After Earth, starring Will and Jaden Smith, is an action-packed tale of survival, family, and overcoming fear at all costs. Set a millennium after humanity destroyed earth, it tells the story of Cypher Raige (Will Smith) and his son Kitai (Jaden Smith). Cypher is the commander general of the United Ranger Corps, a group designed to fight the Ursa (aliens that can smell fear), and he is widely regarded as the greatest leader that humanity has seen, the primary threat to the Ursa because he is the only human who can ghost (remove himself of all fear, and thereby make himself invisible to them.) Kitai, on the other hand, grew up in the shadow of his famous father, which only makes his failure to be admitted as a Cadet even worse.
But when Cypher and Kitai are the only survivors of a spaceship crash that strands them on the uninhabited (by humans at least) leftovers of planet Earth, they must learn to work together if they're ever going to get off the planet. To do so, Kitai has to travel across the planet, with Cypher as his guide, and send off the distress signal from the other half of the ship. The challenge tests Kitai's strength on his own, as well as his relationship with his father.
After Earth is a dramatic and exciting journey through the ruins of earth, and at its heart, a story about the bond between fathers and sons, trust, and overcoming fear. At a talkback following a screening of the film that I was lucky enough to attend, Will Smith revealed that it was this core theme of facing fear that drew him to the project. What appealed to him in particular was the mix between a large scale sci-fi action film and a story with a simple moral: face your fear and overcome it.
After Earth is currently playing in movie theaters nationwide
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