This is general, right? So I am recommending the movie "Moon". Starring Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey.
A dude is at the end of a solo three year stint on the dark side of the moon. He is the caretaker for an automated mining operation for He3 which is harvested and sent back to earth for fusion power plants. He is going a little nuts. Then "stuff" happens. Nuff said.
Very Silent Running like. Very 2001 reminisent. Very cool movie. I just ran in to it when mining my own On Demand. Never heard of it before. Directed by David Bowie's son, who is also directing "Source Code" due out soon.
According to director Duncan Jones, the film was shown to some NASA scientists who questioned why harvesting of He3 would not take place on the near side of the moon, where He3 is in more abundance. The explanation given was that the choice was made to harvest the far side so as not to affect wildlife.
I wasn't satisfied with the ending, but still bought it for the SF library. It's a well made SF film, sober hard-SF like we don't get much of nowadays.
Yeah, I just dont like the whole idea that they had to explain the whole background in the end. It is silly and it is another one of those stories that hit at a certain branch of science that is dear to me and that I know certain ideologically handicapped people dislike.
It also does not make any sense whatsoever.
It's indeed one of the most refreshing movies I have seen in a long time.
I saw it again couple of month ago and I enjoyed it as much as the first time.