Welcome back to Movie Recaps. Today I will show you an action, adventure,
sci-fi film from 2013, titled Oblivion. Spoilers ahead! Watch out and take care.
Jack dreams about Earth before the war, the way he has seen it only in pictures. He sees a woman
that smiles at him, which he has never met. He has strong feelings for her, as if he wasn't
experiencing a dream, but a memory. Jack wakes up in his present, in the year 2077. Five years since
a mandatory memory wipe, though still haunted by the same dreams. Him and Victoria were assigned
to Earth for a mission, which will be complete in two weeks and they could join the others. They are
very different, he is curious, when she isn't. The alien specie "the scavengers" decimated Earth's
Moon half a century ago and wanted to take over the planet because theirs was dying. The Earth was
thrown into chaos without the Moon - earthquakes and tsunamis had completely destroyed it,
when the invasion came. The remaining humans used nuclear weapons and won the war, but the planet
was left mostly uninhabitable. The survivors left and built the TET, a temporary space station
before the migration to one of Saturn's moons - Titan. Everyone had already been displaced there,
while Jack and Victoria stayed on Earth to protect the hydro-rigs which convert water to energy.
The survival of humanity depends on it. Scavengers that are still on Earth continue to fight and
disrupt their operation, attacking the drones and him. Their mission control calls them an
"effective team". Victoria is his communication officer and he is tech support for the drones.
She is excited to go to Titan, but he feels like Earth is still his home. Jack enters his
vessel to go on his daily patrol. He engages all the systems and checks with Victoria,
then lifts of. Jack confirms the visual of the hydro-rigs. Suddenly Victoria informs him that
they have two drones down. Mission comes online and Victoria establishes communication with TET,
informing Sally about the drones. She relays the information to Jack and links his vessel
to its beacon. He follows it though a storm, when lightning strikes the vessel and he loses
control for a moment, falling down. Meanwhile, Victoria tries to convince mission control that
they need new parts for a few drones that are down. She's given their directive for the day
is to fix drone 166 and find 172. Jack spins out of control and is about to pancake on the ground,
when he suddenly gets control back and pulls up. He comes up to the location of the first drone.
Before he lands, Victoria checks for scavenger activity, but she has limited visibility. Jack
lands close to the drone, grabs what he'll need to fix it and tells Victoria to watch his back.
As he's working on the drone and talking to her on coms, someone is watching him. She tells him that
he can't fix the drone, but he uses his chewing gum and manages to get it working. Before the
drone powers up, Victoria notices something on her monitors. Jack turns around only to find a
dog. The drone comes online and Jack scares away the dog so it doesn't kill it. He gives the drone
his ID and it doesn't engage with him. It scans the place where the people were watching it from,
then blasts off. Jack stops to eat lunch and talks to Victoria about the scavengers getting bolder.
She says that once the two of them are gone, they'll only have dust and radiation.
He decides to look for the second drone on the ground and takes out his bike. Jack rides through
the desolate landscape where once there was water. He gets a faint signal from the drone somewhere in
front of him, but he doesn't see it. However he finds a sinkhole where he thinks the drone
might have fallen into. He informs Victoria that he'll go inside to find it and she says that TET
will come offline in 15 so he will be on his own. Jack attaches a rope to his bike and climbs down.
The scavengers are still observing him from the distance. Victoria requests drone back up to his
location. Jack carefully lowers himself down, he can hear the drone and finally see it, but
control doesn't hear him anymore. When he tries to approach the drone he almost falls over, then uses
a fallen beam as a bridge to get to it. He reaches the signal and finds the beacon, but no drone.
Scavengers capture him and pull him in, but he manages to shoot their rope and free himself.
He sees a few and shoots at them, when they suddenly pull away the beam.
