Jack Harper is assigned to Earth to extract its remaining resources after it was abandoned after a war took place in 2017. But everything is not as it seems when Jack still has flashbacks from his life 60 years earlier . . .
The flashbacks he gets of a woman and being at the top of the Empire State Building but he cannot remember who she is or what actually happened. We see him going about his mission to make sure all of the drone’s are working correctly. He must however stay away from the alien Scavs who appear every now and then. But when a spacecraft crashes down he then must deal with everything he thought was true when humans were on the spacecraft. Especially when one of them is the woman he has flashbacks and dreams about!
I have to admit that this film could have easily been extremely boring and dragged for the 126 minute running time. But I did not find this to be the case I thought it was paced well to build up suspense and make you wonder what actually happened in the war. The film did not have many characters to follow or even much dialog at times but it just totally worked.
I think you had to have an actor like Tom Cruise in the lead role in this film for it to really work properly and be as engaging as it was. It just got you really thinking and wondering how it was going to end or what was behind everything. Are the Scavs really what they seem to be? Is Jack even what he seems to be? I cannot tell you any of these things without spoiling the film. Right from the start it is clear that everything is not as it seems and plenty of twists will occur.
The woman who Jack is on the mission with Victoria always seems a bit strange and will not leave the tower where the live and she works from. Talking to Sally who is in mission control telling them what they must next and helping them. Or at least we think she is helping them! Everything about the set up really does just seem strange and not real, where did all the humans go and where are they now?
I liked the use of the Empire State Building and the Brooklyn Bridge to show how much Earth had changed in the war as well as the stadium used for the last Superbowl in 2017. This just helped it relate back to the present day really, also showing how the surface of the Earth was totally different as only the top of the Empire State Building remained and played a big part in the dreams.
I really enjoyed Tom Cruises performance in the film and enjoyed the film overall which was surprising really as I wouldn’t class this genre to be my favorite when it comes to films. But this film is definitely worth a watch! Did you enjoy Oblivion?