There are surprisingly few science fiction films that feature trips to the moon. Here are my 10 favorites.

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1. First Men in the Moon (1964) – Story based on an H. G. Wells novel. In 1899, two men and a women go to the moon using anti-gravity and find an underground civilization of intelligent insect-like creatures.

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2. Destination Moon (1950) – A surprisingly good and fairly accurate movie that features art by the famous Chesley Bonestell. Produced by George Pal who did many of my favorite movies.

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3. Rocketship X-M (1950) – Released just days before the big-budget “Destination Moon” this movie stars Lloyd Bridges. Four men and a woman attempt to go to the moon but an accident sends them to Mars where they find the remains of a civilization destroyed by an atomic war.

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4. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – Explorers find a mysterious black monolith on the moon which triggers an expedition to Jupiter.

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5. From Earth to the Moon (1958) – The story is based on a Jules Verne novel. In the 1860s a munitions manufacturer teams with a metallurgist to shoot themselves, a young man, and the metallurgist’s daughter, in a ship to the moon.

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6. Moon (2009) – A lone man (played by Sam Rockwell) is a miner on the moon. He has a three-year contract. Or does he? A bit slow moving but interesting.

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7. Moonfall (2022) – This movie has all kinds of elements that I like — artificial intelligence, nano swarms, alien civilization, etc. But the whole was much less than the sum of the parts. I found the the lead actors annoying and the movie quite boring. Apparently many people agreed because the film was a box office disaster, losing over $100 million dollars.

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8. Iron Sky (2012) – Some Nazis fly to the moon in 1945, build a fleet of spaceships, and invade earth in 2018. Interesting story idea but weakly executed.

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9. Cat-Women of the Moon (1953) – The title alone makes this movie worth watching. Four men and a woman find, well, cat-women on the moon. The cat-women dance. Amazingly, this movie was remade in 1958 as “Missile to the Moon”.

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10. Things to Come (1936) – Script written by the famous H.G. Wells. Directed by William Camron Menzies (who later did “Invaders from Mars”). A space gun is created to shoot men to the moon. This movie is incredible.

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Bonus

11. Woman in the Moon (1929) – One of the very first science fiction films. Directed by Fritz Lang who did “Metropolis” two years earlier. Four men and a woman fly to the moon. Only two get back to earth.

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Honorable Mention

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12. Mutiny in Outer Space (1965) – A group of scientists on a space station go to the moon and collect specimens but return to the station with a nasty fungus.

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13. Missile to the Moon (1958) – A loose remake of “Cat-Women of the Moon” (1953). Five men and a woman go to the moon and find rock monsters (actually quite nicely done), a giant spider (not very nicely done), and lovely moon maidens.

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14. 12 to the Moon (1960) – An expedition to the moon with 12 people from 12 different countries is intended to claim the moon as international territory. The crew finds the moon is inhabited by advanced aliens. Not a great movie, but in my opinion not nearly as bad as most of the reviews.

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Dishonorable Mention

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Moon Zero Two (1969) – A terrible movie. Bad plot, bad acting, bad editing, bad costumes and props. In May 2021, the Moon is in the process of being colonized for mining by a diverse human population. This film was a British Hammer production. I like most Hammer efforts but not this one.

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