The answer to that question is probably no. But Canada is what I thought about when Sarah sent over this teaser trailer for The Tomorrow War, an upcoming movie starring Chris Pratt that’s coming out on Amazon Prime on July 2, one day after Canada Day, but also two days before Independence Day in the United States. 

 

If you are Canadian, watch this and tell me what you’re hearing in the music – to me it was my dominant takeaway, the notes that are being played through that choir orchestral sound: 

 

Right?!

It’s totally “God keep our land, glorious and free”. That’s the song!

 

Emily, our site manager, hears the similarity but it’s not as “THEY ARE PLAYING O CANADA” for her as it is for me. I wonder if that’s because Emily is a baby and since I’m older than her, and went to school at a time when you would hear it all day every day (pretty sure it doesn’t work that way anymore), it’s that much more programmed into my DNA. 

Being American, Sarah would not have picked up on it. The Canadian national anthem, while not totally unfamiliar, is certainly not as recognisable as the American national anthem. Because of sporting events, I know every word of the “Star Spangled Banner”, and I don’t think I’m alone in saying that, whereas I’m pretty sure most Americans can’t get past the first words of “O Canada” which, by the way, are “O Canada”. 

 

Anyway, there is no way Chris Pratt is defending Canada in this movie. Well, actually, maybe he is, by extension. Because apparently this is a movie about saving the human race from aliens. And it’s coming out at the beginning of July so, I guess, they’re trying to be the new Independence Day, a classic summer movie. Only decidedly…darker? 

Yes, of course, it would be a dark day for all of us if aliens decided to come eat us but Independence Day, the movie, wasn’t dark. It was actually really fun and funny. Because of the charm of Will Smith and the quirkiness of Jeff Goldblum. That movie turns 25 years old this summer and I have watched the sh-t out of it at least once a year and it never gets old. So what I’m saying is that if Chris Pratt and The Tomorrow War are coming for that space, we might need some more personality. Wait, is that personality Canadian? Is that what we’re doing here with our anthem? Is Canada carrying the charisma in this movie? 

Attached - Chris Pratt on set of The Terminal List yesterday in LA.