When The Tomorrow War begins, Dan Forester seems like
just your average family man, wishing he were doing something
more exciting with his life.
But after he’s forced to time-travel into the future
to stop terrifying aliens from wiping out the human species,
he understands that there’s nothing more important than family,
and the simple drive to do right by our loved ones
can make heroes of us all.
This is the Takeaway, a series brought to you
by the Take, where we break down
the endings of your favorite films and TV shows,
to get at their deeper meanings and messages.
In this episode, we’re taking a look at
The Tomorrow War, an invasion thriller
with a twist: this time,
the threat that’s invading us is the future.
"We are fighting a war 30 years in the future."
Spoilers are coming, so if you haven’t yet,
go watch the Tomorrow War on Amazon Prime Video
and come back to this video to find out what it all meant.
In the years 2022 - 2023, soldiers are traveling 30 years
into the future to fight the vicious invading aliens,
the White Spikes, in The Tomorrow War,
but they’re losing, badly.
"30% of draftees return… they suffer so much post-trauma
they can barely talk."
When Dan is drafted, he teams up in 2053
with his brilliant grown-up daughter Muri,
who brought him there to transport a special toxin
back to his present time.
"If this toxin works, I need you to take it back."
She’s realized the only hope is to kill the White Spikes
before they have a chance to take over the planet.
"You have the resources and ability to mass produce
this in your time, and then you can stop this war
from ever happening."
Before he starts his tour, Dan learns that he’ll be dead
in that future time,
"It says that I die?
In… seven years?"
which turns out to be a prerequisite for fighting
in the Tomorrow War; people can’t travel to a time
when they’re already alive.
"That’s why the people training us are so young."
"They haven’t been born yet."
In the 2050s, time travel technology
is still pretty rough,
"It’s held together with chewing gum and chicken wire…
if we weren’t in an extinction level event,
we would still be jumping lab rats."
--only possible between these two specific points of time.
"Time is like a river flowing in one steady direction
and this jump link places two rafts
on that river of time."
"Now, we can jump back and forth between them,
but both rafts will always keep moving forwards."
Almost as disturbing to Dan as the impending apocalypse
is the revelation that -- in the timeline,
Adult Muri has lived (his future) --
Dan abandoned his family.
"I know for a fact I would never leave you."
"Yeah, that’s what I thought."
Now, Dan tries to do right by Muri and her mission to save humankind,
but this requires going against all his fatherly impulses
and leaving her there to die.
"Believe me, I’ve thought of everything,
and this is the only way."
Dan brings the toxin back to 2023,
"The green vile, where is it?"
"It- It’s in your hand."
just as Muri dies and the human race
is wiped out, at which point the ability
to time travel between present-day and future ceases.
"The jump link just went offline, we can’t send anything back."
Dan still has to figure out how to use the toxin
to kill the aliens whenever they show up,
"Now I’ve got a solution, and no way to use it."
and his wife Emmy offers the key insight.
"Just because they attacked in 2048 doesn’t mean
that’s when they got here..."
"We’re looking at the wrong year."
Suspecting the White Spikes may already be there,
Dan takes the White Spike claw that Dorian kept as a souvenir,
"You still got that claw?"
to their friend Charlie’s lab, where they find it contains
traces of Chinese volcanic ash.
"So how does Chinese volcanic ash end up on an island
in northern Russia?"
After a little assistance from Dan’s volcano-obsessed
student Martin,
"The lives of every man, woman, and child
on this planet could be saved if we just get the answer
to one question, and it’s all about volcanoes."
"I knew this would happen."
they realize that the aliens in fact landed
thousands of years ago in present-day Russia
and have been submerged in ash and ice
"They would have to dig through a thousand years of ice."
"They didn’t dig down, they dug up..."
"They’ve been here the whole time."
Due to global warming, they will finally thaw out
in 2048.
"They didn’t wait it out.
They thawed out."
With society in chaos and the government
offering no help,
"We’ll be lucky if we don’t kill each other off
long before the aliens get here."
"Well, I hate to say I told you so,
but people just hate spending money on research."
Dan follows his daughter's example
and overcomes his distrust of his own father,
calling on his off-the-grid dad,
"A Masters degree in engineering,
and a general disdain for the U.S. government,
not to mention no visible means of income..."
to fly them to Russia under the radar.
"They say kids never come by unless they need something."
Their motley crew (that also includes Charlie,
Dorian, Lieutenant Hart, and the other young soldiers
from the future who got trapped in the present),
"We made as much of the toxin as we could,
hope it’s enough."
land in Russia, blast down through the ice,
and find the site where the alien ship is buried.
They come to the conclusion that these aliens are a weapon:
"They're cargo..."
"Or weapons.
Planet clearing weapons..."
"Who’s to say Earth was their target?"
-- but it’s unknown who this third party is
that sent them so long ago.
"Didn't matter, when we’re done with them
it’ll be like they were never here at all."
Along with Dorian, Hart and her
fellow future-soldiers sacrifice themselves
to blow up the aliens,
"I’ll hold them up!
