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Tomorrowland
A Brad Bird film
Plot (Spoiler Alert)A teenage girl, Casey, is given a pin that allows her to see this futuristic place known as Tomorrowland. She wants to know how to get there. Casey travels to Houston to get some answers after looking it up online. She goes to a toy store where two robots disguised as humans try to destroy her, but she is rescued by Athena, a droid made to look like a twelve year old girl with fighting skills. Athena is the one who gave Casey the pin and she tells her a little bit about the place she saw. Athena gave Casey the pin because she knows she is someone special. Athena drives Casey to an old friend of her’s, Frank Walker, an inventor who has lost hope. Frank stays at his house a lot and doesn’t like to be disturbed ever since he was kicked out of Tomorrowland. Athena leaves Casey in front of Frank’s house. Casey knocks on the door and notices a camera above it. She knows he is in there. Casey tells Frank that she wants him to take her back to the place she went to when she touched the pin. Frank declines Casey’s request. She stays in front of the house and does not leave until he says yes. She manages to find a way into the house. Frank’s house is full of inventions he built himself including a count down clock timing how much longer Earth has before it ends. Frank wants Casey out of his house. Frank tells Casey that what she saw doesn’t exist anymore, that things have changed and aren’t what they used to be and they don’t welcome guests anymore. Casey wants to know about the clock and Frank asks Casey if she would like to know when she dies? Casey answers by believing that they should make there own destiny and the doomsday visions on the screens changes to a peaceful future for a few seconds. Frank gives Casey a suspicious look. Robotic officers show up, for they are after Casey. Frank feels the best thing to do is to help Casey. He locks up the house. The robots find a way in, but Frank has traps for them. He leads Casey into the bathtub and he activates the escape pod as the house blows up. They land in the lake. Athena shows up and Frank isn’t quiet pleased to see her. She and Frank used to be close friends when he was a kid and he has known her his whole life until he was banished. They need to go to Tomorrowland so they drive to the teleportation machine Frank invented which is at a wire station. Frank’s not all in favor of helping, but basically he is their only chance to get back. The machine teleports them on top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. There, Frank activates the rocket to rise beneath the tower. The Eiffel Tower splits in two as the rocket rises and people everywhere are shocked. Robots are running up so Frank, Casey and Athena must hurry quickly. The rocket prepares for launch and Casey is excited for she is living her dream of shooting into outer space. The rocket goes into space, then turns around and goes into full speed back to Earth as it goes through to another dimension. They arrive at Tomorrowland and it does not appear to be what Casey thought it was going to be. The place is empty. The governor, Nix, shows up with his men. Frank tells Athena to hide the bomb from his bag. Nix asks why Frank and Athena are here. Frank believes that Casey can save the world. Nix brings them to the Monitor, which is able to show pieces of past, present and future. Casey is having a hard time understanding when it shows an apocalyptic future of Earth. Frank informs her it is fifty eight days from now. Casey feels Nix should do something about it like warning people. She doesn’t accept an apocalyptic future and then the screen shows a peaceful future. This is what Frank is trying to explain to Nix. Nix knocks Frank out and wakes up finding out he is being deported again. Casey is upset that Earth is doomed and they’re doing nothing to stop it. She asks why Athena gave her the pin and while she talks, Casey realizes what if the machine is like a giant pin. The machine is giving people the idea to accept the apocalypse. The machine must be destroyed in order to stop Earth from having a terrible fate. Casey and Frank try to explain it to Nix, but he doesn’t care and Frank figures out that he is behind it. Nix opens the portal so that they can return to their doomed planet. Frank doesn’t give up and fights Nix. He activates the platform and tells Athena to throw the bomb he gave her at the machine. Nix activates the giant robots to stop them and one of them grabs Athena so it’s up to Casey. Casey activates the bomb, but Nix has it fall down. Athena gets control of one of the robots and uses it to break the fall. The bomb is still active and there is no stopping it from detonating. Athena has Casey throw it through the portal causing it to be destroyed and a piece of it to collapse on Nix. Athena gets knocked out and when she turns back on she sees Frank getting shot by Nix, but it is just the machine showing what is about to happen. Athena pushes herself in front of Frank saving his life. Casey takes the gun away from Nix. Athena is damaged and can’t be repaired. The blast also has activated her self-destruction which will go off any minute. Before she shuts down she admits that even though she is a machine still she loved Frank. She tells him that she should be used to destroy the machine when she detonates. Frank uses a jet pack to fly on top of the building and sadly drops Athena into it. The detonation goes off and destroys the machine causing the power to go off in Tomorrowland including Frank’s jet and the machine falls of Nix killing him. Frank makes it down safe. He lies down on a tree with Casey next to him. Now that Nix is dead, Frank and Casey put themselves in charge to bring back Tomorrowland as it should be. They program new androids to find dreamers and leave a pin behind for them to see Tomorrowland as an invitation. 
