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If nothing else, "Oblivion" will go down in film history as the movie where Tom Cruise pilots a white, sperm-shaped craft into a giant space uterus. The scene is more interesting to describe than it is to watch. Cruise's sperm-ship enters through an airlock that resembles a geometrized vulva. 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.

Like director Joseph Kosinski's debut, " Tron: Legacy " (2010), "Oblivion" is a special effects extravaganza with a lot of blatant symbolism and very little meaning. It starts slow, turns dull and then becomes tedious — which makes it a marginal improvement over the earlier film. It features shiny surfaces, clicky machinery and no recognizable human behavior. It's equally ambitious and gormless.

"Oblivion" is set in the year 2077, 60 years after an alien invasion rendered the Earth largely uninhabitable. Cruise stars as Jack Harper, one of a handful of people left on the planet. The other survivors have long since relocated to Titan. Harper and colleagues remain as technicians, servicing robot drones that defend resource-gathering stations from alien stragglers.

Harper lives in a penthouse-like tower with his communications officer, Vica ( Andrea Riseborough ). Vica's eyes are permanently dilated. Like Olivia Wilde 's Quorra in " Tron: Legacy ," she often resembles a marionette.

Harper and Vica spend their days fixing drones, eating candelit dinners, and swimming in a glass-bottomed pool. Their boss, the creepily cheerful Sally ( Melissa Leo ), supervises them from an orbiting control center. In order to maintain the integrity of the mission, Harper and Vica's memories have been wiped; nonetheless, Harper is haunted by extremely cheesy black-and-white dreams of a beautiful woman meeting him in pre-invasion New York.

One day, Harper spots an antique spacecraft crashing into the countryside. He manages to rescue one survivor, a Russian astronaut ( Olga Kurylenko ) who looks exactly like the woman in his dreams. Harper brings her back to his tower. This incites jealousy and suspicion from Vica, who is both Harper's partner and his lover.

The astronaut has been in cryogenic sleep for the past six decades but refuses to disclose the nature of her mission to Harper and Vica until they recover her flight recorder. It goes without saying that the flight recorder unearths all kinds of secrets about Harper, Vica, and the alien invasion. It also creates one of the movie's more glaring logical errors, but that's a different story altogether.

The film's opening stretch is its one strong point —  a gradual, immersive build-up of details. It's a smart technique for science-fiction storytelling; it eases the viewer into the world of the film. The problem is that the world "Oblivion" introduces — an abandoned, depopulated Earth — is more interesting than the story it tells. Or, more accurately, the stories it tells, because "Oblivion," derivative to a fault, tries to be several science-fiction movies at once. It tries and it fails.

"Oblivion" is a political allegory about a lowly "technician" sending unmanned drones to hunt and kill a demonized, alien Other — until it forgets that it ever was. It's a wannabe mindbender that raises questions about its lead character's identity — except that the lead character is too sketchy to make these questions compelling. It's a story about humans struggling for survival in an environment controlled by technology — except it appears to be much more interested in the technology than in the humans. It's a rah-rah action flick — except its action scenes aren't very good.

The only thread "Oblivion" follows to the end is its "creation myth." Harper is an idealized man; he's good with a gun, good with his hands, good in bed, loves football and rides a motorcycle. Though most of the movie's characters are women, not one of them is able to do anything without Harper's help — not even the mother triangle that lives in the space uterus. Only his rugged-but-sensitive masculinity holds the key to humanity's survival. The movie reaches for profundity, but all it grasps is misogyny.

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Oblivion (2013)

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence, brief strong language, and some sensuality/nudity

126 minutes

Tom Cruise as Jack

Morgan Freeman as Beech

Olga Kurylenko as Julia

Andrea Riseborough as Victoria

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Sykes

Melissa Leo as Sally

• Joseph Kosinski
• Karl Gajdusek
• Michael Arndt

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2013, Sci-fi/Adventure, 2h 15m

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Critics Consensus

Visually striking but thinly scripted, Oblivion benefits greatly from its strong production values and an excellent performance from Tom Cruise. Read critic reviews

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Oblivion videos, oblivion   photos.

In the year 2077, Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) works as a security repairman on an Earth left empty and devastated after a war with aliens. Jack has two weeks left before his mission ends and he joins his fellow survivors on a faraway colony. However, Jack's concept of reality comes crashing down after he rescues a beautiful stranger (Olga Kurylenko) from a downed spacecraft. The woman's arrival triggers a chain of events that culminates in Jack's nearly single-handed battle to save mankind.

Rating: PG-13 (Nudity|Brief Strong Language|Sci-Fi Action Violence|Some Sensuality)

Genre: Sci-fi, Adventure, Action

Original Language: English

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Producer: Peter Chernin , Dylan Clark , Barry Levine , Duncan Henderson , Joseph Kosinski

Writer: Karl Gajdusek , Michael Arndt

Release Date (Theaters): Apr 19, 2013  wide

Release Date (Streaming): Jan 1, 2015

Box Office (Gross USA): $89.0M

Runtime: 2h 15m

Distributor: Universal Pictures

Production Co: Chernin Entertainment, Radical Studios, Monolith Pictures

Sound Mix: DTS, Dolby SRD, SDDS

Cast & Crew

Jack Harper

Morgan Freeman

Olga Kurylenko

Julia Rusakova

Andrea Riseborough

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

Melissa Leo

Abigail Lowe

Julia's Child

David Madison

Grow Hall Survivor

Joseph Kosinski

Karl Gajdusek

Screenwriter

Michael Arndt

Peter Chernin

Dylan Clark

Barry Levine

Duncan Henderson

Dave Morrison

Executive Producer

Jesse Berger

Justin Springer

Claudio Miranda

Cinematographer

Darren Gilford

Production Design

Richard Francis-Bruce

Film Editing

Marlene Stewart

Costume Design

Original Music

Ronald R. Reiss

Set Decoration

Kevin Ishioka

Supervising Art Direction

Mark W. Mansbridge

Art Director

News & Interviews for Oblivion

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Critic Reviews for Oblivion

Audience reviews for oblivion.

"Oblivion" is an incredible Sci-fi/Action film. "Oblivion" has amazing acting from "Tom Cruise" and "Morgan Freeman". The plot to "Oblivion" is perfect, it's not overstuffed, and the first 10 to 15 minutes of the film aren't that interesting, but the rest of the film is incredible. The special effects are very realistic; there is only one scene in the film that looks bad. The music in "Oblivion" is perfect for the scenes; it makes scenes more and more thrilling. I highly recommend you watch "Oblivion" as it is an amazing Sci-Fi/Action film. I give "Oblivion" a 9/10.

As soon as Morgan Freeman explains what's going on, the whole film falls apart.

Spiffy and occasionally awe-inspiring in appearance marred by numerous head-scratching lapses of logic. The modestly budgeted 'Moon' tells a similar story much more effectively, while Tom Cruise's own 'Minority Report' offers better sci-fi thrills and surprises.

