Is "Oblivion" The New "Matrix?"

I haven't seen this level of buzz within the alternative media about a movie in a good long while.

"Oblivion" is not only a box-office success, but is being cited by many as, simply, the new "Matrix" -- a study of revolution against the "Illuminati". (possible spoilers for the film to follow):

Like the classic film by the Wachowskis, "Oblivion" is about a dwindling humanity being exploited and oppressed by a machine-like "alien" force. As I've written before on this blog, movies like this and the upcoming "Elysium" speak to a future dystopia where the elites live "offworld" and the masses are left to fend for themselves in squalor. Ideas like outer space colonization and transhumanism are "pushed" by the mainstream, but the result could conceivably be a nightmare for humanity.

But two things really shock me about the box-office success, and alternative media embracement, of "Oblivion":

1) Tom Cruise is pretty much hated, both for his connections to Scientology and his oft-strange behavior (the infamous "Oprah's Couch' incident and his relationship with Katie Holmes being the two biggest examples). And yet, "Oblivion" has not been the first film Cruise has starred in that illustrates a struggle against sinister alien/elitist forces. I mean, he was in "Eyes Wide Shut," for Christ's sake!

2) The Scientology connection in general. Let's face it -- any movie Cruise stars in is going to be scrutinized as having symbolism related to the religion. And in the end, both "Oblivion" and Scientology are about humanity being oppressed/exploited by alien forces. Important to remember who actually inspired Scientology, however: Aleister Crowley, who has been repeatedly demonized (if you will excuse the pun) by some sectors of the alternative media community.

The most vocal supporter of "Oblivion" at the moment is current mainstream media darling villain Alex Jones, who calls the film an "Anti-Illuminati tour de force." In the video below, he goes into detail about the very symbolically-loaded design of the main baddie:

"The main alien spaceship called the Tetrad obviously represents the pyramid of control, the Illuminati power structure, centered in Rome. Note throughout the film the Tetrad pyramid spaceship, is shown upside-down to the way a pyramid is normally. This is just like satanist turning the cross of religion upside-down to disrespect it, so the inversion of the pyramid is showing disrespect to the Illuminati power structure. Also inverting the pyramid now places the people who were at the bottom of the pyramid above those who used to control them, showing the gaining of power by the awakened people."

"Stench Of Truth" has also recently reviewed it (noting especially its portrayal of drones as evil), and many mini-documentaries have popped up online analyzing its symbolism. "The Matrix" had a huge impact on the alternative media community in the late Nineties, almost tailor-made for a post-9/11 society -- David Icke has literally based a lot of his philosophy on the movie, basically co-opting the name.

Is "Oblivion" the next major "Anti-Illuminati" film? And is the Scientology "connection" (as thin and tenuous as that may be) significant at all (especially in light of the fact that the strangely-similar upcoming film "After Earth" features yet another celebrity connected to Scientology, Will Smith)?

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The Offworld Agenda: "Oblivion," Elysium," And Hawking's Warning

Running Man: Cruise in "Oblivion"

I've written several times on this blog that the big "theme" to be pushed through pop-culture and the media for the years to come will be that of "offworld" colonization (a.k.a. "Starseeds").

The latest confluence of news and entertainment mirroring the same message was this week, when physicist Stephen Hawking declared that that humanity was essentially "doomed" unless they get off the Earth and colonize space. From a recent Mother Nature News article:

Discussing the Earth's most troubling concerns in an email interview with The Canadian Press, Hawking described space exploration as humankind's most urgent mission. Predicting a planet soon made uninhabitable, he says that our only chance of long-term survival as a species is to “spread out into space.”

"Our population and our use of the finite resources of planet Earth are growing exponentially, along with our technical ability to change the environment for good or ill. But our genetic code still carries the selfish and aggressive instincts that were of survival advantage in the past. It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million,” he wrote.

By some great coincidence, this week also marked increased hype for two science-fiction movies about off-world space colonization by humans, "Oblivion" and "Elysium." The former will be released next Friday, and the latter, in August.

Elysium: Hawking's utopia?

"Oblivion," which I've covered a bit already, concerns a humanity who has supposedly left Earth for Saturn's moon Titan. A rag-tag band of humans remain on Earth: "The Resistance."

"Oblivion": the human, Earthbound Resistance

"Oblivion": the cold, offworld Elites

"Elysium" concerns an increasingly awful, overpopulated Earth, and the Utopian "cloud world" built in space where the rich flee and live in comfort. While not about colonizing a specific planet -- Elysium is essentially an orbiting space station -- the same message is there. GET OFFWORLD.

"Elysium": the human, Earthbound Resistance

"Elysium": the cold, offworld Elites

But as the plots for "Oblivion" and "Elysium" indicate, acting on Hawking's warning may not have the same benefit for the elite as it will have for the masses. Will humanity as a whole go offworld as the Earth continues to decline -- or only those rich enough to score a valuable place on the theoretical space stations and colonized planets?

But the clone workers of "Oblivion" bring up another possible dystopian development -- that of corporations using human "drones" or "clones" to "harvest" and terraform these planets. On one hand, this might create more jobs. On the other, this could be very dangerous, potentially health-damaging (radiation?) work -- taken up by the unemployed, desperate masses.

The expendable, offworld worker drone of "Moon"

We see this scenario play out quite clearly in the movie "Moon," in which Sam Rockwell is essentially an expandable "drone" sent to Earth's satellite; his employers having him work there while knowing he is doomed.

While it has been said that it's "impossible to own the moon" -- I believe that is is quite damn possible. If the future of humanity is offworld, this "offworld" will most likely be bought and sold; our future being less the egalitarianism of "Star Trek," and more a carbon copy of the colonization of Earth through the many centuries.

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