TAE Technologies, the world’s largest private fusion energy company, features in Tom Hanks’ new sci-fi drama Finch, redesigned as a “space energy fusion” company.
Hanks stars in the film as a TAE robotics engineer who survives a cataclysmic solar flare event. In the aftermath, Hanks’ character ‘Finch’ becomes concerned for the welfare of his dog, Goodyear, in the wasteland that is left behind. To this end, he creates a robot companion for him called Jeff.
After another natural disaster strikes, the part mammal, part android family sets out on a new adventure to find a more hospitable home.
Directed by Game of Thrones’ Miguel Sapochnik and produced by Robert Zemeckis (who worked with Hanks on Forrest Gump), although Finch might not reflect the real TAE business, it does include several parallels.
The TAE Technologies name and logo can be spotted throughout the film, including on Finch’s uniform and badge. The film’s emphasis on maintaining hope in the face of crisis also ties in closely with TAE’s real life ethos, even if in the film the company is based in St. Louis as opposed to its real life California HQ.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Sapochnik said: “There’s this line, ‘Hope is what keeps us alive,’ and it felt like we needed to lean into that.
“The world’s been going through a lot of turmoil and we realised we didn’t want to add to it, we wanted to somehow find some meaning in all the chaos.”
In an interview with Collider, Hanks says that vieweers should listen out for Finch’s “very, very vibrant stories about a smart guy who works at a tech company and does all of this magnificent stuff.” Those stories are applicable to TAE’s real life co-founder, Dr. Norman Rostoker.
Established in 1998, TAE was founded to develop the ultimate clean energy solution: a commercial fusion power source that is compact, cost-effective, capable of sustaining the planet for centuries, and fundamentally safe.
Today, the patented technologies created for TAE’s unique approach to fusion energy are now being leveraged for adjacent innovations in electric vehicles, power management, and more.
While TAE might not make robots, the company does work tirelessly on developing the technologies that will put humanity on course for a better future than that seen on the screen in Finch.
However, when it comes to finding solutions that protect and preserve life on Earth, TAE certainly shares Finch’s philosophy that: “We do this together.”
Further information around the TAE ethos can be found here.
Finch can be seen on Apple TV+.
Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash
