‘Blade Runner’ Meets ‘Interstellar’ in the Sci-Fi Spectacle Taking Over a New Streamer

He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema. 

This can’t be a fun time for Tom Cruise, who recently headlined Digger, one of the biggest box-office bombs ever. To make matters worse, the movie was marketed as a grand tribute to Cruise’s career, effectively making it seem like a vanity project. Digger is poised to end its run with less than $50 million at the worldwide box office, against a reported budget of $180 million. It’s also notable for being the final movie released by Warner Bros. before the studio’s takeover by Skydance. Of course, this isn’t the first time that Cruise starred in an ambitious epic directed by a visionary filmmaker. In the 1990s, he worked with Paul Thomas Anderson on Magnolia and with Stanley Kubrick on Eyes Wide Shut. He also took a bet on relatively inexperienced directors in the 2010s, starring in Christopher McQuarrie‘s Jack Reacher adaptation, and in an original sci-fi movie directed by Joseph Kosinski.

The gamble paid off. McQuarrie went on to direct the final four installments of the Mission: Impossible series, while Kosinski helmed the highest-grossing hit of Cruise’s career, Top Gun: Maverick. But when Kosinski first collaborated with Cruise, he’d directed only one feature film, Tron: Legacy. While the movie was praised for its visual style and electric soundtrack, it was deemed not successful enough to warrant a sequel. Still, Cruise saw something in Kosinski and signed him to direct a 2013 sci-fi movie that received similar praise for its visuals and music, but was criticized for its thin narrative. The movie in question was recently added to the Starz streaming service, giving a younger generation the opportunity to check it out.

Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.

You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.

• You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
• You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
• You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
• The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.

The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.

• You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
• You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
• You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
• In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.

You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.

• You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
• In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
• You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
• In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.

Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.

• Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
• You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
• Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
• In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.

The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.

• You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
• You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
• You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
• In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.

The Movie Features a Diverse Cast

• Image via Universal Pictures

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Image via Universal Pictures

Image via Universal

Image via Universal Pictures

Image via Universal Pictures

Image via Universal Pictures

• Image via Universal Pictures

• Image via Universal

• Image via Universal Pictures

• Image via Universal Pictures

• Image via Universal Pictures

Image via Universal Pictures

Image via Universal

Image via Universal Pictures

Image via Universal Pictures

Image via Universal Pictures

We’re talking, of course, about Oblivion. Produced on a reported budget of $120 million, the post-apocalyptic action movie grossed nearly $290 million worldwide. It’s now sitting at a 53% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “Visually striking but thinly scripted, Oblivion benefits greatly from its strong production values and an excellent performance from Tom Cruise.” Also featuring Olga Kurylenko, Morgan Freeman, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Andrea Riseborough, and Melissa Leo, the movie will be added to the Starz library this November. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

Oblivion

Produced and directed by Joseph Kosinski, Oblivion tells the story of Jack Harper (Tom Cruise), a technician living in 2077, 60 years after scavenger aliens destroyed Earth’s moon. While remaining on the abandoned Earth to repair drones, Jack encounters a sleep pod containing Julia, who has been in stasis since 2017. Finding her sees Jack embark on a journey to unlock the secrets of the past, all while fighting to save what remains of the Earth.