The Tomorrow War Was A Chance For Director Chris McKay To Blend The Things He Loves

People have long been fascinated with the idea of aliens coming to invade our planet, and humans pulling together in remarkable fashion to triumph over them. For Chris McKay, director of Prime Video's time-bending alien invasion blockbuster "The Tomorrow War," making the film was not only a natural progression from his previous work in animation, but a chance for him to blend many of his interests into one film. 

"I am a huge genre fan," McKay told Coming Soon. "I love genre movies and I love John Cassavetes movies. I love things that have heart and soul and sometimes wear their heart on their sleeve. So 'Tomorrow War' is kind of a blending of all the things that I love."

Whether it's "War of the Worlds," in which a single family finds a way to survive when aliens begin attacking major cities around the world, or "Independence Day," where the United States joins together with the rest of the world to defeat invading alien forces, the idea of humans overcoming superior weapons and creatures with ingenuity and grit has always drawn audiences. But McKay wanted an emotional core to the film in addition to intense action and sci-fi spectacle.

It was important to Chris McKay that "The Tomorrow War" not only have a thrilling sci-fi aspect, but familial relationships at the heart of it. "Chris Pratt and J.K. [Simmons]'s relationship is a kind of relationship that I've seen in my life," he told Coming Soon. "It was something that I wanted to try to replicate. Chris and his relationship with his family and his struggles to sort of want to feel important, or to do some important things and stuff like that. I sympathize with them, and so for me, there's a lot of stuff that was personal."

Another important relationship in the film was between Dan Forester (Pratt) and his daughter, Muri (Yvonne Strahovski), which is also intertwined with the action since Muri is a colonel in the future, and Dan must take orders from her. While Dan's last moments with Muri are remembered with love, Muri's are full of sadness and anger. As they fight the aliens, the two are also forced to reconcile the fact that the person in front of them is not the same person they remember.

With development underway for "The Tomorrow War 2," we imagine that Chris McKay will make sure the sequel has just as much heart as the original.