Extraterrestrial mindless, animalistic killing machines will have killed 99.993% of the earth’s population in thirty years. The remaining 500,000 people send an SOS back through time and recruit people from our present to fight in their war. They are, after all, in their future predicament because of the present’s poor choices.
This month, Eve and I take on Amazon Prime’s The Tomorrow War.
It tells the story of Dan Forester, a U. S. Army Special Forces veteran who pursued a career in scientific research upon leaving the service. To make ends meet at some point, he took a job as a high school science teacher. Unfortunately, the longer he stayed in that position, the more difficult it was for him to get a research position with a significant company. This convinces Dan that he is not making a real difference in the world. Finally, Dan finds himself thrust back into his old military life when a remnant of humanity from the future appears and requests reinforcements from the world’s leaders. Along the way, however, he learns that the difference he has already made in the world is genuine indeed.
The Tomorrow War stars Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, and J.K. Simmons. Chris McKay directs it with music by Lorne Balfe. The Tomorrow War shows how the pandemic continues to topple certain movie truths that have stood the test time up until now. As a straight-to-streaming-video release, you might think that the production or quality of the film has suffered from a lack of budget or attention, but that is not the case. All the big-screen production values are firmly in place with The Tomorrow War. The CGI effects are every bit as impressive as what you see coming out of Marvel Studios. The acting is superb on all levels, with Pratt and Simmons bringing their A-game to the job. And the music by Lorne Balfe is on par with the big summer blockbusters in the theater.
The only place where The Tomorrow War suffers is the writing, but not how you might think.
First Impressions
The Tomorrow War is a little weird because it’s a good movie that we both enjoyed—our first time through. However, we both found that we were bothered more by the less obvious stuff on our second and third, more critical-thinking-oriented viewings. For Eve, that was an underlying agenda of condemnation for our generations’ environmental sins, in the vein of Greta Thunberg. For me, the problem was more the moral implications of the movie’s suppositions about the time travel paradoxes. For example, did the world governments conspire with a future force to murder as many as three billion people?
Even with these concerns, though, the movie is well done. It’s got an outstanding balance of heartfelt character development and action. In addition, I liked the redemptive arc of the two main characters to their PTSD.
The Tomorrow War did have me wondering about how much suspension of disbelief is justifiable. In the end, it’s okay to suspend our disbelief for enjoyment, but not so far as to sacrifice our principles and accept the Hollywood filmmaker’s agendas.
There is some foul language in The Tomorrow War. One character repeats the s-word about two dozen times in a row. Still, they seem to have toed the line of the PG-13 movie.
The Sin of Sloth
The core plot in The Tomorrow War is that thirty years in the future, humanity is losing a war against an alien threat. This future remnant of humanity somehow gains the ability to create a bridge from their time to our present. They ask our present leaders to allow “qualified” individuals to cross their time bridge and fight in this future war for seven days. To be qualified, these future soldiers cannot still be alive in the time to which they are jumping. At first, they only send actual military men and women. After seven days, only 25% of these modern warriors returned alive, and the majority of the returned are damaged physically and mentally. Finally, when the world ran out of qualified military personnel, they started to send civilians.
The one group we see jump to the future is sent a week early, directly into an alien attack on a research facility. However, what we see of their enlistment suggests that the training they get is laughable at best. There is no physical conditioning, and equipment issue is spotty:
See, I don’t get the criteria for, like, what goes and what stays. Like, they took my shorts, they left the jacket, which is clearly, like, fashion over function. My man over there is wearing a chef’s hat. I mean, I didn’t get this… This isn’t military issue. I bought this at Ross Dress for Less for like $30 ’cause I thought it was gonna be cold in the van.
So, for this story, they are sending untrained men and women into a combat zone so deadly that no modern military would even consider it.
In the future, the only three types of military vehicles we see are humvees, helicopters, and F22 fighter jets. This is 30 years from today. Thirty years ago, the United States Army was still phasing out Willey’s jeeps to favor the humvee. Today, the humvee is being replaced by the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV). But for some reason, 30 years from now, they have gone BACK to 60-year-old technology in combat vehicles?
Someone did not do the work to think this through. I don’t know if the writers intentionally wrote the story to make the people from the future more liable for the deaths of all these people or if the writers of The Tomorrow War didn’t want to do the work to fix this glaring problem. As it stands, the people from the future and the world leaders of the present are guilty of the literal murder of hundreds of thousands of people.
