History YMMV / Oblivion2013

* HellIsThatNoise: The drones', well, electronic droning, consisting of dissonant warbles which almost ''sound'' like an attempt to form words. In practice, they resemble someone hitting a digital keyboard at random notes; in effect, it's an extremely unsettling "voice."

* FreudWasRight: [[http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/oblivion-2013 In the words of reviewer Ignatiy Vishnevetsky.]]
-->"Cruise's sperm-ship enters through an airlock that resembles a geometrized vulva. [[spoiler: He arrives inside a massive chamber lined with egg-like glass bubbles. At the center of the chamber is a pulsating, sentient triangle that is also supposed to be some kind of mother figure. Cruise must destroy the mother triangle and her space uterus in order to save the Earth.]]"

* NamesTheSame: "Jack Harper" is also the name of a pair of villainous characters: a ManipulativeBastard on TruCalling, and, the real name of [[Franchise/MassEffect The Illusive Man]] ([[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything a smart former soldier being unwittingly controlled by ancient machine gods]]).

* BrokenBase: The ''happy ending'' has divided a lot of viewers due to accusations that hitching up with [[spoiler:Jack 52]] was an insult to the memory of [[spoiler:Jack 49.]] As one critic put it: Mentally substitute Jack's long lost twin brother into that situation and see if it doesn't end up seeming really creepy.

* FridgeHumor: In the scene where the drone being repaired [[spoiler: kills Victoria and emerges from the curtains]], listen carefully to the sound it makes. Fans of [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]] might mistake it for a certain sound from a certain vampire.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The theme-song, ''[[www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mkUp1V3ys0 "Oblivion"]]'', by Music/{{M83}} and Susanne Sundfør. The whole soundtrack definitely fits here.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The theme-song, ''"Oblivion"'', by Music/{{M83}} and Susanne Sundfør. The whole soundtrack definitely fits here.
** ''"Star Waves"''
** ''"I'm Sending You Away"''
** ''"Fearful Odds"''

* BaseBreaker: The ''happy ending'' has divided a lot of viewers due to accusations that hitching up with [[spoiler:Jack 52]] was an insult to the memory of [[spoiler:Jack 49.]] As one critic put it: Mentally substitute Jack's long lost twin brother into that situation and see if it doesn't end up seeming really creepy.

* InferredHolocaust: Even the the Tet gone, humanity is screwed. The planet is a wasteland, most of its water is gone. The survivors have no chance of rebuilding civilization again because the planet now lacks the necessary resources for it. Also, the remains of the Moon are still in orbit and will provide a constant source of large-scale impact events that through their sheer number eventually WILL cause a massive extinction of whatever multi-cellular life still lingers on.

* [[RatedMForMoney Rated PG-13 For Money]]: Averted. The story regarding the rights of the movie are as follows: Disney was the first production company to obtain them, but when they saw no viable to way to reduce the projected final product below a potential PG-13 rating they decided to auction the rights, which were then obtained by Universal and subsequently green-lighted.

* BaseBreaker: The ''happy ending'' has divided a lot of viewers due to accusations that hitching up with [[spoiler:Jack 52]] was an insult to the memory of [[spoiler:Jack 49.]] As one critic put it: ''Mentally substitute Jack's long lost twin brother into that situation and see if it doesn't end up seeming really creepy.''

* BaseBreaker: The ''happy ending'' has divided a lot of viewers due to accusations that hitching up with [[Spoiler:Jack 52]] was an insult to the memory of [[Spoiler:Jack 49.]] As one critic put it: ''Mentally substitute Jack's long lost twin brother into that situation and see if it doesn't end up seeming really creepy.''

