Image credit: David James
Tom Cruise has outdone himself this time. In The Edge of Tomorrow, he not only managed to keep his shirt on (the entire film), but also hook us into a world that is true to it's tagline, "Live, Die, Repeat." The movie begins with Major William Cage, a coward, less than gracefully moving in the front lines to the English Channel.
But let's rewind for a brief moment and explain exactly what Cage does.
He is the slick, charming, ever-smiling UDF PR spokesman, the smoother than oil "talking head" of the United Defense Forces. And when he charms the masses, The General (Brendan Gleeson) decides to force him into the front-lines to capture heroic footage of their spokesman.
Cruise panicking is a welcome sight, even the nervous, "I'm not a soldier" stutter is surprisingly enduring.
So Major William Cage does what all desperate, sleazy spokesman do best: he stutters nervously, in a surprising move of boldness, tries to blackmail the General.
That lands his pretty, panicked face in the front lines for the hell of it. Cruise's reaction is perfect and proves that he can definitely underplay emotion when necessary to better the script. After a few major failings, one of them being his 2013 Oblivion, a movie no one remembers, that fades just like its title.
Thrown to the wolves, he wakes up in an unknown location, uncertain of his surroundings. He's quickly treated to a rude awakening by a stern, deep fried Sergeant (Bill Paxton), labelled a deserter, handcuffed and led to his new team and a suicide mission: the J squad, the misfits of the army, who squabble and play poker. (Despite the consequences from the sergeant, such as forcing them to eat the poker cards because, "Their fate is in their own hands."
Untrained, ill suited for the job, Cruises muscular body is suited up in high tech robot armor, ready to propel strange Ailen metallic cresties away. Once he learns how to work it, that is...
Forced to confront his greatest fear, death, Cage, armed, is strapped into a plane, with the J Squad, failing to get advice on where the safety is on his suit. The plane is immediately hit, near-exploding.
Panicked, he struggles to "drop" from the plane as the rest of his J Squad is already on the ground. Seconds near death, he drops and falls into the water, right in the middle of the battle.
He wades through the battlefield, successfully evading death, even as his fat team-mate, immediately gets it. But his suit is foreign to him, he grapples with his blaster.
And after watching the glorious, Full Metal Bitch, aka the Angel of Verdun, Rita Verdanski (Emily Blunt), all muscles and business, in action, he shoots a blue creature and bites the dust.
The screen goes black almost immediately. And Cage wakes up, once more, back at the begining. What is going on here?
Cage is forced to relieve the events of the day over and over again, video-game style, until he gets the day right, wins the war. Going through a super-cool training sequence, he repeats the day, trying to force them to realize the plane is going to be bombed, they will be immediately attacked, forced to drop down, unprepared.
Cruise, unfairly, has clearly re-lived this day, over and over again, learning new things about his team-mates to convince them to be on his side, things we never got to see. Finally, after dying more than 60 times, Cage finds Rita, shooting at all the right places, saving her life, proves that whatever blood he absorbed is now giving him the power to re-set the day, over and over.
Rita glances at him, desperate burning in her eyes and demands he find her when he wakes up. Then they both die in a fiery explosion, he is back at the beginning.
This time, he says and does all the right things, participating in training. Making a cheeky remark, he is forced to do 50 pushups, after doing 5, sees which truck she is in, rolls under it, getting run over, dying immediately.
Three more times is the charm and he rolls, perfectly, under the car and scurries onto the training grounds, dodging metal training bots about to scissor his body, finds her, doing a push-up, her body gloriously fit. Cage's eyes can't leave her and they argue, he convinces her, they begin making a plan of attack to use this power, as a team, defeat the beasties.
But first, she trains him in a very cool, combat sequence. Unfortunately, after coming so close in the battlefield, they desert the army and trek together, using a stolen car, to a farmhouse. Cruise's true emotional abilities are shown, beautifully, as he pained, begs Rita not to start the chopper. Once the engine starts, the metallic cresties show up and she dies. She never gets farther than this farmhouse.
Rita firmly, learning this knowledge, that he just wants her to survive, demands, "Why is my life so important? I'm a solider..." And ignores him, starts the engine.
Desperate, Cage dives into the action, but Rita is still dead. So when he repeats the day, again, he goes on without her.
Eventually they reach a point when they realize the monster brain is using Cage to learn how humans fit, just like Rita was chosen for. Turns out, she offered humanity at victory at Verdun, but it wasn't real for the ailens allowe dher to win to observe nad master her tactics. Once they figure this out, they recognize they must get one step ahead of the aliens and anticipate their play one move in advance, in order to make their advance towards the final battle in Paris.
I highly recommend you watch this film. It is one of Tom Cruise's best movies. For the first time in a long time, he is not just a sexual object of women's fantasies. He is an actor who gives it his all, truly enjoys this concept of Live, Die, Repeat.
As one of the last actors of a previous era, still fighting for time on the big screen, Cruise does a fabulous job. Perhaps, this is his greatest acting up to date (despite never taking his shirt off, not once, ladies). It might never win an award, but it definitely will help the box office this June.
Edge of tomorrow receives an A-. Running time: 1 hour and 53 minutes. Pg-13
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