"Oblivion" Trailer: Tom Cruise Opens His Eyes

The trailer for the post-apocalyptic film "Oblivion," starring Tom Cruise, has recently been released. Some quick observations and syncs here:

The first shot is of a burned-out (American) football stadium: "the last Superbowl was played here." It's immediate all-seeing eye imagery to kick things off; not necessarily sinister symbolism, but definitely one that activates our subconscious. Also spontaneously brings to mind "The Dark Knight Rises":

Football = "American Way Of Life."

Then we have a scene of Cruise's character, Jack Harper (check out Sync Whole for more info on connection between Cruise and "Jacks"), with a dog. This reenacts the Fool tarot card, indicating that Harper is unknowingly setting out for a new adventure, and really does not know what is truly "going on.":

INTERMISSION SYNC!

At this point in the writing of the post, I am called upstairs to accompany members of my family to a visit to a pool hall called "Fast Eddie's". Of course, "Oblivion" star Cruise co-starred in "The Color of Money," a film about pool featuring the character Fast Eddie Felson:

When I get to Fast Eddie's, our two tables are positioned in front of large framed photos of football and baseball stadiums:

And, of course, there's tons of football playing everywhere.

END INTERMISSION SYNC!

Back to the trailer: the next scene is of a ship flying past the ruins of a skyscraper: "60 years ago, the Earth was attacked" -- stirs up latent 9/11 fear/symbolism. Again: "American way of life" threatened:

Now we move from 9/11 fear to recent Hurricane Sandy fear, as Cruise puts on a New York Yankees hat and we hear him say: "Everyone's been evacuated." Yankees = NY = evacuated = hurricane. Yankees = American Way Of Life.

He then has a little plant sample next to him, subliminally recalling the movie WALL-E -- this point is further driven home by his words: "...nothing human remains":

His ship even has "eyes" like WALL-E:

But the movie suddenly turns into "The Matrix" as he finds the "true" world behind the facade -- that there is a whole world of "resistance" members.

Here is Morgan Freeman as "Malcolm Beech" -- Morpheus, basically:

Malcolm will literally provide enlightenment -- the match -- so Jack can really "see" (the "seeing" motif also present in the ship with "eyes.")

Through this process, Jack finds out that the people he's been working for "aren't even human":

We've seen these dead-eyed "human impostors" (of possible alien origin?) in the recent trailer for the movie "The Host":

But there are even suggestions here that Jack's very sense of perception is clouded, faulty -- Matrix-like flashbacks to the NYC of "today":

 Spotting "The Girl" who might be the link between the world of reality and that of maya/illusion (note the eyes/lenses imagery again):

 and the idea that "Earth Is A Memory..."

Tom Cruise has starred in a number of movies dealing with these issues of memory, perception, and reality, most notably "Vanilla Sky", a remake of a Spanish film whose English title is "Open Your Eyes":

navigating realms of reality to see the Truth

 He also strongly resonates the symbolism of the Eye and Sight:

Tom Cruise, the symbol of the "American Way Of Life," as integral a symbol of the Glory Days of the United States and baseball and football, is trying to make us see something: