Tanner vs. The End of the World (2021)

''This is about the 2021 film. For the 2012 book, see Tanner vs. The End of the World Part One: Animal Instinct. For the series, see Tanner vs. The End of the World''"'A film adaptation of the 2012 book, be in the shoes of John Tanner as an unknown pathogen mutates animals. In this adaptation, Matt Damon stars John Tanner, a marine biologist who must team up with Clarkson, an lion who turns into a raging creature of enormous size and growing into bigger and larger sizes as a result of a rogue experiment, to stop 4 other animals from destroying San Francisco!' - Official website description"Tanner vs. The End of the World is a 2021 Action Film produced by Bizarre Productions and distributed by Sony Pictures. It premiered on May 23rd, 2021 at the El Capitan Theater & on June 17th, 2021 in the US.

The film stars Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Ryan Reynolds, Scarlett Johansson, and Nolan North. It follows a marine biologist, John Tanner, who must team up with Clarkson, an lion who turns into a raging creature of enormous size and growing into bigger and larger sizes as a result of a rogue experiment to stop other mutated animals from destroying San Francisco.

Principal photography began in May 2019 in SeaWorld Orlando & San Francisco, but was halted temporarily in April 2020 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, resuming in February 2021. The film was released on the El Capitian Theater in May 23rd, 2021, and later in the United States on June 17th, 2021, by Paramount Pictures, in 2D, RealD 3D and IMAX. The film has grossed over $500 million worldwide and received mixed reviews from critics, but positive reception from audience, with praise for its performances (particularly Damon and Pitt), action sequences and visual effects, but criticism of its screenplay, pacing and storyline. A sequel, Tanner vs. The End of the World: Pandemic, released on September 21st, 2022, with Matt Damon & Brad Pitt returning to play their roles.

Plot
In 2030, Earth is under siege by an alien invasion with many alien warships, attacking various cities and resulting in the deaths of thousands of lives. Other countries attempt to refight the aliens with conventional weaponry but were ineffective against the ship's advanced deflector shields. The President issued an emergency meeting at the United Nations where world leaders, senators and representatives gathered to discuss on how to defeat the threat. The chairman of the joint chiefs, Carter MacMillan suggested to launch a nuclear counterstrike but that would kill them too.

However, a renowned scientist from Germany, Isaac Kleinberg came before them with a sign of hope; a recovered one piece of the saucers that the tanks manage to break off. This inspired the masses to develop a. super weapon to end the invasion and the president and joint chiefs agreed to follow along with his plan. Dr. Kleinberg along with many leading scientists and engineers to work together in hidden laboratories around the world created a series of state-of-art pulse generators in a proximate 2 years and the United Nations was formed to fend off the invaders to buy them time. 80 generators were built and are then placed upon key famous landmarks around the world. Activated in unison, the generators emitted a massive EMP wave that crippled the warships and fighters, causing them to fall. The invaders were defeated, and humanity was saved, with many mourned for their losses while some rejoiced and celebrating their victory in relief that it was finally over. Unbeknownst to them, the downed ships started leaking out glowing green ooze into streams, gutters, and oceans around the world never knowing that the seeds of their fallen enemy would bear fruit to a newer threat.

5 years later in 2035, Athena-1, a research space station owned by gene-manipulation company Enzyme, which has been experimenting with Alien Green, a green sludge similar to Kaiju Blue, is destroyed after a laboratory rat mutates and wreaks havoc. Harv Kleinberg, the lone surviving crew member, manages to escape in a pod when the station implodes, along with pathogen canisters that Enzyme CEO Mondi Sheppard (Ryan Reynolds) orders him to retrieve, but the pod disintegrates, killing him and leaving a trail of debris across the world. One canister is swallowed by an Bengal Tiger in India, one is exposed to an American Bald Eagle and one near the waters between Washington and British Columbia which is exposed to a southern resident orca.