He jumps over the gap, as they are getting closer on his trail. Once he's safely on the other side,
he locks himself to his rope and pulls himself up, but someone shoots and breaks it, so he plummets
back into the sinkhole. It seems like all is lost as they close in, then suddenly a drone
shows up and begins scanning, than blasting the place up, terminating the scavengers. Drone 166
scans him again, but it doesn't recognize his ID at once. Jack finds a book on the ground and takes
it with him. Once he reaches the top, he sees that his bike has been stolen by the scavengers.
Jack manages to get himself home. While he showers he has another memory of New York.
He's doing some repairs on a drone, when he decides to take a look at the book.
Victoria interrupts him. She is preparing lunch, as the sun is going down behind them.
Jack gives her the flowers he's been lugging around and she goes outside and throws it out,
telling him that it might contain toxins. While they have dinner, he tells her that the scavengers
weren't trying to kill him, but to catch him. Victoria goes to their pool outside, takes off her
clothes and jumps in. Jack follows her there, but doesn't come inside immediately. He asks her to
come down on the ground with him some day before they leave. She pulls him inside the pool. They
kiss and submerge, when he has another vision of the woman he's been seeing in his dreams.
Jack wakes up in bed and sees a massive explosion in the distance. He goes to explore what it was.
One of the hydro-rigs had exploded and Jack thinks that the scavengers had weaponized one
of the drones. He finds a rogue signal that's being diverted off planet and instantly goes to
investigate. He finds its origin in the vicinity of what was once the top of the Empire State
Building. Jack goes in on foot and sees something that was also in his dream.
He can hear the beacon and he tries to get to it, seeing a few trinkets on the ground.
The beacon is using the building as an antenna and Victoria decrypts the information. It's a set of
coordinates that are in the middle of nowhere. Jack shuts it down. Then continues his rounds,
coming dangerously close to the radiation border. Before he heads home he does a perimeter check and
goes off com. Jack enters a beautiful ravine and lands his vessel next to a house near a lake. He
turns on the light and adds the few trinkets he has found to the inventory of the home.
He puts on a nice Led Zeppelin record and goes outside enjoying the place, thinking how much he
would miss it when they leave. He falls asleep on the grass and has another dream about the
woman on the empire state building. Jack sees an unknown object falling and takes off immediately.
Victoria informs him where it came down and it seems it landed on the beacon coordinates.
She tells him that mission is almost offline and before that she informs them of the situation.
Sally tells her that Jack should stand down, because they have already sent drones there.
He defies the order and goes to inspect the object nevertheless. As he approaches he says
that the object looks human and pre-war. Jack lands on site and finds hibernation pods with
human beings in them. He informs Victoria that he has 5 human survivors. The last pod he checks is
the woman from his dreams. Suddenly, the drones appear and begin destroying the pods. Jack orders
them to stand down, but 166 prepares to engage with him as well. It clears his ID, though it
wants to terminate the pod. Jack protects it and shoots at the drone, disengaging it.
The scavengers are observing him again. Jack barely lads the vessel and comes out
dragging the pod with him. Victoria opens the door for him and they open the pod.
She tells him to get the med kit. She says that they need to report it, but Jack tells her about
the drones. The woman suddenly wakes up, vomiting breathing fluid. She falls back in Jack's arms and
call him by his name. Later, she's awake and asks where she is. Victoria introduces them
and the woman says that she is Julia. Victoria tells her about the crash and her crew, but the
woman seems confused. Julia asks how long she had been asleep and jack tells her it's been 60 years.
The three of them eat lunch and Jack questions her about the beacon and her mission. Julia says that
she needs to get the flight recorder from the ship, but Victoria tells her that the Earth has
changed a lot in 60 years. They tell her about the alien invasion and that everyone else is on Saturn
or on the space station getting ready to go. Julia sees them holding hands and laughs. Victoria
is very apprehensive of her. Later, Jack and Victoria talk about her and she wants her gone.
He asks her if she has any memories from before the mission and if she remembers her.
Victoria gets angry and reminds him that a scavenger beacon got her down. The
scavengers have found the place where they live. Later, Julia is awake when Jack joins her. He
tells her that Victoria will report her presence there to the TET and they will send someone down
for her. Julia says that she needs to get the flight recorder from her ship. She says that
they both need to know what happened. They leave and Victoria tells him that she can't protect him.