-->"Cruise's sperm-ship enters through an airlock that resembles a geometrized vulva. [[spoiler: He arrives inside a massive chamber lined with egg-like glass bubbles. At the center of the chamber is a pulsating, sentient triangle that is also supposed to be some kind of mother figure. Cruise must destroy the mother triangle and her space uterus in order to save the Earth.]]"
* FridgeBrilliance:
** So why [[spoiler:Tet became so interested in Julia and insisted Jack bring her to the station? It's likely that Tet realized long ago that Jack and Vika are NOT an effective team; she cloned them because they were the only ones she had access to(It's unclear if Vika's clones participated in invading the Earth, but Jack being a trained soldier and a public hero would have more shock value in a Psychological Warfare against mankind, and Vika obviously has no combat abilities and is more useful as MissionControl), and she probably realized that while they could work together, Vika was not so good at keeping Jack on track, and in fact her behavior made him more unpredictable(As hinted by Jack meeting one of Vika's clones, each pair of clones has the same relationship problems: Vika being too professional, by-the-books and controlling, making Jack feel uncomfortable and restless (It's likely Tet had problems with other clones going out of control in the past because of that; the "are you an effective team?" question is likely a repeat test of Tet to evaluate whether each clone par is still under control or not, which implies there were problems with the clone teams before to warrant such a protocol). Julia, however, is his wife, he had dreams with her and quickly and willingly goes out of his way to help her. If she managed to get her, she could clone her instead of Vika, and thus make the perfect team to continue controlling Earth, since Julia would make Jack feel more at home, less likely to question orders(Vika's tactic of keeping Jack working all day and then distract him with sex at night, only better Jack won't feel like a HenpeckedHusband to a ControlFreak woman). Jack even uses this excuse to convince Tet that he's surrendering: "We're more effective team". I don't know why she just didn't try cloning another human woman before, but it's likely because Jack's clones would always keep dreaming about Julia, and other women might have the same problem; Vika already had an infatuation, thus easier to make her Jack's wife who didn't question her reality, and Julia is already his wife and he's completely in love with her, thus the clones would be a perfect match.]]
** Jack is shown to be a pretty competent, intuitive and instinctual pilot, especially for a repairman. One of his first establishing moments is that "backflip dive" maneuver he does with the Bubble Ship off the tower. Why would a repairman gain such skill to have no problem taking risks just flitting back and forth? [[spoiler:He's a NASA commander. He was an elite pilot all along.]]
* FridgeHorror: [[spoiler:The alien threat hasn't actually been dealt with. The 'Tet' was part of an energy-collection mission (backed up by the fact we see no aliens - everything is remotely automated). What are the aliens going to do when they realise their power plant has been blown up?]]
** [[spoiler:What happens to all the other Jacks and Victorias, who still believe the lie and have no idea what's happening now that the Tet's been destroyed?]]
*** [[spoiler:If they ''did'' find out the truth, as well as about the other clones, how did those Jack take the fact that another version of themselves has settled down with Julia? Conversely, if the other Victoria's also entered into a relationship with Jack, how do they react to the news and being spurned?]]
** How much of a chance does humanity really have? That was one ship, without much for defenses, capable of [[spoiler: cloning an army. And it's been looting the planet with relative impunity for fifty years]]. Humanity threw everything it had at the damn thing and it shrugged until they managed a surprise attack. The planet is a ''wasteland.'' Nuclear fallout, chemical waste, environmental toxins, most of the planet's water gone. The best case scenario, they'll end up like [[{{Dune}} Arrakis]] or [[Franchise/StarWars Tatooine's Sand People]]. The worst case? [[ShootTheShaggyDog The survivors will muddle through three or four generations being picked off by hostile wildlife, starvation, and disease before being finished off by toxic waste.]] Humanity will ''never'' reach high civilization again because the planet itself won't have the resources capable of doing so.
*** Also, the remains of the Moon are still in orbit and will provide a constant source of large-scale impact events. Their sheer number means that one of them eventually WILL cause a massive extinction of whatever life still lingers. Consider that the extinction causes by TET already rivals the Permian-Triassic one and not just Humanity, but all remaining multi-cellar organisms are living on borrowed time.
*** It's possible Vika's reached that conclusion [[spoiler:and her StepfordSmiler behavior is due to being cloned a few too many times ''after'' she's already crossed DespairEventHorizon.]]
*** There may be no real nuclear fall-out or toxic waste. [[spoiler:The radiation zones are fake, and Beech makes no mention of humans having used nukes during the war. The craters seen may have been left by pieces of the moon]] The ecological disaster seems to have been caused by the moon being fractured more than anything else.

*** It's possible Vika's reached that conclusion [[spoiler:and her StepfordSmiler behavior is due to being cloned a few too many times ''after'' she's already crossed DespairEventHorizon.]]

* {{Narm}}: The look on Jack's face as he's falling after the Scavs cut his line is... rather hilarious.

* SoOkayItsAverage or SoBadItsGood: Critically, a consistent high point has been the art direction and the soundtrack, with some minor discussion about the acting quality. The plot is routinely criticized.

** Julia [[ColdSleepColdFuture awakens from her Delta capsule]] to discover the Earth [[AfterTheEnd gone to hell]], [[EverybodysDeadDave the rest of the crew (to not mention most of the human race) dead]], and these facts given to her by [[spoiler: alien-created clones of her husband and another crewmember]]. It's no wonder she can only afford to cry a SingleTear before fainting from the shock.

** Those scenes on the Sky Tower? Yeah, those are ''real'' clouds and ''real'' sunsets and ''real'' night skies. They were filmed on top of a volcano in Maui and projected on a silver screen around the set. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DCkIuv82Q4 Take a look.]] Why's the lightning in the tower look so beautiful and ridiculously accurate? It's being provided by the real thing.