During an alien invasion of earth, humanity finally finds a good use for all of those nuclear weapons that have otherwise been going to waste. The bad news is that while the humans won the war, they lost the peace, as the earth is now uninhabitable. So while what is left of the human race waits in their new homes on Titan, Jack(Tom Cruise) and Victoria(Andrea Riseborough) clean up their old home planet before shutting off the lights. While Jack hangs out in his man cave in his spare time, he also has dreams of a life he thinks are impossible. First, "Oblivion" takes the time to subtly tease out a tantalizing mystery that gets solved in its entirety in competent fashion. At the same time, there has to be more to a movie than simply making sense, like say fully developed characters, as this is a movie that is as hollow as its leading man, making waste of some excellent production design and special effects in the bargain. Granted, the filmmakers try to borrow some weird atmosphere from European science fiction movies but that is not really enough, either.

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Oblivion Review

Sumptuous sci-fi that lacks originality..

While a noble effort in terms of scale and ambition, Oblivion entertains only sporadically. There's a great film somewhere in there, but this isn't it.

In This Article

More Reviews by Chris Tilly

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Oblivion (2013)

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Jack Harper is one of the last few drone repairmen stationed on Earth. Part of a massive operation to extract vital resources after decades of war with a terrifying threat known as the Scavs, Jack’s mission is nearly complete. His existence is brought crashing down when he rescues a beautiful stranger from a downed spacecraft. Her arrival triggers a chain of events that forces him to question everything he knows and puts the fate of humanity in his hands.

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Oblivion: 14 Facts About Tom Cruise's 2013 Hit Movie That Are Worth Extracting

Say what you want about Tom Cruise when it comes to anything else, but there is no denying that he has an uncanny ability to find and attach himself to incredibly interesting projects. The talented actor then often uses his star power to help the film become a hit, and "Oblivion," the actor's sci-fi epic from 2013, is no exception. Though Joseph Kosinski was far from an amateur after his work on 2010's "Tron: Legacy," the director was still fairly new, but especially after talking with him, Cruise had all the proof he needed that the production would be a success.

The movie seems rather straightforward at first, following the hero Jack Harper (Cruise) in a somewhat serene post-apocalyptic world after a devastating alien invasion. Though as the tale progresses, the world Jack thought he knew is not what it seems, revealing massive twists and a deeper story of love lost and found beneath it all while the protagonist becomes embroiled in a tense battle for the survival of humankind. Here's everything you didn't know about "Oblivion."

The story was first a graphic novel

When Joseph Kosinski was first developing the story for "Oblivion," the director had no idea it would become an epic sci-fi action flick starring one of Hollywood's top actors. So as he initially wrote it back in 2005, the scale was decreased significantly. In an interview with Collider , he said, "I thought it would be my first film, so I wrote it as a contained cast. The Sky Tower was going to be the main setting. It was always the story of drone repairman Jack Harper and his journey of redemption."

Then in 2007, Kosinski hit a major roadblock as he strove to get the film made when the Writers' Guild went on strike, which forced him to alter his approach and make the tale into a graphic novel. The filmmaker explained to Empire , "It couldn't be written by anyone in the guild so the partnership with Radical Comics allowed me to continue working on the story by developing a series of images and continuing to refine the story more over a period of years." The material created during this period worked great as a pitch for the movie, but unfortunately, fans of "Oblivion" and comics will never get to see a finished product — Kosinski was only ever really interested in making the film, and he achieved that goal.

The director wanted to bring sci-fi back into the daylight

While Joseph Kosinski was growing up during the 1960s and '70s, the sci-fi classics that he loved to watch were bright and often colorful, such as "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Planet of the Apes," and "Star Wars," so that older style was heavily influential to the distinctive look of "Oblivion." When talking with Collider , he explained, "It felt like in the [1980s], after 'Alien,' which is one of the greatest science fiction films of all time, science fiction went into a very dark place of deep space and dark ships, and I liked the idea of bringing science fiction back out into the daylight."

Additionally, Kosinski told /Film he was inspired by the vivid illustrations of artists from his childhood like Chris Foss and Peter Elson. The result is a fascinating spectacle on screen, with the bright aesthetic overlapping a grim storyline that takes place after a cataclysmic invasion. The director told Collider, "I thought we've seen so many dusty, gray, green-brown post-apocalyptic worlds. It'd be fun to see something with some color and daylight and brightness and this world above the clouds."

Oblivion was Anthony Gonzalez's first time composing a film score

Joseph Kosinski did not just strive to create a standout look for "Oblivion"; he also wanted an original soundtrack to match, and he knew exactly where to look. Electronic music star Anthony Gonzalez of M83 had never worked on a film before, but Kosinski knew he was the right person for the job and convinced him to take it on. As the director revealed to Collider , he literally listened to the group's music while developing the story, so it would have been difficult to accept a score written by anyone else.

Ultimately, Gonzalez was pleased with what he and his co-composer, Joseph Trapanese, were able to produce, but it did not come easy. When interviewed by Pitchfork , he admitted, "It took us one year to work on 'Oblivion' with Joseph Trapanese, and I've been through all types of emotions. I almost quit. I couldn't sleep. I was so stressed out. I was on the verge of breaking down. We were touring a lot and I had to work on this at the same time." But the biggest issues stemmed from what the studio expected from him, as he added, "They needed something bigger, more orchestral; it was hard for me to be told that my music was too indie for the film."

Joseph Kosinski used his engineering and architecture background

Before Joseph Kosinski became a filmmaker, he had rather different career goals, but the skills he attained during those pursuits were certainly nice to have when working on "Oblivion." The director told Collider , "My background is in mechanical engineering and industrial design. That's what I went to undergrad for, and then I went to architecture school for graduate school thinking I was going to be an architect. I was always looking for a career that could combine my creative interests with my technical side, and it ends up directing films is the perfect combination." To highlight how his extensive education was particularly useful for this film, Kosinski added, "The Bubbleship and the Sky Tower were two elements of the story that I had a very clear image of from the start."

Without a doubt, the most valuable of all was his vast experience working with 3D modeling software while working on his master's degree. The director not only described to BuzzFeed how the models of the signature Sky Tower were a solid base for the production design team to work with, but he also provided examples of the impressive early sketches as proof.

The film required considerably little CGI

Universal must have been pleased with Joseph Kosinski's ability to film a sci-fi epic like "Oblivion" with a significantly lower budget than other similar movies of the genre. For comparison, the director told /Film , "'Tron' had fifteen or sixteen hundred visual effects shots in it and 'Oblivion' is eight hundred shots, so it's almost half. Because I was able to do so much in camera. Hopefully it feels like a big movie, which is what I always wanted to do, but we did it." 

The primary reason that Kosinski did not need to burn through as much cash as other productions was because of his clever use of front projection techniques, a method used previously by the renowned filmmaker Stanley Kubrick in "2001: A Space Odyssey." When talking with Film4 , he and Tom Cruise explained how no blue screens were used in the background of the Sky Tower, and instead massive screens projected footage of cloud formations that were shot for weeks atop the peak of a Hawaiian volcano. The result was both a beautiful sight for audiences and a far more immersive experience for the actors as well.

