Rebel Moon: Every Cloned Sci-Fi Movie We Spotted In The Trailer

It's borderline impossible to tell a space opera story that doesn't borrow at least a few elements from "Dune." Frank Herbert's novel about galactic-scale empires and desert planets filled with pseudo-magical spice debuted all the way back in 1965 — four years before humans landed on the moon. The story of Paul Atreides and his rise to power on Arrakis left a permanent mark on the entire sci-fi genre. It inspired movies like "Star Wars" and, of course, garnered multiple adaptations on the big screen and TV.

One of the earliest shots in the "Rebel Moon" trailer shows a massive spaceship that's part of a fleet heading to a planet. It's a little reminiscent of the most recent "Dune" adaptation, in part because that movie so perfectly captures the scale of intergalactic ships. That's not the most overt reference to "Dune" in the trailer, however. Anthony Hopkins' voiceover talks about prophecy and myth, both crucial elements of "Dune" as well. Later we get to see a character wearing some kind of specialized breathing mask on a sandy world. "Dune" heads everywhere must have perked up because the outfit looks almost exactly like the stillsuits that have appeared in every version of Herbert's story.

We don't know much about the story of "Rebel Moon," but it's clear that some of it takes place on a desert world. The movie's in good company, and it will be interesting to see how Zack Snyder's take on a world with an extremely hostile environment differs from versions that have come before.

Who wouldn't want to make the next "Star Wars?" George Lucas' franchise has defined multiple genres of space opera, and these days it's hard to write about heroes fighting corrupt galactic governments without doing it under the shadow of "Star Wars." One way or another, "Rebel Moon" was always going to have some "Star Wars" DNA, but in an alternate reality, the entire film would have just been folded into a galaxy far, far away.

Zack Snyder has been dreaming up "Rebel Moon" for a long time, and the story has gone through quite a few transformations over the years. Snyder has admitted that somewhere between his earliest brainstorming sessions and today, "Rebel Moon" almost got picked up as a spin-off "Star Wars" movie. That plan didn't quite work out, but now that "Rebel Moon" is coming as a standalone project, it's easy to see how the movie could have fit into the "Star Wars" universe.

The trailer for "Rebel Moon" gives us glimpses of just a few of the worlds within the Imperium. From desert worlds with massive colosseums to worlds dominated by dense cityscapes, there's a huge amount of variety on display in the movie, but all of its worlds have obvious "Star Wars" counterparts like Tatooine and Coruscant. The most overt "Star Wars" similarity is the dual lightsabers wielded by Bae Doona's character, Nemesis. The story behind her and her signature weapons will probably end up clueing everyone into why "Rebel Moon" just didn't quite fit into the "Star Wars" universe.

The character John Carter is more than a hundred years old. He was created by Edgar Rice Burroughs and debuted in the serialized story "Under the Moons of Mars" in 1912. John is a regular human man, but when he gets transported to the wilds of Mars, a planet locals call Barsoom, he gets the chance to become an epic hero. The character of John Carter changed Burroughs' life, and John continues to have an influence on modern-day sci-fi.

The last time Hollywood attempted to adapt Burroughs' story was in the 2012 film aptly titled "John Carter." The movie roughly sticks to the events of "Under the Moons of Mars" and follows John, played by Taylor Kitsch, as he encounters multiple dangers in Martian society. In one of the movie's most dramatic scenes, John comes face to face with alien creatures in an epic colosseum, and we might get a version of that scene in "Rebel Moon."

There's a blink-and-you-miss-it moment in the announcement trailer for Zack Snyder's latest movie that instantly calls to mind that scene from "John Carter." In the shot, we see a number of humanoid aliens cheering on a four-armed creature from a hallway attached to a colosseum. We don't have very much context for the scene, but it does appear that the colosseum and its inhabitants have something to do with Tarak's story. We see several shots of him cheering on fellow soldiers, and when he's outside he's on a sandy world that looks an awful lot like Mars from "John Carter."

There are very few places you can go in science fiction, and especially in sci-fi movies, without encountering Phillip K. Dick. His 1966 novella "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" proposed a future where humans have expanded out to Mars but most of the people still living on Earth are too poor to afford to see the stars. Luckily there's a company that manufactures fake memories and inserts them into people's brains for a price. But when memories can be faked, how can you trust anything in your own mind?

Dick's novella was adapted into a snappy action movie with an even snappier title. 1990's "Total Recall" stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as Douglas Quaid, a man who pays for the memory of being a Martian secret agent, but when it turns out that Douglas' "fake" memory has more reality in it than he intended, things go sideways quickly. Douglas' memory-based misadventures leave him questioning his reality and potentially leading a sort of Martian revolution. The story is packed with fun twists and turns, but more than anything it's the visuals that really stand out.

The style of "Total Recall" seems to have had a small influence on "Rebel Moon." Like Zack Snyder's new movie, "Total Recall" splits its time between futuristic urban environments on Earth and some high-tech ruralism on Mars. From landing pads to turbinium mines, the scenery of "Total Recall" has worked its way into the imaginations of sci-fi fans everywhere, and since Snyder is definitely a fan, it's no wonder that hints of the classic film are showing up in his work.

Remember the Wachowskis? Their work on "The Matrix" inarguably inspired countless filmmakers, including Zack Snyder, but their legacy didn't stop in 1999. The Wachowskis have gone on to direct plenty of other movies, but their 2015 project bears special mention here.

"Jupiter Ascending" is a massive sci-fi epic that has a striking resemblance to what we've seen of "Rebel Moon." In the Wachowskis' take on the space opera, the galaxy is dominated by a powerful royal family, though humans on Earth are relatively unaware of what's taking place out in deep space. Rather than focusing on a group of hardened rebels, "Jupiter Ascending" really focuses on the royal family and how one human named Jupiter (Mila Kunis) might have an important part to play in their never-ending quest for power.

"Rebel Moon" is clearly all about getting the gang together and finding out how the various characters all decide to fight the power of the Imperium. We do, however, get to see at least some royal activity, and the trailer shows us a brief glimpse of Regent Balisarius (Fra Fee) as a crown is being placed on his head. There are only so many ways to depict a galaxy-tier evil royal, but Regent Balisarius definitely brings to mind Eddie Redmayne's Balem Abrasax from "Jupiter Ascending." It's probably safe to say that Snyder has some unique plans for his contemptible king, but odds that fans will have to wait until the second "Rebel Moon" movie debuts on April 19, 2024, before they really understand what Regent Balisarius is planning for the Imperium.