Unravel the apocalyptic conspiracy in new trailer for Roland Emmerich's sci-fi return 'Moonfall'

Eat your heart out, H.G. Wells! Roland Emmerich promises an adventure in and around Earth's lunar satellite with the latest trailer for the director's disaster-happy return to the big screen: Moonfall.

Hitting the big screen in early 2022, the star-studded blockbuster takes place in a future where the moon is knocked out of its orbit and sent on a direct collision course with the third planet from the sun. This batch of cataclysmic footage sheds a bit more light on the end of days scenario, explaining that the moon's strange behavior is connected to a top-secret (and possibly alien) phenomenon discovered by the Apollo 11 astronauts in July of 1969. End of the world? Crackpot conspiracy theories that turn out to be true? Yep, this is a Roland Emmerich film, alright.

“As you know, I did the movie Independence Day, where we were strongly inspired by the whole Area 51 conspiracy,” the filmmaker, who hasn't directed a major title in half a decade, told Vanity Fair last week. “When you have a conspiracy, which a lot of people believe, you already have some built-in interest. You don’t have to believe them yourself…. Most of the time I’m a skeptical person — I’m German after all.”

He continued: “Our world, more and more, has become driven by conspiracy theories. Look at QAnon, look at all this stuff, the Flat-Earthers. It’s just incredible when you think about it. When you have it about the moon, it’s so fantastic — I don’t think it will hurt anybody. It’s interesting for people to see. QAnon is hurting people. Anti-vaxxer conspiracies can hurt people, and actually may kill people."

Watch the trailer below:

Halle Berry (Die Another Day), Patrick Wilson (Aquaman), and John Bradley (Game of Thrones) play the three main heroes — NASA executive and former astronaut Jo Fowler, current astronaut Brian Harper, and conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman — who may be humanity's only hope in seeing the other side of this extinction-level event. Michael Peña, Charlie Plummer, Kelly Yu, Eme Ikwuakor, Carolina Bartczak, and Donald Sutherland round out the rest of the cast.

In addition to all the famous celebrities, viewers can also expect the wholesale destruction of instantly recognizable landmarks (one of Emmerich's cinematic calling cards).

“The moon naturally comes very close to Earth, and we have all this gravity craziness happening on Earth,” he teased to Vanity Fair. “At one point the moon slides over New York and pretty much rips out a couple of the tall buildings — and they’ll end up in the Rockies ...  That’s my signature thing anyway— famous buildings in places where they don’t belong."

Emmerich serves as a producer alongside Harold Kloser. Both co-wrote the screenplay alongside Spenser Cohen.

Moonfall lands in theaters everywhere on Feb. 4, 2022.

Photo: Lionsgate