Have you ever gone to see a movie hoping that it was good but not sure if it will be… and then come out saying, “WOW!”? That is my reaction after seeing Tomorrowland. We’ve seen the trailer, and as interesting as it looks, it wasn’t something that really stood out. So, as I had the day off from my “9 to 5,” I decided to catch an early matinee and let you fine folks know what I thought. (In a way, I was still working, but this ‘job’ is more enjoyable). What amazed me about the film is that George Clooney may be the ticket attraction, but he is not the star of this film. Both Raffey Cassidy and Britt Robertson are amazing in this film and really draw you in. The film is about them, and Clooney is just along for the ride.
What if all the smartest people in the world could come together and create a better tomorrow? In order to that, they would have to step away from government beurocracy and politics, and just be free to create what inspires them. Tomorrowland introduces us to a world just like that. We are introduced to a young engineer named Frank Walker (Thomas Robinson) who goes to the World Fair with his invention, a jetpack, but, of course, it doesn’t work correctly. He meets a young girl named Athena (Raffey Cassidy) who gives him an opportunity if he’s willing to go the extra mile to take it. From there, he finds himself in a new dimension called Tomorrowland. A world where his dream to inspire and help mankind could be achieved.
Fast forward to the present, and we meet Casey Newton (Britt Robertson), a teenage girl from Cape Canaveral, whose dad is about to be unemployed because NASA has shut down their space division. She goes out of her way to continue to sabotage the tearing down of the spaceship platform. When she gets caught and arrested, she discovers that in her belongings is a pin capable of?transporting her to a new dimension. She enters an amazing city where people are flying on jetpacks, cars, and shuttle transports. But before she can ejoy it, a clock on the pin counts down to zero and she’s back in the present. She tries to explain it to her dad but it just sounds like nonsense. So she does what any curious teenager lightyears ahead of her father the NASA engineer would do: she seeks out information on it.
She meets Athena who introduces her to older Frank (George Clooney). She wants to go back to Tomorrowland, but he doesn’t want to take her back. He was kicked out, and claims that there is no way to get back. But then he realizes that Casey is special. So Frank, Athena, and Casey make their way back to Tomorrowland while dodging killer robots who want to stop them from getting there. What Casey discovers isn’t what she saw, and what she learns is that the fate of the world rests on her.
That is a quick and brief synopsis of what the film is on the surface. But at it’s core, it’s a film about choices. Casey reminds her dad of a story he used to tell her as a child. There are two hungry wolves fighting. One is darkness and despair while the other is hope and light. So the question is, which one wins? The answer…the one you feed the most. In Tomorrowland, the main villain kept feeding the wrong wolf thinking that the other would win. He then decided to just go with what the result and continue to feed darkness and despair so that when it finally kills hope and light, it takes everything. Meanwhile, he’s in another dimension ready to make a new future for mankind. He views humans as a lost cause. In a way, he’s a good representation of sin. At our core, man sees sin and rather than run away, we embrace it. The world gets worst, and we continue to feed darkness thinking that it brings about light. Casey realized this and told Frank to cut the feed. If you cut the feed and give humans the opposite, hope and light, then that wolf can get stronger and win. It’s the gospel in a nutshell really.
God gave us His word in the Bible to provide us with hope and light. But instead of embracing it, we embrace sin. But unlike the villain in this story who saw that and decided that mankind was not worth saving, God looked passed it and gave us Jesus so that we can defeat the darkness.?”For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Many know or have heard of that verse, but we tend to stop there instead of continue. “For God did not send the Son to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil” (3:17-19).
Tomorrowland is a good representation of John 3:16-19. God, like Casey, sought out a different option. He sacrificed His son so that we can have hope. And although the world will end, He didn’t keep a better future and better “Tomorrowland” for Himself, but instead,?He opened it up for all. It is our choice, die with the world, or live with Him. Which “wolf” will we feed?
