After Earth

In the near future, overpopulation and climate  change have brought global destruction to Earth.   An organization known as the Uniting Ranger Corps  is formed in order to organize an evacuation of   the planet, and humanity gets to settle in a space  colony called Nova Prime. Seeing as humans are now   vulnerable, a race of aliens called S'krell  sends a bunch of Urses to invade. These Ursas   are vicious predators that were bred to kill  humans, and although they're blind, they're   able to hunt people by detecting the pheromones  they secret when frightened. To stop the invasion,   the rangers fight the Ursas with their blades,  and Prime Commander Cypher proves himself a hero   when he learns how to suppress his emotions.  By not showing any fear, a person becomes   invisible to the Ursas, this is a technique known  as "ghosting". A few years after the war, Cypher's   son Kitai is a cadet at the ranger academy because  he wants to be like his father. Even during the   most basic of tests like jogging, he puts extra  effort just to prove he's special. However, while   his test scores are great, he isn't doing well  in the field, and Kitai doesn't get the promotion   to ranger that he wanted yet. Later in the  evening, when Cypher returns home from a mission,   Kitai tells him he's failed to get promoted.  Instead of showing comfort toward his son,   Cypher stays cold as usual and comments Kitai  must've not been ready, because the commander   knows what he's doing. Cypher always acts cold  toward his family, as if he didn't know how to   turn off the soldier mode, even demanding Kitai to  always call him "sir" and yelling orders at him at   the table. After dinner, Cypher brings his wife  Faia a gift he got from the mission and tells her   that he'll be leaving the next day for Iphito to  train cadets. However after that mission is over,   he intends to retire and work with her in the  admin department. Faia is glad to hear that and   points out he needs to spend more time with Kitai,  chat with him and be less distant. Kitai needs a   father, not a commanding officer. She thinks Kitai  has lots of insecurities because he blames himself   for the death of his sister Senshi and tries to  connect with her by reading her favourite book,   Moby Dick. With this in mind, Cypher approaches  Kitai and tells him he'll come to Iphito with   him. Sometime later, the crew gets ready to leave,  and Kitai notices a ranger with an amputated leg   approaching his father to express his gratitude  for saving him during the war with the Ursas.   Cypher thinks it's not necessary, but the ranger  still asks his friends to help him stand up to   salute properly as a sign of respect for  humanity's hero. Once the trip beings,   Kitai tries to connect with his father and tells  him he's reading Moby Dick, but Cypher isn't much   of a talker and keeps his answers short and  cold. Then he tells Kitai that he should sleep   for the rest of the journey. Kitai pretends to  obey but once Cypher is asleep, he leaves his   seat to explore the ship. He finds a mysterious  area with warning signs, but he enters anyway,   and the guarding rangers immediately scold him for  it. However when they realize he's Cypher's son,   they allow him to come in and see their cargo:  it turns out they're transporting an Ursa,   which will be used to teach the cadets  how to ghost. The ranger dares Kitai to   touch the Ursa's shell and test his emotional  control, but when Kitai begins walking closer,   he begins having flashbacks of the night his  sister died. An Ursa had attacked their home,   and Senshi put Kitai inside a glass containment  to keep the monster from smelling him. Right   when Kitai is about to touch the shell, the Ursa  smells his fear and roars at him, startling him   into stepping back. Meanwhile Cypher wakes up  and senses some strange vibrations, so he uses   his ring against the ship wall to confirm there's  danger coming. He rushes to tell the rangers to be   on full alert, and orders Kitai to put on his  life suit and strap himself to his seat. Then   Cypher goes to the cockpit and informs the pilots  that they're heading toward an asteroid storm.   Before they can correct their course, the ship  begins shaking as it gets hit by the asteroids,   making it lose an engine. Cypher orders the pilots  to enter the nearest wormhole, that way they can   travel to a different anchorage. The ship crosses  the wormhole safely and appears near Earth, which   the law says nobody should return to because of  its dangers. Cypher wants to head somewhere else,   but the pilots explain the ship has taken too  much damage, meaning they must land as soon as   possible. As the ship gets closer to Earth's  atmosphere, it begins shaking again and Kitai   panics, so Cypher guides him to take deep breaths  to calm him down. At that moment, the ship begins   breaking apart, and Cypher is blown away by the  wind as Kitai falls unconscious. A moment later,   Kitai wakes up and discovers the ship has crashed.  He leaves his seat to look for the others,   but all the rangers he finds are dead. Luckily  he finds Cypher and confirms he's still alive,   so Kitai sits by his side and waits for him  to wake up. When Cypher gains consciousness,   Kitai explains to him that the ship's tail is  gone, meaning the Ursa is gone as well. Cypher   guides Kitai to the cockpit to find the emergency  beacon, but when he tries to use it he discovers   it's broken. Afterwards, Kitai puts Cypher on  a stretcher and takes him to the ship's main   computer, where Cypher checks the inventory and  confirms there's another beacon in the ship's   tail. Since both his legs are hurt, Cypher gives  Kitai the mission to find the tail, which the   scanner says it's about a hundred kilometres away.  