3D was too dark to use

For Joseph Kosinski's first sci-fi flick, "Tron: Legacy," the filmmaker shot some sequences in 3D, and the film was ultimately released in 3D as well. The process was still riding the wave of "Avatar," released just a year before. Fully familiar with the format, the director did briefly consider going that route again for "Oblivion" but quickly realized it made no sense because of the aesthetic he was aiming to achieve.

The 4K format, on the other hand, was a much better option for one key reason. Kosinski explained to Collider , "The brightness levels of 3D right now are a fraction of what 2D is. With 2D, you're at 14 foot-lamberts, and with IMAX, you're at 22 foot-lamberts. But 3D films are at 4. So, the brightness isn't there and also your eyes react differently. At low level, they don't pick up color in the same way so you just don't get the saturation, and I knew I wanted this to be a daylight science fiction film."

Morgan Freeman took his role to work with Tom Cruise

Though Morgan Freeman was thoroughly impressed with the script for "Oblivion," he had to be honest and admit that it was Tom Cruise's involvement with the film that was the biggest selling point for him. Freeman was a longtime fan of the actor, and both men had wanted to work together since they first met in the 1990s, so it was bound to happen eventually.

For Freeman, it was important that the duo's first film was something special and not just any movie. He explained to Collider , "If that were the case, I would have been in 'Mission Impossible' 1, 2 or 3. But when the right project comes along, there's sort of a domino effect. Everything falls into place. I think this was the perfect genre for me to be involved with Tom in, so I no longer resent not having done anything with him before."

The film went from Disney to Universal

Initially, Disney was set to produce "Oblivion" because of Joseph Kosinski's great relationship with the studio, but it did not take long for problems to arise. The director told /Film , "With Disney, it was interesting, because I was doing 'Tron: Legacy' and I was under option to them. So they bought it and then as the project developed and I started building it, it became clear when I kept pitching these elements, that it didn't quite fit inside the Disney envelope and I think people who see the movie now, it makes sense."

Fortunately for the filmmaker, Disney was not the only major player interested in the movie. Universal was more than eager to step in, especially since then-chairman Adam Fogelson thought the screenplay was one of the most beautiful he has ever read. The transition from one studio to the next went very smoothly, not just because Disney was on good terms with Kosinski, but it also helped that his former producer, Sean Bailey, had become the president of the studio in 2010.

A panel of scientists were consulted for accuracy

While Joseph Kosinski did benefit greatly from his engineering and architecture background when designing several key elements of "Oblivion," he did not rely solely on his own expertise. The director told Film4 , "I did consult with a panel of scientists at the beginning of the film just to kind of make sure that everything is rooted in science. The technology feels real."

The experts were brought on board not just to verify the accuracy of aspects he was more familiar with, like the Bubbleship, but more importantly, they were there to help figure out the effects of extreme changes to the global environment that occurred in the backstory. When talking with /Film , Kosinski said the panel was recruited to "discuss the geography, the climate, the change of what would happen to Earth if you destroyed the Moon and the changing of the tides." The director knew that such a catastrophic event would drastically alter the Earth, and could trigger all sorts of fallout disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and super volcanoes, so their input was vital in showing the results of that chaos in the most realistic way.

Tom Cruise let Jessica Chastain leave the film

Before production on "Oblivion" began, there was a major change in the cast that was possible due to the kindness of Tom Cruise. Jessica Chastain looked forward to starring alongside the actor, but when she was offered a role in "Zero Dark Thirty," she quickly decided that was an opportunity that she just could not decline. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter , she described how Cruise helped her out and explained, "Someone contacted him from my agency and said, 'Listen, she wants to work with you. And she would love to, but there is this other film, and it's so important.'"

Fortunately for Chastain, the request was not a problem for Cruise, and she was allowed to get out of her contract. The actress went on to add, "I really hope to find something in the future to do with him because I'm very grateful. [...] I've seen him afterwards. And I was like, 'Dude, you're awesome!'"

Andrea Riseborough was uncomfortable during filming

While many of the actors seemed to have enjoyed working on "Oblivion," that was not the case for all of the cast during filming. Andrea Riseborough admitted afterwards that even though she did not have a terrible time in the production, it was not pleasant overall. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly , the actress explained how the movie was shot far from home, which stirred up feelings of isolation since she only interacted with a few people at work most days. Plus, she also described the disorientation brought on by filming brightly lit, morning scenes well into the evening on the Sky Tower set.

Though the worst part of the production was the way Riseborough felt objectified during the shoot. In an interview with The A.V. Club , she said, "I think the thing I didn't enjoy about it ... was more on the studio side, the pressure to look a certain way. And I was never sure where it was coming from, but that was very important to people, how the women looked. That the women sort of looked attractive at all times." Performing with that in the back of her mind just made the experience feel awkward, as she added, "I don't really have the capacity to hold all of those things at once. Not in a way that I really like to work. And so I find that just detracted from... it just took up a lot of space and time."

The actors were attracted to the love story amidst the action

"Oblivion" may have stunning visuals, an intriguing plot, and scenes of intense action, but the love story underneath it all was another feature that helped draw more than one of the cast members to the project. When discussing the positive message of the movie, the first thing that Morgan Freeman told Collider was, "One of the themes that [stands] out in this film is the love story. It's not like one we've seen before."

The romance at its core was the one aspect that actress Olga Kurylenko, the love interest of Tom Cruise's character, liked the most about the film. When talking with Film4 , she admitted, "['Oblivion'] was quite human, and it had a beautiful, romantic story, which is very important for me as a girl. It's fun when things blow up, but it's also nice to watch a love story."

Oblivion marked the first time Tom Cruise had ever been to Iceland

For a movie star who has traveled all over the world and filmed in numerous exotic locales, it would not be surprising if places are constantly being knocked off of Tom Cruise's bucket list. And this was certainly the case when filming began for "Oblivion," as he told Rotten Tomatoes Coming Soon , "I couldn't wait to go to Iceland. I've never been there. First of all, it's just [an] absolutely stunning country, and when you get there, it's hauntingly beautiful."

The breathtaking landscape was enough to spark awe in the actor, but the experience of being there was made even more special because of the brilliant way Joseph Kosinski used the environment to augment the look of the film. Cruise was already impressed with what the director had planned. But witnessing his vision in action on top of the incredible natural beauty exceeded his expectations.

Tom Cruise joined the project because of the director

When Tom Cruise met with Joseph Kosinski, he was highly impressed with the filmmaker's vision for "Oblivion" and its fascinating story, so the actor got involved very early on, before Universal picked it up and the script was even still in its draft stages. But Cruise was convinced the project would be a success, as he said in a Live Media Group Q&A , "He's a guy who's a world creator, a true visionary." On top of this praise, the actor added, "He wanted a haunting beauty, a very unique aesthetic for the film, and I think that that world that he created, these characters he created, was something that I wanted to be a part of."

With the backing of such a huge star, Kosinski was no longer as limited as he thought he would be a few years before. The director was then able to expand his initial idea and keep the parts he liked most about the tale, but tell it on a much grander scale. Cruise must have loved him as a collaborator, since the duo reunited a few films later for "Top Gun: Maverick." But it was that 2013 film, Kosinski's visually stunning "Oblivion," that first hooked Cruise.

