Edge of Tomorrow

Rating: 6/10 (10 June 2014)

From director Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Jumper), when I first saw the trailer for this film it looked rather complicated to me, but I knew it was big, and the leading stars made it appealing, so I went to see it. Basically in the not too distant future humanity has been in a war against aliens called Mimics for five years, NATO military has created United Defense Forces (UDF), and their armed mechanised exoskeleton suits called Jackets are helping to achieve victories. UDF spokesman and United States military officer Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) is summoned to meet UDF commander General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson) in London, multi-front invasion Operation Downfall to defeat Mimics controlling Europe and relieve Russian and Chinese forces pressure is to be launched, and Cage is ordered to cover combat on the beaches of France, he tries to blackmail the General, so he is arrested and stripped of his rank. The next morning he wakes in Heathrow Airport and its base where he is to be dropped into battle, but Mimics have anticipated the first wave attack, so the invasion is crushed, Cage manages to kill an unusually large Mimic, but in doing so he is doused with its acidic blood and dies. Cage is shocked to wake up the previous morning in Heathrow, with all the same events repeating, and when it comes to the attack happening all over again and he is killed once again, he wakes up again the previous morning, he is stuck in a time loop, every time he dies he "resets" the day (the previous 24 hours). He is unable to convince the soldiers of what he is going through, in his loops he attempts to save other soldiers, and one particular loop he meets "Angel of Verdun" Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), she recognises he can can anticipate events before they happen, so she tells him to meet her when he repeats, before he goes into battle. At the base in a repeat of the day Cage finds Rita, he explains they have met before in battle, she recognises he has an ability she had herself to reset the day, she gained celebrity status anticipating and killing hundreds of Mimics in a victory of Verdun. Rita explains to Cage that he gained his ability from the Alpha Mimic blood doused on him the first time he died, the Mimics possess a singular consciousness called the Omega, giving them the ability to reset time, she lost the ability after receiving a blood transfusion. She mentions that he will see visions of the Omega's location, which is crucial to defeating the Mimics once and for all, so in his repeats Cage is trained in combat, and if severe injury occurs he must be killed immediately, each time his skills and accuracy increase, and each time they enter the battle together they get a step closer to finding a way out of the battlefield. As these repeats have occurred Cage has become attached to Rita and finds it hard to watch her die each time, and when they do make it off the battlefield and into a shelter he tells her that no matter what they do, from the various repeats he has had, she is going to die regardless of changes, she ignores this and attempts to use a helicopter, and she is mortally wounded, and he is killed moments later when Mimics appear. Cage decides on a following loop to find and destroy the Omega himself, believing it to be in the Bavarian Alps, he cannot locate it and narrowly avoids a Mimic stealing his ability through blood draining, he tells Rita and former government scientist and Mimic biology expert Dr. Carter (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory's Noah Taylor) that his visions are a hoax. But the doctor mentions a transponder device kept by General Brigham that if injected into a Mimic or someone with their ability it could theoretically help locate the Omega, several failed loops later the General does give in and give them the transponder, and while escaping from the General's Whitehall office Rita stabs age with the device, he confirms the Omega is in the Louvre, Paris. Following a crash Cage wakes in a hospital bed, he has had a blood transfusion, so his ability is gone, so with the day unable to be reset he convinces soldiers in the base to join him and Rita on a mission to Paris to destroy the Omega, Alphas try to counteract, soldiers are killed, but with a grenade belt Cage finally reaches the Omega and primes the explosion, just before being killed by an Alpha. In the end Cage wakes up the previous day before, for the briefing with the General, not the day of an attack, the Omega has been disintegrated and the Mimics are seemingly giving into the UDF, and not stripped of his rank Cage is able to visit Rita at the Heathrow base, she has obviously never met him and he smiles. Also starring Bill Paxton as Master Sergeant Farell, Robin Hood's Jonas Armstrong as Skinner, Blunder's Tony Way as Kimmel, Kick Gurry as Griff, Attack the Block's Franz Drameh as Ford, Dragomir Mrsic as Kuntz, Charlotte Riley as Nance, Coronation Street's Terence Maynard as Cruel Sergeant and The Tomorrow People's Madeleine Mantock as Julie. Cruise does well playing against his usual type of character being cowardly, Blunt is feisty as the special forces poster girl, and supporting cast members Paxton and Gleeson get their good moments too. If you combined Starship Troopers, Battle: Los Angeles and Groundhog Day, then this is probably what you'd end up with, the repeating and changes to events concept is clever, combined with the apocalyptic alien invasion and battle sequences, so expect plenty of explosions and fantastic special effects, and the small romantic element is pleasant too, I agree the ending is a little soft, but overall it is a really entertaining science-fiction action drama. Good!