The exclusive trailer for Roland Emmerich’s upcoming science fiction/action filmMoonfallhas officially dropped, and fans ofTheLegend of Zeldaare already comparing it toMajora’s Maskon Twitter. While this choice of comparison may seem odd at first glance, it begins to make sense when one realizes that both works feature the literally looming threat of the moon crashing into the world below, while the story’s protagonist struggles to find a way to stop its fall.
InMoonfall, that protagonist is NASA executive and former astronaut Jo Fowler, who has only a few weeks to learn why the moon is suddenly on a collision course with the Earth, and how she can stop it.Majora’s Mask, meanwhile, tasks Link with stopping the moon’s fall over the course of athree-day time-loopthat repeats itself throughout the game.
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Both properties contain at least one very striking moment where the player, or viewer, is shown exactly how close the moon has gotten to impact, butMajora’s Maskhas the advantage in sheer dread. As a piece of interactive media, it allows the player to look up and worry about the moon exactly as often as they want. However, this didn’t stop fans like @Odme_ on Twitter from taking one look at the looming lunar disaster inMoonfalland pre-emptively declaring it aMajora’s Maskmovie.
Another user, @MarkoDeeJay, immediately shared a screenshot of the creepy, grinning moon falling inMajora’s Maskand comparing it directly to theMoonfalltrailer, to which @l3g3nd0fl1nkl3 responded by saying that they couldn’t believe there was a movie adaptation ofMajora’s Maskcoming out. WhileZeldafans have discussed possibledirectors for aZeldamoviebefore, Emmerich was not on the list, so this connection appears to have caught many fans by surprise.
Emmerich is well known for his disaster movies, which includeIndependence Day,The Day After Tomorrow, and2012. WhileMajora’s Maskisn’t technically a disaster narrative–disaster games tend to focus more on survival thancompleting sidequests to help the game’s townsfolk–it is well known for its themes of despair and inevitability.Moonrisealso appears to be darker and more outright apocalyptic than some of Emmerich’s previous work, which makes a degree of sense. Messing with the moon’s orbit in any way would likely have severe consequences for Earth.
However, Twitter user @kaijuhime suspects that Emmerich recently playedMajora’s Maskand got very inspired by its threatening atmosphere. If that is the case, there are much worse games for cinema directors to be inspired by.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3Dis available now on Nintendo 3DS.
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