Why Oblivion Is Tom Cruise's Most Underrated Movie

With a decent box office performance and mixed reviews, Oblivion stands at one of Tom Cruise's most underrated movies ever. Here's why.

Tom Cruise is without a doubt one of the greatest movie stars of all time. If the incredible success of Top Gun: Maverick has proven anything, it’s that Cruise has the power to not only win over audiences and critics, but essentially save the film industry after many skeptics thought that theatrical movie-going was essentially dead. His entire career has been marked by incredible highs. After his breakout turn in 80s films like Risky Business and The Color of Money , Cruise proceeded to work with nearly every great director in the industry for the next few decades. He returned to primarily focus on action cinema within the last two decades with incredible work in Edge of Tomorrow and the Mission: Impossible series. There aren’t many movie stars that are literally willing to risk their lives for the sake of the audience.

While Cruise’s successes are well documented, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a few failures as well. Sequels like Mission: Impossible II and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back simply didn’t live up to the hype, and stepping outside his comfort zone proved to be a mistake when it came to The Mummy and Rock of Ages . However, some of Cruise’s work has simply been overshadowed by the magnitude of his career, as was the case with Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion . The science fiction starred Cruise as Jack Harper, a drone repair technician assigned to work on Earth after the majority of humanity has departed in 2077. While Oblivion was relatively successful at the time of its release, it seems to be forgotten amidst the celebration of Cruise’s career. It’s unfortunate because Oblivion just might be his most underrated movie ever.

A Great First Collaboration With Joseph Kosinski

Kosinski may not be a household name quite yet, but if he continues to go on his current trajectory of success, it’s possible he will be one of the most influential blockbuster filmmakers in the next decade of cinema. Long before he broke box office records with Cruise on Top Gun: Maverick , Kosinski’s first film Tron: Legacy became one of the most expensive directorial debuts of all time. Handing over that much money to a first time filmmaker was a risk, but Kosinski showed he could create unique visuals, exciting action sequences, and compelling characters within the template of a Hollywood blockbuster. He was clearly a young filmmaker with a lot of ambition, and there’s no one more ambitious in the industry than Cruise.

Cruise and Kosinski were both taking a risk with Oblivion . The film’s concept risked being too obtuse for casual viewers, and could have easily gotten confusing for audience members if they weren’t paying attention to the details. The film relies on putting together clues about Jack’s identity and his true mission on Earth that aren’t revealed until the very end. In order to keep the viewers intrigued, Kosinski created a wondrous visual spectacle that felt unique compared to other dystopian films; Cruise’s performance is just as charismatic as he generally is as Ethan Hunt, but the hints about a darker side to his personality suggest that he’s hiding something. By keeping the audience hooked in, Cruise and Kosinski proved why they would be such great collaborators.

Related: The 8 Most Essential Tom Cruise Movie Moments, Ranked

An Original Science Fiction Premise

In an era within Hollywood history where it seems like nothing but sequels, remakes, prequels, reboots, and crossovers can find success, Oblivion is a standalone, original science fiction film. In fact, the film was loosely inspired by a graphic novel written by Kosinski that he admits will probably never be published . There weren’t even a lot of contemporary films that Oblivion could be compared to, as Kosinski admitted that he was inspired by classic sci-fi films from the 60s, 70s, and 80s like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes, Omega Man, Silent Running, Blade Runner , and Star Wars . There certainly are action sequences, but Oblivion is also a deeply tragic romance and a confounding mystery. Perhaps this is why despite Oblivion ’s financial success, it failed to top the records set by Cruise’s work on the Mission: Impossible series and War of the Worlds .

The risks that Cruise took ended up making the best movie possible. Oblivion reveals early on that Jack’s only source of human interaction every day is his communications office Victoria (Andrea Risenborough); both of their memories have been wiped, but Jack is tormented by dreams of his life on Earth before the war where he was happily in love with another woman. His reality is shattered when an unknown spacecraft crash lands and Jack rescues the NASA astronaut Julia Rusakova (Olga Kurylenko), who later reveals that she is actually Jack’s wife that he doesn’t remember. This twist provokes interesting questions about whether people can accept the reality they are in, and if premonitions can be trusted when something is clearly unusual. It also addresses moral issues of trust and resistance once Jack is introduced to the scavenger leader Malcolm Beech (Morgan Freeman) and his ruthless militia of freedom fighters.

Related: These Are the Best Tom Cruise Movies, Ranked

A More Introspective Role

There is a very big difference between being a “great movie star” and being a “great actor.” Stars like Dwayne Johnson, Chris Pratt, and Vin Diesel certainly have the charisma to hook in an audience, but it’s not like they are turning in complex, awards-worthy performances on a regular basis. Similarly, acclaimed actors like Jesse Plemons, Michael Shannon, and Sam Rockwell can give deeply nuanced performances, but they’re unlikely to draw out a crowd purely on the basis of their names. Cruise is one of the rare performers that fits into both categories, and he showed why with Oblivion . His performance functions as the charismatic lead of a sci-fi blockbuster, but he also depicts the heartbreaking nature of a man whose entire life has been stolen from him.

Jack is forced to wrestle with a history that he doesn’t remember, yet fights to save it. He has to cling on to the vague memories he has of his life with Julia because he knows that the rest of mankind is counting on him. This becomes even more challenging when Jack has to fend off against an identical clone of himself that is designed to be unflinchingly loyal to the villainous alien intelligence system known as the “Tet.” Playing two identical characters could be a challenge, yet Cruise manages to make them both seem completely unique.

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Movie Review

After the Apocalypse, Things Go Downhill

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By Manohla Dargis

• April 18, 2013

If only it were less easy to laugh at “Oblivion,” a lackluster science-fiction adventure with Tom Cruise that, even before its opening, was groaning under the weight of its hard-working, slowly fading star and a title that invites mockery of him and it both. The agony of being a longtime Tom Cruise fan has always been a burden, but now it’s just, well, dispiriting. You not only have to ignore the din of the tabloids and swat away the buzzing generated by his multiple headline-ready dramas, you also have to come to grips with the harsh truth that it no longer actually matters why and how Tom Terrific became less so. No one else much cares.

Mr. Cruise hasn’t made it easy. His screen presence has continued to grow ever-more self-serious, despite occasional attempts to lighten up, as in the recent would-be satire “Rock of Ages.” Midway through “Oblivion” I wondered when I had last believed there was something true in his laugh, something that felt either genuinely expansive or intimate, as in “Jerry Maguire,” or chilled with a hint of madness, as in “Magnolia.” Mind you, he doesn’t have many occasions to laugh in “Oblivion,” a gray post-apocalyptic tale with rainbow accents, yet when he does, it feels uncomfortably forced. In those moments, was he worrying that the movie wasn’t going to return him to the box office summit? He’s 50 years old and too young to be prepping for a slow fade, yet what are his choices?

