Jaden Smith Fights All The Monkeys In Latest After Earth Clip

By Brent McKnight | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

Even in the future, even after crash landing on Earth 1,000 years after the last human left the planet, and even when surrounded by a swarm of angry monkeys, teens still don’t want to listen to their fathers. That’s the gist you get from the latest clip — second in as many days — from M. Night Shyamalan’s upcoming father-son space adventure After Earth.

This new video features real-life family members Will and Jaden Smith as Cypher (not kidding about that name) and Kitai Raige (not kidding about the last name either). The premise of the film is that the two run their spaceship aground on Earth. While this was once the cradle of all human life, that’s no longer the case. In fact, if Cypher is to be believed, everything on the planet has evolved to kill humans. For now we’ll look past obvious questions, like how things can evolve to kill humans if there are no humans around to kill, and get to the point of this clip.

The point is that Kitai is confronted by a bunch of really, really pissed-off apes. They’re screaming and chucking rocks at him, and it wouldn’t surprise me if one or more of them is also flinging poo about willy-nilly. Even though his father tells him not to panic, and especially not to move, the kid is antsy. He yells, spins his fighting sticks all around, and generally antagonizes them. It probably isn’t a good idea to poke the proverbial bear, which he must realize by the end, because he takes off running. I don’t know if that’s a better solution, but it seems like a reasonable response.

Again, though Shyamalan directed After Earth, his name is nowhere to be found on the marketing material. It feels like Sony wants him to direct their movie, but they don’t want anyone to know that he directed their movie. They’re probably banking on the box office draw of the Smith boys. For his part, Shyamalan, who also co-wrote the script, could use a hit. His last few films haven’t been particularly well received. Let’s hope he sticks to a good, straightforward action story instead of trying to cram twists where the sun don’t shine.

After Earth opens May 31st.