When the writing has such glaring holes, are the filmmakers good stewards of the audience’s expectations? We are investing our time at a minimum. We are spending not insignificant amounts of money to view a film on the big screen for theatrical releases. This put me in mind of my favorite scripture on stewardship.
His master replied to him, ‘You evil, lazy servant! If you knew that I reap where I haven’t sown and gather where I haven’t scattered, then you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and I would have received my money back with interest when I returned. – Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-(26-27)-28)
Just like the scared steward, these filmmakers aren’t risking anything, so they aren’t giving us anything that we’ve not seen before. But we’re accepting it because that is what we’ve come to expect. What if we started holding Hollywood to the higher standard that the master in the Parable of the Talents uses? We’d get some bombs, sure, but maybe they take some movies like this one that could have been just popcorn-munching movies and turn them into true masterworks.
Climate Change Sins
No modern science fiction movie would be complete without hammering on the liberal talking point of climate change. For Eve, this was a bothersome point. The movie makes it a point to say that the alien infestation happens because of climate change—specifically, melting ice caps. According to the story, an alien craft crashed on earth during some past ice age and froze into the permafrost. Jump forward to the start of The Tomorrow War, and it’s revealed that man-made climate change has caused the permafrost to melt so far as to thaw out the alien threat.
Of course, we all have a responsibility to be proper stewards of the earth.
The LORD God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it. (Genesis 2:15)
That imperative of stewardship, though, does not mean that we should worship the planet. This constant barrage of environmental rhetoric casts aside the concept of an active, divine creator and encourages the worship of the created. Secular humanism calls us to either worship the earth and serve it as a master or worship humankind and all he is capable of.
The Tomorrow War also seems to set up the innocence of [Muri’s] youth as the condemnation of past generations’ sins, in a recurring accusation from Hollywood that our generation, and parents and grandparents’ generations have been blind to things that are so obvious a child could see them. This is frequently coupled with the idea that our own greed and hubris blind us but that the current generation is clear-sighted and free from these corrupting influences. Muri does, after all, go on to save humanity. But the fantasy of the younger generation that they will not fall to the same mistakes as their progenitors is proven time and time again to be nothing more than a pipe dream. The only true advancement we see in a global society is when a people embrace the values God laid out for his people back on Mount Sinai.
A Father’s Sins
A good redemption arc will always please me, and the arc included in The Tomorrow War is no exception. The inclusion of the dual storylines of Dan’s relationship with his father and how “future” Dan pulls away from Muri is the emotional core of the movie. In addition, it focuses on how the post-traumatic stress disorder that many soldiers suffer from after serving in combat can take a loving family and eat it away from the inside. The movie doesn’t end with the elimination of the alien threat but with the reconciliation of Dan and his dad and the promise that the “future” Dan will not abandon his family.
Much of The Tomorrow War is built around the idea that the future is paying for the sins of their fathers’ (and grandfathers’) generations. That got us thinking about how the Bible actually addresses the idea of culpability for our predecessor’s sins. If you don’t read carefully, the Bible can even seem a little contradictory. When giving the ten commandments, God says,
You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Deuteronomy 5:8-10) and (Exodus 20:4-6) [emphasis mine]
But the law makes it clear that only God has the authority to hold past and future generations accountable because only God knows His will.
Fathers are not to be put to death for their children, and children are not to be put to death for their fathers; each person will be put to death for his own sin. (Deuteronomy 24:16)
The word of the Lord came to me: “What do you mean by using this proverb concerning the land of Israel: ‘The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? As I live”—this is the declaration of the Lord God—“you will no longer use this proverb in Israel. Look, every life belongs to me. The life of the father is like the life of the son—both belong to me. The person who sins is the one who will die. (Ezekiel 18:1-4)
As he was passing by, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him. (John 9:1-3)
A Future without Hope
In The Tomorrow War, before Dan is conscripted, there is a scene where he is trying to teach his high school science class, and they are all depressed and uninterested. When Dan asks them what’s wrong, they respond:
“What’s the point?”
“What’s the point of what?”
“Anything. School, grades, college… it’s all [BS].”
