Tom Cruise might have the most wildly varied cultural perception of any celebrity on Earth. It’s not enough to say that some love him and others hate him. He’s an icon that has moved through countless phases, but he’s never going to stop being famous. As a massive box-office draw, Cruise can make a project like Edge of Tomorrow a hit. I thank him for that, because even as it turns up on streaming top 10s again, it deserves the attention.
Director Doug Liman is a stunning talent with several considerable missteps. His second film, poorly-aged comedy Swingers, launched the careers of practically everyone involved aside from Liman himself. Liman found a more suitable launching pad in The Bourne Identity, a seminal spy thriller. He has a few great films to his name, but he also has Jumper and Chaos Walking. His collaborations with Tom Cruise usually work out, though.
Tom Cruise Lives, Dies, and Repeats on HBO’s Top Ten
Edge of Tomorrow is a loose adaptation of Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s 2004 light novel All You Need Is Kill. It’s a lot less dark than the book, which is well worth reading, but the film gets the story’s broad strokes. The plot follows Cruise as Major William Cage, a military PR rep who irritates a series of superior officers so much that they send him to die at war. That war sees humanity band together into the United Defense Force against a seemingly endless mass of alien invaders. On his first mission, Cage dies while blowing up a mighty alien foe, only to wake up 24 hours before the moment of his death. Cage and former time loop supersoldier Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) launch into a time loop, over which he can learn the secrets of his enemies and master the art of war.
Excellent video essayist Jacob Geller once described Edge of Tomorrow as the best video game movie, regardless of its non-game source material. There’s something very compelling about that characterization. The film captures some of the fundamental joys of playing a very difficult video game, complete with comparable VFX action. Watching Tom Cruise go to war, die horribly, and gradually learn the mechanics feels a lot like getting good at a game. The film’s central, high-concept premise soars alongside the compelling visuals. It is, essentially, “What if one of the guys from Aliens was also going through Groundhog Day?” Scratch most shooters, and you’ll get the same basic idea.
Edge of Tomorrow had a middling box-office performance. It brought in more than twice its production budget while falling short of whatever absurd expectations WB put on it. Critics generally praised the film, though that wasn’t a 100% consensus. As a project, Edge of Tomorrow captures good work from a ton of talented professionals. Many still talk about a potential sequel, but it’s hard to say we need more than one. Edge of Tomorrow or Live Die Repeat, as the studio lazily renamed it, stands on its own. Jump back in time and enjoy it all over again.
