Chris Pratt is no stranger to taking on movie roles where picking up a big gun and shooting at massive monsters is just an average Tuesday. While most fans of Pratt will either remember him from his role as Star-Lord, the reluctant and comedic leader of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, or as dinosaur-handler Owen Grady in the Jurassic World franchise, there’s another underrated sci-fi film where Pratt shone brightly, while also shooting lots of terrifying, otherworldly creatures. And it’s free to stream this month.
Skydance and Paramount Pictures’ The Tomorrow War (directed by Chris McKay of The Lego Batman Movie fame) first debuted on Prime Video in 2021, exciting science fiction fans with a premise that combined time-travel with terrifying and parasitic aliens. It was a formula that was already proven popular with Tom Cruise’s 2014 sci-fi extravaganza, Edge of Tomorrow, and why fix what ain’t broke?
In The Tomorrow War, humanity is forever shaken when soldiers from the year 2051 arrive to deliver a foreboding message: In less than 30 years, humanity will be on the brink of extinction due to alien invaders known as the White Spikes. The only hope is for the humans of 2022 to travel into the future via a janky time machine and help fight back.
Pratt plays Dan, a biology teacher and former soldier who served two tours in Iraq. Dan soon gets drafted to travel into the future and complete a seven-day tour against the creatures. He leaves behind his wife, Emmy (Betty Gilpin), as well as his daughter (Skeleton Crew’s Ryan Kiera Armstrong), and barely escapes his first mission against the vicious White Spikes. The first meeting of man and alien is a class act in suspense. Due to McKay’s choice to hide what these creatures look like from both Pratt and the audience right up until a bloodbath ensues, we’re left to gape in horror when they finally appear.
Time is often a key factor in sci-fi films. Whether it’s going back in time or being propelled decades into the future, the loss of time features prominently to show serious repercussions — from the loss of a relationship to the destruction of the human race as we know it. Unlike Cruise in Edge of Tomorrow, whose knowledge of the alien invaders grows after each and every death he experiences, Pratt’s character Dan is forced to reckon with how much he’s missed in this dystopian future. While finding a way to stop the White Spikes from taking over the Earth is the A-plot of the film, it’s Dan’s relationship with his daughter Muri (whose older self is played to perfection by The Handmaid’s Tale actor Yvonne Strahovski) and what his absence in her life did to their relationship that serves as the heart of The Tomorrow War.
In fact, for all its catnip for sci-fi fans, The Tomorrow War is also undeniably a family-friendly movie, with familial relationships playing a significant role in its narrative. Dan’s hurt at leaving his family behind to go to the future stems from the strained relationship he shares with his father (J. K. Simmons), who abandoned him and his mother when Dan was young. Even the monstrous White Spikes are portrayed as a family unit, hunting their human prey like insectoid packs of wolves. Beyond the personal relationships of the characters and creatures, the reason repeatedly given in The Tomorrow War for why everyone is drafted is to fight for the children of the future.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty in The Tomorrow War for viewers who want to experience adrenaline-pumping action, raw firefights, and guttural alien destruction. Pratt’s ability to swing from a concerned father and lovable husband to an intense, focused soldier is charming to watch. Even at the character’s most frustrating moments — which are unfortunately exacerbated by a few admittedly nonsensical writing choices that make the latter half of the film slow to a crawl — Pratt is a steady presence that keeps it from going off the rails completely.
If you’re looking for something that subverts the average classic blue-collar American goes to war and fights aliens story, The Tomorrow War ain’t it. However, the film’s mesmerizing scope and spectacle (thanks to an eye-popping $200 million budget) make it a fun and sentimental watch for all the family — even if you’re squeamish about human-eating aliens.
The Tomorrow War is available to stream for free via Tubi.