Chris Pratt And Yvonne Strahovski Reveal Their Most Intense Scenes In The Tomorrow War
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There's no question that actors Chris Pratt and Yvonne Strahovski have plenty of experience when it comes to thrilling action scenes, whether they be in the "Guardians of the Galaxy" and "Avengers" movies for Pratt, or high-energy TV series like "Chuck" for Strahovski. And while those were impressive projects for the duo, nothing could prepare Pratt and Strahovski for the intense physical action of director Chris McKay's new sci-fi opus, "The Tomorrow War."
Debuting on Amazon Prime Video July 2, "The Tomorrow War" follows the harrowing path of Dan Forester (Chris Pratt), a family man and teacher in the present day, whose life and career appear to be stuck in limbo. That all changes when soldiers from the year 2051 appear with the devastating message that all of humanity is in peril after the invasion of malevolent aliens. With every available soldier and regular civilian needed to help battle the bloodthirsty, otherworldly creatures, Dan is called up to serve, and travels with a group of fighters 30 years into the future. It is there where he meets a brilliant scientist (Strahovski) who is working on a way to neutralize the deadly species in a bid to save the world.
"The Tomorrow War" opens by showing the time travel portal in which Dan and his unit arrive in the future, as they fall headlong from the sky and land in a pool. In a press conference attended by Looper, Pratt said he engaged in several intense action scenes while making "The Tomorrow War," but this one was especially perilous — and fun. Here's why.
Chris Pratt describes his sky tumble in The Tomorrow War
During the press conference, Chris Pratt said that it was his treacherous sky tumble into the water, in the aforementioned scene, which stood out to him the most: "When we make that jump to 2051 there's this transition and we fall from the sky in Miami and land in a pool — and so, there was some serious water work that we got to do and that is a lot of fun. We got to jump off of this basically high-dive that we built out of a forklift and jump off into the water and the camera followed us down."
However, making the jump made up only half of the equation, Pratt noted. After all, when there a lot of people falling in the sky after you, it's going to cause a pileup somewhere.
"You had stunt people jumping down and landing on top of you, forcing you underwater," Pratt recalled. "So, that whole sequence, which probably took two or three days [to shoot], was really cool, really fun, really physical. There's a camera down there, you're trying to get smashed into the ground, and then come up and struggle into a close-up underwater. It was a lot of fun."
As if encountering the aliens face to face in "The Tomorrow War" wasn't bad enough for the protagonists, finding any means necessary to elude them upped the intensity for all those involved in the shoot. For Yvonne Strahovski and Pratt, that meant taking part in a tricky balancing act that amped up their levels of anxiety — and Strahovski had her own insights regarding the intense shoot.
Yvonne Strahovski needed nerves of steel for her scariest scene
For Yvonne Strahovski, there was also a scene that she recalled as being particularly intimidating to shoot. "I just keep thinking of that moment where Chris and I were at the top of a power plant and we had to run across this steel beam at the very top of the power plant. But you could see the very bottom, the ground, because everything in a power plant is made out of metal grates, so you can totally see through each level all the way to the bottom," she remembered. "I'm not too afraid of heights but this was a moment where I was like, 'Oh, God.' Getting up on that steel beam, I wasn't sure if I could actually run across it."
Naturally, Pratt and Strahovski had protective stunt gear at their disposal, but the thoughts of what could happen was still very much on her mind.
"We were obviously on wires, but just getting used to doing the first couple of walks across was, 'Phew,'" Strahovski mused. "[You] really got to channel your inner Zen, and then just have blind faith that you're going to run across that thing and not fall off, and if you do, they're going to catch you. But still, [it was a] little terrifying."
No matter how Strahovski felt while crossing the steel beams, Pratt said he was impressed with his sense of balance. "You were so good at it. Way better than me. You're like, 'Oh, God, let me get a couple of chances at this,' and you walked across and then you ran across," Pratt said to her. "And I was like, 'This is crazy. These beams are more narrow than my foot.' I don't know how you did it. You have a good center of gravity or balance or something. Maybe this was all [because of] your work on 'Chuck.' You just know how to jump right into the action stuff but that was hard."
"The Tomorrow War" debuts on Amazon Prime Video on July 2.