Tomorrowland (2015)

Tomorrowland (2015)

Tomorrowland (subtitled A World Beyond in some regions) is a 2015 American science-fiction mystery adventure film directed and co-written by Brad Bird. Bird co-wrote the film's screenplay with Damon Lindelof, from an original story treatment by Bird, Lindelof, and Jeff Jensen. The film stars George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidy, Tim McGraw, Kathryn Hahn, and Keegan-Michael Key. In the film, a disillusioned genius inventor (Clooney) and a teenage science enthusiast (Robertson), embark to an ambiguous dimension known as "Tomorrowland", where their actions directly affect the world and themselves.

Walt Disney Pictures originally announced the film in June 2011 under the working title 1952, and later retitled it to Tomorrowland, after the futuristic themed land found at Disney theme parks. In drafting their story, Bird and Lindelof took inspiration from the progressive cultural movements of the Space Age, as well as Walt Disney's optimistic philosophy of the future, notably his conceptual vision for the planned community known as EPCOT. Principal photography began in August 2013, with footage shot in British Columbia, Alberta, Florida, and Spain with second unit filming in France, California and the Bahamas.

Tomorrowland was released in conventional and IMAX formats on May 22, 2015, and was the first theatrical film to be released in Dolby Vision and Dolby Cinema. Upon its release, the film received mixed reviews from critics; earning praise for its visuals, original premise, and themes, but criticism in regards to the screenplay's uneven writing and tone.The film also failed at the box office, despite grossing $209 million worldwide.

Storyline

Bound by a shared destiny, a bright, optimistic teen bursting with scientific curiosity and a former boy-genius inventor jaded by disillusionment embark on a danger-filled mission to unearth the secrets of an enigmatic place somewhere in time and space that exists in their collective memory as "Tomorrowland."

Plot

An adult Frank Walker and Casey Newton relate to the audience their experiences, beginning with Frank's visit to the 1964 New York World's Fair as a child. In the flashback, he meets David Nix, an official who is unimpressed with Frank's limited jet pack. Frank does draw the attention of a young girl named Athena. Seeing his potential, Athena gives Frank a pin embossed with a "T" symbol and tells him to follow her aboard the fair's "It's a Small World" attraction. Frank sneaks onto the ride, where his pin is scanned and he is transported into a futuristic cityscape known as Tomorrowland. He falls from a ledge, but straps on his jet pack and lands safely before Nix and Athena.

The narration then shifts to the present, where Casey Newton, who sneaks into a decommissioned NASA launch pad in Cape Canaveral, where her father Eddie is an engineer. She sabotages the machines that are dismantling the launch pad and returns home where Athena sneaks another pin that is programmed to Casey's DNA into Casey's motorcycle helmet. The next night, Casey attempts to break into the NASA compound again, but is arrested. At the police station, she sees the pin among her personal items, and discovers that upon contact, the pin instantly shows her a view of Tomorrowland that only she can see. She briefly explores the vision until the pin's battery runs out.

Assisted by her brother Nate, Casey finds a Houston memorabilia store related to the pin, but upon meeting the two owners, Hugo and Ursula, Casey is questioned about it, and when she says she knows nothing else about it, they attack her. Athena bursts in and fights Hugo and Ursula, who are both revealed to be robots. The two girls escape as the robots self-destruct, destroying the store. After stealing a car, Athena reveals that she is an Audio-Animatronic robot, and the one who gave Casey the pin, revealing that she needs her help to save the world. Athena drives Casey to Frank's home in Pittsfield, New York and leaves her there.

The reclusive Frank declines Casey's request for an audience, but she manages to lure him out of the house and sneak in, locking him out. Frank re-enters through a secret tunnel and tells her angrily that he was thrown out of Tomorrowland and cannot go back. He also asks if she would like to know the exact moment of her death. Casey ponders whether accepting the truth about her time of death would actually be the cause of it, and while she admits that she would like him to tell her, says that she probably would not believe him, preferring to make her own destiny. When she says this, a monitor showing the probability of the end of the world changes its reading from 100% to 99.9994, which startles Frank. Robots agents appear at Frank's house ordering him to turn over Casey or be killed.

