Chris Pratt Travels to the Future to Fight an Alien Invasion in ‘The Tomorrow War’

Chris Pratt continues to flex his action hero muscles in “The Tomorrow War,” a military science fiction movie when he leads a group of soldiers and civilians into battle against a future invasion by deadly alien species. The movie will stream on Amazon Prime on July 2, 2021.

Pratt plays Dan Forester, a high school teacher who answers the call of duty when humans from the year 2051 time-travel back 30 years to recruit men and women to serve a humankind that’s been depleted by the war.

Amazon has just released the first teaser clip for “The Tomorrow War,” so let’s take a look.

“The Tomorrow War” was all set to be a big Christmas theatrical release in 2020 until the pandemic upended the movie business. Amazon stepped in and paid a rumored $200 million to buy the rights from Paramount.

The movie also stars J.K. Simmons (“Whiplash,” Farmers Insurance guy) as Pratt’s father and Yvonne Strahovski (“The Handmaid’s Tale”) as a scientist who teams with Pratt to devise a battle plan. Betty Gilpin (“The Hunt,” “GLOW”), Edwin Hodge (“Six,” “The Purge” movies), Sam Richardson (“Veep”) and Mary Lynn Rajskub (“24”) round out the cast.

What’s exciting about “The Tomorrow War” is that it’s a rare big-budget movie based on an original idea. There’s no comic book or novel that inspired the script, and it’s not a reboot of a moldy old title from the studio archives, just a story invented in the 21st century by screenwriter Zach Dean.

Chris McKay makes his live-action directing debut with the movie. He got his start working on the Adult Swim animated shows “Robot Chicken” and “Morel Orel” before co-directing “The Lego Movie” and directing “The Lego Batman Movie.” Will those skills translate to a big-budget military action movie? McKay’s at least an interesting choice, and outside-the-box risks are what gave us the gift of “John Wick,” so let’s call this a potential win.

Keep Up With the Best in Military Entertainment

Whether you're looking for news and entertainment, thinking of joining the military or keeping up with military life and benefits, Military.com has you covered. Subscribe to the Military.com newsletter to have military news, updates and resources delivered straight to your inbox.