Then Cypher gives Kitai his blade plus six vials   of air-filtration inhalers that will help him  breathe in Earth's hostile environment. He also   informs him that the life suit and the backpack  have cameras, so Cypher will see everything Kitai   sees. The boy needs to be really careful because  everything on Earth has evolved to kill humans,   which makes Kitai remember how he had to watch  his sister being killed by an Ursa. Kitai asks   Cypher about the Ursa that they were carrying,  and Cypher thinks it must've died in the crash,   but it's safer to assume it's still out there.  After taking one of the inhalers, Kitai leaves   the ship and gets very nervous because he can  see all the bodies around. To calm him down,   Cypher makes him take the knee and reminds him to  concentrate on the moment to overcome his fears.   Then Kitai begins his journey, which allows him  to meet lots of animals he's never seen in his   life. When he's climbing a cliff, he's startled by  a spider on his hand, and when he reaches the top,   he sees birds flying through the sky and cattle  grazing on the plains. It's a stunning view,   especially for someone that always lived in space.  At that moment, Cypher releases a bunch of probes   to find the Ursa, and he reminds Kitai that the  temperature heavily drops at night. To survive,   he must find one of the many hot spots before  it gets dark. Then Cypher scans his own injuries   and confirms his leg bones are broken, making  him consider taking some medicine to fight the   pain. However the label warns him that the shot  could make him drowsy and impair his vision,   and this makes Cypher think of the time his  daughter called him during the war. Senshi   had found an original copy of Moby Dick, which  was a big deal because real books weren't around   anymore. Cypher had acted very coldly toward her  enthusiasm, and now he's starting to regret it,   so he decides not to take the medicine. Moments  later, Kitai notices his suit has turned black.   Cypher explains it's equipped with motion sensors,  and the colour black means there's a life form   coming for him. Suddenly, a large baboon emerges  from the woods, and Cypher advises Kitai to stay   still. However Kitai prefers tossing a rock at it  to try to scare it away, this causes a whole group   of baboons to come out and begin throwing rocks at  Kitai. The boy begins running as fast as possible,   and Cypher guides him toward the nearest river  to keep the baboons from following him. Kitai   quickly crosses the river, but even if the baboons  aren't following him anymore, he keeps running   with his blade out because he's too nervous and  scared. Cypher has to yell at him to make him   stop and take the knee so he'll calm down. At that  moment, Cypher notices there are toxins in Kitai's   bloodstream and asks his son to check his body.  Kitai discovers he has a leech on his hand and   immediately takes it off, but the toxin is still  in his system. Cypher gives him instructions to   inject the antidote, but since he's starting not  to feel his hands anymore, Kitai has to drop his   body on the needle to make it stick and falls  unconscious. A few hours later, Cypher notices   the temperature is going down and forces Kitai to  wake up to find a hotspot, which is ten kilometres   away. Kitai begins running as fast as he can,  and while Cypher watches his son, he hears the   computer inform him he needs an arterial shunt to  treat his leg. Once again, Cypher refuses to take   the medicine and goes through the procedure while  enduring the pain. As he works, he thinks about   Senshi's nineteenth birthday celebration, which he  had to watch through a screen because he was on a   mission. Senshi asked him to blow out the candles  on her cake, and Cypher only accepted after lots   of begging. The candles went out because younger  Kitai blew them for him. When Kitai finally   reaches the hotspot, he checks his equipment and  discovers two inhalers are broken, but he lies to   his dad and says he's got them all. Cypher sees  a reaction on the screen that may indicate lying,   but doesn't say more. Kitai takes a vial and  hides under a tree while it begins to rain,   so he uses the chance to ask his dad how he  managed to ghost during the war. Cypher tells   him an Ursa once stabbed him in his shoulder with  its pincer and during the struggle, they fell into   the river. The Ursa tried to drown him, but when  Cypher accepted his death, the pincer came out   because the Ursa couldn't find him anymore. Cypher  had understood that fear wasn't real even if anger   exists, it's only a thing in people's thoughts  about the future. The next morning, Cypher sends   Kitai to the waterfall because the probes have  found some interesting readings. On his way there,   Kitai sees a pile of dead monkeys, proof of a  greater danger. Once Kitai makes it to the falls,   Cypher makes him check his inventory, and Kitai  tries to lie about the inhalers again. Cypher   calls out his lie and makes some calculations that  indicate Kitai won't be able to finish the mission   without the inhalers, thus he orders him to abort  the mission. Kitai begins thinking about how he   had to watch Senshi die and refuses to do that  with his dad, so he tells Cypher he won't be a   coward again. In fact, he thinks Cypher is the  coward because he hadn't been home to protect   his family when the Ursa attacked. Cypher ignores  the jab and insists that Kitai should turn around,   but Kitai ignores him and jumps off the falls,  using his suit to glide through the air. At that   moment, a huge condor shows up and begins chasing  him, so Kitai tries to steer to hide behind the   waterfalls. However the condor is fast and as  soon as Kitai comes out, the bird attacks him.   