The Tomorrow War

Just watched "The Tomorrow War" on Amazon Prime.  One very mild spoiler ahead, so if you hate them, read no further...

 

The film itself was ok, nothing to write home about but not rubbish either, and amusing in places.

From a wargamers viewpoint, the plot however was very inspiring.  In a nutshell, people come back in time from 30 years hence, to warn humankind of a devastating war to come with an alien species.  As this is the near future, it means that those threatened with extinction from the alien race, are the children of today's adults.  That is the first plot element I really liked.

Such a threat obviously sparks governments to unite and send their armed forces into the future, but everything goes pear-shaped and they are wiped out.

World-wide drafting begins, and this is where the plot takes a second interesting turn (and be warned anew, minor spoiler ahead).

Those sent 30 years into the future must not be alive at that future time, to avoid any temporal paradoxes (it was not explained if said paradoxes decimated the armed forces earlier, or if it was I missed it, but I assume it was so).  So basically you get recruited if the database from the future has your death certificate in it, although the recruiters don't actually mention this. That is already interesting enough, but it also means that almost all of the recruits are, like, over 40.  Observing this unusual fact helps some figure out by themselves what is going on; and it obviously implies that if you are sent young, you had little time left to live anyway.  It was amusing (in that "Starship Troopers" kind of way) but also cool (because they are truly fighting for a cause that leaves few indifferent) to watch a bunch of ordinary people, many not in particularly good shape, get sent onto a truly lethal battlefield after a week of (very) basic training.  The fact that their guns have an endless supply of ammunition just makes it all that much better   : )

Recruits are sent out for a week's tour, and you can imagine what psychological state survivors return to their own time frame in, seeing the chaos that is their childrens' dying world.  Add to that a 30% survival rate (and particularly gory deaths for the unlucky 70%).  However young people on a short life span are motivated to go back for a second tour, as it gives their life purpose.

As the "Tomorrow War" drags on however, and with little success, worldwide rioting breaks out on present-day Earth, and I can imagine that childless parents are somewhat less motivated to go in to the future and die (and even less motivated to have children), creating all sorts of social tensions.

So as you can imagine, this has inspired a few ideas...Not quite sure what I'm going to do with it yet.  Or who to turn to for overweight but heavily armed civilians  : )