The Tomorrow War

Available on Amazon Prime Video.

Directed by Chris McKay, written by Zach Dean is this sci-fi action adventure. Chris Pratt is Dan Forester an army veteran now a frustrated science teacher. In December 2022 the Qatar World Cup final is interrupted when a brigade of soldiers from the future materialise in the middle of the game to share with the global audience that in 2051 humanity is under attack from an alien race and on the verge of extinction. Now they need conscripts from the past to be transported to the future and help save humanity. Dan, desperate for more meaning in his life, takes his conscription call as a chance to do his part to make sure there is a world for his daughter to inherit.

Firstly, I’d be lying to say there isn’t fun to be had here, Chris Pratt is an enjoyable screen presence doing the humorous action hero that he does so well. There’s some especially great scenes with the always fantastic JK Simmons as his estranged father. Sam Richardson (Charlie) and Yvonne Strahovski (Muri) also offer good support.

It also more than delivers on the blockbuster bangy crashy action sequences and some edge of your seat stuff as the small remaining band of humanity try to survive the relentless “white spikes”.

But, when you watch sci-fi, especially with time-travel, you need to be able to suspend your disbelief. To do that it needs the plot holes to be small enough to overlook. Sadly that is not what happened here. This is partly due to its overly long 138 minutes running time. It feels like the writers found a workable end and then decided, “what if we just did this other thing” and it’s that other thing that was just too ridiculous and banging head against wall inducing to ignore.

The Tomorrow War is a big crashy bangy sci-fi blockbuster and there is enjoyment to be had for 2/3rds of it, but the nonsense plot holes in the final act are very hard to ignore and spoilt the enjoyable work that had gone before it. You may enjoy it but beware the holes.