6) Moon
Drifting a little farther afield, you have Duncan Jones’ Moon, which – like so many space movies, including several others on this list – highlights what cinema perceives as the dangerous psychological effect of living off-world.
In Sam Rockwell you have an actor giving a masterclass in the art of the dual performance (he literally plays the only two characters that aren’t a robot or a video message) as astronaut Sam Bell and his doppelgänger. And the newcomer to his Moon base home – the fresher, more together version of Sam – underscores just what toll years of isolation has had on Sam.
Obviously, as it’s a Sam Rockwell film, you have the man displaying his dancing skills in Moon, but here it’s just a sign of how crazy his character has become during his celestial stint; all Sam can give is a wild, mindless jig, as he cackles in the face of his double.
There’s an underlying sadness to the whole affair: Moon puts forward the notion that nothing is lonelier than space. And even when there might be some promise of relief, there’s a chance help is never really coming after all.