"The Tomorrow War pushes the envelope with what you could do in a PG-13 movie"

Chris Pratt in The Tomorrow War — (Image credit: Amazon/Paramount)

The Tomorrow War trailer dropped yesterday, showcasing the sci-fi action film as a contender for streaming blockbuster of the summer.

Starring Chris Pratt, The Tomorrow War is a rare big-scale original, and while it was original set to have a theatrical release, it was later acquired by Amazon to debut on Prime Video in July. The concept sees soldiers from 30 years in the future time-travelling to the present day to recruit soldiers for a war that’s set to wipe out humanity three decades from now. An alien threat is causing untold destruction, so back-up is needed urgently.

Pratt’s Dan Gardner – a former military veteran turned high-school teacher is one of those called to action. His background makes him a more suitable candidate than most (the standards for conscription ain’t high).

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But while the aliens are mostly kept hidden in the trailer, director Chris McKay (making his live-action feature debut after The Lego Batman Movie) promises a boundary-stretching level of intensity. Speaking to our sister publication Total Film magazine in their latest issue, McKay says that he wanted The Tomorrow War to be “pushing the envelope with what you could do in a PG-13 movie”.

Of the creature design, McKay explains, “I wanted them to look ancient. I wanted them to look hungry: bony, skeletal…. I wanted them to look weird, where you’re a little bit repulsed but a little bit fascinated by them.”

The end result is an enemy that’s “relentless”, says McKay: “You could shoot pieces of them off, and they would still keep coming. It’s that feeling of a nightmare where it’s just like, ‘This thing is coming at me. It won’t stop.’ I wanted to feel that.”

The Tomorrow War lands on Prime Video globally on July 2. For much more on the film, check out the latest issue of Total Film – fronted by Loki – when it hits shelves and digital newsstands from Friday, May 28

Total Film's Loki cover — (Image credit: Disney/Total Film)

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Total Film's subscriber offer. — (Image credit: Total Film)

Matt Maytum is the former Editor of Total Film magazine. Over the past decade, Matt has worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.