“The Tomorrow War” is a fun ride with some heart behind it
by Mark R. Whittington
“The Tomorrow War,” starring Chris Pratt as an everyman high school science teacher and military veteran who is thrust into a future war against alien invaders, recently became available on Amazon Prime. On one level it is an explosion and gun fire-laden action movie of the sort we see too little of in these woke times. On another level, the movie has some lessons to impart about the primacy of family above all in modern life.
“The Tomorrow War” starts when Pratt’s character, his family, and a group of friends are having a watch party for World Cup Soccer, an eccentric thing for Americans to do, when the game is interrupted by a group of heavily armed time travelers with an alarming message. 20 years from now, aliens have invaded the Earth. The invaders are on the verge of wiping out the human race. The people from the future need people from the present to enlist in the war and start driving back the aliens.
Pratt’s character is, at first, a reluctant hero. He has seen what war is like while in Iraq and wants no part of it. The fact that the soldiers from the present tend to get killed very quickly and those who do make it back alive are worst for wear solidifies his reluctance. However, he finds a reason for stepping up, involving making the future safe for his young daughter. Pratt’s character also winds up reconnecting with his estranged father, played by the incomparable J. K. Simmons.
“The Tomorrow War” is thankfully almost completely free of political subtext. To be sure a slight reference to climate change appears as part of the plot, but it is fleeting. An anti-war movement appears in the present that seems rather odd. Who would oppose a war against an enemy that wants to kill everybody?
To be sure, too close an examination of “The Tomorrow War” will yield flaws in its premise. A more sensible approach that the future time travelers might have used, besides recruiting fresh alien fodder, would be to get the present scientists to start developing weapons to kill the invaders. They would range from small arms that could penetrate their thick hides to poison gas.
Aside from such nit-picking, the resolution of “The Tomorrow War” is very exciting and satisfying. It would have elicited standing ovations if it had been released in movie theaters in more ordinary times.
Chris Pratt has solidified his status as an everyman action hero once occupied by Tom Hanks or Bruce Willis before those gentlemen aged out of such roles. He winds up doing the right thing and looks great doing it. “The Tomorrow War” is definitely worth a look.
