Bullet Points: The Tomorrow War
Summertime is also blockbuster movie time and Amazon is getting their piece of the summer blockbuster movie pie with the release of the sci-fi actioner The Tomorrow War starring Chris Pratt, a man with some previous blockbuster movie experience under his belt…
- Our Hero: Chris Pratt plays Dan Forester, he is a husband and father, a veteran who served in Iraq and he is currently a high school biology teacher. Dan is looking to be more than a high school biology teacher however… unfortunately the research company he applied to has found a more qualified candidate. The news doesn’t exactly make Dan the life of the party, but his daughter Muri wants him to watch the soccer game with her and he has no intentions of disappointing his daughter (especially since we learn that he has some daddy issues of his own). So Dan settles in on the couch with his wife Emmy (Betty Gilpin) and Muri and that’s when the whole world changes…
- A Call to Arms: A wormhole opens up in the middle of the stadium and out of it comes soldiers from 30 years in the future led by Lt. Hart (Jasmine Mathews). Hart proceeds to inform the world of the war that is being waged in the future between the human race and alien invaders. This bombshell is followed up by news reports about “jump facilities” that will allow draftees to jump into the future and help save the human race… Dan ends up being one of the thousands that are drafted as part of the first ever worldwide draft. Things get emotional, as Dan has to say goodbye to his family and he’s one of the lucky ones. Most of Dan’s fellow draftees have no military experience and are given very little training, the human race just needs as many warm bodies that can shoot a rifle in hopes to slow down an enemy that is not only tough to kill, but rapidly reproducing. It is easy to make an emotional attachment to these characters and you’ll really start to feel for them once they make the jump…
- Destruction, Terror and Mayhem: When Dan and the others jump into the future, they see a veritable wasteland where Miami Beach once stood, Dan finds himself thrust into a leadership role by the Romeo Commander (Yvonne Strahovski, The Predator) and he becomes a beacon of hope for some of the novices in the group… even though it becomes apparent they are all in a pretty hopeless situation… something Dorian (Edwin Hodge, The Purge: Election Year), now on his third tour of duty, is not afraid to express. The jump to the future is where the movie’s visual effects really take center stage most notably the alien creatures known as “White Spikes”. As much as bad CGI can take you out of a movie, well done CGI can immerse you in a different world and that is exactly what The Tomorrow War does and does well.
- Second Chance: In some ways The Tomorrow War is two different movies connected by a science montage in the middle. There is first half that covers Dan’s one week tour of duty, but when he jumps back to the present he has a chance to undo all the horrible things that take place in the future, which sets up a whole new adventure for Dan to go on with some of the folks he served with in “The Tomorrow War” and his estranged father, James Forester (J.K. Simmons, American Renegades)… who is a scene stealer.
The Tomorrow War is part Independence Day, part Starship Troopers with a dash of Aliens. If any or all of those movies are your jam, chances are you are probably going to enjoy The Tomorrow War. As I mentioned earlier, the visual effects were well done, but not overdone. There are times you can experience CGI overload and I never felt that while watching The Tomorrow War.
The Tomorrow War also benefits from a likeable protagonist. If Chris Pratt ever played an unappealing character I don’t think I want to watch. Pratt seems like a genuinely good guy and that works to his advantage in The Tomorrow War. You can feel what Pratt’s Dan Forester is feeling and the movie does manage to pull at the old heart strings on more than one occasion.
Something I have done on more than one occasion is share some Bonus Bullet Points…
- Out of Context Quote: “I’m going to eat all of your tuna Santa.” – Dan Forester
- The Timecop Theory: Dan and fellow draftee Charlie the Earth Scientist (played by Sam Richardson) become fast friends and both share a theory that the reason all those drafted were north of 40 years old is because they aren’t alive in the future, believing a past self and a future self being in the same time could create a paradox. This reminded me of a lesson that Ron Silver’s character learned the hard way in Timecop.
- Name That Tune: “Christmas Wrapping” by The Waitresses can be heard at the start of the movie at the Foresters’ Christmas party.
- Double Duty: Chris Pratt was not only the star of The Tomorrow War, he was also one of the movie’s executive producers.
- Accurate: Charlie refers to James Forester as “Conspiracy Theory Santa”.
- Coming Soon: The Tomorrow War will be released on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service on July 2, 2021.
