Thursday, December 12, 2013

Conjecture: Is Tom Cruise Mimicking Duncan Jones' Work?


Is Tom Cruise choosing projects based on the similarity to the films of Duncan Jones?  Take to mind this is conjecture, but there are similarities between Oblivion and Moon, as well as Source Code and Edge of Tomorrow.  If you wish to watch Moon, Source Code, and/or Oblivion without spoilers, please don't read.  

Duncan Jones's first feature length film Moon entails an astronaut named Sam (Sam Rockwell) working on the moon to harvest these special minerals for energy of the future.  Tom Cruise's last film, Oblivion, is about a man named Jack in the future earth maintaining machines responsible for the harvest of resources for the rest of humanity on another planet.

 Rock harvesting on Moon

Earth harvesting on Oblivion

*Spoilers Below*

In Moon, Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) slowly uncovers the truth that he is a clone, and was told lies that would last him long enough until the next clone replaced him.  In Oblivion, Jack is cloned as well, and taught that the humans won a war against the aliens, but in fact was being manipulated by them to harvest Earth's resources.

Now take a look at the latest trailer for Tom Cruise's new upcoming film, Edge of Tomorrow and Duncan Jones's Source Code below:



From the synopsis and the trailer, Edge of Tomorrow is about a soldier in a war with aliens who constantly relives the same chunk of time over and over again.  In Source Code, Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a soldier who wakes up mysteriously over and over for the same period of time in a train.  He finds that he is sent to uncover the identity of a terrorist bomber.

In Edge of Tomorrow, Cruise's character meets another fellow soldier (Emily Blunt) and she seems to know all the answers to a way out.  In Source Code, Colter Stevens has an officer named Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga), who guides him through the time loop to find the bomber.

Tom Cruise and his guide

Jake Gyllenhaal and his guide

You could say that both Edge and Source Code borrow a lot from Groundhog Day, but the funny thing about Duncan Jones's films is that he only made two so far.  They both have the same underlying plot concepts as Tom Cruise's most recent science fiction epics.  Cruise's version of each film injects a high amount of chaos and action.  It's like he's creating Duncan Jones's films on a giant budget with more flash and convention.



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