Marine Biologist John Tanner (Matt Damon), a former Green Beret and member of an anti-poaching group, works at the Atlanta Zoo alongside former CIA operative, Tobias Jones (Brad Pitt). He has befriended a lion named Clarkson that he saved from several poachers in Kenya back in 2033 when they killed his mother. One of the canisters crash-lands near Clarkson and he is exposed to the pathogen.

As Clarkson considerably larger and becomes more aggressive, Tanner is contacted by genetic engineer Dr. Isaac Kleinberg, who explains that the pathogen was developed by Enzyme to rewrite genes on a massive scale. He had hoped to advance research on CRISPR following human victory in the Great Solar War as a potential cure for diseases, but discovered Enzyme's plans to use it as a biological weapon and was falsely incarcerated, during which his terminally ill father died. Clarkson escapes from captivity and goes on a rampage at the preserve. Clarkson is soon captured by a government team led by Agent Cole Bertrand (Nolan North) and put on a Airbus A400M Atlas airplane. Meanwhile, Mondi and his sister Heather oversee a mercenary team's attempt to capture the mutated tiger, Garcia, in India, which goes awry, and the entire team is slaughtered.

Mondi, hoping to capture Garcia and use Clarkson to cover up her plot, uses a massive transmitter atop the Transamerica Pyramid to lure the animals – engineered to respond aggressively to a certain radio frequency – to San Francisco, unconcerned about the massive risk to civilian lives this poses. Clarkson reacts violently to the sound and crashes the plane, though Tanner, Jones, and Bertrand parachute to safety. Clarkson survives the crash and joins Garcia as they make their way to San Francisco, while Tanner and Tobias are aided by Bertrand in stealing a military helicopter in pursuit.

They arrive to find Clarkson and Garcia rampaging through the city as the military struggles to contain them. The situation worsens when the mutated bald eagle, Ethan, joins the duo, causing even more casualties. Planning to steal an antidote to turn the animals back to normal, Tanner and Jones infiltrate Enzyme's base of operations at the tower and take several vials of it, but are caught by the Sheppard's as Mondi reveals that the antidote only eliminates the animals' enhanced aggressiveness rather than reversing the other effects and shoots Tanner, but he survives. When Clarkson climbs to the top of the tower, Mondi orders Tanner to distract it while she attempts to escape with Jones at gunpoint. Jones slips a vial into Mondi's handbag and pushes her toward Clarkson, who devours the terrorist along with the vial, returning him to his normal personality. Down below, Bertrand takes incriminating evidence from Heather, who is crushed to death by falling debris. As the damaged tower topples, Tanner and Jones survive by crash-landing a helicopter on the Oracle Park.

Tanner stays to help Clarkson defeat the other animals, while Jones and Bertrand rush to prevent the military from deploying a B83 Nuclear bomb against them. Clarkson battles against Garcia, whom Tanner tricks into advancing towards Ethan, who decapitates her using his jaws. Garcia chases Tanner, but Clarkson intervenes in time for Tanner to incapacitate her using grenades. However, Garcia survives and overpowers Clarkson, who is impaled by a rebar. Tanner distracts Garcia using a fallen Apache attack helicopter, but is nearly killed before Clarkson pierces Garcia through the eye with the same rebar, killing her.

With the threat neutralized, the airstrike is aborted. In the aftermath, Clarkson and Tanner, joined by Jones and Bertrand, help clear the city of debris and rescue civilians.

Humans

 * Matt Damon as John Tanner, a former Green Beret as well as marine biologist and head of an anti-poaching unit.
 * Brad Pitt as Tobias Jones, a former CIA operative who teams up with Tanner.
 * Ryan Reynolds as Mondi Sheppard, the CEO of Enzyme, the company responsible for the pathogen that caused Clarkson, Garcia and Ethan's mutations.
 * Nolan North as Cole Bertrand, a government agent who works for the FBI.
 * Scarlett Johansson as Heather Sheppard, Mondi's dimwitted sister.
 * Topher Grace as Roarke, the leader of a private military group.
 * Joseph Kucan as Harv Kleinberg, a scientist and astronaut.
 * Ned Luke as Dr. Isaac Kleinberg, a scientist who helped humanity in the Great Solar War and friend of Tanner.