‘Oxygen’ (original title ‘Oxygène’) is a sci-fi film co-produced by France and the United States. Elizabeth (Mélanie Laurent), the protagonist and only active character in this single-location film directed by Alexandre Aja, wakes up in a cryogenic sleep pod. Elizabeth’s only option is to explore within her own mind for answers before her fate is sealed, as she has no memory of how she got there and her oxygen supply is progressively running out.
The claustrophobic film seamlessly swings scale from intimate to cosmic, transporting viewers on a (literally) breathless trip that gradually reveals the protagonist’s backstory and the reasons for her imprisonment in the pod. Don’t be concerned if the finale of ‘Oxygen’ left you with unanswered questions. We’ve arrived with solutions. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.
Oxygen Plot Synopsis
Elizabeth wakes up in a confined cryogenic pod in the first scene of ‘Oxygen.’ She learns she is imprisoned within the pod with a diminishing supply of air after tearing herself free of the biological cocoon that wraps her. The Medical Interface Liaison Officer, or MILO, the pod’s AI helper, notifies her that her oxygen level is at 35%. She tries to contact the police using the pod’s central communication line after her terrified calls to the outside go unanswered.
However, because she can’t recall her name or where she was last, the authorities are having trouble locating her pod. Meanwhile, Elizabeth learns her name and that she is a researcher thanks to MILO’s access to information. She also discovers that she is healthy, which she finds odd given that cryogenics is typically used to preserve terminally ill patients. When the police captain returns her call, she learns that they are trying to gain the codes that will allow her to open the pod from the inside.
He requests that she keep the line open. When the line is disconnected, however, Elizabeth loses control and begins to panic, believing she has been buried alive. Elizabeth has hallucinations of a guy and a woman together as her thoughts and reality begin to converge. She recognizes the man as Leo, her husband. When she finally gets in touch with the police captain, he tells her that Leo is really a figment of her imagination.
Elizabeth tries to reach her husband Leo but is rudely cut off by a woman as she begins to mistrust the intentions of those on the phone with her. The woman contacts Elizabeth again later and informs her that if she wants to live, she must return to cryogenic sleep. When Elizabeth inquires as to why she can’t be let out of the pod, it is revealed to her and the audience that the capsule is currently 42,000 miles from Earth, en route to Wolf 10-61, a distant star system.
MILO informs Elizabeth that she is in one of 10,000 pods containing “bioforms” as she gazes out at the cosmic panorama in front of her, which has so far been veiled by her pod’s UV screen. In the early phases of the journey, the ship carrying them to repopulate a faraway planet had an accident and collided with an asteroid. MILO also informs her that 9,567 pods out of 10,000 are still operational, but she is the only one awake.
Elizabeth realizes Leo could be in one of the other pods and searches through them until she finds him. However, Elizabeth gradually realizes that he and she are clones after noticing that he lacks the scars on his face that she has always known him to have. She almost gives up hope when her oxygen drops below the critical 2% mark, but then she has the brilliant idea of using the oxygen from the other pods surrounding her. MILO advises her that transferring oxygen into her pod will take a long time and places her in cryogenic sleep.
We see Elizabeth and Leo reconnect on a distant planet in the last scenes of ‘Oxygen,’ having made it there alive. The shocking discovery that the protagonist is a clone addresses several important concerns while also raising new ones. We now know she is a clone of a younger Elizabeth, with the genuine, much older Elizabeth only appearing momentarily at a scientific meeting. To minimize confusion, we will now prefix a character’s name with “Real” or “Clone” to indicate their origin.
When we discover that the Elizabeth we see in the pod is a clone, we can understand why Leo, who is in a nearby pod, has wounds on his face that appear to have healed. He’s a clone, too. As a result, the Leo and Elizabeth we see in space are both clones, yet the elder Elizabeth we meet on Earth, as well as the Leo who has contracted the virus, are both genuine.
Is Leo Alive or Dead? How is He Involved in the Mission?
After seeing a perfectly healthy-looking Leo cryogenically imprisoned in one of the pods, Clone Elizabeth knows she isn’t genuine. Previously thought to be dying of a virus that is afflicting humanity and threatens to wipe it out in two generations, the arrival of Clone Leo clears up any doubts about whether Leo is alive or dead. We can deduce that Real Leo is dead based on several evidence throughout the film, including seeing Leo gravely ill and Elizabeth’s mother noting that she lives alone.
