The Tomorrow War

The Tomorrow War is a 2021 American military science fiction satisfying action film directed by Chris McKay in his live-action directorial debut, produced by David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, David S. Goyer, Jules Daly and Adam Kolbrenner, and written by Zach Dean and Bill Dubuque. The film will star Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, Betty Gilpin, Keith Powers, Mike Mitchell, Sam Richardson, and J. K. Simmons, with Pratt also executive producing the film. This based off this book named The Forever War by St Martin Press and The film, which is set in the near future, focuses on humanity's war against an invading alien force, hoping to win it by using scientists' new ability to draft soldiers from the past to the war.
The film was scheduled to be released on December 25, 2020, by Paramount Pictures, but was rescheduled to July 23, 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.https://www.kxan.com/entertainment-news/top-gun-maverick-postponed-to-december-due-to-coronavirus/amp/ It was then pushed up several weeks to July 1, to be released on Amazon Prime Video. It received mixed reviews from critics, though McKay's directing and Pratt's acting were met with praise.
==Plot==
In December 2022, biology teacher and former Green Beret Dan Forester fails to get a job at a prestigious research center. During the broadcast of the World Cup, soldiers from the year 2051 arrive to warn that humanity is on the brink of extinction due to a war with alien invaders referred to as the "Whitespikes." The Whitespikes will arrive in November 2048 and kill the majority of humanity within three years after their arrival. In response, the world's militaries are sent into the future via a wormhole device called the "Jump link," but fewer than 30% survive their seven-day deployment, prompting an international draft.
Dan receives a notice that he has been drafted and when he tells his wife, she says they should run and talks Dan into visiting his estranged father, a mechanical engineer, for help in removing the draft band attached to his arm. Dan's father left him and his mother after he returned from Vietnam because he felt he it was dangerous to remain with them but Dan says he doesn't want his help and calls him a coward, then leaves. Dan reports with other draftees to basic training. Dan deduces with fellow draftee Charlie that to prevent a paradox, those drafted have already died before the war starts and those who have come from the future haven't been born yet. The draftees are sent forward in time to a battlefield on Miami Beach but few survive, having accidentally been dropped high above the city. The field commander, Colonel Forester, orders the draftees to rescue nearby lab personnel before the area is sterilized. They discover the lab personnel are already dead but recover their research. Dan radios command about the situation, and he is told that no help will be sent to rescue the stranded troops. Nearly everyone dies, except for Charlie, Dan, and Dorian, a battle-hardened soldier on his third deployment to the future.
The survivors wake up in a military encampment in the Dominican Republic. Dan reports to Col. Forester, who turns out to be his grown daughter Muri. She requests he accompany her on a mission to capture a female Whitespike, which are rarer than the males typically encountered. They trap and cage the female, only to have hundreds of males descend on their position. As the helicopter with the female lifts off, Dan and Muri escape to a beach and radio for rescue. Muri reveals to Dan that, dissatisfied with his life after losing the job, he abandons his family and dies in a car crash in 2030. Dan, Muri and the female Whitespike are transported to a fortified oil rig close to Port Nelson, where the Jump link is located.
Muri creates a toxin that can kill the Whitespikes. The Whitespikes attack and overrun the base to free the female, and Muri sacrifices herself to send Dan back to the past. Although he returns to 2023 with the toxin, the Jump link is destroyed. The world interprets the Jump link's destruction as a sign that the future war is lost.
While Dan brainstorms with his wife, Emmy, she deduces that the Whitespikes did not arrive in 2048, but came much earlier. Dan consults with Charlie and Martin, a high school student with an interest in volcanoes, and they theorize that the Whitespikes have been on Earth since at least the "Millennium Eruption" in the year 946, and global warming caused them to thaw out and emerge from under the ice caps. Dan leads a mission to Russia with Charlie, Dorian, a few surviving future soldiers, and his estranged father James to prove his theory. The team finds a crashed alien ship at the Academy of Sciences Glacier on Komsomolets Island. They debate telling the world about the problem, but decide to end the threat themselves. Once inside, they realize that the Whitespikes are not the aliens themselves, but rather bio-engineered organisms possibly used as a planet-clearing weapon or cattle by another alien race. The team injects several of the dormant Whitespikes with the toxin; this kills the injected ones but wakes the others, and most of the team is killed. Dorian, terminally ill with cancer and wanting to die on his own terms, stays behind to blow up the ship with C-4, and the explosion kills all but one of the Whitespikes. Dan and his father hunt and kill the one female that had escaped, leaving them and Charlie as the team's only survivors.
