Earth to Echo

Earth to Echo is a 2014 American found footage science fiction film directed by Dave Green, and produced by Ryan Kavanaugh and Andrew Panay. The film was originally developed and produced by Walt Disney Pictures, which later sold the distribution rights to Relativity Media, which released the film in theaters on July 2, 2014.

The film is mostly shot in a found footage style through many perspectives, as the story revolves around four kids who are being separated when they find an alien in the desert.

Plot
Three neighborhood teens and childhood friends, Alex, Tuck, and Munch, are upset by the fact that their neighborhood, Mulberry Woods, Nevada, is being demolished, allegedly for a new highway construction project, and they all have to move away because of it.

While at Tuck's house, their phones start to glitch out, displaying seemingly random graphical patterns. They soon find out, through Munch, that the patterns are actually a map to a spot in the desert 17.6 miles away. They decide to go to the desert on their bikes and disguise it as a sleepover, recording the experience on various cameras because it's their last night together.

Tuck, Alex, and Munch soon make it to the desert, as they follow the map to a dusty, rusted object under a cable tower. Tuck, confused, decides to abruptly call it off when the object starts to copy Alex's ringtone. They follow another map to a barn, as the object telekinetically starts to repair itself, and is able to answer questions using a "Yes" or "No" answer, from which the boys learn that it is from outer space, has crash landed, and was seriously injured.

They soon follow another map to a pawn shop, where the object further repairs itself, and reveals itself as an alien, using Alex's phone camera to "see" and befriend the three. While in an alley, they decide to name the alien "Echo." They again follow another map to a house in which Emma, a Mulberry Woods high school student, lives and finds out about Echo. Emma soon joins the team, as they go to a bar, and then an arcade, as she finds out the object Echo is in is a key to a spaceship hidden in Mulberry Woods.

At the arcade, Alex is caught by a security guard. Although Tuck and Munch suspect Alex allowed himself to be caught because he is angry at Tuck for accidentally abandoning him, Emma goes back in to rescue Alex, and Echo scares the security guard away. Stopping at a nearby restaurant, the four talk and reconcile, as a "construction worker" captures both Munch and Echo. Tuck, Alex, and Emma then go to Tuck's brother's party and steal his car to catch up with Munch and Echo. They find the "construction site" where Munch is being interrogated and Echo is being experimented on, but get caught by the same "construction worker." He explains that he and his group (who seem to actually be government agents of some kind) shot down Echo's spaceship and intend to prevent him from repairing it and going home so they can capture and study Echo's technology. However, right after they shot it down they discovered they couldn't find any debris from the spaceship, so they invented a false construction project so they could dig up the neighborhood, thinking it must have somehow concealed itself underground.

After the kids lie and say they'll help them find Echo's spaceship, the agents take the four kids to a junkyard, where Echo seemingly dies as a result of the experimentation, but with encouragement from the kids he revives and completes his repairs, then diverts and traps the agents long enough for the four kids to drive back home and find the core of the spaceship, which was buried under Alex's home the entire time. Alex takes Echo inside, followed by the rest of them, where they say goodbye as Echo safely starts up the ship, telekinetically reassembles it from parts that had been buried all over the neighborhood, and flies away.

After the event, the construction project is abandoned, but Alex and Munch move away anyway, as their families had already bought new homes elsewhere. Tuck stays, however, and new neighbors move in. Sometime later, the four meet up again, as the film ends with Alex holding up his phone towards the sky.

In a scene after the credits, Alex addresses his friends as his phone apparently starts to move and glitch out, a sign that Echo may be returning.

Cast

 * Teo Halm as Alex Nichols
 * Brian "Astro" Bradley as Tucker ”Tuck" Simms
 * Reese Hartwig as Reginald "Munch" Barrett
 * Ella Wahlestedt as Emma
 * 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 Sean Bailey, Walt Disney Studios' President of Production, under the working title, Untitled Wolf Adventure, while the studio shifted leadership between Rich Ross and Alan Horn. After Horn's succession as Chairman and viewing a final cut of the film, he decided to put the film into turnaround. After Producer Andrew Panay met with Relativity President Tucker Tooley, Disney eventually sold the film's distribution rights and copyrights to Relativity Media in 2013.

Release
The film was initially scheduled for release on January 10, 2014 and April 25, 2014. After being delayed, Earth to Echo premiered on June 14, 2014 at the Los Angeles Film Festival and opened in theaters across the U.S. on July 2, 2014.

Marketing
The first trailer was released on December 12, 2013.

Home media
The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 21, 2014.

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. , 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.

Critical reception
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes summarized the critical response: "Earth to Echo doesn't do itself any favors by beggaring comparisons to E.T., but for younger viewers, it should prove a reasonably entertaining diversion". 50% of the reviews collected on the website were positive. The website surveyed 120 critics and, categorizing the reviews as positive or negative, assessed 57 as positive and 60 as negative. Of the 117 reviews, it determined a rating average of 5.4 out of 10. The website had assigned the film a score of 49%. Another aggregator Metacritic surveyed 31 critics and assessed 14 reviews as positive, 15 as mixed, and 2 as negative. Based on the reviews, it gave the film a score of 53 out of 100, which indicate "mixed or average reviews".