Is Liz a clone in Netflix's Oxygen? Netflix movie's big twist explained

But what actually happens in Oxygen, and what’s the truth about what happened to Elizabeth Hansen? Read on to find out…

Why is Liz in the pod in Netflix's Oxygen?

The film opens with a woman addressed as Omicron 276 waking up in a “Cryosalide” cryogenic pod. Unable to open the lid without the relevant codes and held at the mercy of a helpful but limited AI named MILO, she has to use the pod’s database and connection to the internet to try and escape (and also find out her identity – Dr Elizabeth “Liz” Hansen).

Initially, Liz assumes she must be ill; then, that someone has done this to her maliciously. After she’s able to call the police, they talk her through their attempts to find the pod manufacturer and give her administrative codes that will open her prison. However, they also begin to deny things about her past, telling her that she was never married, despite memories emerging of her husband Leo.

While they tell Liz she’s hallucinating (which, to be fair, she is sometimes) she realises that they’re lying to her and trying to fool her for some reason, which leads her to try and contact Leo directly.

Is Leo dead in Oxygen?

It becomes clear as the film continues that Liz’s husband Leo was unwell in his final days, and when she gets through to an old woman living at his address Liz learns the truth – her husband has actually died of a deadly virus that swept through humanity.

However, there’s more to Leo’s exit – and Liz’s imprisonment – than first appears.

Is Liz in space in Oxygen?

When the old woman calls Liz back, Liz insists she gives her the access codes to her pod, and her request is granted – but first, the old woman asks that she try something. Altering a key system in her pod, Liz becomes weightless, and the truth is revealed – she’s not buried, or in a hospital. Her pod is actually in space – and she’s been in cryo-sleep for 12 years, not the three days previously suggested (which the police lied to her about).

The old woman explains that the human race won’t survive on Earth beyond the next couple of generations, so a collection of people were sent to colonise a new world. However, the general public are being kept in the dark, and the authorities were concerned that Liz (who knew all about the project and presumably had a hand in its creation given her status as a cryogenics expert) would accidentally tip someone off.

Their plan, essentially was to keep her busy until her oxygen ran out and she died. However, the old woman has another idea – help Liz fix her pod before she gets out of communications range. She tells Liz that she needs to do this before her rapidly depleted oxygen supply drops below 2%, the amount needed to wake her up when they arrive on the new planet.

After a few false starts, Liz achieves this by rediverting the functions of a damaged processor to one non-essential processor – and when that proves to not have enough power and following a failed euthanasia attempt, she adds the power of the processor that controls MILO’s ability to offer palliative care, finally fixing the pod and halting the oxygen leak.

Unfortunately, she’s too late to save her oxygen dropping below the required parameters – but after a grisly scene where she sees the damaged spaceship and the many other pods that were hit by an asteroid, she lands on the idea to transfer oxygen supply from those pods to her own. MILO tells her this will work… but only if he puts her in cryo-sleep, which was her hope all along. Success!

Is Liz a clone in Oxygen?

But of course, there was another twist in Oxygen. While searching through the other passengers at the behest of the old woman, Liz finds Leo in stasis too. Confused by his apparent survival, she trawls back through the archives to discover that the real “Elizabeth Hansen” is a great deal older than her, and has made great strides in the realm of memory transfer.

The old woman Liz had called was none other than the real Elizabeth Hansen – the Liz we know is actually a clone, as is Leo, intended to seed new human life on another world while being relatively disposable.

There were some clues to this throughout the film – Liz’s regular hallucinations of cloned rats, and MILO’s insistence on calling her Omicron 276, rather than her real name – and after a minor freakout, Liz seems to accept her position, which allows her to be with Leo again on a new world. In fact, we get to see the reunited couple after their ship lands, happy together at last.

Less happy? The hundreds of other people killed in their pods (presumably also clones) who didn’t get a whole movie about them. Oh well.

Oxygen is streaming on Netflix now. Want more? Check out our dedicated Sci-Fi page and our full TV Guide.