Talk:Oblivion (2013 film)

Differences between American and foreign releases of the film
I was lucky enough to see both the international release and the later American release, and although I can't find a source, there are a few shots from the American release that were cut elsewhere. Can anybody else back me up on this? 71.220.232.3 (talk) 17:06, 22 April 2013 (UTC)

Cast list spoilers
The cast list has a big spoiler in it. I skipped the plot section to read the cast list because I haven't yet seen the movie but the cast list reveals a big twist in the movie. It reduced my enjoyment of the film. I edited out that spoiler. Hopefully whoever originally wrote that big spoiler into the cast list will show more tact in the future.

Edit: Looks like someone reverted my changes. What a jackass. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.119.148.188 (talk) 00:33, 27 July 2013 (UTC)


 * Please note that spoilers are no different from other content and should not be removed from an article simply because they reveal a plot twist. Hoof Hearted (talk) 14:22, 7 July 2014 (UTC)
 * We should re-inteoduce the spoiler warning for sections where people don't expect spoilers, especially the cast & characters. Either that, or we move plot details (and thus spoilers) to the plot section  PizzaMan  ♨♨♨  23:29, 23 December 2021 (UTC)

Similarity to previous stories
The story in "Oblivion" has similarities to previous science fiction ... beyond it's stated aim of being a homage to '70s science fiction. One point of similarity is to the Outer Limits episode "Demon With a Glass Hand" starring Robert Culp (original air date October 14, 1964). That episode's story is about a war between earth and a planet called Kyba. The Kyben took less than one month to defeat all of earth's defenses. But then, all of earth's inhabitants, tens of billions by that time, vanish overnight, and subsequently a "radioactive plague" breaks out, which starts to kill the Kyben. One man, Trent (Culp), escapes back in time 1,000 years (to the present of the audience) with the key to the fate of earth's people. The obvious parallels with "Oblivion" include an attack on earth from an alien world, along with earthlings' desperate strategy of trashing their planet to defeat the enemy, evacuating elsewhere for the time being. (I'll prescind from the fact that in "Oblivion" this turns out not to be what really happened.) Outer Limits script writer Harlan Ellison subsequently elaborated on the Earth-Kyba war in a series of short stories.

Another 1960s TV parallel: Given that the Tet space station in "Oblivion" seems to run on artificial intelligence and apparently has no actual alien life forms on board, there is a parallel with the Star Trek episode "The Doomsday Machine" (original air date October 20, 1967). That episode posits an alien-built machine intended as a doomsday bluff for deterrent purposes that wound up destroying its builders and became rogue. Like that machine, the Tet apparently travels from planet to planet, run by its internal artificial intelligence, and saps them dry before moving on to the next planet.

Lastly, like all post-apocalyptic stories, "Oblivion" owes a debt to Walter Miller's novel A Canticle for Leibowitz. The surviving humans in "Oblivion" (Morgan Freeman et al) have the same role as the monks in Leibowitz, preserving humanity and whatever of its culture remains until human society can be rebuilt. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.73.64.248 (talk) 02:52, 25 August 2013 (UTC)


 * WP:OR50.147.26.108 (talk) 14:07, 28 March 2014 (UTC)


 * This is not "Original Research" WP:OR. Please look up the definition.--KJRehberg (talk) 05:00, 21 July 2014 (UTC)


 * Frankly, I don't see how this is notable. You're linking these works because they involve alien invasions, artificial intelligence run amok, and post-apocalyptic survival?  Those are themes in thousands of science fiction works.  The anon's point of WP:OR is valid - specifically the section that states "Do not analyze, synthesize, interpret, or evaluate material found in a primary source yourself; instead, refer to reliable secondary sources that do so."  It's not that your statements are untrue, but they're not from a secondary source.  If you're not a notable film reviewer that has published these connections in a reputable source, we cannot add them.  Hoof Hearted (talk) 15:38, 16 October 2014 (UTC)

Major Spoiler at top of Plot
The sentence "The movie opens with the Universal logo depicting the alien Tetrahedron in earth's orbit." is an unnecessary spoiler. The presence of the "Tet" in the Universal logo is meant as an Easter Egg for repeated viewings and should not be considered part of the plot of the film. — Preceding unsigned comment added by KevinCoulton (talk • contribs) 12:25, 2 December 2013 (UTC)
 * I agree. I've taken the liberty of removing the plot summary so that the summary is consistent with other Wikipedia film articles. - Gorba (talk) 17:04, 28 March 2016 (UTC)

Plot summary
Having edited numerous film summaries, as well as reviewing about a dozen Wikipedia films articles I've concluded the summary for this film is too excessive and needs to be reduced. The word count is 1,018. Typically a film summary should be around 700 words. I've placed the Plot template noting the need to make edits. Gorba (talk) 16:56, 28 March 2016 (UTC)


 * , I've cut down the plot to just under 700. Hopefully that works. AngusWOOF ( bark  •  sniff ) 00:52, 10 September 2016 (UTC)


 * Looks excellent. Thanks for your efforts. As an aside, I made minor edits mostly consisting of word changes. Feel free to review and edit as you see fit. Gorba (talk) 00:32, 1 October 2016 (UTC)

Critical response sources
Why are 90% of the quotes in the critical response section sourced to Rotten Tomatoes rather than the original reviews? It is inappropriate to expect a reader to click on the ref., get taken to the RT page, then have to find the quoted review on the long list on the RT page. The quotes are probably lifted straight from that page, as well. This is just lazy editing. ---  The Old Jacobite  The '45  13:14, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

When Jack 49 is at the cabin, he plays a record...
The song is Ramble On by Led Zeppelin, but that track is not on the soundtrack list. Also, what happens to all the other Jacks and Vickas after the Tet is destroyed? 98.118.62.140 (talk) 19:17, 24 October 2020 (UTC)


 * I have just eeh-net-searched 'paradroid 742', resulting in some sort of riddle — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:4DD7:4BCB:0:848B:B6BC:8F49:3D82 (talk) 07:45, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

painting

 * She is on the side of the canvas from the Christina's World painting she and Jack saw in Raven Rock.

I find this sentence basically incomprehensible. There is no previous mention, no explanation, no indication why this sentence is here or what it tries to convey.

(Of course I can google for answers but that's beside the point)

CapnZapp (talk) 19:41, 16 August 2023 (UTC)

the graphic novel

 * Kosinski wanted to film a cinematic adaptation of the graphic novel Oblivion

This is misleading and most likely a result of absorbing the PR porjected at the time. The section later makes it clear no such thing existed, but fails to mention the efforts that were made to make it seem it did.

Rewording.

CapnZapp (talk) 19:54, 16 August 2023 (UTC)