Earth to Echo
| Earth to Echo | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Dave Green |
| Screenplay by | Henry Gayden |
| Story by |
|
| Produced by |
|
| Starring |
|
| Cinematography | Maxime Alexandre |
| Edited by |
|
| Music by | Joseph Trapanese |
Production companies |
|
| Distributed by | Relativity Media |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 91 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $13 million[2] |
| Box office | $45.3 million[1] |
Earth to Echo is a 2014 American science fiction film directed by Dave Green, and produced by Ryan Kavanaugh and Andrew Panay. Based on a screenplay by Henry Gayden, the film stars Teo Halm, Brian "Astro" Bradley, Reese C. Hartwig and Ella Wahlestedt as four neighborhood friends who find a robotic, telekinetic alien in the desert, and are soon hunted by dangerous forces who seek to take the alien, who the kids name "Echo", for themselves. The film is shot in a found footage style from many perspectives, including through a handheld camera, smartphone cameras, and the robot's eyes.[3]
The film was originally developed and produced by the Walt Disney Company, under the leadership of Rich Ross, but Disney, unsatisfied with the project, sold the distribution rights to Relativity Media in 2013, on the advice of producer Andrew Panay.[4] Relativity Media theatrically released the film in the United States on July 2, 2014. Earth to Echo received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $45.3 million worldwide.
Plot
Three childhood friends, Alex, Tuck, and Munch, live in a small Nevada neighborhood that will soon be demolished for a highway construction project. The day before they're set to move, their phones all start displaying mysterious patterns, which Munch discovers lead to coordinates in the nearby desert. They decide to spend their last night together biking to the coordinates to investigate, recording their experience on their smartphones and video cameras.
The three arrive at the coordinates and follow the map to a dusty, rusted object under an
They follow another map to the house of Emma, a classmate of the boys, who discovers Echo and joins their group. They follow another map to an arcade, where Alex is caught by a security guard. Emma goes back to rescue him while Echo causes a distraction. After rescuing Alex, the four stop at a restaurant, keeping Echo hidden in a backpack, but a construction worker steals the backpack and loads it into a truck. Munch jumps into the back of the truck as it pulls away, leaving the rest of the group behind. To catch up to them, Alex and Emma help Tuck steal his brother's car, which they drive to the construction site where Munch and Echo are being held.
The three sneak in, but get caught by the same construction worker, who reveals himself as Dr. Lawrence Masden, a scientist who intends to keep Echo on Earth so that he can study its technology. Masden's group is revealed as the group that shot Echo down in the first place. Masden tries to convince the kids that if Echo repairs the key to his spaceship and takes off in it, it will kill everyone in the neighborhood; the kids pretend to be convinced, and promise to help Masden find the spaceship if he takes them to Munch and Echo. Masden brings the three to a scrap junkyard, where Echo seemingly dies as a result of the violent experimentation inflicted on him, but with encouragement from the kids, he revives, completes his repairs, and distracts the agents long enough for the kids to drive back home. At Alex's house, the spaceship key goes into the ground by itself, and they realize the agents invented the false construction project as a cover to dig up the neighborhood, as the entire ship is in the ground beneath it.
Trusting Echo, Alex takes him down the hole made by the key. At the bottom, the group finds a room that turns out to be the spaceship's core, where the key connects to the rest of it. Once the key is connected to the core, allowing Echo to use it to pilot the ship, he begins starting up the ship. After they all say goodbye and the kids exit the core, the ship's separate parts telekinetically come out of the ground all over the neighborhood, and reassemble it in mid-air, and all without destroying the neighborhood. Once fully reassembled, the ship then flies away. The project put on by the agents is abandoned but Alex and Munch relocate anyway, as their families have already bought new homes elsewhere. However, as Tuck's didn't, he stays, and new neighbors and residents move in to the neighborhood. Sometime later, the three and Emma meet up again, as the film ends with Alex holding up his phone towards the sky.
In a post-credit scene, Alex addresses his friends as his phone apparently starts moving and glitching out like before, implying that Echo has returned.
Cast
- Teo Halm as Alex Nichols
- Brian "Astro" Bradley as Tucker "Tuck" Simms
- Reese Hartwig as Reginald "Munch" Barrett
- Ella Wahlestedt as Emma Hastings
- Jason Gray-Stanford as Dr. Lawrence Masden
- Algee Smith as Marcus Simms
- Cassius Willis as Calvin Simms
- Sonya Leslie as Theresa Simms
- Kerry O'Malley as Janice Douglas
- Virginia Louise Smith as Betty Barrett
- Peter Mackenzie as James Hastings
- Valerie Wildman as Christine Hastings
- Mary Pat Gleason as Dusty (Mullet Lady at Bar)
- Chris Wylde as Security Guard
- Brooke Dillman as Diner Waitress
- Myk Watford as Blake Douglas
- Tiffany Espensen as Charlie
- Israel Broussard as Cameron
- Sean Carroll as Podcast Voice (voice)
Production
Earth to Echo was commissioned by Andrew Panay, Panay Films President of Production, under the working title, Untitled Wolf Adventure, while the studio shifted leadership between
Music
Release
The film was initially scheduled for release on January 10, 2014 and April 25, 2014.
Home media
The film was released on
Reception
Box office
Earth to Echo opened on July 2, 2014 in the United States in 3,179 theaters, ranking at #6, and accumulating $8,364,658 over its 3-day opening weekend (an average of $2,590 per venue) and $13,567,557 since its Wednesday launch. As of 27 December 2014[update], the film had grossed $38.9 million in the U.S. and $6.4 million overseas, for a total of $45.3 million worldwide, against a $13 million budget, making it a moderate box office success.[1]
Critical reception
On the
Accolades
At the Teen Choice Awards, Earth to Echo received a nomination for Choice Summer Movie.[11] Hartwig won Best Performance in a Feature Film at the 36th Young Artist Awards.[12]
See also
References
- ^ a b c "Earth to Echo (2014)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved October 14, 2014.
- ^ Lang, Brent (June 25, 2014). "'Earth to Echo': Shrewd Counter-Programming or Sacrificial Lamb?". Variety. Retrieved July 9, 2014.
- ^ Schaefer, Sandy (March 19, 2014). "'Earth to Echo' Trailer: 1980s Sci-Fi Throwback by Way of Found-Footage". Screen Rant. Retrieved September 3, 2022.
- ^ Brew, Simon (July 25, 2017). "Earth to Echo: The Family Movie that Disney Dumped". Den of Geek. Retrieved September 3, 2022.
- ^ Ford, Rebecca (June 25, 2014). "Why 'Earth to Echo' Moved From Studio to Studio". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 9, 2014.
- ^ "Relativity To Premiere 'Earth To Echo' At LA Film Festival". Deadline Hollywood. May 20, 2014. Retrieved May 27, 2014.
- ^ "News". Blu-ray.com. 2014.
- ^ "Earth to Echo". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
- Fandom, Inc.Retrieved March 2, 2023.
- ^ McClintock, Pamela (2014-07-05). "Box Office: 'Transformers 4' Tops Long Holiday With $53.8M; 'Tammy' No. 2 With $32.9M". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2022-04-15.
- ^ Nordyke, Kimberly (August 10, 2014). "Teen Choice Awards: The Complete Winners List". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on August 12, 2014. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
- Young Artist Awards. Archived from the originalon November 19, 2016. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
External links
- Earth to Echo at IMDb