Future Shock Film: Oblivion (2013)

In a world where science fiction spectacle overwhelms science fiction narrative, one team emerges from deep space to confront the uncanny moviegoing valley. Amidst a career pivot from grounded dramas and espionage action films, global superstar Tom Cruise reinvented his career with a series of strategic choices increasingly oriented around the science fiction film genre. Following a pair of Spielbergian collaborations in Minority Report (2002) and a 21st Century remake of H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds (2005), Cruise gained somewhat mixed results from a pair of films released less than a year apart: Joseph Kosinski's Oblivion (2013) and Doug Liman's Edge of Tomorrow (2014). The former represents the least successful of this sci-fi run but is perhaps the most visually inventive. While Oblivion meets several criteria under the future shock banner, certain structural flaws weigh heavily on the film's overall impact.   

Host Garret Castleberry welcomes Scott McMurry into the dystopian discourse that foregrounds this "Future Shock Film" season of Special Topic in Media. The dialogic duo explore the dystopian spaces that haunt sci-fi film and the fears and anxieties of storytellers and their audiences. The pair organize their analysis around genre themes concerning presence versus absence, imitation versus innovation, and make a case for what moments situate Oblivion as future shock.

"Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media. Season 3 collides with its altered future as we converge into a new season (and NEW university film course!) of future shock analyses.

Host: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film":
Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction. Bloomsbury, 2011.

Michael Harris. In Come With Me If You Want to Live: The Future as Foretold in Classic Sci-Fi Films. Roman & Littlefield, 2024.

Alvin Toffler. Future Shock. Ballantine Books, 2022.

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