To the Moon

Join Dr. Rosalene and Dr. Watts as they enter the mind of a dying patient named Johnny to fulfill his final wish. Watch, interact, and reshape the past as Johnny’s life unfolds, taking you on a magical journey inside one person’s head—and asking the ultimate question: “What if...?” If you could relive your life, would you change anything? Would you chase a grand ambition, find love, fame, or fortune—or discover that some memories are meant to remain untouched? Travel with Dr. Rosalene and Dr. Watts on their journey in To The Moon.

Sigmund Corp. has developed a technology that creates artificial memories. They provide it as a “wish fulfillment” service for people on their deathbeds. Because these new memories conflict with a patient’s real life, the procedure is only legal for those with little time left. Sigmund Corp. employees Dr. Eva Rosalene and Dr. Neil Watts are assigned to fulfill the lifelong dream of the dying Johnny Wyles. Johnny wants to go to the moon, though he doesn’t know why. The doctors enter an interactive compilation of his memories and travel backward through his life via mementos. With each jump to a pivotal moment, they learn what shaped him, including his largely unhappy marriage to his childhood sweetheart, River. When they reach Johnny’s childhood, the doctors try to implant the desire to go to the moon so his mind will build new memories around it—allowing him to die believing he lived without regrets. But Johnny’s mind doesn’t produce the new memories as planned, and Rosalene and Watts must solve the problem to grant his dying wish. They eventually uncover the origin of Johnny’s obsession. As children, Johnny and River met at a carnival, looked up at the night sky, and imagined a constellation: a rabbit with the moon as its belly. They promised that if they ever forgot or got lost, they would “regroup on the moon.” That night, Johnny gave River a toy platypus she cherished for the rest of her life. Soon after, Johnny’s twin brother, Joey, died in an accident. Johnny’s mother gave him beta blockers to induce memory loss of the tragedy, which also caused him to forget his first meeting with River. He later met River again, and they eventually married, while River only realized later that he had forgotten the carnival encounter. (Johnny admitted he approached her in school because she was different and believed that was their first meeting.) As an adult, River is diagnosed with Asperger syndrome (never directly stated, but the game references Tony Attwood, who wrote numerous books about Aspergers). Rather than telling Johnny directly about their first meeting, she tries to trigger his memories indirectly—cutting her hair and crafting paper bunnies, including a dual-colored one that represents their childhood constellation combined with the blue-and-yellow dress she wore at their wedding. River dies without making Johnny remember, leaving him with lingering guilt and an inexplicable desire to go to the moon. In the present, Rosalene and Watts ultimately implant a new memory sequence in which Joey did not die and instead became a popular author, and Johnny doesn’t meet River again until they work together at NASA. As the comatose, real-life Johnny begins to die, he imagines going on a moon mission with River. During the launch, River reaches out her hand; the moon appears through a window, and Johnny takes her hand as his heart monitor flatlines. In the epilogue, Johnny and River marry and build a life in the same house where they lived in reality. Back in the real world, Rosalene and Watts stand by Johnny’s grave beside River’s, and reveal that Johnny willed the house to his caregiver, Lily. Rosalene receives a phone call, and they move on to their next patient. As Watts leaves, he pauses and the screen briefly flashes red—just as it did when Johnny felt pain. Watts takes painkillers and continues onward.