MovieChat Forums > Oblivion (2013) Discussion > So how many Techs were left alive by the...

So how many Techs were left alive by the end of the movie?


Surely not just Tech 52? although he was the only one we saw, and we saw him a few different times. We didn't see any others at the end where 52 was.

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Jack 52 had the (mis)fortune of running into Jack 49. The other Jacks had no such luck. Although more of their memories will surface in time, their reality and TET conditioning will render their vague memories as dreams.

Since each Jack is bounded by radiation zones, they are unlikely to venture into other sectors. Their scavs don't have Beech and his knowledge of who Jack was. So the adversarial relationship remains. Despite TET's non-responsiveness, Jack and Vika would likely stay in their skyhigh abode until supply runs out.

Of course, all it took/takes is one Jack to enter the radiation zone and not fall deathly ill. Then. the jig is up.










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Est modus in rebus sunt certi denique fines quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum Goldilocks

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I was wondering the same and don't think the Jack's will venture too far at first. The Jack character won't just stay in the tower and die though. He's a survivor and essentially all the same person so eventually he'll explore.

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May be...
Jack 49, when realized that he was married, became upset, and decided to help resistance guys. It was merely a day with his wife that put him in disaster. Furthermore, the Jack 52 dude kicked his ash too, that made him very angry.
That is why he did not send the 49 guy to blow the nuke (rather spared him for the worst punishment). Because it was better to die with honor than to live with shame (who can spend the whole life with one woman in a world where no other woman present, apparently). But the Jack 52 dude was not stupid, he ran away. His bad, the resistance guys found him, captured him, and brought him to Juli Muli, just look at his face when they brought him and he saw her, the dude really faded up, and i heard that in some deleted scene kinda release, the Jack 52 dude got a stroke. But hey, you missed the tricky part, what Jack 49 guy did to the 52 dude? you get it? I bet no, so listen, he made Juli Muli pregnant so that the 52 dude would have double punishment, you know, Juli with a lil child, omg!

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well, that's ONE interpretation ... ๐Ÿ˜€ ๎€› ๎€‡

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A new war will start when all the Jacks try to get with Julia, and be complicated by all the angry Victorias wanting to kill Julia.


...then whoa, differences...

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Lol, I was thinking the same thing. Poor Julia will have to stay home or close to home. There could be thousands of them. John seems like cool honourable dudes though, I think they'd understand the first come first serve status of John 52.

"what is your major malfunction numbnuts?!!"

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More than likely, there are hundreds Jacks located at various parts of the world.

I think Jack's inherent curiosity and love for the planet will have him coming down the tower and exploring his surroundings. Eventually, I think his memories will return, even without Julia there to prompt it. On the commentary (the best I've ever listened to), the writer mentioned that the reason they have a 5 year contract date in the film is because that's when Jack starts remembering things and thereby ending his effectiveness with Vika and their mission.

It's heartbreaking, but once he recovers his memories and (especially if he runs into survivors in his area) realizes how much time has passed, he will assume that Julia either returned to earth and was killed with the others or was lost in space. Either way, he will go on with his life. The only reason 52 looked for 3 years for "his" family was because he saw Julia and knew she was here on the planet.

Unfortunately, I doubt very many of the Vikas will have survived. For her, that tower was everything. Clean. Isolated. Only her and Jack. You saw when she was confronted with Julia. Instead of trying to find out how she knew her or curious about her presence, she immediately saw her as a threat to their tranquil lives and tried to drug her until the Tet's convoy came to get her. More than likely, the vast number of Vikas will commit suicide.

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These guys were clones so whos to say how many there were? Im willing to bet that a few jacks and victorias were killed before. So just because we saw tech 49 and 52, it doesnt mean that the other 50 techs were still alive. It also doesnt mean that there werent more than 52 techs, the story just happened to focus on tech 49. There is really no way to know.

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There were possibly hundreds, if not more, of Jacks and Vikas scattered around the Earth. Those that were in the same type of habitat as Jack and Vika 49 (floating above the clouds) would probably have died along with the Tet when whatever energy (presumably a force field of some sort) was keeping them up there died (the drones crashed instantly, if you recall). Even the mountain top one for 52 couldn't have stayed up there without the force field. Jack 52 was on the ground when the Tet was destroyed, so he was OK, but I suspect that most of the Jacks and probably all of the Vikas (who weren't willing to leave the habitats) died with the Tet. Even those who did survive wouldn't have known Julia had made it back to Earth - the only reason Jack 52 did was because he actually saw her just before his fight with 49.

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I don't think there was a force field, the habitats were supported by columns of some kind (a tripod?). I'm thinking the energy for powering the stations (and the helicopter things) was probably nuclear (after all, they were 'harvesting' tritium). So to me, the stations and even the flying machines remained operational. What I'm wondering about is food and water - was that 'manufactured' onboard? Maybe recycled from waste material etc. as well.

I do agree there were possibly hundreds of Jack/Vika pairs scattered about. Maybe some of them ventured down to see what was going on, after their transmissions to/from the Tet stopped. The Vikas were apparently 'programmed' to remain in the stations, so the Jacks may have gone down/around to some extent.

I do wonder how many of them would venture outside what they thought was the 'safe zone' though. Maybe at some 'border' they'd see someone else ... ?

I also agree that all the other clones/copies wouldn't know about Julia, she would remain a dream. I think the reinforcement that occurred when Jack saw Julia cemented the jumbled thoughts in his/their minds into reality.

To me the main point of the movie was that love could allow reincarnation of sorts for Jacks 49 and 52, they actually became the 'real' Jack when Julia was found. Jack's love for Julia and hers for him solidified their beings.

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Some interesting theories here. Yes, there's definitely going to some Jack-on-Julia issues, if any more of them find the sanctuary. I also wondered if โ€“ย like Moon โ€“ย the five year contract was as a result of tissue degradation and eventual death, like Sam Rockwell's character.

I suspect all the other Jack-Victoria teams would be thrown into disarray when the Tet explodes and communication is lost. Jack would probably go out and explore and Victoria, poor Victoria, would probably stay at home and have a huge anxiety attack. Don't forget, they would still believe it's a colony packed with people. All the drones are down too...so they'd have little purpose left unless they left their Cloud City-esque dwellings โ€“ which I believe aren't held up by force fields, but rather just new, superstrong building material introduced by the Tet.

If you look at the area Jack 49 covers, it's very roughly the size of NY state...so I'm assuming that there are in fact roughly 50 Jacks in the US alone...but then you have the whole planet to consider. And that would be quite a lot. Whether or not the number goes higher if a Jack is killed, or if he and his number are simply replaced, is unclear.

As the human survivors gather together, I'm sure attempts would be made to contact any remaining Jacks and Victoiras, not least because Jack would probably still be trying to shoot any still wearing armour.

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Seems to me that the stations would be along the coasts only, they had water-suckers at sea. That brings up an interesting observation ... the ones Station 49 were 'guarding' only seemed to number ... 6? maybe more though. So if Jack was out near one of the 'end' ones, why wouldn't he see the others out there? Seems odd/inefficient if they were spaced out by several miles (so the 'Radiation Zone' fallacy would hold up).

Jack 49 saw Jack 52 in an adjacent zone (what he was told was a Radiation Zone) so they couldn't have been that far apart.

Still, I imagine there could be 100s of Jack/Vika pairs scattered around the world.

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