Kitai falls unconscious and Cypher loses all  communication with him. Moments later, Cypher   wakes up in the condor's nest with its chicks.  He tries to leave quietly, but suddenly several   lions show up, trying to get inside to eat. The  condor attacks the pride, but many of them dodge   it and keep on trying to enter. Kitai manages to  throw a lion out, and the condor grabs another,   but when a third lion comes in, Kitai has no  choice but to use his blade. He doesn't want to   fight, so instead he cuts a hole in the ground to  make the lion fall. Once all the lions are gone,   Kitai leaves the nest, and he's devastated to see  the condor mourning the death of all its chicks.   Afterwards, Kitai tries to contact his dad, only  to discover his communicator is broken. Back in   the ship, Cypher gets images from his drones  showing the bodies of the rangers hanging on   a tree, which means the Ursa is out and about.  Cypher decides to record a message for his wife,   simply saying he's lost their son. Meanwhile Kitai  keeps travelling through the forest and hides   inside a cave to avoid the night cold. Inside  he finds drawings left by the cavemen and many   dangerous serpents that he avoids just in time. He  makes some calculations about the distance he has   left and his inventory - the chances aren't good,  but he needs to try anyway. The next morning,   Kitai leaves the cave and notices the condor  is following him. Thinking it wants to attack,   Kitai begins running away and soon he  needs to use his last inhaler. Afterwards,   Kitai builds a small raft to sail down  the river. When he takes a nap to rest,   he dreams of Senshi appearing next to him, and he  tries telling her that on the day of her death,   he almost left the containment to help her.  Senshi doesn't believe him but she doesn't mind,   because she thinks he did the right thing by  saving himself. She also thinks Cypher is mad   at himself for what happened. Then Kitai tries to  recite Moby Dick to prove he's been reading it,   but Senshi yells at him to wake up. Kitai opens  his eyes and discovers the raft has reached land.   The temperature's starting to drop so Kitai rushes  to find a hotspot, but he isn't fast enough and   falls unconscious on the ground as the plants  surrounding him freeze. Kitai thinks he'll die,   but when he wakes up in the morning, he discovers  something on top of him that kept him warm: it   turns out it's the condor, who died to save him as  thanks for fighting for its chicks. After thanking   the creature, Kitai continues his journey. It's  getting hard to breathe, but finding a piece of   the ship on the ground inspires him to keep going.  Moments later, Kitai finally finds the ship's   tail, and he immediately puts his hands on more  inhalers and a new blade. Then he investigates the   area and finds the Ursa shell is open, confirming  the monster left. Back on the ship, Cypher is   dreaming about little Kitai handing him his own  blade. He's suddenly woken up by Kitai's voice   because he's found a communicator and the beacon  in the ship's tail. Cypher tries to talk to him,   but Kitai can't hear him because he's in the black  zone. Kitai doesn't know this and tries to use the   beacon anyway, but it doesn't work. Frustrated and  desperate, Kitai begins throwing a tantrum, but   soon he remembers his father's advice and takes  the knee to calm himself down. Kitai realizes   that there's an interference in the area and that  climbing the neighbouring volcano should allow him   to activate the beacon without obstructions. On  his way to the volcano, Kitai finds the body of   a ranger, with the Ursa left there to scare him  and trigger his pheromones. Kitai tries his best   to ignore it and keeps going until he reaches the  base of the volcano, where he tries to launch the   beacon again and fails. Cypher notices the Ursa  on the scanner and hopes his son acts fast before   he's found. Then Kitai enters a cave to try to  find a way to the top of the volcano. Inside he   finds the Ursa waiting for him, and the monster  immediately attacks, only to get trapped under a   pile of rocks in the process. Kitai begins running  as the Ursa frees itself and chases him, so the   boy decides to hide in a pool of water. Back on  the ship, the computer starts failing and Cypher   loses access to the medical treatment, causing  him to begin losing consciousness. Meanwhile Kitai   swims toward a source of light that allows him  to resurface into a pit. When he starts to climb   it to reach the top of the volcano, the Ursa  suddenly jumps out of the water and grabs the   boy's foot. Kitai kicks the beast to send it back  into the water then finishes climbing the pit to   come outside. Immediately Kitai tries to activate  the beacon, but the Ursa returns and jumps on him,   hitting him on the rocks and making him drop the  gadget. As Kitai wiggles on the ground in pain,   he remembers the day Senshi protected him  and all the advice Cypher has given him,   allowing Kitai to finally concentrate and overcome  his fear, achieving ghosting. The creature loses   track of him and Kitai takes advantage of its  confusion to attack it with his blade. Since the   beast can't defend itself, it only takes Kaita a  few precise strikes to finally kill it. All this   is seen by Cypher before he loses consciousness  for good. Afterwards, Kitai finally fires the   beacon, and in a few hours the rangers arrive  to rescue them. Kitai's worried about his dad,   but when he checks on him, he confirms he's fine.  Cypher forces his sore body to stand up to salute   his son with respect for his bravery, but Kitai  runs to hug his father as he says he wants to   work with his mom. For the first time ever, Cypher  hugs back and responds he also wants to retire.