“Yeah. We’ve seen the new number projections. We lose, period. The aliens kill us all.”
“Those are numbers from the year 2051. That’s 30 years from now.”
“So? They’re taking thousands of people every week. My uncle, Tina’s mom. They’re gone, man.”
“Listen, guys. I know it seems pretty bad. But if there’s one thing that the world needs right now, it’s scientists. We cannot stop innovating. That’s how you solve a problem. Science is important. So we need to focus up.”
It is true that, even when things appear hopeless, we cannot give up hope. It is even true that we should never stop working towards solutions for our problems. What is not true is that humanity and its ability to innovate should not be the source of our hope.
We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14)
Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do what is good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and willing to share, storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of what is truly life. Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding irreverent and empty speech and contradictions from what is falsely called knowledge. By professing it, some people have departed from the faith. (1 Timothy 6:17-21)
Even when facing certain death, say, thirty years from now, we don’t need to lose hope. Not only is death not the end, but our hope rests in Christ Jesus and the salvation He acquired for us on the cross. The passage from Timothy is particularly applicable to today’s youth, just as it was in Paul’s time. It’s easier when you are young to fall into these traps. No matter what we face, our strength is in the LORD.
Youths may become faint and weary, and young men stumble and fall, but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not become weary, they will walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:30-31)
When people see that we have something that they don’t—when we are the only kid in the classroom who isn’t all doom and depression, we should be ready to explain why:
but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. (1 Peter 3:15)
Hearing but not listening
There are several places in The Tomorrow War where elder Muri tells Dan not that he will WIN the war, but he is going to PREVENT the war. Despite this repeated statement, all Dan was hearing is that he would save his daughter and win the war. This is so similar to the apostles who often didn’t truly hear what Jesus was saying.
Listener Input
Peter Townsend
A reasonable film, there are a few unanswered questions by the end of it, and certain paradoxes as well, but that always happens with that type of film. A few questions come to mind.
1. Is it just to enter a war and attack people who haven’t attacked you yet? …. I would argue that the White Spikes only attacked first in the future. The people drafted into the army from the present hadn’t been attacked. Also, the film ended with a (going back in time and killing baby Hitler idea).
2. Are the White Spikes actually supposed to be the ‘Good guys’? If the human population is too large and we are destroying the planet, perhaps the invasion is nature’s way of rebalancing and providing time for the planet to recover. Perhaps the Forester’s made everything worse by keeping humanity alive! (Not my view, but I can imagine people actually arguing for this).
David Lefton
Saw it, and it was OK, some original ideas but mostly rehashes of many movies and books: Ender’s Game, War of the Worlds, The Terminator. I was hoping for more future tech like AI-powered drones and weapons, which are already here in infancy. Theologically maybe it relates to fate/destiny versus free will again but been down that rabbit hole before.
Spoiler below: There is sacrifice the child made to save the world so some semblance of Christ, but the father did not willingly give the child up.
Conclusion
In the end, The Tomorrow War comes across as the standard mindless Hollywood fare that we see so much of. Paul Byrnes of the Sydney Morning Herald has a perfect line in his review:
Luckily, logic and plot don’t matter in a BLAST movie. You know this kind of film, something so Big, Loud, And STupid that you turn off the cognitive engine and float along on the sensations, enjoying the sights and sounds like the cast battles the latest brand of CG alien.
But when you watch it critically, you see that even this big, loud, and stupid movie has an agenda. But it also has a redeeming emotional foundation, and you know me—I’m a sucker for a redemption arc.
Please support the podcast!
Are You Just Watching? is listener supported. Special thanks to our current patrons: Isaias Santillano, Craig Hardee, Stephen Brown II, David Lefton, and Peter Chapman for their generous support. We can't continue to share critical thinking for the entertained Christian without your financial help, so please head on over to our Patreon page and become one of our supporting patrons!
Share your feedback!
What did you think of The Tomorrow War? We would like to know, even if just your reactions to the trailer or the topics we shared in this episode. Or what general critical-thinking and entertainment thoughts or questions do you have? Would you like to suggest a movie or TV show for us to give a Christian movie review with critical thinking?
- Comment on the shownotes
- Call (513) 818-2959 to leave a voicemail
- Email feedback@AreYouJustWatching.com (audio files welcome)
- Join our Facebook discussion group.
