Oblivion (I) (2013)

A veteran assigned to extract Earth's remaining resources begins to question what he knows about his mission and himself.

Director:

Joseph Kosinski

Writers:

Karl Gajdusek (screenplay), Michael Arndt (screenplay),

Stars:

Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Andrea Riseborough

10 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Tom Cruise	...	Jack
Morgan Freeman	...	Beech
Olga Kurylenko	...	Julia
Andrea Riseborough	...	Victoria
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau	...	Sykes
Melissa Leo	...	Sally
Zoë Bell	...	Kara
Abigail Lowe	...	Julia's Child
Isabelle Lowe	...	Julia's Child
David Madison	...	Grow Hall Survivor

Storyline

One of the few remaining drone repairmen assigned to Earth, its surface devastated after decades of war with the alien Scavs, discovers a crashed spacecraft with contents that bring into question everything he believed about the war, and may even put the fate of mankind in his hands.

---

Plot Keywords:

drone | alien | memory | surveillance | space station | 

---

Taglines:

Earth is a memory worth fighting for.

---

Genres:

Action | Adventure | Mystery | Sci-Fi

---

Certificate:

PG

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 April 2013 (USA)

Also Known As:

L'oubli

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$120,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$37,054,485 (USA) (19 April 2013)

Gross:

$89,021,735 (USA) (21 June 2013)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Relativity Media, Monolith Pictures (III)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

124 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Datasat Dolby Digital Dolby Atmos

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Universal once considered using the film's alternative title, Horizons, but later reverted it back.

---

Goofs

The moon being blown apart by the TET is supposed have caused massive tidal disruptions. It is the mass of the moon that causes gravity, and therefore tidal actions on the Earth. Just because the moon is blown into smaller pieces doesn't mean that the mass has changed, and therefore the gravitational pull would remain basically the same (Although with the mass drifting apart it might not be as precisely directed but in the film it appears to all be in approx. the same area) and the tides really wouldn't be affected all that much.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Jack Harper: Earth, before the war. New York, before I was born. A place I've only seen pictures of. I know you... But we've never met. I'm with you... But I don't know your name. I know I'm dreaming. But it feels like more than that. It feels like a memory. How can that be?

---

Crazy Credits

The Universal logo in this film is a representation of the Earth in the year 2077, and the text saying 'Universal' is rusted.

---

Connections

Featured in Great MoVie Mistakes (2013)

---

Soundtracks

Starwaves
Performed by M83
Written by Anthony Gonzalez and Joseph Trapanese

User Reviews

Spoiler-free review, the less you know the better you'll enjoy it

I really wanted to see this movie from the first time I saw the movie trailer a long time ago. I came up with all sorts of fun endings in my own mind based on the trailer and eventually my curiosity caused me to read too much and I read some spoilers that I wish I hadn't. I still enjoyed the film immensely, but wish I hadn't read the spoilers and suggest you shy away from all potential spoilers, reading as little as possible before seeing the movie. So when you're done with this review, don't read anymore, just go see the movie.

I had the good fortune of watching this movie at an advance screening on a smaller IMAX screen and I really enjoyed it, as did the huge audience, judging by the lively and jovial banter as people exited. The movie follows Jack Harper who is a drone repair tech in a future earth that has been ravaged by an alien invasion. He has a by-the-books eye-in-the-sky (literally) assistant named Victoria (nicknamed Vika) who watches out for Jack and reports to Central. They live together in a sky platform to avoid the alien scavs who come out at night. Jack is keeping the drones repaired to defend huge energy machines from being attacked by the scavs. Once enough energy has been stored up from the world's oceans by the energy machines, the remaining survivors of earth hope to leave in a few short weeks for the safety of a new base on Saturn's Titan. To protect certain things, Jack and Victoria's memories have been erased before their present situation. Jack is confused about why they have to leave earth, whereas Vika is ready to go, but they both cherish and respect each other. Then Jack meets Malcolm Beech who tells Jack that things are not exactly how they seem, which sets off a series of events that eventually lead to the end of the movie.

Some critics have mentioned something like "we've seen these ideas before" in other movies. While it's true that there's nothing totally new in this movie per se, that doesn't make the movie less appealing, IMO. Thinking back to when I was much younger and saw the trailer for the movie Independence Day in the theatre, I remember thinking that the movie looked really fun despite the fact that there've been a zillion alien invasion movies before, but I still hoped they'd do a great job with it because the trailer for the movie was awesome. Was there anything earth-shatteringly new about the movie? Not really, but it was still excellent entertainment. That's how I feel about Oblivion. To me, it's great entertainment.

The only minor complaints I had was that the volume of the music while Jack and Vika were in the pool was too much and sometimes things dragged ever so slightly between action sequences. Overall though, this movie was definitely a remarkable treat.