Blow the ship!"
thus avoiding the paradox of existing already
when they’re born in the future.
This leaves Dan, his dad,
and Charlie to fight the female
who’s escaped the nest,
"Surprise... dumbass."
and who -- as Dan learned from Muri --
is the key threat to eliminate, because she can perpetuate
her species.
"We better go get her, before she lays an egg
or whatever the hell they do."
They, at last, destroy the female White Spike
with the toxin, and she falls to her death
in a shot that mirrors Muri’s fall earlier in the film
-- visually reminding us that Dan has succeeded
in helping Muri and all of humankind avoid
that monstrous tomorrow.
"I never told her about our seven days together,
or how in a future that will never happen,
she changed me."
So, what are the takeaways in all this?
According to director Chris McKay;
"Our intention was to blend It’s A Wonderful Life
with sci-fi."
Like George Bailey in that movie classic,
Dan has to be shaken out of his rut in order to understand
just how wonderful his life truly is.
At the beginning of their movies, both men are not feeling
the spirit of their Christmas season as they dwell on what they don’t have.
High-school science teacher Dan has just found out he didn’t
get the job of his dreams,
"This is real work in an actual lab.
It’s my dream!"
and despite his happy marriage and adorable young daughter,
he can’t shake the feeling that he’s not fulfilling
his potential.
"I am meant to do something special with my life."
When we meet Muri in the future timeline,
we find out that this seemingly devoted family man
eventually allowed his discontent to consume him.
"You never seemed happy with your life."
He gave up his family,
"You left us..."
and eventually lost his life in a car accident
(whose cause isn’t specified but feels like it’s a result
of his living self-destructively or could even be intentional).
"And then on my 16th... we got a call from the hospital."
This alternate-timeline death, too, is a nod to It’s a Wonderful Life,
which centers on George Bailey contemplating if his life
isn’t worth living.
When -- like Dan -- he’s shown a reality where
his family is worse off because he doesn’t exist,
it’s this vision that makes him appreciate how rich he is
in the wealth that matters.
"To my big brother George, the richest man in town."
Similarly, Dan gets the rare opportunity of insight
into how his actions will make an imprint on the future
-- most saliently, through his daughter.
"I wanted you to see me, I wanted you to hear me,
I wanted you to fix it."
At the beginning, when Dan implies
he’s destined for greatness, he thinks that means
having a great career.
"You know what it takes to be the best?
You gotta say to yourself 'I will do-'
-you have to think this-
'-what nobody else is willing to do."
But the movie charts his realization that
winning the trust of his family is the great thing.
"I am asking you to do what no one else is willing to do."
In Christmas of 2022, Dan has to be consoled
by his little girl,
"Everything’s gonna be OK Dad."
and remarks that it should be the other way around.
"Although I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be me
telling you that."
But in the future we again see his daughter saving him.
He has to listen to Muri,
"I need you to do exactly what I say."
and have faith in her plan to save the world.
"You gotta leave me."
So the deeper lesson is that we have to trust
our kids’ wisdom and let them lead us.
The movie also reminds us this trust needs to
extend backward to our parents and previous generations
-- an idea that’s visually underlined through mirroring scenes
of Dan shooting at the White Spikes back-to-back with both his Dad
and his daughter.
And while in the present-day timeline, young Muri doesn’t want her dad
to go and fight,
"Don’t let them take you, please don’t let them take you."
"It's okay.
It's okay.
Deep breaths right daddy?"
he’s going because adult Muri is asking him to come
to fight with her,
"I brought you here for a reason."
-- a reminder that the need for parental guidance
and familial trust never goes away."
"You need to make sure this never happens.
I love you dad."
One of The Tomorrow War’s big takeaways is that,
even when problems seem unsolvable,
we have to press through for our partners,
parents, and children.
And that selfless devotion to family can make us
capable even of the most impossibly heroic deeds.
"I'm just trying to save my daughter.
If I gotta save the world to save her
then I'm damn sure going to do it."
Moreover, as a society facing enormous dangers,
the desire to protect all of our families
can bond us together.
"For the first time in human history,
the armed forces from every nation
are united against one enemy.
You won’t be fighting
for your country; you’ll be fighting for the world."
The film ends as Dan is dragging the trash can
up his driveway: an everyday act
in an average family home.
While someone else takes credit for his successful mission on TV,
"As soon as I heard that the White Spikes
might already be here, my actions were swift
and decisive."
Dan has realized that glory doesn’t bring satisfaction,
and he focuses instead on what he now knows
is really important.
"I’ll never leave this family, because my best future,
it turns out, was always right in front of me."
The Tomorrow War replaces the threats of a faceless,
distant future with something that affects us
much more acutely: our own families
-- our children -- in imminent danger.
"It was a cry for help across time,
it was the voice of your children."
Putting a loved one’s face on the people
who will have to suffer future apocalyptic threats,
"Are you saying you literally, physically saw our daughter?"
suddenly makes those dangers all the more tangible
and emotionally urgent.
"We are you.
We need you.
Our fathers, mothers, and grandparents."