Clone Leo, on the other hand, is perfectly healthy in his pod, according to MILO’s status. As a result, we see Clone Leo at the end of the movie, but Real Leo is already dead. Leo appears to have had a key role in the space mission before his death, as he is seen designing the pod’s reentry and landing systems. He is also dressed in high-ranking military uniform, implying that he and Elizabeth were not only married but also coworkers.
The entire endeavor appears to be the idea of Elizabeth and Leo, with both of them appearing as significant architects of the mission on occasion. The desire to be reunited with Leo and live in a utopia with him, even if it wasn’t them but their clones, may have inspired the real Elizabeth. Clone Elizabeth is reunited with Clone Leo at the end of ‘Oxygen,’ although their Real equivalents face a considerably more bleak ending.
h3>What Happens to Elizabeth the Real? What is going on in the world?
We catch a glimpse of Real Elizabeth, who is considerably older than her clone, at a scientific meeting, presenting about her memory transfer discovery. Real Elizabeth is revealed to be the mystery woman who phones Clone Elizabeth and informs her of the space mission. This is why the woman on the other end of the line knows Clone Elizabeth’s identity and the workings of the pod she is in.
We hear males in the background threatening Real Elizabeth and instructing her to get down on the ground just before she is cut off. The men sound like government officials, implying that the expedition is a covert and unlawful operation. The line is terminated shortly after hearing the voices, and we don’t hear from Real Elizabeth again. From what we can see, the virus that is spreading the globe is most likely going to wipe out humanity. Real Elizabeth mentions this in passing when she claims that humanity has only two generations left to live.
To avoid panic among the general people, only high military leaders and presumably the government and scientific groups are aware of the situation. Who is behind the audacious mission to transplant humanity to another planet is still unknown. Because both Elizabeth and Leo are shown working on the expedition, and Leo is seen creating sections of the pod in their house, the mission is most likely not sanctioned, but rather one planned by a faction to offer humanity a fighting chance.
This would explain why Real Elizabeth is caught by the authorities after their purpose is discovered. Another scenario is that the mission is legal, and Real Elizabeth is captured for giving Clone Elizabeth the truth about her mission rather than allowing her to choke and die, as the man acting as the police captain attempted to do previously. In any event, Real Elizabeth is in serious jeopardy for allegedly committing a criminal or unethical behavior.
The notion that humanity must be moved paints a gloomy picture of the Earth’s state. We observe the virus’s catastrophic impact on Leo and others via Clone Elizabeth’s flashbacks. Because the flashbacks are recollections of Real Elizabeth, who is now much older, they take place many years ago. This suggests that the situation has most certainly worsened since then, and humanity’s situation on Earth is in grave danger.
How Old is Clone Elizabeth? What is Her Fate?
When we discover that Elizabeth is a clone, it’s interesting to think of her as a distinct character from the real Elizabeth. Clone Elizabeth’s gruesome flashbacks and hallucinations of agony, as well as maimed lab mice, demonstrate the difference between the genuine person and the clone. Whereas Real Elizabeth is seen confidently performing tests on mice, her clone appears to be terrified of them, which is most likely the result of deep-seated guilt (for harming the creatures) passed from Real to Clone Elizabeth.
Clone Elizabeth’s age, on the other hand, is most intriguing, as we learn near the end of the film that she is only 102 minutes old! Clone Elizabeth awakens in the cryogenic pod for the first time after a 12-year slumber. We watch her birth in the opening scenes of the film, and she confirms with MILO that her age is, in fact, 102 minutes later.
‘Oxygen’ differs from comparable sci-fi films in that it has a decidedly cheerful ending. Clone Elizabeth is seen united with Clone Leo, something she strives valiantly to achieve in the second half of the film but almost abandons. On the distant planet Wolf 10-61c, the two are seen together, healthy and clearly in love. Their real-life equivalents on Earth aren’t so fortunate, with Real Leo most certainly dying from the virus (there’s a chance he’s cryogenically frozen) and Real Elizabeth being arrested for doing something illegal or immoral.
