Moonfall: Roland Emmerich Talks Conspiracy Theories and Creating His Own Genre

Moonfall is being released in theaters next month, marking the latest in Roland Emmerich's vast filmography filled with science fiction and disaster movies. The director has helmed Stargate, Independence Day, Godzilla (1998), The Day After Tomorrow, 2012, and more. Recently, ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with Emmerich about Moonfall and we asked the director what draws him to such big, world-ending stories. 

"Well, I think I created my own genre in a way because it's almost like a different subject matter. First, it was an alien invasion. Then it was Godzilla. Then it was Day After Tomorrow, it was about climate change. 2012 was about an Earth crust displacement. This is just about the Moon falling on Earth, but it isn't what you think it is," Emmerich explained. 

He added of Moonfall,  "It's also interesting because this movie was actually really inspired by one book. It was called Who Built the Moon. It's an English book, very obscure. It makes a really good point that the Moon is not what we think it is. It's kind of manmade or alien-made or whatever and makes a really good point. There's three theories in there about how that could have happened, but we didn't take any one of them. We kind of created our own." 

Speaking of the Moon, we wondered if Emmerich believes in any of the many conspiracies surrounding Earth's only natural satellite.

"I think that all happened," Emmerich said of the 1969 moon landing. "It's kind of silly. But, it's interesting to play with it ... I mean now, for example, Independence Day, there was Area 51. There was a spaceship and aliens and all these kinds of things. I think in Day After Tomorrow, I stayed a little bit away from it, but then in 2012, it was kind of moon, Earth crust displacement. Look, it's just a silly, silly thing, but it was for me the only way how the world could be covered in water, so I kind of said, 'Okay, let's do that.' Then this one, it's just like a fantasy."

In Moonfall, a mysterious force knocks the Moon from its orbit around Earth and sends it hurtling on a collision course with life as we know it. With mere weeks before impact and the world on the brink of annihilation, NASA executive and former astronaut Jo Fowler (Academy Award-winner Halle Berry) is convinced she has the key to saving us all – but only one astronaut from her past, Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson, Midway) and a conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman (John Bradley, Game of Thrones) believes her. These unlikely heroes will mount an impossible last-ditch mission into space, leaving behind everyone they love, only to find out that our Moon is not what we think it is.

Stay tuned for more from our interview with Roland Emmerich.

Moonfall hits theaters on February 4th.