Over the years, sunglasses have become a multi-purpose fashion accessory, from providing sun protection to boosting style points. For sportswear brand Oakley, sunglasses can also be a cultural tribute. In a recently announced collaboration with Brazilian streetwear company Piet, Oakley announced a total of 20 products consisting of apparel, accessories, and footwear to encapsulate the zeitgeist and aesthetics of Brazilian subcultures.
Aside from fashion collaborations and partnerships with athletes and artists, however, Oakley is also committed to imprinting its brand in pop culture. While many iconic film scenes and characters feature sunglasses and all kinds of shades, some Oakley models tend to stand out due to their wide-lensed and sport-centered designs. In this post, we’ll look at four times Oakley shades featured in movies and their significance:
Transformers: Age of Extinction – Oakley Holbrook
We’ll start with one of Oakley’s more subtle designs — the Holbrook. Unlike most Oakley Sunglasses, the Holbrook has one of the most subtly designed lens shapes compared to models like the Crankshaft or Radar EV Path. In 2014’s Age of Extinction, the Holbrook is seen on Savoy, leader of the team of agents sent to eliminate all Transformers.
To match Savoy’s characterization as the “bad guy”, the Oakley Holbrook in the film features the matte black frame with red details and Positive Red Iridium lenses. The dark, sinister colors complement Savoy’s ruthless character, willing to get rid of Autobots, Decepticons, and humans in his way to get the job done.
X-Men: The Last Stand – Oakley Penny
While certainly not the X-fans’ favorite point of the original trilogy, The Last Stand features James Marden’s Cyclops relying on a pair of Oakley Pennys to keep his lethal laser-eyes in check. The Penny had limited availability upon its release, but it’s easy to see why its futuristic design, matched with Ruby Iridium lenses, fit the X-Men universe at the time.
Currently, talks of an X-Men reboot within the Marvel Cinematic Universe is shrouded with the possibility of no Wolverine. However, Cyclops is one of many characters that movie execs have “rebooted” at least once, with a younger Scott Summers played by Tye Sheridan in the last new trilogy. As we await more concrete reboot news, it’ll be interesting to see what fashionable shades the new Cyclops might wear to control his destructive optic beams.
Free Guy – Oakley Gascan
Moving onto a relatively newer release, a sneaky pair of Oakleys became an integral plot device in Ryan Reynolds-helmed Free Guy. In the movie, characters wear special sunglasses that function a lot like today’s AR glasses, displaying a heads-up display augmented onto the game’s reality. A feature most gamers are no doubt familiar with.
When Ryan Reynolds’ character, a regular NPC, puts on a pair of modified Oakley Gascans, he experiences a Matrix-like awakening and becomes aware. While real Gascans don’t change lens colors as they do in the film, you can choose from a variety of lens colors on the brand’s official website, including Prizm Ruby, Prizm Sapphire Polarized, and Prizm Tungsten Polarized lenses.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Oakley ECLP23
Finally, to push the definition of “shades” a bit, we’ll highlight a pair of custom goggles featured during a key moment — and stunt — in the latest Mission: Impossible offering. In a heartstopping stunt — during which Ethan Hunt jumps a bike off a large mountain’s edge — Tom Cruise is seen wearing the bespoke Oakley goggles.
Custom-built for the dangerous stunt, Oakley was tapped to design the goggles and got the job done. The ECLP23 goggles feature High Speed Protection and a wide lens for an expanded field of view. The zero-gravity design was built around Tom Cruise’s face and is fastened on the head instead of using traditional temples.
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