When they arrive at the crash site, she observes the through the vessel's camera. Julia sees the
pods and Jack tells her that he couldn't save them. Victoria sees someone on the monitors and
tries to tell them but fails, as Julia is looking for the recording. She finally finds it. Suddenly,
scavengers appear and knock Jack over. He sends the vessel back and they knock him out completely.
The two of them are being taken somewhere by the scavengers. The following day, the vessel
comes back to Victoria. Mission comes online and she doesn't tells her exactly what has happened,
just that he went of com so she asks for a drone to scout the area where he was last.
Jack wakes up with a light on his face, restrained. He hears a voice recite the lines
from the book he previously found. A man lights a cigar in the darkness and tells him that he's been
watching him, noticing how curious he is. Jack says that they won't get anything out of him,
because his memory has been wiped. The man asks if he has ever really met a scavenger before,
or been to the radiation zone, or asked too many questions.
The light come on to show an entire building full of humans. Jack is confused so the man,
Beech, explains what they are - just human. But that they have to hide themselves from the drones
because they are programed to kill the humans. He asks why he protected Julia from a drone and Jack
replies that anyone would have done that. Sykes walks up to them, saying a drone will track him.
They remove his restraints and get him up. Meanwhile, Victoria is checking the tracking
data from the drone with mission and Sally confirms it's Jack. Beech takes Jack down to
their ground facility and tells him that they brought Julia's ship down for its reactor.
He tells him that the reactor along with the drone fuel cells they have scavenged can make a nuke.
One of the drones they have taken with them can carry it, but they can't access it,
only Jack can. Simultaneously, the drone is tracking his DNA to their hiding spot. Beech
needs Jack to program the drone to carry the nuke to the center of the TET and end the war.
Jack won't do it, so Sykes shoots him. They bring in Julia and threaten him with her life. Suddenly
an alarm activates, informing of the incoming drone. It arrives at the hiding place and scans
it. The scavengers try to take it down, but it takes out a few of them, until Sykes destroys it.
Victoria and mission confirm that the drone goes offline and Victoria asks for two additional ones.
At the same time, Jack is telling Beech the same thing. The scavengers are ready to let them go.
Before they leave, Beech tells him that he can find the truth in one of the radiation zones.
Jack and Julia reach the Empire State building. He sends Victoria a message
that he's alive and she informs mission, so that she can call off the other drones.
Victoria sends the vessel to Jack. While they wait for it, Jack asks Julia who she really
is. She explains that the mission she was on was a research flight to Titan. But, six
weeks pre launch their sensors picked up an alien object and they were reassigned to investigate.
The alien object was the TET. She tells him that she's actually his wife and that he isn't who he
thinks he is. Julia tells him that he asked her to marry her at the very place they are standing.
Jack remembers parts of it, but is still a little confused. The vessel arrives and Victoria
sees them embracing. They return to the home, but Victoria won't let them get inside. Jack tells her
that they need to leave and explains that Julia is his wife. Victoria informs TET about Julia,
to Jack's protest. Suddenly, the door opens and one of the drones they have at the home activates.
Jack tells her to come with him, but she doesn't want to go or believe anything he tells her.
The drone appears and kills her. It approaches Jack, ready to kill him too, but Julia takes
it out. Jack finally talks to TET and it tells him that it wants to bring him and Julia in,
to assign them a new mission. They leave the home and TET sends drones to get them. They have a long
and grueling chase. Jack takes them inside the storm to get them hit by lightning. It stops
them for a moment, but they press on. The vessel hides behind a waterfall and the drones miss it.
