Tom Hanks And Robin Wright Got The De-Aging Treatment In A ‘Here’ First Look, And People Are Cracking The Same Joke

Every once in a while, a director will come around with an innovative movie idea. Richard Linklater filmed over the course of 12 years, while Martin Scorsese wanted to make a movie over the course of 30 years, but he just used some CGI instead and shot it over six months. He’s a busy guy, so that makes sense. Robert Zemeckis is known for two things: his quirky, often CGI-infused movies, and working with Tom Hanks. Sometimes, those ideas coincide, and that’s how we end up with Here. And The Polar Express.

Here is based on the graphic novel of the same name which focuses on one central location over hundreds of years and into the future. Zemeckis wanted to apply this ideal to a film, and Here was born.

The movie stars who else but Tom Hanks alongside Robin Wright and takes place in one room over 100 years. “The single perspective never changes, but everything around it does,” Zemeckis told Vanity Fair. “It’s actually never been done before. There are similar scenes in very early silent movies, before the language of montage was invented. But other than that, yeah, it was a risky venture.”

Risky, yes. But also familiar to anyone who has ever been to The Happiest/Sweatiest Place on Earth, Disney World, and ridden the Carousel of Progress, a slow-moving ride that is essentially the same premise as Here and had everyone thinking the same thing.

There were even rumors several years ago that Hanks would one day take over as narrator for the Carousel of Progress, but he was too busy enjoying his life, so we can’t blame him for that.

Aside from the obvious Carousel of Progress jokes, the main issue here is that we seem to have gone too far with the de-aging tech. Why couldn’t they have just cast younger versions of Hanks? Who knows. Chet Hanks is obviously available! But a teenage version of Hanks in the year 2024 just seems… wrong.

That said, however Hanks looks, there is no way it could possibly be worse than The Polar Express.

Here is slated to hit theaters on November 15.