The new Chris Pratt sci-fi time travel movie has lots of curious hardware when it comes to gearing up to fight "The Tomorrow War."

Debuting last week on Amazon Prime after the Paramount-backed film was kept out of theaters last year during COVID, "The Tomorrow War" sees high school teacher and family guy Dan Forester (Chris Pratt) drafted – along with large swaths of the global population – to stand toe-to-toe with alien invaders on Earth in the year 2051. The sweet part of the contract is that conscripts must only serve for a week before being zapped back to their original timeline. The sour part is that they probably won't last that long. 

While little training or equipment is provided to the cannon fodder draftees, they are apparently allowed to bring some of their own along on their short deployment to fight heavily-armored bug-like aliens ala the Battle of Klendathu. This includes Forester/Pratt's own semi-custom Kimber M1911A1, for which he carries Wilson Combat magazines, and another character, three-time time jumper Dorian (Edwin Hodge), who has a tricked out Beretta 1301 Tactical shotgun. 
 

Tomorrow War PR image
This PR image from Amazon shows Chris Pratt, Edwin Hodge, and Sam Richardson in The Tomorrow War. Pratt's war belt includes Wilson Combat mags for his personal M1911 (Three World Wars?) as well as Magpul PMAGs for his primary weapon. Hodge has a Beretta 1301 with reloads at the ready in 3-gun shell caddies while Richardson is, like Pratt, armed with the fictional MK III/IV series rifles. 


Gary Tuers with Xtreme Props worked as prop master for the firearms in "The Tomorrow War" and has been detailing what appears onscreen for all those gun nerds out there. 

The distinctive MK III and MK IV, seen in more hands than just about any other firearm, are select-fire black rifles with Hera Arms CQR thumbhole furniture for that California look, with BCM Gunfighter uppers and bolts visible in the "hero" guns and topped with a Trijicon ACOG 4x32 scope and Inforce Wild series light. The ACOGs are further dressed with a RMR on a 45-degree mount. 
 


Of course, the logic of using unsuppressed, extremely short-barreled 5.56 NATO caliber weapons in urban combat against very hard to kill aliens is kind of suspect, and the conscripts would likely be better off with a 1x optic or LPVO atop something chambered in .300 BLK or 7.62 NATO and above, but this is Hollywood. 
 

Tomorrow War PR image
That face when you have been fighting Volkswagen-sized armored aliens in stairwells with an unsuppressed 5.56 SBR, with decidedly mixed results. (Photo: Amazon)


As for Pratt's personal .45, Xtreme details it is one of their in-house Kimber Warrior SOC 1911s with a Surefire X300 Ultra and VZ Grips. The finish is FDE and Forrest Green. His character is a former SF guy who had survived two tours in Iraq. 
 


Hodge's Beretta has an Aridus Industries stock adapter and Magpul SGA stock, Aridus YT-1301 bolt release, Primary Arms Microdot on an Aridus CROM, Aridus 1301 Zhukov Handguard Assembly, Inforce WML Light, and a Nordic Components mag tube extension.
 


There are lots of other ballistically interesting items in the film, including some gratuitous M2 Browning .50 cal footage – at the hands of the talented Yvonne Strahovski (have you even seen "Chuck"?!) – and Phalanx CIWS 20mm guns doing their thing. 
 

Tomorrow War PR image
Yvonne Strahovski as Colonel Muri Forester in "The Tomorrow War." Note the cameo by a M134 Mini Gun. (Photo: Amazon)

 

Tomorrow War PR image
A very buff J.K. Simmons, who plays James Forester, Dan's estranged father, also appendix carries a Desert Eagle .50 cal in a very Chekhov’s gun kind of way. Word is he's seen a thing or two. Spoiler alert: he uses an AR10 platform to good effect against the aliens as well. (Photo: Amazon)

 

In the end, while the ill-fated draftees from 2021 could have surely been better equipped to take on what they faced, there is certainly lots of serious firepower in "The Tomorrow War." 

We watched the film, and it is surely a good popcorn movie so long as you can suspend your belief in time travel and aliens in general and aren't too much of an "actually..." guy when the guns come out. As of Tuesday morning, it has an 82-percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, which means it is getting something right. 

"The Tomorrow War" is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

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