Tomorrow, When the War Began

Name: Tomorrow, When the War Began
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Romance, War
Released: February 24, 2012
Duration: 103 min
Rating: 54
Cast: Andrew Ryan, Ashleigh Cummings, Caitlin Stasey, Chris Pang, Deniz Akdeniz

2012

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 5 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 36 Ratings

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7.1	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 36 Ratings

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Tomorrow When The War Began

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Movie Details & Credits

Freestyle Digital Media | Release Date: February 24, 2012 | R

Starring: Andrew Ryan, Ashleigh Cummings, Caitlin Stasey, Chris Pang, Deniz Akdeniz, Lincoln Lewis, Phoebe Tonkin, Rachel Hurd-Wood

Summary: Ellie Linton is a precocious teen who leads her best friends including Corrie and Kevin to an isolated, deep in the woods camp site named ‘Hell.’ Upon returning, they come to grips with the fact that their country has been overrun by a mysterious, invading army. When the hostile armed forces become alerted to the presence of the teenagers,Ellie Linton is a precocious teen who leads her best friends including Corrie and Kevin to an isolated, deep in the woods camp site named ‘Hell.’ Upon returning, they come to grips with the fact that their country has been overrun by a mysterious, invading army. When the hostile armed forces become alerted to the presence of the teenagers, Ellie and her friends, along with a new recruit - apathetic stoner Chris Lang – must band together to escape, outwit and strike back against the mysterious enemy that has seized control of the their town and imprisoned their friends and loved ones. (Freestyle Digital Media)
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Director: Stuart Beattie

Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Drama, Romance, War

Rating: R

Runtime: 103 min

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Critic Reviews

Megan Lehmann

Feb 21, 2012

Australia may finally have a homegrown blockbuster on its hands with the terrifically engaging Tomorrow, When the War Began, an action-packed war film for and about teenagers. Read full review

Bill Goodykoontz

Feb 23, 2012

Beyond the shooting and running around, the film works because Beattie never loses the perspective of Ellie Linton (Caitlin Stasey), through whose eyes the story is told. Read full review

Empire Eve Barlow

Feb 21, 2012

Serviceable action thriller than unleashes John Milius-style guerilla setpieces without the impact of John Milius-style budgets. Read full review

Russell Edwards

Feb 26, 2012

Parochial paranoia dovetails with adolescent angst in the glossy sci-fi coming-of-ager Tomorrow When the War Began. Read full review

Calum Marsh

Feb 21, 2012

It's one thing to defer to archetypes, but Tomorrow is so full of stock types and clichés it makes "The Breakfast Club" look like "Nashville." Read full review

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User Reviews

gianischo

Feb 29, 2012

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This movie is amaizing i can't write more cause i dont know good english but the movie is perfect for my ages..
This movie is amaizing i can't write more cause i dont know good english but the movie is perfect for my ages..
This movie is amaizing i can't write more cause i dont know good english but the movie is perfect for my ages..… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

HaithamBayazeed

Jan 19, 2013

The first movie that comes with teens who can act since super 8, amazing piece of art, great job, amazing story! Can't wait for the sequel! loved it! Everything was perfect!

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

MovieGoer14

Jan 26, 2014

One of my favorite movies, and ten times better than Red Dawn (2012) although I liked Red Dawn (2012). It is pretty intense and interesting piece of film making, the characters are full of emotions, heart and spirit. It is funny, sad, intense, thought provoking...etc. I just love every second of it.

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

Paul55donovan

Feb 4, 2013

A action packed film that was fun and dramatic. It was better than the original Red Dawn and showed what it really would be like if your country was invaded and even better is that is shows the question in front of them they're free but do they deserve it and what should they really do hideA action packed film that was fun and dramatic. It was better than the original Red Dawn and showed what it really would be like if your country was invaded and even better is that is shows the question in front of them they're free but do they deserve it and what should they really do hide or fight for their loved ones who would do the same for them.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

Rikiege

Nov 17, 2012

A good movie that combines war with adolescence.

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

DawdlingPoet

Nov 26, 2021

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is an action adventure film, which features themes including the military, camping, shootouts and pacifism. I found this film a little underwhelming at first but it did become somewhat surprisingly engrossing after a while. There is a fairly decent variety of characters present - a religious girl, the 'high school hottie' girl type and numerous others. Its far from greatly original but I found the action scenes, the more faster paced ones to be relatively engaging regardless.

I thought the plot was a little confusing at times - I suppose it isn't one to overly analyse as such, although it is an adapatation of a well regarded YA (Young Adult, i.e. books written for teenagers) novel. I didn't find myself utterly losing interest in it, so it was still a semi-decent watch regardless. It is certainly pretty far fetched but then it is a dystopian/war based story, so it is somewhat inevitable. I've noticed that Australia have produced numerous examples of these kinds of rather dark toned films - on a smaller budget than your average Hollywood equivalent but some may be better for dealing with some subject material which may not naturally be covered by Hollywood equivalent films, although not so much this particular film due to its younger target audience. From a visual point of view, this isn't as gory or explicitly violent as other dystopian action/thrillers but yet I definitely did feel quite tense and gripped at times, which just goes to show that it isn't always the visual content alone that makes or breaks such films.

Cast wise, there weren't any members who I recognised by name from other films. A selection of these include Caitlin Stasey as Ellie Linton, Lincoln Lewis as Kevin Holmes, Rachel Hurd-Wood as Corrie MacKenzie and Chris Pang as Lee Pakkam. The films characters are 90% teenagers/adolescents, with a quite noted lack of named adults, other than one or two parents briefly shown at the start. There was something surprisingly eery/spooky about this, as the seriousness of the plot situation becomes more clear.

Content wise, the film contains drug references and some brief sex references, some relatively mild violence involving fast machine gun fire, arson and the like, although very little in the way of particularly graphic injury is shown on screen. There are a number of fast paced chases which bring with them an element of threat and peril, of course, which could upset particularly young viewers and there is some moderately strong language used at times as well. Due to this, the film has been given a 12a rating in the UK.

For what it is, its a decent watch but I imagine it won't overly appeal to everyone and while the plot felt a little flawed and the ending may well frustrate some, due to it leaving the viewer with many unanswered questions, equally some people may like it for leaving the viewer to come to their own conclusions. I mention this so that anyone who hates being left with unanswered questions knows to give this a wide berth.

Overall, if this sort of film appeals to you then yes, I'd recommend it. Its not exactly perfect as a film but I found it fairly gripping and engrossing at times, so you could do worse. The visual effects were neither amazing nor seriously underwhelming, the plot was interesting but I felt there were a few holes, yet it didn't stop me from continuing watching the film. Since I mostly enjoyed it, I imagine most people would probably find it reasonably good, so on that basis I would recommend it.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

calacala

Dec 15, 2019

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A group of dumb stereotype teenagers go camping while an invasion is taking place.
After finding that out, they take down several groups of trained enemy army soldiers and blow up the only bridge with a horde of cows...

Even worse than the books, terrible acting and low budget action. Dont waste your time with this really bad movie.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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