The film was loosely based on an original story idea by Will Smith about a father-and-son trip in the wilderness before it was eventually reworked into a sci-fi setting, taking place 1,000 years in the future where humans evacuated Earth to another planet due to a massive environmental catastrophe.

When Cypher gets injured from the crash, Kitai must travel across the wild environment in search of a backup beacon to fire a distress signal, while having to defend himself from the highly evolved animals, as well as an extraterrestrial creature that detects its prey by smelling fear.

In the future on a human-populated space colony, Nova Prime, the S'krell extraterrestrial race attempts to take it over with creatures called Ursas, which hunt by "sensing" fear.

Ranger Corps, a global peacekeeping organization, defeats them with a fear-suppressing technique called "ghosting", but not before an Ursa kills Senshi, the daughter of their leader Cypher Raige.

During flight, their spaceship is caught in an asteroid shower, causing them to crash-land on Earth, which humans had evacuated a thousand years earlier due to an environmental cataclysm.

In her nest, Kitai fails to defend her chicks against large panthers before escaping to a river, where he drifts on a raft and a thermal shift nearly freezes him to death.

[6] Smith had his production company Overbrook contact Gary Whitta (who was then known for his script for The Book of Eli) with a simple log line for a film: a father and son crash landed on Earth 1000 years after it had been abandoned by humankind.

Impressed with the entire script, Shyamalan officially made this project—then entitled One Thousand A. E.—his next directorial effort on October 20, 2010, and quietly shelved his own secret untitled project with Bruce Willis, Bradley Cooper, and Gwyneth Paltrow loosely attached.

Sony Pictures Entertainment has a first-look deal with Overbrook, so it was expected to be the studio home for A. E.[8] Shyamalan later suggested the film would feature other members of the Smith family, and that it would not be in 3D but he had "an idea for something kind of technically interesting".

Doug Belgrad, president of Columbia Pictures, made the announcement and said, "Night is an outstanding filmmaker who has a tremendous vision for this science-fiction adventure story and we couldn't be more excited to be working again with Jaden after our experiences on The Pursuit of Happyness and The Karate Kid," and added "We're thrilled to have the two of them together on this project."

[33] Sony's worldwide marketing and distribution chairman, Jeff Blake, said that "Night is, without a doubt, a world-class filmmaker who we were thrilled to team up with on this project," but "Together, we decided to focus our campaign on both the action and both Will and Jaden given that 'After Earth' is an adventure story of a father and son."

[35] The film premiered on May 29 at Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City, with a wide variety of celebrities attending including Bruce Willis, 50 Cent, Spike Lee, and Justin Bieber.

[40] The event was held for registered Cine Gear Expo attendees and Sony guests from 6:30-9:30 pm[41] followed by a panel discussion with the filmmakers and production team.

[44] ESA and Sony are holding the After Earth competition to win the opportunity to go to Bordeaux, France, and have a 'space experience' in weightlessness on a 'parabolic' flight on Novespace's ZERO-G aircraft.

The winner would have received paid travel expenses to and from Bordeaux and one night's accommodation for two people and would only be eligible to participate in the reduced gravity aircraft on October 25 following a medical exam.

[45] Several books were released as supplemental tie-ins for the film: After Earth: Innocence by Michael Jan Friedman and Robert Greenberger, illustrated by Benito Lobel.

It contains the secrets of ghosting, the mastery of the cutlass, a schematic of the Ranger base, a complete guide to the highly evolved animals of Earth, and a handwritten journal entry from Cypher Raige.

"[52] Sony Pictures spokesman Steve Elzer said a weekend take of about $30 million in the United States and Canada would be a solid number for a movie that is not a branded sequel.

The website's critical consensus reads, "After Earth is a dull, ploddingly paced exercise in sentimental sci-fi—and the latest setback for director M. Night Shyamalan's once-promising career.

"[69] Jim Vejvoda of IGN awarded the film a 6.7 out of 10 and commented, "M. Night Shyamalan isn't quite back in top form here, but After Earth is certainly the best movie he's made in years.

Rene Rodriguez of The Miami Herald said that "the CGI creatures in the film look as fake as the monkeys in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull".

[72] Charlie McCollum of the San Jose Mercury News called them "surprisingly unconvincing, a step or two above the effects in those deliberately cheese ball sci-fi flicks the Syfy channel shows on Saturday night.

"[73] Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post called the production design "blandly generic" and the special effects, props and costumes "cheap and slapdash-looking".

He told Rich Juzwiak of Gawker: The themes of the movie appear to be standard adventure fare: physical courage, coming of age, father/son relationships, battling danger to prove oneself and earn a father's respect.

There is no mention of evil psychiatrists, mind control, engrams, etc.Touretzky also addressed multiple points made by the Scientology hypothesis including the film's marketing materials prominently featuring a volcano: The original version of Dianetics did not have any pictures on the cover.

[96][97] Flyers were also posted in East Village, Manhattan requesting Scientology members to see After Earth a minimum of three times and then upload a positive video for Will Smith on that website.

[99] The video and the site was created by Jason Selvig and Davram Stiefler of the comedy duo The Good Liars[100][101] who had previously pretended to be Time Warner Cable representatives asking people how they can make service worse for customers.

[103] The church's director of public affairs, Karin Pouw, stated to TheImproper magazine that "The film and its story line contain themes common to many of the world's philosophies, not unique to Scientology."

While Pouw did not dispute the similarities, she countered that overcoming fear has been a universal theme in stories for thousands of years as well central to countless film plots.

She noted the same logic would seemingly make Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace a Scientology-themed movie, which includes the dialogue, "Fear is the path to the Dark Side.