expect for a film like this, the effects were way above average and the script is solid but there is another surprise in this film: The soundtrack.An incredible array of artists provide the emotions to this film.
Explosions in the Sky and Thee Silver Mt. Zion (formerly A Silver Mt. Zion)and others give the film an epic-feel through an intense musical score that I hope I will be able to find on CD or iTunes soon.Overall, this film is worth every second I spent watching it and I don't get to say that nearly enough, so thank you Lunopolis!.
Great underrated film.
The script and acting may be lacking in some parts, but overall still an enjoyable film with a great story.
The use of of the live documentary cinematography isn't overtly dizzying or nauseating like Blair Witch was.
Sure its been done before but it works for this film.
It doesn't feel tired and I think using other filming methods would have cheapened the experience.
I was captivated by the story.
Dave Potter's acting was the best and most belieable of any actor in the film.
The first Church of Lunology scene felt pretty forced and poorly scripted though as was the meeting of the CEO toward the end.