In 1907, Georges Méliès illustrated how the sun and the moon fell in love and came together to create an eclipse in his movie The Eclipse: Courtship of the Sun and Moon. Ever since then, both solar and lunar eclipses have played a role in cinema, often as an explanation for something magical or as a portent of coming doom. It make plenty of sense, as an eclipse is a natural phenomena that feels unnatural because they are so rare and the effects are bizarre. The sun is blotted out, or the moon changes shape, and residents of earth are left confused. The symbolism is clear when the powerful sun is defeated by the lesser moon, which should be a warning to those in power on earth.
While the alignment in the heavens is a significant element for any fictional story, an eclipse is also an excellent visual for a movie. One production in 1961 even delayed shooting so that the cameras could capture a real eclipse that was part of the story (shown above). Read about how eclipses have been used in movies at Atlas Obscura.
(Image source: YouTube)