Working with better directors — with filmmakers who know how to charm or force performances out of stars or perhaps say no to them — seems like a good place to start. “Oblivion” is only the second feature directed by Joseph Kosinski, after the 2010 release “Tron: Legacy.” That special effects-laden fantasy, a musty hero’s journey largely distinguished by the yawning divide between its poor quality and its $170 million price tag, was a flat line of a dud in almost every respect. It nonetheless made enough money to shore up an exploitable franchise property and spawn a sequel, and while this may not sound like much of an achievement, box office success or the perception of it can beget more opportunities in the movie business, which may help explain “Oblivion.”

Its story primarily unfolds in 2077, long after a cataclysmic war between earthlings and extraterrestrials. Nuked to all but radioactive ash, the Earth has been rendered nearly uninhabitable, and its remaining people have fled to a galactic shelter. The only ones left on the planet appear to be Jack Harper (Mr. Cruise) and his companion, Victoria (Andrea Riseborough), who live in a cantilevered aerie above the clouds that brings to mind a “Jetsons” sky pad. His job is to repair drones that patrol the facilities that extract resources for the surviving populace and that are under attack from the aliens, or Scavs, as in scavengers. She monitors him back at their place, waving her hands over a tabletop computer, while in full makeup and rocking some fabulous end-of-days-to-night dresses and heels.

The heels seem a strange choice given, you know, the whole doomsday thing, not to mention the glossiness of the couple’s floors. Then again, from the way she strips for some late-night nuzzling, her get-up does appear to have instrumental value, even if one misstep and she or at least an ankle would be a goner. A similar kind of tricky balancing act is inherent in science fiction, a genre that often employs recognizable details to tether readers and viewers in fantastical realms. It’s a form, as is often noted, that makes the strange familiar and the familiar strange, a narrative principle that Mr. Kosinski embraces again and again with niceties like Jack’s Yankee baseball cap and Jack and Victoria’s candlelight dinners.

The candles add atmosphere, as does that baseball cap. But because Mr. Kosinski hasn’t come up with a resonant idea to accompany them — a new or different way of looking at the world that exists and the world that might one day come into being — his retro flourishes prove as empty as the lunarlike landscapes. There’s an arresting moment, for instance, when Jack drives through a blasted-out terrain littered with ships partly submerged in earth, a vista that demonstrates Mr. Kosinski’s fondness for playing with negative space. The vision of a man existentially alone conjures up countless cowboys traveling through innumerable westerns and summons up the shock of the half-buried Statue of Liberty in “Planet of the Apes.” Yet again, Mr. Kosinski fails to build on his materials and the allusions soon fade.

All genre fictions build, self-consciously or not, on their progenitors. The problem with “Oblivion,” which is based on an unpublished graphic novel Mr. Kosinski wrote and used to pitch the studio, is that it’s been stitched together from bits and pieces that evoke numerous other, far better far-out tales and ideas, conceits and characters from the likes of Philip K. Dick, the Wachowskis, J. G. Ballard and Duncan Jones, specifically his elegant, elegiac movie, “Moon.” No matter how hard Mr. Cruise squares his jaw or flings his body over and against the scenery, and despite the presence of Morgan Freeman, Olga Kurylenko and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who trickle into the story to aid in Jack’s journey, “Oblivion” never transcends its inspirations to become anything other than a thin copy.

“Oblivion” is rated PG-13. (Parents strongly cautioned.) Zap-gun violence and skinny-dipping.

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Edelstein: Everything in Oblivion Feels 100 Percent Inauthentic

Squirming through the Tom Cruise sci-fi vehicle Oblivion , I flashed back to Notting Hill , in which Julia Roberts plays a superstar visiting London to promote some deadly outer-space epic with white-on-white sets and a sleep-inducing hum. Oblivion is like that movie-within-a-movie: Everything in it feels 100 percent inauthentic. That vibe, as it happens, turns out to be intentional. But when the humans arrive, it’s still a narcotic.

The pity is that the film is about the war to liberate the human spirit from alien soul-snuffing exploiters and that Cruise is supposed to be our last best hope. In the long opening voice-over, his character, Jack (not Reacher), explains that “Scavengers” obliterated humankind: They blew up the moon and Nature did the rest. Humans beat the invaders back and then took off en masse to colonize a moon of Saturn, Titan. But a few people stayed behind to harvest the remaining resources and watch out for leftover “Scavs.” Jack is teamed with a Brit named Victoria (Andrea Riseborough), who sits in a giant mushroomlike flight tower reading data from “hydro rigs” and lethal drones. He flies around doing repairs and calling in those drones whenever there are signs of saboteurs. He also tells us that his memory has been wiped so that he won’t spill any beans if grabbed by Scavs.

Director Joseph Kosinski ( Tron: Legacy ) thinks big — big white impersonal settings on a big barren landscape under a big fractured moon with one big segment broken off and simply hanging, suspended in orbit, with a trail of little pieces floating around. But the sets just sit there. The first half-hour is Jack talking to Victoria on his headset, Jack fixing rigs, and Jack having sex with the eager-beaver Victoria. (Wow, does she want him.) They talk longingly of their imminent departure for Titan. Victoria speaks to an administrator on a screen called Sally (Melissa Leo). These scenes exert a strange fascination: They’re so conscientiously neutral, so droningly dull that they almost pass for Stanley Kubrick–like.

But Jack shares our boredom. He feels dislocated. He has visions of himself atop the Empire State Building with another woman — someone more compelling than his vaguely robotic partner. Someone played by Olga Kurylenko, this year’s comely avatar of spirituality. When Jack finds a crashed spaceship with human passengers (including Olga) in suspended animation and a drone flies in and starts blasting them, he’s flummoxed. Drones are supposed to kill Scavs, not humans! And certainly not Olga!

Eventually, Jack is captured by beings who look like humans (but you never know), led by Morgan Freeman, who puffs happily on a cigar — and you would, too, if you had to do as little for a paycheck this size. He says he was intrigued when Jack found a book with a poem by Macaulay in which three Romans sacrifice themselves to save their city. That’s when things get murky.

I eventually figured out Oblivion , but not while watching it. While watching it, I said, “What? What?” over the din of the explosions. It was Wikipedia’s Oblivion entry that spelled out what was happening in the final flashback. And some but not all of my questions were answered on an IMDb board in which posters argued over whether the problem was our lack of attention spans or atrocious screenwriting. I have honed my attention span on three-hour Romanian pictures and the oeuvre of Tarkovsky and Tarr. My attention span is dandy.

Was Cruise trying to beat out fellow Scientologist John Travolta for the honor of starring in the dumbest sci-fi epic ever? Thank heavens, he lost — nothing will ever be as shatteringly inane as the L. Ron Hubbard–based Battlefield Earth . But joining forces with the director of Tron: Legacy was like checking “d” on the form that said, “I want my space movies more (a) incoherent, (b) plodding, (c) migraine-inducing, or (d) all of the above.” Oblivion spins the same kind of paranoid futuristic fantasy as Battlefield Earth , in which a man must learn the true nature of his identity: that his body is but a temporary vessel, his soul immortal. Only then can he take on an evil empire of plundering anti-individualists from an unnamed planet that sounds like Xenu.