Jack comes up behind them and destroys two of them. The last one is resilient. It almost crashes
their ship, but Jack outmaneuvers it and destroys it. Unfortunately, 166 follows them and pushes
them right into the radiation zone. It crashes into them and destroys the ship so Jack pulls the
escape lever. They are stranded in the radiation zone. He hears a drone in the distance and goes
to see if its online, when he sees another vessel like his own land next to it. He can't see the man
who gets out through his scope, so he decides to take a closer look. The man he finds there
is himself. The other Jack tells him to drop his weapon. He tells him that they have to shoot the
drone down, when Julia appears and the other Jack has the memory about her. The two Jacks struggle,
first for the guns, then hand to hand, until the first Jack - 49 incapacitates 52.
Suddenly, 166 comes online, but Jack 49 quickly takes out its fuel cell, powering it off. He calls
for Julia and realizes that she's been shot. Jack carries her to safety, then restrains 52 and takes
his vessel, flying it to his home. Once inside, he notices that everything is pretty much the same.
He finds the med kit and grabs what he needs. Victoria 52 catches him,
but he succeeds in convincing her that he's her Jack. But, he can't convince this one to join him
on the ground either. When he gets back, he sees that 52 has escaped. He treats Julia's wounds,
gets her to the vessel and takes her to his house by the lake. When Julia wakes up there,
fully healed, she takes a look around and plays Jack's favorite record. She joins him outside
and he tells her that he knows he's not the original, but that he has loved her for as
long as he could remember. Julia tells him that eventually what makes him - him are his memories.
The following morning, Jack knows what he needs to do and gets ready for it. He has decided to help
Beech and Julia will come with him. They arrive at the hiding place and Beech is glad that they
have decided to aid in their plan. Meanwhile, TET goes over the footage from the previous time that
Jack was there and finds his data. It sends three drones after them. Jack is programing the drone,
while Beech is telling them that he was there when it all started, from the destruction of the
moon to the eventual starvation of the humans. Lastly, the TET invaded the planet with troops
that all looked like him, astronaut Jack Harper. Their memories were wiped and they were programed
to kill. Beech says that TET is a brilliant machine feeding on planets for their energy.
One day, he noticed him picking up the book and then saving her, giving him the idea that maybe he
is different and that he would be able to help if he found a way to bring him back. Jack activates
the drone and Beech says that he would love to be on TET to see its face when the nuke goes off.
It would be a one way trip, but it would be worth it. The scavengers prepare the
drone for its final mission and open the gates. Unfortunately, the three drones are
already there. They come inside and wreak havoc on the place. Everyone fights them,
but the machines are stronger and they take out many of the humans. Beech destroys one,
but not before it can hurt him and destroy the drone with the nuke. Sykes destroys the second
drone and Jack the third. When they realize that their plan has failed Julia make up another one.
She says that since the TET asked him to bring her up, he could take her in a pod and carry the
nuke that way. The two of them say goodbye in front of a painting that reminds her of home.
Then they prepare a pod with the explosive device and Jack lays Julia down in the pod.
He tells her to dream of them and closes the pod. He drags it to his vessel and sets
a course to TET. During the flight, he plays the recording from the ship and remembers everything.
He was the commander of the ship and Sally was the actual NASA mission control during that mission.
Victoria was his co-pilot. The rest of the crew, including Julia, were in hibernation.
Jack approaches TET in the present and he tells her that he's bringing it the survivor. It grants
him entry. Back in his memory, they approach TET, but when they realize that the object is pulling
them in, Jack decides to eject the hibernation module. Him and Victoria get taken into TET.
He enters it in the present as well. It sends drones on him, but he convinces it to let him
get closer. On the way to TET's control, he sees the many clones of himself and Victoria.
TET welcomes him home as he lands next to it. He takes out the pod and opens it.
Beech pops out. Julia's pod opens as well, but she wakes in the house next to the lake. She didn't
know he would take her there. Simultaneously, drones approach the surviving humans.
Back in TET, Jack activates the nuke together with Beech and it is destroyed.
All of its drones are destroyed as well. Sykes and Julia watch the explosion.
Three years later, Julia lives in the house with her daughter. Suddenly, the rest of the survivors
appear at the lake. Jack 52 arrives with them as well. Jack has arrived home to his wife and child.