Dan has to go back to the present to defeat the aliens
before the problem gets insurmountable
-- and the symbolism of this is that we, too,
need to tackle tomorrow’s problems today.
The Tomorrow War directly underlines the threat
of climate change -- it’s the reason the aliens
are able to escape from the ice.
"Martin, can you bring up an ice melt projection for Russia?"
The problems that come with climate change can sound distant,
"So you’re telling me all of this is melting in 30 years?"
but as the movie drives home, it’s our own beloved children
who will be hurting from the effects of our inaction.
"This is the end.
The human species will disappear
from the face of the earth..."
The Tomorrow War also reflects our present-day temptation
to despair that future threats seem insurmountable
and thus pointless to try to change.
"What’s the point?
School, grades, college?
It’s all bullshit."
"Yeah.
We’ve seen the new number of projections.
We lose."
But here we’re encouraged to face the harsh reality
while we’re still in that crucial window during which
we can influence the outcome.
"One degree is the difference between ice and water."
Each of the central characters in the story shows
how it’s possible to take control
of your own destiny.
"We need a plane and a pilot willing to commit
an international felony."
The character of Dorian initially seems jaded
and even hopeless.
He’s repeatedly served in tours in the future
-- but we learn this is because he decided to face death
on his terms.
"I’ll be dead in six months.
Cancer.
So here’s what I’m gonna do.
I’m gonna keep living my life.
Rather die here, than a slow death back home."
In this way, Dorian’s life and death represent
a microcosm of the wider story: he understands that we can’t
just let bad things happen to us; we have to confront them head-on.
"I’m gonna die.
I’m gonna die my way!"
Future Muri likewise has the vision to grasp that,
even when we feel like we don’t have any options,
we can still take control in the most important ways.
"She was gonna save the world."
The film sends the inspirational reminder
that if we all work together
-, dads, moms, sons, and daughters -
and look at things from different angles,
combining our unique perspectives
- we can solve anything, just as long as we start now.
"We’re gonna figure this out together."
The Tomorrow War follows in the footsteps of
a long legacy of invasion movies, going back to the classic
The War of the Worlds.
"It did not occur to mankind the swift fate that might be
hanging over us."
Both films feature violent aliens with frighteningly inhuman desires.
"They have no use for prisoners, or government,
technology, money, nothing.
We are food.
And they are hungry."
Their two protagonists even share a name
- Forester - and a profession
-- scientist.
And crucially, both movies put their faith
in science’s ability
to protect us.
"Our best hope lies in what you people can develop
to help us."
The heroes of The Tomorrow War are not just soldiers,
but driven academics,
"I have a PhD in biotechnology."
nerdy researchers,
"When I’m nervous, I talk, and on a,
on a, on a, like a scale of 1-10,
I’m like a 90- 97."
and that geeky know-it-all in your science class.
"Volcanoes are nature’s fury, guys."
Science is celebrated in the Tomorrow War
to drive home the message that our best tools for overcoming
existential threats to humankind are knowledge, technology,
and innovation.
The Tomorrow War’s entire plot hinges on second chances.
"I feel like this is my opportunity to give her, give this world,
a second chance.
Second chances are
really hard to come by."
Adult Muri gives her dad another chance to be there for her.
"Why me?"
"Because you’re my father.
And there’s no one that
I want to trust more."
By taking it, Dan, in turn,
gives adult Muri a second chance to see her dad
as she always wanted to remember him,
"I am so happy I got to see you like this,
how you were when I was a kid.
This is how I remember you."
while giving child Muri a second chance at living
a full life."
Dan’s being given his do-over enables him to rethink his anger
toward his own father.
"You’re never gonna know Muri, you don’t get a second chance."
His dad has told him about how his experiences
in the Vietnam War made him unrecognizable to himself.
"When I got back from Nam, I was in a very dark place...
it would’ve been worse for you and your mom if I had stayed."
But because Dan refuses to understand and runs away
from his dad’s experience,
"You quit because you’re a coward."
in the initial timeline, he ends up repeating
his dad’s mistakes.
After Muri tells him about a future in which he doesn’t
recognize himself either, Dan is capable of more forgiveness
toward his father -- who ends up being the only person
who can help him.
"I need your help."
"I’ll get my coat."
Charlie gets his second chance to be a hero after hiding
during his deployment to the future,
"Cause this time, I’m not gonna hide.
I’m gonna fight."
and of course, the world at large
gets another shot at a future.
All of these second chances show us there's no shame
in asking for, or extending,
forgiveness.
People do change -- and the redemptive impulse
to make things right can be one of
the strongest drives for making our future world
a better place.
"I'm sorry, son.
I’m so sorry for everything."
In the end, The Tomorrow War reminds us
that keeping loved ones safe, happy, and together
is an action-hero-level achievement in itself;
that we must work together to make a better world
for all of our children;
and that -- perhaps hardest of all --
we have to trust that they know
what they’re doing, as our future is in their hands.
"I need you to do exactly what I say,
when I say, how I say it.
You understand?
I have to protect you."
So what do you think of Tomorrow War?
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