The Tomorrow War Plot Synopsis
The Tomorrow War takes place in the near-future of 2022. Humans from 2051 venture back and confirm that in 11 months time all human beings from the future will be wiped from the face of the Earth. Fast forward 12 months. Jump Facilities have been established across the globe to send the military through to tackle the alien threat of the White Spikes. When governments run out of soldiers to send, the world hold a civilian draft. With a draftee survival rate of less than 20%, protests start across the world to oppose this, to no avail. Among those drafted next is science teacher Dan Forester, who’s tasked with stopping the alien threat no matter what.
Who are the people sent forward through time?
It turns out most people who are projected forward are over 40. In order for the time jumps to occur, those in attendance have to be dead in the time period they’re jumping to. If not, then this could cause a paradox. This explains why these young people have jumped back from 2051 to try and salvage the future. It turns out they haven’t been born yet in this timeline, ergo no paradox. According to those in charge, humanity in 2051 managed to open a wormhole linking back to this time period. The jump link works as a sort of river, with time flowing between two points. The soldiers can jump back and forth between these two time periods but can’t deviate from that.
Who is Commander Romeo?
When Dan and the gang make it to 2051, they’re immediately bombarded with instructions from Commander Romeo. She’s the one in charge of operations during this time period. As we soon come to learn, she’s actually a grown up Muri. She’s a brilliant scientist and talks about Dan walking out when she was 12. She’s in charge of the army and resistance force. She brought Dan in with one specific purpose – to take the toxin cure back to our time.
What’s in Romeo’s toxin?
The toxin that Romeo eventually concocts and sends back through time with Dan includes Chinese volcanic ash. It turns out it was blown across to Russia during the Millennium eruption back in 946AD. This volcano is situated between China and Korea, with the explosive blast so ferocious that it blew ash all the way across to Northern Russia. This means the aliens have been here since before that eruption.
Where did the aliens come from? When did they arrive?
It’s safe to assume aliens have been here for a long time. Estimates could probably place them sometime before 943AD when the volcano erupted. It’s not outside the realm of possibility that these aliens were caught in the volcanic blast and ended up under the ice where they froze to death. Quite why they came to Earth is still left up to debate. The aliens themselves are situated in Russia though, which is where the first attack began. The group make it to the glacier and use charges to uncover a rip in the ground, leading to an ice cave housing the frozen ship inside.
How are the aliens stopped?
Dan leads his team underground and into the ice cave. They decide against sending photos and giving it to the UN because getting them involved would be “a nightmare” and “take too long”. (This is the same UN, as you’ll remember, that set up jump Facilities and mobilized troops across the globe in less than a year) Anyway, Dan and co. head in and decide to commit genocide on these creatures. The alien travelers are long-dead, frozen in ice. In their cargo load are the embryos of the White Spikes. Dan quickly deduces that they’re planet-clearing weapons and they need to be stopped. Dan and the gang blow up the ship, take out all the White Spikes and head back home again to live out their lives.
Were the White Spikes really the enemies?
Here’s an interesting take for you all. The White Spikes aren’t hell-bent on destroying everything, they just want to live. We learn near the end that these White Spikes are just “cargo”, potentially moving on to another planet to breed and live. We don’t know anything about this species beyond the pockets of information we have to go on here. Flying over Puerto Rico during the midway point of the movie, we see these creatures splashing about in packs and blissfully unaware of the helicopter flying overhead. At this point Romeo retorts that these creatures are just “hungry”. This also explains why they’ve been hunting humans, they’re hungry and just want to eat. Late on, we’re told these creatures are cargo but Dan quickly jumps to the assumption that they’re dangerous and must be killed. While he commits genocide, it’s clear that the creatures were never meant to be transported to Earth. Perhaps they were en-route to another planet that could better home these creatures? Maybe they were going extinct on their own world? I guess we’ll never know since Dan and his team killed them all. Thanks for reading our Ending Explained article! What did you think of the ending? Do you agree with us that the White Spikes are just misunderstood creatures? Or are we absolutely dead-wrong. Either way, let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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