Oblivion - Tom Cruise

Oblivion is a 2013 American post-apocalyptic science fiction film co-written, produced and directed by Joseph Kosinski and based on his unpublished graphic novel of the same name edited by Radical Comics. It stars Tom Cruise, Olga Kurylenko, Andrea Riseborough, Morgan Freeman, Melissa Leo, Zoë Bell, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. The film was initially scheduled for release on July 10, 2013. Since the 3D re-release of Jurassic Park was set for April 5, 2013, the US release date was moved forward to April 19, 2013. According to Kosinski, Oblivion pays homage to science fiction films of the 1970s. It is Tom Cruise's twentieth film to gross more than $200 million worldwide. The movie received moderately favorable reviews; the acting performances were praised, while critiques of the story were mixed.

Plot

In the year 2077, Tech 49 Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) is one of the last drone repairmen stationed on Earth, which was nearly destroyed 60 years earlier by the destruction of Earth's moon and its aftereffects (earthquakes and tsunamis), and an invasion by aliens known as Scavs. From "Tower 49", a base standing above the remains of New York City, Jack and his romantic partner Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) work as a team to secure and send Earth's remaining resources to a massive tetrahedral space station—called the Tet—that was humanity’s escape vessel. Jack flies recon and repair missions to the surface, while Victoria supervises from Tower 49. They report to Sally, their mission control commander on the Tet. The two expect to leave Earth and join the other survivors at a colony on Titan in two weeks. Although Jack and Victoria had their memories wiped five years prior for security purposes, Jack has recurring dreams about a mysterious woman he spent time with at the Empire State Building in a time before the war. Additionally, Jack keeps a secret retreat in a forested area on the surface he sometimes visits.

A Scav signal transmitting coordinates is followed shortly by the crash of a pre-invasion American spacecraft. Drones come and kill much of the crew, but Jack rescues a woman, Julia (Olga Kurylenko), recognizing her as the woman from his dreams. Julia says her ship—the Odyssey—was a NASA mission, and she and Jack retrieve the ship’s flight recorder. They are captured by Scavs, who are revealed to be humans living in an underground stronghold. Their leader, Malcolm Beech (Morgan Freeman), claims the alien invasion was a lie and demands that Jack reprogram a captured drone to destroy the Tet. When Jack refuses, Malcolm releases the captives but urges them to seek the truth in the so-called “high radiation zone” that Jack is forbidden from entering.

Jack and Julia climb the ruins of the Empire State Building on the way back, where Julia tells Jack she is his wife. Jack’s dreams were flashbacks to the day he proposed to her on the Empire State Building's observation deck. Victoria sees them reunite via her video link to Jack’s ship and, when they return, refuses them entry. When she informs Sally that she and Jack are no longer an effective team, Sally activates a drone that kills Victoria. Before the drone can kill Jack, Julia uses the weapons on Jack's ship to destroy the drone.

Pursued by more drones, Jack and Julia crash in the radiation zone. Jack comes face to face with Tech 52, a clone of himself. He fights the clone, who begins experiencing memory flashbacks before Jack renders him unconscious. Jack then finds Julia has been seriously injured. Jack impersonates Tech 52 to steal a medkit from Tower 52 to heal Julia's wounds, and there he encounters a clone of Victoria. Shocked, Jack and Julia return to Beech, who tells them the disturbing truth: there is no colony on Titan. The Tet is in fact an alien artificial intelligence that seized Earth to exploit the planet's resources, and Jack is a clone of the original Jack Harper, an astronaut from 2017. The Tet initially used Harper's clones as an invading army, then switched to drones programmed to kill humans on sight, thus forcing the survivors to disguise themselves as the Scavs. The Tet now uses Harper's clones to maintain the drones and thereby maintain its dominance. Hearing this, Jack agrees to reprogram the stolen drone to deliver a nuclear bomb into the Tet. When leaving the underground stronghold with the reprogrammed drone they are attacked by three other drones. The drones enter the base and wreak havoc inside, destroying the reprogrammed drone in the process. The humans finally manage to destroy the three drones, but are forced to find another way to deliver the nuclear bomb to the Tet. Jack proposes to deliver the bomb himself. Julia suggests that she accompany Jack, as Sally had already requested that he bring her to the Tet.

During the flight, Jack listens to the Odyssey's flight recorder, which reveals that he and Victoria were originally pilots on the Odyssey mission to Titan, which was reassigned by NASA to explore the newly-discovered Tet. Sally was their supervisor at NASA mission control, with other personnel, including Julia, on board in sleeping capsules. Upon approach, the Tet drew them in with a tractor beam. Recognizing that capture was imminent, Jack was able to jettison the passengers, who orbited for 60 years in suspended animation until Beech sent the signal to recall their craft. Jack enters the Tet. At the central chamber, Jack is met by a sentient tetrahedral structure that had adopted the persona of Sally. She welcomes Jack home. Jack opens the sleep capsule to reveal Beech; Julia simultaneously emerges from another sleeping capsule in Jack's secret forest retreat. The two men trigger the nuclear bomb and destroy the Tet. The destruction of the Tet also deactivates the remaining drones around the world.

Three years later, Julia is living with her young daughter in the forest retreat on the recovering Earth. A group of survivors arrives there, and Tech 52 emerges from the group. A voice-over by Tech 52 reveals that his previous encounter had re-awakened memories of Julia and he had searched for her for three years.