Brad Bird’s “Tomorrowland” is a star-studded adventure that tests the imagination of its audience with futuristic visuals, modern science, utopian themes and a reminder of what humans are capable of.
The film opens with an ominous message about the future from a man who is later revealed to be Frank Walker played by George Clooney. The blog-style camerawork makes it feel as though he is speaking to the audience directly, a significant detail that will be addressed later on. Frank is interrupted by a mysterious female-voice that prompts him to shift tones and think back to a time when a viewed the future with optimism.
Thus, the story travels back to the 1964 World’s Fair in New York where Young Frank is seen awkwardly dragging a bulky duffel bag into the Hall of Inventions. There, he reveals his invention, a homemade jet pack, to an intrigued judge David Nix, played by Hugh Laurie. When Frank confesses that the jet pack doesn’t actually fly, Nix rejects his submission. However, a young girl named Athena, played by Raffey Cassidy, and after a series of events, he ends up in Tomorrowland.
If ‘The Jetsons’ and L. Frank Baum’s Emerald City had a baby, it would look like Tomorrowland. Systematic layers of busy hover vehicles weave between narrow skyscrapers that far surpass the elevation of clouds. Friendly robots that cater to the needs of humans. The usual litter and decay of a major city is nonexistent.
This brief glimpse into a better world leaves the audience at the edge of their seat, before the flashback ends and the plot is brought back to Frank and the female voice, who very briefly introduces her own backstory.
A young girl stares into the night sky,identifying an impressive number of constellations to her parents. A sweet reminder of the curiosity and pureness that children have.
Flash forward to present day Earth where a teenage Casey Newton, played by Britt Robertson, is shown breaking into a NASA launch deck in the middle of the night, short circuiting construction equipment . The next morning, we learn that she was attempting to prevent the disassembly of the launch deck and save her dad’s job. At school, Casey is offput by the amount of negativity towards the future that was being taught by her teachers.
Despite the depressing images of war, climate change and pretty much all the bad things we’ve seen in recent news, Casey’s positivity is unwavering. It is later understood that the protagonist’s personality and actions throughout the rest of the plot embodies the ultimate message of the movie. Casey’s father sums it up nicely with a metaphor of two wolves. One wolf is light hope, the other despair and darkness. The wolf that wins is the wolf you feed.
A pin identical to the young Frank’s eventually makes its way to Casey’s possession and she is introduced to Tomorrowland. The audience gets a few more looks at the futuristic utopia and then the pin stops working because, surprise, it was only an interactive recruitment commercial.
Fast forward through a boring bit of plot where Casey and Frank paths align, and Athena turns out to be a humanoid robot. The trio battle humanoid robots in suits, ride the Eiffel Tower to space and return to Tomorrowland. Along the way, science buffs are treated to brief mentions of interdimensional travel, Einstein’s relativity, quantum physics and Austrian inventor Nikola Tesla.
Tomorrowland turned out to be a settlement for the world’s elite that refused to intervene as humanity destroyed itself by maintaining a negative outlook on the future. Frank and Casey save the world and the future looks bright again.
In the end, the film makes a full circle and uses Frank’s vlog-style address to the audience as a call of action to make the future something to look forward to.