‘In The Shadow Of The Moon’ (2019) : Is The Murder Of An Individual Involved In A Future Evil Act Ever Justified?

‘‘There are some things a man must not do to save a nation.’’

John O’Leary (1830–1907)

We open with an empty shattered office building with no sign of life and as the camera tracks along we see outside another building that has been almost completely destroyed and small fires still blaze at its base. A flag flutters down and it is similar to the Stars and Stripes but we know this flag is slightly, but crucially different. There are fewer Stars. Something is very wrong; the screen goes black and then there appears the time and place: Philadelphia 2024.

Next on the black screen we are given another date: 1988. But we are now in a past Philadelphia. We witness various people going about their lives. A pianist plays to an audience, a bus driver drives and a cook, well, cooks. We zoom in on the female bus driver and we are shown the book she is reading; it is a biography of Thomas Jefferson. A person in a hoodie is seen in the alleyway and they begin to run. Suddenly blood starts to pour from the orifices of each person we have seen and they slump down and are dead.

We see at the same time a cop with a pregnant wife prepare for his graveyard shift. They are obviously very much in love. He meets his partner outside and they drive to the scene of the crash which has occurred because the bus driver lost control of the bus when she died. He notices puncture wounds on the back of her neck. Even though he is only a cop he follows up on his discovery to find that the others had the same puncture wounds, three to the neck. A call comes in that a woman has just been attacked and has the three marks on her. But she is still alive.

On arrival they question her. But within moments she has bled to death like the others. However, they now have a description of the perpetrator which is circulated. On their patrol of the area they spot the suspect and give chase. This leads them to a subway station where our hero confronts the suspect. She is a female. She tells him information that only he knows. They fight and as he shoots her, with her futuristic device, she falls into an oncoming train and is splattered everywhere.