After evading the robots and reuniting with Athena, the trio uses a teleportation machine that Frank invented, and transport themselves to the Eiffel Tower in Paris. They enter a room with mannequins of Gustave Eiffel, Jules Verne, Nikola Tesla, and Thomas Edison. Frank explains that the four men were the founders of Plus Ultra, a group of inventors dedicated to finding other dreamers and inventors who shared the hope of shaping a better future, which eventually led them to discover a new dimension where Tomorrowland was founded. The trio enter a rocket hidden underneath the tower, which launches into outer space and after traveling through dimensions, lands back on Earth, arriving at a now desolate Tomorrowland. Nix appears to greet them, and takes them to a building linked to a tachyon machine designed by Frank himself that can show images from the past and future, from which Casey learns that a worldwide catastrophe will happen in the near future. Because of this discovery, Frank lost all hope and was banished from Tomorrowland. Casey does not accept that the world is destined to end, and the future slightly changes as a result, a fact that Frank glimpses, but which Nix ignores before ordering them arrested instead.

As they await being sent back to Earth, Casey realizes that a side effect of utilizing tachyons to obtain information about the future is that it introduces a backfeed into the time flow. It makes the future it shows all the more likely to occur, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Destroying the device could avert the apocalypse. Nix opens a portal to an idyllic beach dimension, inviting them to live out the last days there, but Frank refuses, seeing that Nix has simply given up on Earth and intends to allow the apocalypse to happen. A fight ensues and Frank tries to use a bomb to blow up the machine. Mistakenly, the bomb goes off outside the portal and the explosion pins Nix's leg under debris. Nix retrieves a plasma gun and aims at Frank. Athena, who was able to see it happening beforehand due to the tachyon images, jumps in front of him and is damaged beyond repair, which activates her self-destruct sequence. In her last moments of consciousness, Athena instructs Frank to take her to the machine and reveals that she loved him. Her self-destruction takes down the machine and kills Nix as well.

Back in the present, Frank and Casey's audience revealed to be androids like Athena, who are entrusted with new pins and instructed to bring other "dreamers" to Tomorrowland.

Cast

• George Clooney as Frank Walker, a grizzled inventor
• Hugh Laurie as David Nix, leader of Tomorrowland
• Britt Robertson as Casey Newton, an optimistic and tech-savvy teen
• Raffey Cassidy as Athena, an Audio-Animatronic droid recruiter
• Tim McGraw as Eddie Newton, Casey's father and NASA engineer
• Kathryn Hahn as Ursula Gernsback, one of Nix's assassins
• Keegan-Michael Key as Hugo Gernsback, another of Nix's assassins
• Chris Bauer as Frank's dad
• Thomas Robinson as a young Frank
• Pierce Gagnon as Nate Newton, Casey's brother
• Judy Greer as Jenny Newton, Casey's mother
• Matthew Maccaull as Dave Clark
• Garry Chalk as Jail Desk Jockey

User Review

I very rarely write reviews for movies, but after watching Tomorrowland I've never seen a movie that's been so unfairly maligned by negative reviews,especially considering that this movie was an absolute joy from beginning to end. After watching it, and reading truly horrible, reviews I'm starting to think that somebody hired a few live bodies to slate this movie for their own specific reasons.
The script, actors and directors captured the feeling of endless possibilities perfectly. The FX were fantastic, there were no lulls in the plot, George Clooney did his thing perfectly, the child actors were incredible, and there were just enough twists and turns to maintain the pace.
Please, please watch this movie and make your own mind up - the negative reviews almost put me off, but I'm so glad I actually took the chance.
Actually there's one proviso here - and is probably something consistent with most of the negative reviews: If you lack imagination, or the yearning for a better world, then you'll hate this movie. Or you want to raise kids who aspire to be nothing more than reality TV actors. Or if you're a reality TV actor. Or your kids can't read or write because you don't think it's important. Or if you think science is dumb. Or if you can't embrace hope.
As for me...I loved it. I'll be watching it again and again One of the best movies of 2015, and now on my "favourite movie" list.