The Tomorrow War

December 2022. The World Cup is playing on screens across the globe when a temporal rift tears open in the middle of a stadium. Armed soldiers from 2051 step through with a message: humanity is losing a war against an alien species called the Whitespikes, and they need people from the present to fight. Chris McKay, making his live-action directorial debut after The Lego Batman Movie, directs this $200 million sci-fi spectacle. Chris Pratt plays Dan Forester, a high school biology teacher and former soldier who gets drafted alongside a ragtag group of civilians. The cast includes Yvonne Strahovski, J.K. Simmons, and Betty Gilpin.

Originally set for theatrical release by Paramount Pictures, the film was sold to Amazon Studios during the pandemic and debuted on Prime Video in July 2021. It earned only $14 million in limited international theaters but was watched by 2.4 million U.S. households in its opening weekend, making it one of Amazon's most-streamed original films. The creature design drew praise, while critics split on the script's ambition. The film holds a 52% Tomatometer score and a 79% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. [edit]

The year is 2022. Dan Forester, a high school biology teacher and former U.S. Army soldier, lives with his wife Emmy and their young daughter Muri. He has just been rejected from a research job he desperately wanted, leaving him feeling like a failure. When soldiers from 2051 appear announcing a global draft, Dan receives his notice. He has 24 hours to say goodbye.

Emmy, a therapist who counsels returning soldiers, urges Dan to reconnect with his estranged father James, a hardened survivalist. Their meeting is tense. James refuses to help, and Dan leaves angry. The next day, Dan is transported to 2051 alongside a group of civilians including the sarcastic Charlie, the stoic Dorian, and the brash Cowan. They arrive at a war-torn research base, humanity's last stronghold.

The Whitespikes are six-limbed predators with razor-sharp appendages that climb walls and burrow through earth. They reproduce rapidly. The team is sent on a mission to retrieve scientific data from a fallen outpost. They encounter the full horror of the aliens, suffering heavy casualties. Dan's military training proves useful, but even the best fighters are overwhelmed. They discover that female Whitespikes are larger, more intelligent, and can spawn at an alarming rate.

Back at base, Dan meets Colonel Muri Forester, a brilliant scientist leading the resistance. She has developed a toxin derived from female Whitespike biochemistry that could wipe out the species, but they need a viable sample. The only way to get it is a suicidal mission into an infested zone. Dan volunteers, leading a small team into the heart of Whitespike territory. They extract the toxin and synthesize it, but the aliens overrun the base. In the chaos, Dan is sent back to 2022 with the toxin, tasked with stopping the invasion before it begins.

Back in the present, Dan realizes the Whitespikes didn't arrive by spaceship. They have been on Earth all along, frozen in glaciers. The original alien ship crashed in Russia thousands of years ago, and global warming is about to thaw them out. The first emergence will occur in 2048 in Russia's Krasnoyarsk region. Dan must assemble a team to destroy the aliens before they spread. He turns to his father James, who has survivalist knowledge and tactical skills. Together with a small military unit, they plan a preemptive strike against the frozen Whitespike nest.[edit]