* ClicheStorm: A common remark--for good or ill--seems to be that this movie is made up out of other SF movies in general.

* VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Those scenes on the Sky Tower? Yeah, those are ''real'' clouds and ''real'' sunsets and ''real'' night skies. They were filmed on top of a volcano in Maui and projected on a silver screen around the set. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DCkIuv82Q4 Take a look.]]

* VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Those scenes on the Sky Tower? Yeah, those are ''real'' clouds and ''real'' sunsets and ''real'' night skies. They were filmed on top of a volcano in Maui and projected on a silver screen around the sets. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DCkIuv82Q4 Take a look.]]

*** Look at Julia's face when Jack is telling her what's going to happen while they're standing at the tower window. [[spoiler: He says they'll get in contact with Mission and they'll send someone to take her up to the Tet. She hesitantly replies "The Tet?" and her eyes widen. It's right then and there she realizes just how screwed up the situation is, even if the audience doesn't yet. Before then she knew something was wrong with her husband and the co-pilot of her mission, but not the whole truth. She immediately wants to get the flight recorder, knowing Jack needs to hear it.]] It's a subtle [[RewatchBonus]] in a film full of them.

*** Look at Julia's face when Jack is telling her what's going to happen while they're standing at the tower window. [[spoiler: He says they'll get in contact with Mission and they'll send someone to take her up to the Tet. She hesitantly replies "The Tet?" and her eyes widen. It's right then and there she realizes just how screwed up the situation is, even if the audience doesn't yet. Before then she knew something was wrong with her husband and the co-pilot of her mission, but not the whole truth. She immediately wants to get the flight recorder, knowing Jack needs to hear it.]]

* FridgeBrilliance: So why [[spoiler: Tet became so interested in Julia and insisted Jack bring her to the station? It's likely that Tet realized long ago that Jack and Vika are NOT an effective team; she cloned them because they were the only ones she had access to(It's unclear if Vika's clones participated in invading the Earth, but Jack being a trained soldier and a public hero would have more shock value in a Psychological Warfare against mankind, and Vika obviously has no combat abilities and is more useful as MissionControl), and she probably realized that while they could work together, Vika was not so good at keeping Jack on track, and in fact her behavior made him more unpredictable(As hinted by Jack meeting one of Vika's clones, each pair of clones has the same relationship problems: Vika being too professional, by-the-books and controlling, making Jack feel uncomfortable and restless (It's likely Tet had problems with other clones going out of control in the past because of that; the "are you an effective team?" question is likely a repeat test of Tet to evaluate whether each clone par is still under control or not, which implies there were problems with the clone teams before to warrant such a protocol). Julia, however, is his wife, he had dreams with her and quickly and willingly goes out of his way to help her. If she managed to get her, she could clone her instead of Vika, and thus make the perfect team to continue controlling Earth, since Julia would make Jack feel more at home, less likely to question orders(Vika's tactic of keeping Jack working all day and then distract him with sex at night, only better Jack won't feel like a HenpeckedHusband to a ControlFreak woman). Jack even uses this excuse to convince Tet that he's surrendering: "We're more effective team". I don't know why she just didn't try cloning another human woman before, but it's likely because Jack's clones would always keep dreaming about Julia, and other women might have the same problem; Vika already had an infatuation, thus easier to make her Jack's wife who didn't question her reality, and Julia is already his wife and he's completely in love with her, thus the clones would be a perfect match.]]
* Jack is shown to be a pretty competent, intuitive and instinctual pilot, especially for a repairman. One of his first establishing moments is that "backflip dive" maneuver he does with the Bubble Ship off the tower. Why would a repairman gain such skill to have no problem taking risks just flitting back and forth? [[spoiler: He's a NASA commander. He was an elite pilot all along.]]
* FridgeHorror: [[spoiler: The alien threat hasn't actually been dealt with. The 'Tet' was part of an energy-collection mission (backed up by the fact we see no aliens - everything is remotely automated). What are the aliens going to do when they realise their power plant has been blown up?]]
** [[spoiler: What happens to all the other Jacks and Victorias, who still believe the lie and have no idea what's happening now that the Tet's been destroyed?]]
*** [[spoiler: If they ''did'' find out the truth, as well as about the other clones, how did those Jack take the fact that another version of themselves has settled down with Julia? Conversely, if the other Victoria's also entered into a relationship with Jack, how do they react to the news and being spurned?]]

*** It's possible Vika's reached that conclusion [[spoiler: and her StepfordSmiler behavior is due to being cloned a few too many times ''after'' she's already crossed DespairEventHorizon.]]