Cruise was on a roll for a while with Magnolia and his two Spielberg pictures — his acting was grounded. But he must be shedding brain cells like wives. After all of these years, he still indicates rather than feels, signaling thought by wrinkling his brow and squinting real hard and looking like a caveman encountering fire for the first time. He looks less like mankind’s savior than like a harbinger of devolution — the last stage before we’re back at lungfish.

• movie review
• olga kurylenko
• andrea riseborough
• joseph kosinski

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10 Best Movies Like Mortal Engines

• The post-apocalyptic steampunk film "Mortal Engines" bombed at the box office but had a praised cast and intriguing story.
• Similar films like "Valerian," "City of Ember," and "Blade Runner 2049" also faced box-office challenges.
• "Oblivion," "The Chronicles Of Riddick," "Mad Max: Fury Road," and others contain similar themes to "Mortal Engines."

Mortal Engines chronicles a very unique tale, making it difficult to find films, but, thankfully, numerous post-apocalyptic, steampunk, and fantasy movies have been made over the years. The 2018 post-apocalyptic steampunk film, directed by Christian Rivers and written by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson, depicts a world set more than a thousand years in the future where cities have become motorized on wheels and try to destroy one another following the Sixty Minute War. Although it is based on Philip Reeve's 2001 novel of the same name, Mortal Engines contains several changes from the book .

The cast of Mortal Engines includes:

• Hera Hilmar as Hester Shaw
• Robert Sheehan as Tom Natsworthy
• Hugo Weaving as Thaddeus Valentine
• Jihae Kim as Anna Fang
• Ronan Raftery as Bevis Pod
• Leila George as Katherine Valentine
• Patrick Malahide as Magnus Crome
• Stephen Lang as Shrike.

Although Mortal Engines bombed at the box office — it grossed around $83.7 million against a budget of $100–150 million — and was a critical failure, audiences rated it a little better and praised the cast for their performances. The 2018 film didn't feature multiple big names (except for Hugo Weaving, and even then, he's no Tom Cruise), so it's understandable why some weren't drawn to see it in theaters. Movies often succeed by having big stars attached to a project, which is why many projects similar to Mortal Engines performed better at the box office (while others had similar receptions).

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Directed by luc besson.

Director Luc Besson

Release Date July 21, 2017

Writers Luc Besson

Cast Cara Delevingne, Rutger Hauer, Dane DeHaan, John Goodman, Clive Owen, Ethan Hawke, Kris Wu, Rihanna, Sam Spruell

Rating PG-13

Runtime 2h 17m

Genres Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets features the same futuristic tone as Mortal Engines , and both movies contain evil entities that threaten humanity and mobilized cities. The 2017 space opera film, directed and written by Luc Besson, is based on Dargaud's Valérian and Laureline , a French science fiction comics series, written by Pierre Christin and illustrated by Jean-Claude Mézières . So, like Mortal Engines , Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is an adaption.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is the most expensive independent film ever made, as director and screenwriter Luc Besson personally funded the project.

Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne lead the cast of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets as Valerian and Laureline, respectively. The duo are soldiers for the United Human Federation, which rules over the galaxy, but they run into trouble while on a mission. Unfortunately, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets has one more similarity to Mortal Engines — the 2017 space opera was also a box office bomb since it grossed $225 million worldwide against a budget of around $223 million.

Valerian & The City Of A Thousand Planets: 10 Backstage Facts You Never Knew About The Film

Directed by joseph kosinski.

Director Joseph Kosinski

Release Date April 19, 2013

Writers Karl Gajdusek, Michael Arndt, Joseph Kosinski

Cast Andrea Riseborough, Morgan Freeman, Tom Cruise, Zoe Bell, Olga Kurylenko, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Melissa Leo

Runtime 124minute

Genres Sci-Fi, Action

Oblivion , directed by Joseph Kosinski and written by Karl Gajdusek and Michael deBruyn, is another post-apocalyptic movie that centers around Earth, which has been demolished after an alien war, in 2077. The 2013 action-adventure film has some star power as its leading man is Tom Cruise, who plays Jack Harper, a technician who repairs drones on Earth, and some other big names in the Oblivion cast are Morgan Freeman and Melissa Leo.

Oblivion ultimately grossed $286 million worldwide against a budget of $120 million during its theatrical run in 2013.

Like Mortal Engines , Oblivion is a movie based on comics, as its source material is director Joseph Kosinski's unpublished graphic novel of the same name. Unfortunately, there are no plans for an Oblivion sequel with Tom Cruise . However, many fans hope that will change after the success of Cruise's Top Gun: Maverick , and only time will tell if the actor is inspired to continue the science fiction story.

The Chronicles Of Riddick

Directed by david twohy, the chronicles of riddick.

Director David Twohy

Release Date June 11, 2004

Writers David Twohy

Cast Colm Feore, Karl Urban, Judi Dench, Vin Diesel, Thandie Newton

Runtime 119 minutes

Genres Sci-Fi, Thriller, Action, Adventure

The Chronicles of Riddick is the perfect movie to watch after Mortal Engines as its science fiction elements are similar to the ones featured in the 2018 film. The 2004 movie was directed and written by David Twohy and serves as the second installment in the Riddick film series , following Pitch Black (which Twohy also directed) in 2000 and succeeded by Riddick in 2013. Ken and Jim Wheat initially created the franchise, which has grown to include video games, comics, books, and more.

Vin Diesel is expected to reprise his role as Riddick in a fourth Riddick movie entitled Riddick 4: Furya , while David Twohy will return to direct and write it.

The Chronicles of Riddick is about a fugitive named Richard B. Riddick, played by Vin Diesel, who is on the run from bounty hunters. However, Riddick is also tasked with saving humanity from the Necromongers, an army that aims to rule over the galaxy. Aside from Diesel, some of the other members of the cast of The Chronicles of Riddick include Colm Feore as the Lord Marshal, Keith David as Abu "Imam" al-Walid, Alexa Davalos as Jack/Kyra, Karl Urban as Commander Vaako, Thandiwe Newton (credited as Thandie Newton) as Dame Vaako, and Judi Dench as Aereon.

City Of Ember

Directed by gil kenan, city of ember.

Director Gil Kenan

Release Date October 7, 2008

Cast B.J. Hogg, David Ryall, Bill Murray, Ian McElhinney, Tim Robbins, Harry Treadaway

Runtime 95 minutes

Genres Sci-Fi, Family, Adventure, Fantasy

The 2008 science fiction fantasy adventure film City of Ember is based on Jeanne DuPrau's 2003 novel of the same name, similar to how comics inspired Mortal Engines . The movie chronicles an underground city (Ember) that has run on a massive generator for 200 years. However, the generation starts to lose power, so two characters — Lina Mayfleet, played by Saoirse Ronan, and Doon Harrow, played by Harry Treadaway — have to find a way to save Ember. The movie's visuals are striking enough to pull audiences in, while the all-star cast gives great performances.

Tom Hanks' production company — Playtone — produced City of Ember .

