“white spikes,” as the voracious invaders are
called, they need help from past. They need to
send fresh recruits to the battle through a time
link that only goes back and forth from the
present to three decades ahead.
Plenty of international rancor and television-
news debate follows. This is their war, not
ours, some claim. In the foretold, near-future
apocalypse there are clear echoes with today’s
existential distress over climate change. It’s a
backdrop for countless — maybe all — disaster
movies of the last few decades. But “The
Tomorrow War” cleverly couches its planetary
metaphor in sci-fi action that culminates,
ultimately, in the icy north.
Forester is drafted, implanted with a digital
arm band that allows him through the portal.
So desperate is the fight that the recruits are
both trained military and wide-eyed civilians.
His going off to war is portrayed with heartfelt
emotion and a sincere sense of sacrifice. In
Forester’s father (J.K. Simmons), a Vietnam
veteran who couldn’t readjust to family life
after, the toll of soldiering is connected through
generations. In the “tomorrow war,” only 30%
return, Emmy says, and most that do are a shell
of themselves. “The Tomorrow War” spends most
of its time in the future, but its central theme is
timeless: the replayed tragedy that sometimes
you don’t come home the same from war.
The mix of civilians seems also intended to
bring in some funnier folks to the fight. That
includes Mary Lynn Rajskub but especially
Sam Richardson, who immediately befriends
Forester with his nonstop, anxiety-induced,
deadpan prattle. Richardson, a veteran of “Veep,”