Blaine: I love “Tomorrowland” because it’s a fun movie to watch and what I like the most about it is the adventure these three characters, Frank, Casey and Athena, go on to find a way back into this futuristic place. Co-writer and director Brad Bird, has an animation background (The Iron Giant, The Incredibles & Ratatouille) and he creates these shots that are easy to do in animation, but are extremely complex and difficult to do live action and a challenge for him. But he had a vision for every scene for “Tomorrowland”. Brad Bird knew they needed the right actor to play the character, Frank, in this movie and then George Clooney came to Brad’s mind and he thought he was the right choice. And when they asked George Clooney if he would do the part, Clooney said yes. I love Britt Robertson as Casey in “Tomorrowland”. What I like the most about her performance is the way she would freak out a lot and other times she has fun with what she is doing and she shows a lot of expression on her face. Frank is supposed to be the serious, grumpy and responsible one of the group and Casey is the comedic character who, like Frank, is a person with dreams when he was younger than her. And she is also smart person. She has a great relationship with father and she has learned a lot from him about NASA growing up because he was a engineer. She has a passion for space travel and it’s something she wants to do for a living. NASA is coming to an end because it’s getting old for a lot of people and without NASA Casey can’t have a future. She keeps sabotaging the machine from tearing it down, but no matter what she does they’re getting rid of it. When she sees what Tomorrowland is like through the pin it shows everything she has ever wanted especially with rockets shooting into space. Britt Robertson had to be very precise with how her body worked in the frame like when she touches the pin and it takes her from one world into another. Rafael Cassidy’s character, Athena, I would describe as the bad ass of the film. Athena is a robot that is programmed to find dreamers and she acts like she has a mind of her own because she goes off looking for someone like Casey to bring to Tomorrowland even though it’s not her job anymore. She can’t feel emotions like anger and disappointment nor love, but she can have likings for a person. It’s a little disappointing that she is a robot because when Frank was a kid I think he had a crush on her, but then as Frank got older he found out she is really a machine and she can’t age like him so they couldn’t grow up together and become lovers. She does, however, have artificial intelligence and does care for Frank, that’s why she saves his life. Frank blames Casey for getting his hopes up after he was kicked out of Tomorrowland, but if it wasn’t for her he wouldn’t have hope in the first place so he could loose it. Frank probably wouldn’t be the inventor he is today if it wasn’t for her and even though he was banished, still he got to live it and have it be apart of his life instead of looking down in the dumps his whole life. I like that Athena pretends to shut down because she is annoyed by all the questions from Casey because asking too many questions can be annoying. Brad Bird said Raffey Cassidy had a very tricky role because they needed someone who was a kid and yet conveyed wisdom, who has seen a lot and yet remains unshakably optimistic and Raffey radiated that. After seeing what Tomorrowland has become when the main characters first arrive after launching into space from Paris and going through a portal, the place felt like it was sick or something and things got a bit serious judging by the grayish color and being empty. It’s a little hard for me to understand why David Nix wants the world to end. The villain has been described as someone who is supposed to look at himself as the hero and actor, Hugh Larie, who plays David Nix, described the character as a scientist who has a sort of harsh practicality about human problems. In the end Casey and her family plan to live in Tomorrowland for the rest of their lives because that’s where they belong the most. Athena was a robot, but she was also a believer at making dreams come true and at the end the characters honor what she believed in. My rating on “Tomorrowland” is five out of five stars. Music by Michael Giacchino “Tomorrowland” premiere 
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