Gil Kenan directed City of Ember in his live-action directorial debut, while Caroline Thompson wrote the script. The 2008 fantasy adventure film received mixed reviews from critics, and unfortunately, it was a box office bomb like Mortal Engines . The movie only grossed $17.9 million worldwide against a budget of $55 million, meaning that a City of Ember sequel is unlikely to happen .

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Director Martin Scorsese

Release Date November 22, 2011

Writers Brian Selznick, John Logan

Cast Asa Butterfield, Emily Mortimer, Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Ray Winstone, Jude Law, Christopher Lee, Chloe Grace Moretz

Runtime 126 minutes

Genres Family, Drama, Mystery, Documentary, Adventure

Martin Scorsese's Hugo certainly isn't the renowned filmmaker's most talked-about movie, but it was critically successful following its premiere in 2011 and contains a thrilling story set in 1930s Paris. The action-adventure film takes place in the past instead of in the future like Mortal Engines . However, its engrossing adventure (which entails a young boy trying to solve a mystery revolving around an automaton) is worth watching if one liked the 2018 post-apocalyptic steampunk movie.

Hugo is based on Brian Selznick's 2007 novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret , and while Scorsese's movie was a box office disappointment (it earned $185 million against a budget of $150 million), it was a critical success. The 2011 action-adventure film received 11 nominations at the 84th Academy Awards and ultimately won five Oscars — for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects.

Mortal Engines Review: Peter Jackson's Mad Max is Surprisingly Bland

Mad max: fury road, directed by george miller.

Director George Miller

Release Date May 14, 2015

Writers Nick Lathouris, Brendan McCarthy, George Miller

Cast Nicholas Hoult, Abbey Lee, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Zoe Kravitz, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Courtney Eaton

Runtime 120 Minutes

Genres Thriller, Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Franchise(s) Mad Max

Mad Max: Fury Road certainly has a more rugged feel to it than Mortal Engines but both are set in a post-apocalyptic world where the struggle for power dominates the story. The 2015 post-apocalyptic action film, directed by George Miller and written by Miller, Brendan McCarthy, and Nico Lathouris, is the fourth installment in the Mad Max movie series , after Mad Max in 1979, Mad Max 2 in 1981, and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome in 1985.

The fifth installment in the Mad Max film series, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga , premieres on May 24, 2024, and is described as both a prequel and a spin-off to Mad Max: Fury Road .

The Mad Max franchise was revived 30 years after the release of the third film because Miller decided to follow through with his plans for another sequel after it spent years in development hell and faced numerous other obstacles. It was a fantastic decision on Miller's part since Mad Max: Fury Road is considered the best movie in the franchise . The 2015 film was a critical and box office success as it grossed $380.4 million against an estimated budget of around $150 million. Mad Max: Fury Road also won six Oscars at the 88th Academy Awards.

Blade Runner 2049

Directed by denis villeneuve.

Director Denis Villeneuve

Release Date October 6, 2017

Writers Hampton Fancher, Michael Green

Cast Lennie James, David Dastmalchian, Robin Wright, Jared Leto, Carla Juri, Barkhad Abdi, Hiam Abbass, Dave Bautista, Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, Sylvia Hoeks, Mackenzie Davis, Ana De Armas

Genres Sci-Fi, Drama, Mystery, Action

prequel(s) Blade Runner

To be honest, either Blade Runner or Blade Runner 2049 are perfect movies to watch after Mortal Engines , but the more recent film aligns a little bit better with the themes of the 2018 post-apocalyptic steampunk movie. The sequel to the classic 1982 science fiction film debuted in 2017. It featured the return of Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard and the introduction of Ryan Gosling as K. Blade Runner 2049 , directed by Denis Villeneuve, is more associated with cyberpunk than steampunk. However, the two genres are close enough that those who enjoyed Mortal Engines would like Blade Runner 2049 .

Blade Runner 2099 , a television series set in the Blade Runner universe, is in development for Amazon Prime Video.

The 2017 epic neo-noir science fiction film revolves around a new blade runner for the Los Angeles Police Department (Gosling's character) who discovers a game-changing secret that could send the world into disarray. As a result, K sets out to find Rick Deckard, a former blade runner who no one has seen in 30 years. Unfortunately, Blade Runner 2049 was a box office bomb like Mortal Engines , despite receiving positive reviews. The movie earned $267.5 million against a budget of around $150–185 million.

Alita: Battle Angel

Directed by robert rodriguez.

Director Robert Rodriguez

Release Date February 14, 2019

Writers Laeta Kalogridis, Yukito Kishiro, James Cameron

Cast Jackie Earle Haley, Lana Condor, Eiza Gonzalez, Mahershala Ali, Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz

Rating pg-13

Runtime 122minutes

Genres Sci-Fi, Romance, Thriller, Action, Adventure

While Alita: Battle Angel is considered cyberpunk (like Blade Runner 2049 ) instead of steampunk like Mortal Engines , the two films still have a lot in common. Both Alita: Battle Angel and Mortal Engines revolve around a young protagonist tasked with uncovering their destiny while surrounded by the obstacles of a post-apocalyptic world. The 2019 cyberpunk action film, directed by Robert Rodriguez and written by James Cameron and Laeta Kalogridis, chronicles the journey of a cyborg named Alita who wakes up in a new body with no memory of what happened to her.

Unlike Mortal Engines , Alita: Battle Angel was a box office success , having grossed $405 million against a budget of around $150-200 million. However, it received mixed reviews from critics, who claimed that the futuristic action in the movie was superb but the story was comparatively lacking to the grand scale of its world. Nevertheless, an Alita: Battle Angel sequel is in development.

Ready Player One

Directed by steven spielberg.

Director Steven Spielberg

Release Date March 29, 2018

Writers Eric Eason, Zak Penn, Ernest Cline

Cast Ben Mendelsohn, Tye Sheridan, Simon Pegg, Lena Waithe, Ralph Ineson, Mckenna Grace, T.J. Miller, Olivia Cooke, Mark Rylance, Letitia Wright, Hannah John-Kamen

Runtime 2h 20m

Genres Sci-Fi, Thriller, Action

Given the movie's achievements and Spielberg's name being attached to the project, a sequel to Ready Player One is in development.

Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One is based on Ernest Cline's 2011 book of the same name and is set in 2045, a future where most of humanity utilizes a virtual reality program (OASIS) as an escape from the stresses of the real world. Tye Sheridan, one of the many talented actors in the superb cast of Ready Player One , plays Wade Watts, a teenager who seeks to win ownership of the OASIS before someone evil can get their hands on it. So, like Mortal Engines , the fate of humanity is at stake in the 2018 science fiction action film.

Ready Player One surprisingly received positive reviews and was a box office success as it grossed $607 million against a $155-175 million budget. It also earned a Best Visual Effects nod at the 91st Academy Awards. Of course, given the movie's achievements and Spielberg's name being attached to the project, a sequel to Ready Player One is in development. Spielberg will (at least) serve as a producer on the upcoming film.

Spielberg's Ready Player One's Sequel Update Is A Huge Relief (But Doesn't Solve The Biggest Problem)

The maze runner, directed by wes ball.

