“The idea of not having it be about necessarily an ideology or patriotism or loyalty to protect your country, but being about literally your desire to save your own kids,” Dean said.
While wars are traditionally fought by the youngest people, “The Tomorrow War” sees people from their 30s and 40s drawn into battle as people cannot live in both timelines at the same time.
Pratt and Dean were joined for the event by the film’s cast and creatives, who looked beyond the movie’s action-packed plot to analyze some of the story’s more intimate messages.
The film’s focus on family dynamics also extends to the father-son narrative between Pratt’s Dan and his father, Slade, played by Simmons.
“This is a guy who’s not happy with his station in life,” Pratt said.
Over the course of the story, though, Dan begins to understand that he has more similarities with his father than he realized.
Pratt highlighted one sequence, where the characters of present day first make the jump from 2021 to 2051, falling from the sky to land in a pool on a rooftop in Miami.
“We got to jump off of this high dive that we built out of a forklift and jump off into the water,” Pratt recalled.
Pratt headlines the “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Jurassic World” blockbuster franchises, while Simmons recently appeared in “21 Bridges,” “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” and is set to reprise his role as J.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked about J.K’s arms on this, and I am all for it,” Pratt said.