Taglines: No one would ever believe our story.
Earth to Echo is an American sci-fi drama film directed by Dave Green, and produced by Robbie Brenner and Andrew Panay. The film was originally developed and produced by Walt Disney Pictures, who eventually sold the distribution rights to Relativity Media, which released the completed film in theaters on July 2, 2014.
When a group of young friends begin to receive bizarre encrypted messages on their cellphones, they embark on an incredible adventure to discover the meaning behind these communications. Soon enough, they realize that the messages they are receiving are from a mysterious being from another world – one who desperately needs their help.
After a construction project begins digging in their neighborhood, best friends Tuck, Munch and Alex inexplicably begin to receive strange, encoded messages on their cell phones. Convinced something bigger is going on, they go to their parents and the authorities. When everyone around them refuses to take the messages seriously, the three embark on a secret adventure to crack the code and follow it to its source. But taking matters into their own hands gets the trio in way over their heads when they discover a mysterious being from another world who desperately needs their help. The epic, suspenseful and exciting journey that follows will change all of their lives forever.
About the Story
Tuck, Munch and Alex are a trio of inseparable friends whose lives are about to change. Their Las Vegas suburb, Mulberry Woods, is being destroyed by a highway construction project that is forcing their families to move away. They mourn what will surely be the end of their happiness and friendship as their families move to separate ends of the country.
During the last week together, Alex’s phone, as well as his family’s, begin “barfing”—displaying weird electronic signals. Munch and Tuck figure out these signals only start at a certain point in the neighborhood. At one point men from the construction crew come to give out new phones, apologizing for the apparent electrical short that caused this, but the boys hide their phones.
Munch discovers that the image on his phone is identical to a desert 20 miles away. While at school they plan to tell their parents they are sleeping out at one of the other boys’ houses and then ride their bikes to find what the image leads to.
That night, Tuck and Alex collect an extremely nervous Munch who has cold feet. After some convincing they get him to come, telling him it’s their last night together before Alex—who’s moving in with another foster family—and eventually all three, move away. They bike out to the desert and what they discover is something beyond their wildest imaginations: a small friendly alien robot who has become stranded on Earth. In need of their help to rebuild his spaceship, the three friends come together to protect the alien, which they name Echo. Trying to find missing parts, they travel all over the desert and into a pawn shop; a house that happens to be Emma’s (or, as Munch calls her, “Mannequin Girl”), who joins them to get away from her parents; a bar; and an arcade.
However, they are being chased by government officials who have gone undercover as construction workers to investigate a spaceship that entered Earth’s atmosphere near the construction site. They shot Echo down and, believing that if Echo rebuilds his ship it will kill everyone on Earth, plan to kill him. After collecting a few of the pieces, the kids and Echo are caught, and the government is almost able to kill Echo before they escape. They steal the government’s van and follow the last map on their phones to reach Echo’s spaceship.
The map leads them to Alex’s backyard; the spaceship was under the neighborhood all along. Tuck, Munch and Emma now believe the officials and try to convince Alex to believe them, too, but he doesn’t listen. Alex puts Echo in the spaceship and tearfully says goodbye. The spaceship rebuilds itself, pulling each piece out of the ground, and blasts off into the sky. Only the four kids are around to see it (except Munch’s mother, whom no one believes) and think the holes appear because of a brief earthquake caused by the ship taking off.
Having been wrong about their predictions regarding the spaceship, the government officials depart. The kids’ parents discover that they were out all night, getting them in trouble. While they saved their neighborhood, Alex and Munch still have to move away; Tuck is able to stay but regrets that it isn’t the same without his friends. Despite this, the group realizes that true best friends remain so despite whatever distance separates them, and they remain friends for life.
Earth to Echo
Directed by: Dave Green
Starring: Teo Halm, Astro, Reese C. Hartwig, Ella Wahlestedt, Jason Gray-Stanford, Samantha Elizondo
Screenplay by: Henry Gayden, Andrew Panay
Production Design by: Kasra Farahani
Cinematography by: Maxime Alexandre
Film Editing by: Carsten Kurpanek, Crispin Struthers
Costume Design by: Judianna Makovsky
Set Decoration by: Missy Parker
Music by: Joseph Trapanese
MPAA Rating: PG for some action and peril, and mild language.
Studio: Relativity Media
Release Date: July 2, 2014
Visits: 67
