I absolutely couldn’t get over the ending of Tomorrowland so I’m going to write about it and the events of the movie leading up to it. As in, the whole movie.
SPOILER ALERT FOR THE WHOLE MOVIE!
We begin with George Clooney as a kid but not really, we actually begin with adult George Clooney and adult Britt Robinson talking to the camera. They bicker and stuff as they try to begin the story. Then they begin the story and it’s about kid George Clooney who invented a jet pack and shows it to Hugh Laurie. Laurie is NOT IMPRESSED though because it doesn’t work and he says it doesn’t have a function. Kid Clooney tries to explain that if people see a working jet pack it’ll fill them with optimism and inspiration and make them feel that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. That’s not enough for Laurie though. Apparently neither is the fact that it’s a form of transportation?
We begin with George Clooney as a kid but not really, we actually begin with adult George Clooney and adult Britt Robinson talking to the camera. They bicker and stuff as they try to begin the story. Then they begin the story and it’s about kid George Clooney who invented a jet pack and shows it to Hugh Laurie. Laurie is NOT IMPRESSED though because it doesn’t work and he says it doesn’t have a function. Kid Clooney tries to explain that if people see a working jet pack it’ll fill them with optimism and inspiration and make them feel that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. That’s not enough for Laurie though. Apparently neither is the fact that it’s a form of transportation?
Luckily Kid Clooney impresses a little robot girl called Athena and she brings him to TOMORROWLAND. This is where the movie starts getting kinda messed up. The whole idea of Tomorrowland is that all the best and brightest people formed a place in an other dimension where they are free to invent and create and aren’t bogged down by politics and bureaucracy and stuff. They invent all kinds of amazing stuff that fully humanoid robots and interstellar travel and they have a thing you can drink every day that stops you ageing. Not for sharing though. Nope. Only the BEST people are allowed to go to Tomorrowland and all the other plebs can stay on earth and not avail of any of the cool stuff. You’re just going to have to get old like a BIG STUPID LOSER. At one point it’s mentioned there was a rumour that it was going to be opened to the public but it didn’t happen and I’ll get into that in a bit later.
Then we begin again (after more bickering) with Britt Robinson. Expect first they start with her as a kid too. Then there’s more bickering and then it begins proper with her as a teenager. She’s a big ole optimist. She doesn’t like when the teachers at school talk about the world going to shit. “What can we do to fix it?” she asks. Nobody else can think to ask that question but her by the way. It’s explained that the thing that makes her special is that she’s so optimistic it could save the world. She has a 78% rating on some kind of dumb scale that isn’t explained. It means she’s the most special. Clooney only got a 40-something% rating so that’s why she’s the lead and he’s not I guess.
A bunch of stuff happens involving robots and a booby-trapped house and eventually Britt, Clooney and Robot Girl Athena end up going to Tomorrowland. I mean it when I say eventually by the way. I skipped over SO MUCH POINTLESS STUFF. We’re literally at the end of the movie now. No kidding. There’s like 20 minutes to go and we’ve only just reached Tomorrowland and we’re only now about to be introduced to the villain and the main macguffin. Most of what I skipped over is just driving in a car and having conversations about nothing. It’s the typical Lindelof conversations of:
- “Tell me the answer! Explain This”
- “Nah”
-“Come oooon”
-“Come oooon”
- “Okay, it’s because he got kicked out. NO! I’VE SAID TOO MUCH I MUST STOP”
- “Kicked out for what?”
-“What? Nothing…”
-“What? Nothing…”
Here’s the thing though, when they get to Tomorrowland IT. IS. GONE. TO. SHIT. Apparently everything there gave up or stayed indoors or whatever. it’s not explained why though. Why is the place in ruins? I think I might know but I need to catch you guys up on the timeline of events first.
So here’s what happened.
- Kid Clooney arrives in Tomorrowland
- Clooney invents a machine called ‘The Monitor’ that can predict the future. The machine predicts that the Earth (but not Tomorrowland) would be destroyed in the future. There is an exact date and time.
- Clooney gets kicked out of Tomorrowland for inventing it. Not really explained why that was an exile-able offence though.
- Hugh Laurie wants to warn Earth of the impeding doom but knows he couldn’t convince people without evidence so he uses ‘The Monitor’ to project images of Earth’s destruction straight into people’s heads to warn them.
- To Laurie’s shock and dismay instead of scaring the people of Earth into doing something about the destruction the people of earth start putting those images of the apocalypse into all our culture and embracing it. Basically any media featuring mass destruction or apocalyptic stuff was inspired by The Monitor feeding it into our brains. I guess this means we have the monitor to thank for ‘Mad Max:Fury Road’ so thanks!
- ?
- TOMORROWLAND GOES TO SHIT FOR SOME REASON
That last point is where it gets confusing. Laurie makes it clear that only Earth will be destroyed, not Tomorrowland. It’s already been established that Tomorrowland doesn’t really give a shit about Earth or anyone on it that isn’t a genius inventor or creative like they are. So why go to shit? Honestly, I think I know the answer. They love feeling smug and superior to all the normies on Earth but with Earth gone they don’t have anyone to feel superior to. What’s the point of being able to go to space and not age and fly around on jet packs if you can’t laugh about all the dumb old people who are stuck on the ground like a big bunch of idiots.
Britt realised that The Monitor is actually what will lead to Earth’s destruction. Laurie’s attempt to project the images into people’s brains actually caused so much despair that everyone on Earth lost hope and closed down the space program and will eventually nuke each other. Doesn’t explain why the people of Tomorrowland lost hope though!
It also gets into something Bird seems to believe which is that the current popularity of dystopian fiction will eventually lead us to have a shitty future. It’s an interesting idea but it’s not one I agree with. You could make just as much a convincing argument that uplifting fiction is just as harmful because it can placate people or that happy endings and having characters change and become better people can give you vicarious catharsis in a way that can lead you to not change and become a better person in real life. Hell, just recently Simon Pegg spoke out against the popularity of all the nostalgia driven properties and the potential dangers of that and made some pretty great points.
Anyway Laurie is killed and The Monitor is destroyed and everything is good again. The world starts being filled with more hope. Tomorrowland gets fixed up and they start opening it up to the world! HA HA NO THEY DON’T. Fuck sharing. Clooney and Britt are in charge now and they decide to just keep on only inviting the very best most special people. If you’re reading this it means you’re not in Tomorrowland and in that case THOUGH SHIT! NO JET PACK FOR YOU! ENJOY GETTING OLD AND WALKING ON YOUR DUMB LEGS YA BIG LOSER!
