Tom Cruise stars in Oblivion, an original and groundbreaking cinematic event from the director of TRON: Legacy and the producer of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. On a spectacular future Earth that has evolved beyond recognition, one man’s confrontation with the past will lead him on a journey of redemption and discovery as he battles to save mankind.
Jack Harper (Cruise) is one of the last few drone repairmen stationed on Earth. Part of a massive operation to extract vital resources after decades of war with a terrifying threat known as the Scavs, Jack’s mission is nearly complete. Living and patrolling the breathtaking skies from thousands of feet above, his soaring existence is brought crashing down when he rescues a beautiful stranger from a downed spacecraft. Her arrival triggers a chain of events that forces him to question everything he knows and puts the fate of humanity in his hands.
Oblivion will be shot in stunning digital 4K resolution on location across the United States and Iceland.
“Earth, 2015. The Odyssey travels to Mars to assemble and occupy the Red Planet’s first base station. En route, the sudden appearance of a vast White Cube in space interrupts the ship’s voyage – and the crew of the Odyssey is never heard from again. 30 years later, Earth has become an almost unrecognizable, surreal wilderness with the remains of human cities poking through vast black sand dunes and bizarre geological formations. The White Cube, from a long-dead extraterrestrial race, was to find potentially inhabitable worlds and reshape them into suitable environments for the aliens, who now will never come. It now sits high in the planet’s orbit, dominating the sky, attempting to undo the damage it has caused as well as repopulate the Earth with clones of the comatose Odyssey crew. The only clones on the surface remain those stationed in the looming Watchtowers, scattered around the planet. One such Watchtower crewmember, a clone named Jak, witnesses a burning object fall to Earth. It’s an escape pod carrying Julia Kanan, the one lone survivor of the Odyssey before its capture by the Cube, and a love from Jak’s pre-clone past. But as the authorities close in to retake Julia, Jak’s genetic memory of his love for her drives him to decisions he never would have thought possible-and which could lead to disaster for both of them.”
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Outraged California parents are demanding a long-term substitute teacher be removed from his job after he told students to make images of the White House submerged underwater with someone drowning.
The unnamed instructor who was teaching a Digital Imaging class at Rancho Dominguez Prep School in Long Beach told students that not only must the White House be underwater but someone in the scene had to be drowning.
'My (project) was the president being saved instead of drowning him… so I drowned his wife and the dog,' said junior Carnal Washington. 'I felt bad. It didn’t feel right drowning the president.'
According to Washington, the student with the highest praise did more than just put the president underwater.
'The highest grade in the class was a girl who had Obama swimming toward a bucket of chicken instead of his family.I thought that was sad, but when (the teacher) saw it, he started laughing,' Washington told CBS Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Unified School District representatives claimed the assignment was rooted in Hurricane Sandy.
But not everyone is buying that excuse.
'I see no reason that our president should ever be drowned,' said parent Mougine Taylor. 'I see no reason why the White House should ever be drowned. What did the kids get from this project?'
Parent Sandra Hermosillo was equally dsturbed.
'I think this whole assignment is uncalled for,' she said. 'First of all, why are you putting the White House under water?'
The district would not comment on whether any disciplinary action had been taken against the teacher, or if any was planned.
The story of a 625lb mother-of-six who died as a result of her weight is documented in a new TLC show.
Dominique Lanoise, 40, from Miami, Florida, was virtually housebound for almost two decades with her daughters washing, feeding and caring for her.
She died in March, after being given less than a year to live by doctor's who had been waiting to give her potentially life-saving stomach surgery.
Commenting on her situation, Dr Oscar Hernandez from the Southern Bariatric Center in Miami, said: 'She’s gone to town eating, there is no operation at these numbers.
'It wasn’t a one time slip-up it was a systematic assassination of her weight loss program.'
During the TLC special, 600-Pound Mom: Race Against Time, he is seen visiting Lanoise at home telling her: 'You are going to die in this bed; this bed is your coffin.'
Dr Jorge Rabaza the bariatric surgeon in charge of giving her life-saving surgery agreed that operating at that point would be too risky.
'I'm willing to be reasonable with that number. Dominique is 625 I will not do the surgery,' he said.
'There is a high mortality rate for morbidly obese patients, where they get blood clots in their legs and the blood clots go up to their lungs. A large blood clot will kill a patient instantaneously.'
He said the eventual goal was to reduce her stomach by 90per cent.
Lanoise, born in Haiti, started gaining weight aged 16, following the birth of her first daughter, Witelane.
'I used to be skinny but after I had my first baby I got so big.' she told Asiantown.net.
As her weight skyrocketed to more than 600 lbs, she spent her days sitting in bed wrapped in sheets as she couldn't find clothes to fit.
She first came to the media's attention in 2010 when she was forced to stay in Haiti for three months after the earthquake, because she was too heavy for commercial airlines.
Instead she was forced to travel back to the U.S. in a military cargo plane.
Despite doctor’s orders to eat healthier, she continued to indulge in her favorite Haitian dishes and sprinkled her meals with appetite-suppressing powder, wrongly thinking it would counteract the calories.
At one point, Lanoise was close to her target weight - but she explained that 'sometimes I feel so hungry.'
Lanoise's daughters had mixed feelings about the surgery and some are concerned about the risks although they were keen to get her walking again.
One of her daughters recalled: 'When they told me the weight. I was like very surprised and very angry. I thought the scale was wrong but as they did it over and over again it was right.'
Dr Hernandez added: 'I do need to have a conference with her daughters, make sure they support what we’re doing. I’m not here 24 hours a day.'
