[SPOILER ALERT!]
Seriously, if you don’t want me to ruin Oblivion for you,
don’t read the rest of this post. Or do. Whatever. Have it your way. Jack
Harper would be proud of you.
It’s good to be writing here again after eons of neglect. I
probably could’ve picked a better time to do this than exam period, but then I
figured that, seeing as they both involve writing, composing a blog post and
revision is effectively the same thing. Conscience cleared.
I was initially quite sceptical about Oblivion. I don’t hold
Tom Cruise’s acting ability (or life choices) in the highest regard, but the
whole sci-fi theme managed to hook me. After getting through the first 10
minutes of the film, characterised primarily by a robotic performance from Mr.
Cruise, his acting began to shape up, along with the rest of the movie. I left
the cinema quite impressed with the film.
 |
| Seriously. Just look at that cape. |
And it wasn’t just Morgan Freeman’s badass cape which
impressed me; the film was actually able to dish out a little food for thought.
Spoilers ahead! Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Director Joseph Kosinski kicks off the movie with a dream
sequence in which Jack Harper (Cruise) struggles to remember his past in a
manner not unlike your average tequila enthusiast. When Harper wakes up, we are
introduced to his partner Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) and their swanky pad,
which I can only describe as Apple’s latest product, the iHouse. Between all
this, Harper conveniently fills us in on the backstory.
The Earth has been ruined as the result of a nuclear war
between humanity and an alien race known as the ‘Scavengers’, who apparently
thought the best way of say “Greetings!” was to blow up the moon (not kidding).
In somewhat blazing efficiency, the remnants of the human population were
relocated to Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. To ensure the survival of the
species, we began sucking up the Earth’s oceans with rigs which and used the
water to fuel fusion reactors to provide us with energy (because everybody
hates it when a little nuclear war knocks out the WiFi). Harper and Victoria
remained on Earth as a glorified maintenance crew for the rigs; their efforts
co-ordinated by a shiny space station known as the ‘Tet’. But wait! To make
sure they didn’t leak any information to the Scavengers who survived on Earth,
both Harper and Victoria had their entire memory prior to their mission erased.
Super-fun twist time!
Harper discovers that the Scavengers who roam the Earth are,
in fact, the planet’s human survivors! Humanity never waged a war against
hordes of alien invaders. Humanity actually got its ass handed to it by the
Tet, which is revealed to possess AI (Skynet anyone?). Harper and Victoria’s
retirement plan on Titan is but one of the space station’s many deceptions.
Another big one is that the pair are in fact clones of human astronauts
abducted by the Tet and brainwashed into turning the spanners on its rigs,
which are actually sucking up seawater for its own energy purposes.
Don’t worry if the idea that the near-destruction of the
human race was caused by an unmanned space station left your head spinning
slightly. There’s more to the story than that, but I’ll leave it for now.
 |
| Apparently the rigs were designed by Apple too. |
One part of the plot which I thought was actually quite well
done was the role of the Titan survivor colony. Initially, Harper’s maintenance
of the rigs stems from the idea that they are being used to power humanity’s
efforts, which he will eventually be able to enjoy when he retires to Titan. I
thought this bore a neat resemblance to the way actually manage/mindlessly consume our resources in the present, as if we too have a nice moon we can all
retire to when things run out on Earth. Of course, Harper realises he was
wasting his time when he discovers that Titan was just one of the Tet’s big fat
lies. Unfortunately for us, we won’t have a shiny orbital scapegoat to pin
things on after we’ve consumed every last resource on the planet. Once we’re
out, we’re out. No Titan to save the day.
Another part of the film which I thought was quite
interesting was the characters of Harper and Victoria. To me, they seemed to
represent two opposing forces in our minds. Harper’s the force that questions
things, and ultimately unravels the truth about that big ol’ phony space
station. On the other hand, Victoria’s the force that happily obeys orders and
tells Harper to stop dicking about before he ruins their vacation to Camp
Titan. Even though Harper’s the hero of the story, it made me wonder how often
one force ‘wins’ over the other, and which one usually does the winning.
All in all, not a bad run from Oblivion in the philosophy
race. You could say I read a little too much into the movie, and you’re
probably right. What can I say? As a history student, reading a little too much
into things is kind of my specialty.