Director Wes Ball

Release Date September 19, 2014

Writers Grant Pierce Myers, Noah Oppenheim, T.S. Nowlin

Cast Dylan O'Brien, Patricia Clarkson, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Rosa Salazar, Nathalie Emmanuel, Ki Hong Lee, Kaya Scodelario, Katherine McNamara, Giancarlo Esposito, Aidan Gillen

Runtime 113 Minutes

Franchise(s) The Maze Runner

The final film most like Mortal Engines is The Maze Runner , also developed from printed source material. The 2014 dystopian science fiction movie, directed by Wes Ball and written by Noah Oppenheim, Grant Pierce Myers, and T.S. Nowlin, is based on James Dashner's book series of the same name. The film revolves around Thomas, a teenager who wakes up in the "Glade" with no recollection of who he is. The "Glade" contains other boys (and only one girl named Teresa). Their mission is to escape, but a complex maze surrounding them is their only way out.

Given the first film's success, two sequels ( Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials and Maze Runner: The Death Cure ) based on Dashner's novels were released. The cast of The Maze Runner mostly stayed the same throughout all three movies, with Dylan O'Brien at the center. The Maze Runner takes many twists and turns (pun intended), just like Mortal Engines , and the two films certainly share differences, but both are set in a dystopian world where one tyrannical entity rules.

The Maze Runner and Mortal Engines are available to stream on Netflix.

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New santa monica science fiction museum joins beach city attractions.

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SCI-FI WORLD: The Experience, a new museum in Santa Monica, CA will display the bridge from the Star ... [+] Trek 1966 Original Series set, with statues of the crew. George Takei, "Sulu" from the original Star Trek series, makes a live cameo appears in this image.

Santa Monica, California is the site of a new museum devoted to science fiction. SCI-FI WORLD: The Experience , is arriving in the beach city May 27 th , bringing props, replicas and images from Star Trek, Star Wars, DC and Marvel films, Doctor Who, and more.

SCI-FI WORLD will be located inside the historic former Sears building at 302 Colorado Avenue, just a few blocks away from Santa Monica’s beach and entertainment pier. The non-profit museum is a 30,000 square feet collection of science fiction and fantasy props, sets and costumes.

The latest acquisition for the new museum is the “10 Forward” set from the Paramount+ show Star Trek Picard. The set was used in the opening of Picard episode one, season one, starring Sir Patrick Stuart and Brent Spiner. The original 10 Forward set was first seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation from 1989-1994. 10 Forward is the bar/restaurant where the Enterprise crew would often socialize, and discuss their problems with Guinan, played by Whoopi Goldberg.

The late Nichelle Nichols, "Uhvura" on the original STAR TREK, visits the Bridge on display starting ... [+] in May 2024 at SCI-FI WORLD: The Experience. The new museum is in Santa Monica, CA.

Some of the most iconic original props and replicas from TV shows and films include The Enterprise Bridge set from Star Trek: The Next Generation and the Star Trek 1966 Original Series set, with statues of the crew.

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The museum also promises artifacts from Doctor Who, Planet of the Apes, Lord of the Rings, an “Iron Man Hall of Armor” and a full-size Alien Queen and Powerloader from Aliens. Then there's a 35-foot Millennium Falcon bounce house, a 1980s arcade on free-play, and a “living” 17-foot Giganotosaurus dinosaur.

The mission of the museum’s parent organization, the Hollywood Science Fiction Foundation, is to teach and inspire people of all ages with an uplifting vision of the future found in science fiction media, art and literature. The goal is to teach “Real Science through Science Fiction.” This will include technology, ecology, engineering, computers, robotics, math, space travel and all aspects of filmmaking, via fun, interactive exhibits and programs.

The museum will have a Hall of Heroes, a Hall of Robots and exhibits dedicated to Star Trek and Star Wars. The upcoming Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in the Exposition Park, which will presumably be a house of Star Wars memorabilia, is not opening until 2025.

Tom Cruise starred in the dystopian world of OBLIVION in 2013. SCI-FI WORLD: The Experience has the ... [+] OBLIVION bubble ship and drones among its exhibits in Santa Monica, CA.

SCI-FI WORLD also has a hall named Oblivion. It’s named for the futuristic film Oblivion starring Tom Cruise, about the remaining humans left on a dystopic Earth trying to save the planet. The Oblivion Bubbleship and Drones are the full-sized props used in the film. The exhibit also include video from the cast, crew and scientists explaining how the props worked in the film and how they would work “in real life.”

Tickets for HSFM start at $20 for children, $30 for adults, with discounts for seniors, military and first responders, everyone under 6 or over 90 gets in free. Tickets available at www.scifiworld.com

When you’re done with SCI-FI WORLD, there’s plenty of other things to do in Santa Monica. A day in the beach city should of course include a trip to the Santa Monica State Beach .

In addition to putting the traditional blanket on the sand, you can check out the original Muscle Beach outdoor workout area. And with spring here and summer coming, what better time to fly down the Santa Monica beach bicycle path on a rental bike or skates? Watching the sun set is also popular.

Sophia Hafich, left, and Ryan Norris embrace as they watch the sun set under the Santa Monica Pier, ... [+] Monday, Aug. 26, 2019, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Main Street and the Third Street Promenade are great places to shop, while Santa Monica also boasts a farmer’s market on Wednesdays. Bergamot Station calls itself ‘the largest art gallery and cultural complex on the West Coast.’ In addition to its many art galleries it boasts restaurants and an innovative theater, City Garage .

The beach city is also the home of the iconic Santa Monica Pier , known to many around the world as the western end of Route 66.

The 100-year-old Pier has boardwalk games and attractions, a carousel, a roller coaster and Ferris wheel. There are numerous places to eat at the pier, whether you want French fries or a full meal, including, yes, Bubba Gump’s.

Carousel and building on Santa Monica Pier 100 years old. The building and carousel have been ... [+] operating since 1916. Sunday June 15 rides will cost the same as in 1916. One dime. on June 10, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by FG/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

Unsurprisingly, the Pier was one of the filming sites for Forrest Gump. Other films and TV shows shot there include The Sting, which features the iconic carousel, Beverly Hills Cop 3, Beverly Hills 90210, Iron Man, (a child on the carousel sees Iron Man flying overhead) NCIS, Hannah Montana: The Movie and a comedy favorite of mine, A Night at the Roxbury.

And if your interest in science fiction carries over to aviation, the Museum of Flying is located adjacent to the Santa Monica Airport. SMO is now for general aviation but was the home of Douglas Aviation in the 1930’s and 1940’s.

The museum (open 10-4PM Thursday through Sunday) boasts a static display of a Douglas DC-3, which was developed nearby, as well as a Sabre jet and many other mementoes of the history of flying.

Visitors look at the FedEx plane Britteny in which you can sit in the cockpit at the reopening ... [+] (after a nine-year hiatus) of the Museum of Flying at the Santa Monica Airport on February 25, 2012. It had a $4–million revamping. It was the birthplace of the Douglas World Cruisers which were the first aircraft to circumnavigate the globe. (Photo by Anne Cusack/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

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