Oblivion

We’re always dissin’ the aliens, aren’t we? Yes, they are a damn good metaphor for everything we fear. And this justifies picking up a weapon the size of a lamppost and attacking, see? Gun debate, shmun debate; this is the future. We won the war but lost the planet. Now we have to live elsewhere. :frowny face: But that means you get to unload at anything that moves, no questions asked.

Jack (Tom Cruise) dreams of the past. Are they memories or illusions? Unfortunately, Rekall, Inc. doesn’t exist in this wasteland; he’ll have to resolve with Dianetics or something. (How to resolve a conflicted psyche in a future dystopia, page 289!) I wish Total Recall were the film Oblivion invoked, but as Tom climbed into his racing pod/jet fighter to go battle evil and play maintenance man, Top Gun came to mind. His job is to upkeep the machines guarding the reamins of Earth [read: destroy all threats to the inverted pyramids turning ocean into energy]. If this sounds like a video game plot, I think it is. On patrol, Oblivion namedrops constantly in the form of ruined monuments of greater New York City – hey, there’s the Empire State Building, the Public Library, the Brooklyn Bridge. He waxes nostalgic at the Meadowlands, catching the imaginary TD pass intended for Cuba Gooding in Jerry Maguire. You know, I’ve been to the Meadowlands; I think the destroyed version is an improvement.

At home in the evenings, Jack comes home to his work and domestic partner, Victoria (Andrea Riseborough). She has all the warmth of an ice pick. This makes it easier for us when Jack finally discovers the woman, literally, of his dreams, Julia (Olga Kurylenko). And somewhere in there, Morgan Freeman pops up, too. It is unclear whether Jack has been dreaming about him.

So if you’re playing at home, there’s this cloud-based maintenance team, Jack and Victoria. They patrol the now desert-like earth as scavengers scrap for resources. And we follow Jack on his adventures beyond the forbidden zone. Mad Max? Omega Man? Go ahead and pick your favorite equivalent – odds are Oblivion will touch it somewhere. Well, until that restraining order against Oblivion touching comes through. Still, there’s much more here than meets the eye – what does this forbidden zone forbid? Are there more teams than just Jack and Victoria? And why is Morgan Freeman a survivor on future earth? Did his oratory skills keep the aliens at bay? Does it matter? No.

♪Ooooooooo-blivion-a, where the wind comes sweepin’ down Broadway
Where the sandy street is incomplete
Cuz of orby things with death ray
Ooooooooo-blivion-a, ev’ry night my honey honey crab and I
Make the two-backed beast in what was the East
While Big Sister controls us with her eye

We know we belong to the sky
Everyone, that is to say: you and I
And when we guuuuuaaaaard!
We know life can be haaaaaaaaard!
We’re only sayin’ life sucks ass in Oblivian-a
Oblivion-a … life sucks! ♫

Rated PG-13, 126 Minutes
D: Joseph Kosinski
W: Joseph Kosinski, Karl Gajdusek, Michael Arndt
Genre: Broken planet
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Survivor cults
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: E.T.

♪ Parody Inspired by “Oklahoma!”