Yet another solid release from Amazon Studios, The Tomorrow War starring Chris Pratt tells the story of a warning from thirty years in the future about a war humanity is losing to a ruthless and powerful enemy. Recruits from the past are needed to fight mankind’s last battle in the future. [Spoiler alert]
Dan Forester (Pratt) is drafted and sent forward in time, where he helps his now-grown daughter (Yvonne Strahovski) discover a toxin that will eliminate the creatures. Unfortunately, the toxin is discovered too late and the last outpost of mankind falls as Forester is pulled back to the present. Or the past, or whatever we’re supposed to do with that. (Time travel can be confusing–and is often a sloppy plot device, though I’ll admit it’s used well in The Tomorrow War.) Before returning to the past, Forester’s daughter had told him of a future where he failed at his job, abandoned his family, and ended his life in a tragic accident.
On arrival back in the past, Forester takes the toxin to the place from which the creatures had emerged (an ancient UFO crash-site trapped in a glacier) and manages to kill them, averting the destruction of humanity in the future. He then resolves to reform his life and avoid the tragedy his daughter had warned him about.
The Tomorrow War is a just a fun movie, clearly aware of its debt to similar films like Jurassic Park (or, you know, Pratt’s Jurassic World) as well as both other time-travelling-hero movies and end-of-the-world-by-aliens movies. The action and special effects are well done, and the balance of serious and humorous is fairly well maintained.
It’s also a movie that we as Christians can resonate with. We too know that there’s a catastrophe coming for the human race, and that now is the time to prepare. We know that the end of man will arrive in judgment and fire, and that our way out is not after that judgment has arrived but is now through repentance for our sins and faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Obviously we don’t want to read that too much into this movie and run the risk of destroying its entertainment value (I’ll leave that particular activity to film classes). Instead, just enjoy this film for the fun action flick it is.
Dr. Coyle Neal is co-host of the City of Man Podcast and an Associate Professor of Political Science at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO
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