The fun of Blaugust (even in this early stage) is that I am planning ahead on posts knowing I am trying to do one a day. So at the end of my day I am thinking about what I read, watched, and/or experienced and thinking what fits in a post? And although this has always been a gaming focused blog, I haven’t played a game in 3 days and other content is going to seep into the blog. I think that is ok.
I finally watched the movie Oblivion and while it is easy to pick away plot holes and gaps in the story – I really enjoyed it. There is one part I think no one thinks about at the end of a movie (in general – purposely cryptic) but before I get too far into where this conversation is going I want to share some general thoughts about movies (I don’t think I have spoken about movies here before) but even more importantly:
THERE WILL BE SPOILERS BELOW! IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN OBLIVION, OR WANT TO PRESERVE ANY TWISTS, YOU WILL NOT WANT TO READ BELOW.
Fair warning?
[extra spacing for spoiler warning]
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[ok – now a few general paragraphs about movies in general then spoilers – fair warnings!!]
I am not a movie connoisseur. Some of my favorite movies are easy to love or put on that list. I don’t follow the Film Festival circuit(s) and most of my “going to the movie” events – pretty much all of them – are enjoying such classics as Thor: The Dark World, Captain America, Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs (1 and 2) and pretty much any other movie a 9 year old would want to see. I am months behind adult based new releases which is why Oblivion was so late.
I enjoyed Battleship and Pacific Rim – the plots were really full of holes, but as blockbuster summer movies they were enjoyable. I think those are good examples of when I get into a movie, the good parts of it (giant robots beating up giant inter-dimensional monsters) and the emotions elicited through obvious plot ploys (father of the love interest finally accepting ) typically trump the bad parts (overused plot elements). Plus, a summer blockbuster is supposed to be all explosions and “big” anyway, and I can enjoy that in that context. I’m not picking Oscar winners or anything.
Ok. That is a huge lead up. SPOILER TIME.
I liked Oblivion. I loved the plot twist that the astronauts sent to examine a giant object in space ended up being the clones that came back to attack and destroy earth. It’s a different twist on exploration. The mindf*uck job that the alien entity played on the existing clones to protect its assets on earth from the existing, underground humans seemed believable. Why not? So the main hero is actually playing the villain as a Drone (that kills humans) tech repairer he just doesn’t know it.
He is also a clone. Small plot importance there.
At the end of the movie we know that Tech-Jack-49 dies to save the planet, and Tech-Jack-52 finds the original Jack’s wife 3 years later (now with Jack-49’s child) with the rest of the survivors. My question there was:
What happened to Tech-Jack 1 through 48? And Tech-Jack 50/51? Presumably each of those were also responsible for drone repair in different areas of the earth, unbeknownst to each other as the planet was divvied up into self-policing “radiation zones”. While the end was viewer friendly and “satisfying” I was left wondering what happened to all the other clones.
When the Tet(alien entity bent on absorbing the earth’s natural resources) was destroyed, what did the Vika and Jack clones around the planet do? Were they emotionally destroyed by what the non-in-the-know clones thought was their passage to the rest of the human race (who, lied to, were told were relocated to Titan, Saturn’s moon – and the Tet was the launching space station). When they lost contact with Mission Control did they try to go about their jobs (which, since all drones were now inactive, be impossible?) Did they move off of their safe and elevated platforms and re-colonize? Did the “in the know” survivors and clones search them out, exposing the fake radiation zones that acted as barriers so they didn’t run into each other? Did they live peacefully, as lovers, ignorant to why they exist in the first place and the event that took away their “mission control?”
Why do I even care? Not entirely sure.
With no room for a sequel I’ll never know. Perhaps I only even care because I enjoyed the movie as much as I did – but it would have been a nice, two minute explanation at the end of it all to satisfy my curiosity.
Clone, time travel and alternate reality/universe movies always mess with my mind.