Content knowing that the war is averted and humanity is saved, Dan brings James home to meet his wife and daughter, determined not to make the same mistakes that Muri had warned him about from her future.
==Cast==
*Chris Pratt stars as Dan Forester, who is a former Green Beret First Sergeant and a biology teacher. He served two tours of duty in Iraq.
*Yvonne Strahovski plays Colonel Muri Forester, Dan's daughter who is now an adult and works as a military scientist.
*Ryan Kiera Armstrong portrays the younger version of Muri Forester.
*J. K. Simmons is cast as James Daniel Forester Sr., who is Dan's father. He is a Vietnam veteran, a mechanical engineer, and an anti-government survivalist.
*Betty Gilpin takes on the role of Emmy Forester, Dan's wife, and a therapist who specializes in helping returning draftees.
*Sam Richardson plays Charlie, a draftee who has a PhD in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
*Edwin Hodge is Dorian, a draftee who is on his third tour of duty and is battling cancer.
*Jasmine Mathews portrays Lieutenant Hart, who is a future soldier that warned the world during the World Cup.
*Keith Powers plays Major Greenwood, who is Muri's executive officer.
==Production==
It was announced in February 2019 that Chris Pratt was in negotiations to star in the film (then known as Ghost Draft), and which was set to be directed by Chris McKay. In July, Yvonne Strahovski was added to the cast. J. K. Simmons, Betty Gilpin, Sam Richardson, Theo Von, Jasmine Mathews, Keith Powers were added to the cast in August, with Mary Lynn Rajskub, Edwin Hodge, and additional cast joining in September.Mary Lynn Rajskub, Edwin Hodge Join Chris Pratt in Sci-Fi Thriller 'Ghost Draft' (Exclusive)‘Ghost Draft’: Paramount/Skydance Sci-Fi Film Adds More To Cast The movie was retitled as The Tomorrow War. Creature designer Ken Barthelmey designed the aliens for the film.
===Filming===
Filming began on September 1, 2019, with Atlanta and Iceland as filming locations. Filming wrapped on January 12, 2020.
==Release==
The film was originally scheduled to be released on December 25, 2020 by Paramount Pictures. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was rescheduled to July 23, 2021, taking the release date of Mission: Impossible 7. But was delayed by coronavirus. It was released in July 2, 2021 by Amazon Prime video research of respond this film.
== Reception ==
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 54% based on 164 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Chris Pratt ably anchors this sci-fi adventure, even if The Tomorrow War may not linger in the memory much longer than today." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 45 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Nick Allen at The Playlist gave the film a "B+", writing that "blockbuster movies are often as loud and action-based as The Tomorrow War, but they're rarely as diverse in tone or so delightfully wild when it comes to in-your-face entertainment." He also called it "bold" and compared McKay's style to that of Michael Bay and Zack Snyder. Richard Roeper of Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2 out of 4 stars and wrote, "The Tomorrow War is an earnest effort to bring something new to the time-travel action genre, but this movie is a 2021 vehicle made of parts from the 2010s and the 1990s and 1980s." IndieWire's David Ehrlich gave the film a C grade, writing, "Which isn't to say that The Tomorrow War is bad — it boasts a clever premise, a killer supporting turn from Sam Richardson, and an uncommonly well-defined sense of place for such a murky CGI gloop-fest... But for all of those laudable attributes, this flavorless loss-leader of a film is neutered by its refusal to put audiences on their heels." John Defore writing for the Hollywood Reporter wrote that "the pic may be missing that certain something that would have made it huge in theaters" but that it is entertaining on Amazon stream anyway and praised Chris Pratt's acting. IGN criticized then described the movie as "Supremely stupid sci-fi", and further stated that Chris Pratt flounders in the movie.
Martin Thomas of Double Toasted felt that while the film succeeded in dealing with the character's situations, he added the entire third act completely became comical and disrupted the tone of the film. He further noted that the film was a "ripoff" of Independence Day and borrowed many similar beats. By coincidence, he had checked out a book called The Forever War which also had a very similar premise, despite the film not being based on it.
== Sequel ==
In July 2021, Deadline Hollywood reported Skydance and Amazon were in talks about producing a sequel, with director Chris McKay, screenwriter Zach Dean, and stars Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, Betty Gilpin, Sam Richardson, Edwin Hodge, and J.K. Simmons all returning.
==References==
==External links==
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Category:2021 films
Category:2020s films
Category:American films
Category:Skydance Media films
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Category:Films shot in Atlanta
Category:Films shot in Iceland
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Category:2021 American war films
Category:2021 American films