Oblivion

Saw ‘Oblivion’ a couple of days back. The plot has a now-familiar ring to it. It’s sometime in future. The earth as we know now is no more. There has been a war and many casualties. The humans are fighting the invading aliens called as Scavengers (scavs) for the last precious resources on earth – one of them being, of course, water. Jack (Tom Cruise) and Victoria are some of the last drone repair-persons left.  Though their memories have been obliterated at the start of mission, Jack finds it strange that he keeps remembering stuff which he possibly cannot. One of the particularly haunting memories are of a woman – who for all intents and purposes is a stranger to him.

With just 2 weeks left before they can complete their mission and join whatever is left of mankind on a planet called Titan, Jack comes across a space shuttle that seemingly drops out of a sky because a beacon triggered by the Scavs has summoned it back to earth. Despite his efforts, he is able to save only one passenger, Julia, before the drones kill the rest. To his utter amazement, she is the same woman who he seems to remember from his visions.

Julia refuses to answer any questions about her mission or her identity. Instead, she insists on retrieving the black box from their shuttle. Jack accompanies her – only to discover something about him, Julia and the scavs – something that shocks him to his very core.

An interesting twist to the much-used alien-invasion-of-earth plot – the movie keeps you guessing right till the end. But in an attempt to keep it fast-paced, the director has moved the plot back and forth between the past and the future at such a dizzying speed that sometimes it becomes difficult to gauge whether what’s happening is from the present or the past. We did overhear a family having a heated discussion about the end as they exited from the movie hall.

So if invading aliens and earth’s destruction are topics that excite you, go watch the movie, if you haven’t already done so. If you can figure out the end, good for you! If not, then there’s always imdb.com J