Live.Die.Reinvent

Rating: 9/10 (19 June 2014)

On behalf of a huge sci-fi community I would like to CALL OUT to Mr.Liman and ask could it be POSSIBLE for ONCE in movie-making HISTORY to LIVE.DIE and REINVENT the third act just for the pleasure of all movie geeks out there who are so desperately seeking for Sci-Fi Gems that truly satisfy until the end credits start to roll.
I am no filmmaker, but as a movie fan I can tell that this movie really deserved to treat its main antagonists and protagonists in a much more sophisticated way, especially towards the end. And for that reason I feel that I - Mr.Nobody vs the Hollywood - have the responsibility to shout out my vision of how the events should have unfolded in the third act.
Call them pick-ups if you will. The point is that no film is truly finished until you do not feel it in your heart. Best example would be a certain Oscar winning fantasy trilogy that went back to the studio for more filming as the dust from the award ceremony was still settling. Clearly the result was even more pleasing for all sides and the extended story allowed the director to remain true to his vision.
But before I jump into that there are some thoughts I would like to get off my chest. The main thing that bothers me with the third act is how typical and rushed it all feels. Hijacking a single transport-helicopter-thing and successfully navigating its way into deep enemy territory without a single enemy sighting and even reaching the Omega without any need for live.die.repeat sounds just tooooooooooooo easy especially if for the first two thirds of the movie the antagonists bombed planes out of the sky, while plotting and planning their socks off in order to annihilate the whole human race, hell it was pretty clear that they had lots of experience on doing this world conquering stuff before.
So to put it Bluntly, just Cruising to Louvre seemed to feel as the screenplay lost all of its RESPECT towards the seasoned movie viewers and their ability to think intelligently. I really believed that this could become as legendary a film as the Terminator if it would hold up until the end
For clarity I would like to point out that my proposed ending is not meant to be THE Best. Still I believe it is a good starting point for reinventing an ending that respects the best episodes of a visionary sci-fi show such as "Outer Limits", where you cannot be quite sure what the future holds, while Hope for a better tomorrow still lingers on. And for me this is more human than a typical kill-the-monster-leave-the-cinema-think-of-dinner type of closure. For the record, I truly believe that with a bolder and wiser ending this movie has what it takes to be a rare find, a true Sci-Fi Legend.
I can truly say that I was in awe of the clever storytelling put forward by the acting, screenplay, camera-work and editing up until our protagonists were left unconscious in a wrecked car somewhere in the streets of London. From that point on what it all boils down to is this, Cage and Rita know that their only advantage over defeating the mimics is gone so they are left with the option to sob like little babies until the mimics reach London and they die an agonizing death OR they try to reclaim the power of resetting the day and still die and agonizing death as we all witnessed when Cage committed the first suicide attack on an Alpha. During the movie the glowing blue monstrosity borrowed screen time at least in two occasions, in beaches of Normandy and in the mountains somewhere in Germany. Now the latter is a tricky one to consider as Cage lost its powers, so the ambush is probably not there anymore, this is backed up also by Rita's close "miss" in a different location altogether. So again we're off to the sunny beaches of France. As the movie is based on repetition I do not see any harm in hopping on the same ride to Normandy one last time as the stakes for our protagonists have changed quite a bit from the beginning of the movie. Then they were both hopelessly outgunned and with no real agenda other than try to stay alive, but now they are a deadly strike-force with a do-or-die attitude on a suicide mission to save the human race. Using Rita's words of a one-way ticket I would boldly go for the grand failure of the suicide mission, spiced up with a twist where Cage dies while trying to prevent an Alpha from being hit from a distance with Rita not in position to be covered by the blue goo. This glitch would ultimately get also Rita killed by the Alpha and as the screen goes black making us think that it's all over it suddenly jumps back into life with screams as a soldier is woken up from a nightmare where he/she starts wildly to scratch his/her face as to get rid of something that was stuck on it. Screen turns to black, end credits roll, and yeah even the original song can play on.
So as you quite possibly guessed, the soldier was killed and got some neat reset powers as a bonus, meaning also that the war continues in another loop, with a possibility that this soldier finds Cage and Rita or not. Hope lingers, but the ending allows us to think of our own solution to the war, or even wait for a bloody sequel
Dear Mr. Liman I truly believed that your time as an independent filmmaker would give you the Edge on finding a truly sharp and unique way to finish the film. After reading this I wonder Could you and Will you Reinvent?