JOSEPH KOSINSKI | UNIVERSAL PICTURES
MAIN TITLE | END TITLE | 2D MOTION GRAPHICS | 3D VFX | EDITORIAL | TYPOGRAPHY

Oblivion, starring Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman, is a post apocalyptic science fiction film that takes place in the year 2077. Cruise plays Jack Harper, a veteran soldier whose memory has been completely erased. Following a decades-long war with an alien threat, he is one of the few remaining humans left on an evacuated Earth. Jack is in charge of locating and repairing downed drones that safeguard areas from the alien “scavengers”, however, when Jack rescues a mysterious woman, he begins to question everything he knows and becomes the last hope to save Earth.
Oblivion marks the second collaboration between director Joseph Kosinski and Prologue. After completing work on Tron: Legacy, Kosinski approached us to work on the main title and main on end sequence for Oblivion.
From the start, it was Kosinski’s ambition to feature the TET in the main title. The TET, seen in the end of the film, is a colossal space station administered by an Artificial Intelligence, and the controller of the drones that nearly wiped out humanity. The main title animation begins with the TET “booting up.” The triangular vessel gives life to the letters of the title, each featuring an LED-like surface. The idea of “booting up” is a connective tissue to Jack’s job of restoring downed drones, which also translates into the main on end titles.
The main on end sequence combines grids and graphic elements with helicopter shots that were filmed in Iceland during production. The idea for the sequence spawned from the fact that Jack’s job is to scour the Earth for fallen drones. The credits animate during an aerial fly through of various locations, from the perspective of a drone. We treated the aerial footage of the valleys, rivers, cordilleran belts and other terrains to look as if each area was being scanned by a drone interface, integrating grids and mensuration graphics. As the sequence progresses, live action shots are synergized in the edit, communicating Jack’s exploration for truth throughout the story requires looking beneath the surface, a human instinct that a technological drone is incapable of conceiving.