If you ever have the misfortune of seeing Extinction (2018), there will likely be a few things about it that are noticeable.  First, it smacks of a few other titles.  It has elements of The Matrix (1999), The War of the Worlds (1953), and a hint of The Terminator (1984).  I listed those in the order of most to least alike, and I will trust that my synopsis of Extinction will draw out these similarities.  A title like this also has some hints of Christian eschatology since this is sort of like the end of the world.  It departs from any connection to Christianity with that event seemingly happening a few times.  Spoiler alert: there is only one apocalypse for us, not two.  As fantastical as this might sound so far, there are also parallels to be drawn between aspects of this story and our current politics.  As my initial sentence might suggest, none of this is good.

Speaking of not good, Peter’s dreams about Extinction are causing problems for him and his family.  He has visions of bullets of light coming from the sky and ripping through everyone around them, including some of his family and friends.  However, it is not the gloomy his forecast that makes life difficult for him and his peers.  It is that they function as a form of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) making his sleep spotty and being unresponsive to his daughters.  The morning we first meet him, after having yet another nightmarish slumber, he awakens next to a concerned wife, Alice (Lizzy Caplan), who wants him to get help.  She is not the only one of this opinion.  His boss at work, David (Mike Colter), recommends a wellness center called “Whole Life.”  That is an interesting name from a Catholic perspective since the only whole life is with God, but I digress.  Before this happens, Peter’s troubles play themselves out with his daughters in different ways.  The younger one, Lucy (Erica Tremblay), is more open to his idea of taking them all to the pier after getting off work early in order to make up for lost time.  His older daughter, Hanna (Amelia Crouch), is a little more hesitant to trust.  He promises Hanna that he has changed in order to get her excited to spend time as a family unit.  With that, he goes to work where he begins having some of those same visions of catastrophe, which causes him to black out and miss giving his wife and kids the afternoon for which they hoped.  The next day, Alice is Angry, but willing to listen when he says that he will be going to Whole Life after his shift at the factory.  To his credit, he follows through with this promise and is sitting down, waiting for an appointment, when he converses with another patient.  In the course of their discussion, the other man lets on that he is having reminisces that sound familiar to his own.  The fellow help seeker says he is going through with treatment because he is tired of the trauma he is causing his own family.  These words inspire Peter to skip therapy, and Alice is not happy when he admits to playing hooky.  All the same, they host an evening party for which he remains aloof for most of the proceedings.  As the festivities are winding down, his neighbor, Ray (Lex Shrapnel), comes out to the balcony to check on Peter.  Not too long into their conversation, they begin noticing flashes of brilliance coming from the sky.  It turns out to be what appears to be an alien invasion, the kind of event that matches what Peter had been seeing.  Shortly thereafter, vehicles from the sky start causing explosions around the city and shooting indiscriminately into buildings.  The next step is the visitors disgorging troops into the high rises in order to kill anyone who might have survived the initial barrage.  Alice and Peter have managed to collect their family, along with Ray’s bunch, and are trying to take shelter as best they can.  Inevitably, one of them gets into Alice and Peter’s apartment, and a fight ensues.  The seven humans are able to overpower the armored warrior, with Peter taking its gun.  Following the death of Ray’s group, Peter and company make their way to tunnels that will take them to the factory where he works.  The belief is that it will be the safest place for them, with its labyrinth of underground, bunker-like rooms.  The being they fought comes to, and because it can track its weapon, follows them.  It catches up to them just as they reach the underground, and the battle re-commences.  Peter is able to triumph once again, fighting with a ferocity inspired by Alice being wounded.  There is more than one revelation in this moment.  After causing several cracks to its helmet, it takes off the head cover to reveal a human man named Miles (Israel Broussard).  This fact takes Peter aback, and he makes Miles carry Alice to safety.  Upon getting to the factory, they are greeted by David, who tells them they have a train that will take everyone to safety.  David’s men are about to kill Miles when the captive claims that he can save Alice.  Sending Lucy and Hannah with the others, Peter makes Miles treat Alice.  In the process, we learn that everyone on Earth or synthetic, robotic humans.  There had been a war with real human, which they won, but proceeded to erase any memory of these events.  Meanwhile, humanity had retreated to Mars, and now they are back to reclaim the planet.  Observing the supposed enemy, Miles confesses that he has been touched by the depth of feeling exhibited by the cyborgs.  Hence, he lets them leave once Alice is able to move, and they make the last train as it is departing, blowing up their path as they go.

What would also be nice would be for you to go do anything else other than watch Extinction.  Indeed, there is not much else to say about the film from any perspective, Catholic or otherwise.  The only point worth mentioning is when it is finally revealed that Peter and all his fellows are synthetic.  It is not that shocking of a revelation, but it comes with a flashback that features humans talking about what they think of their creations.  The claim is made that while they are not God, they have made a creation to which they have become a god.  There are problems with such a statement.  There is nothing about man that is a “god,” at least not in the mythological sense.  We are made of the substance of God, but the same does not work in reverse.  In this vein, anything we make is done because of God, not from any ability we have come up with on our own.  As such, we should not be trying to create something that so closely approximates human life.  If you apply this logic to the film, what really is the different between Miles and Peter?  Sure, one has organic parts, and the other has synthetic variations.  But they behave in the same way, with equal emotional capacities.  In short, they have everything that makes us human.  This is what makes the flashbacks later in the movie at least somewhat interesting.  During it, the humans are seeking to denigrate people like Alice and Peter, casting them as evil and sub-human.  Slowly, they realize their self-worth.  Predictably, this does not come with any insights from God, but that is Hollywood for you.  Instead, it is wrapped in a non-linear plot, which is already not my favorite, and some pretty bad computer-generated imagery (CGI).

Actually, I would not be surprised if Extinction was not made entirely by CGI.  The performances are also as robotic as the characters they are intended to portray.  In short, sadly, I am not sure there is anything to be gained from this one.