Lunopolis is a 2010 American science fiction film directed by Matthew Avant. The film is presented in found footage style and takes place in the weeks preceding the rumored events of the 2012 prophecies.
On December 9, 2012, twelve days before the date of the supposed Mayan-prophecized doomsday on December 21, 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. The host initially dismisses it as a hoax until he receives a photo album that contains enough evidence that he hires two documentary filmmakers, Matt and Sonny, to investigate the claims. They discover a mysterious device and begin to unravel a conspiracy involving the moon, time travel, and a very powerful organization who will stop at nothing to protect their secret.
This film provides examples of:
- Alternate Timeline: The Church of Lunology asserts that our current timeline actually is an altered timeline. Their plan is to create a third.
- Ancient Conspiracy: Played with. The timelines all start at 3520BC.
- Ancient Grome: Lunopolis is said to be the moon counterpart of Atlantis, but the name is a blend of Latin and Greek - the ancient Greeks would have called it Selenopolis or something similar.
- Applied Phlebotinum: The stone.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Many famous historical figures were actually time travellers.
- Bookends: The movie begins and ends with the same news clip of the field reporter discussing the internet video.
- Cult: An Apocalypse Cult based around 2012. It ends up being true.
- Expy / Shout-Out: Lunology is obviously inspired by the Church of Scientology, down to the name of the founder, "J. Ari Hilliard" (a clear riff on L. Ron Hubbard).
- Green Rocks: Literal, in this case.
- Government Conspiracy: It's revealed in an interview that there is a a government employee whose job is to paint over visible structures in pictures of the Moon before they're released to the public.
- The Legend of Chekhov: The Church of Lunology flyer about the two brothers.
- Mockumentary
- Scam Religion: Averted.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The goal of the civilization on the Moon.
- Time Machine: Back to the Future type. Sort of.
- Time Travel
- Unobtainium: In-universe, with the stone. The substance that comprises it is only found on the moon, and only one exists, even through multiple timelines.
