Edge of Tomorrow is filled with some pretty nifty time loop action, but once you get into all the unnecessary deaths and tactical errors, it's hard to ignore just how silly and dumb it can be.
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00:00Edge of Tomorrow is filled with some pretty nifty time loop action, but once you get into
00:04all the unnecessary deaths and tactical errors, it's hard to ignore just how silly and dumb it
00:08can be. Before we get into the plot of Edge of Tomorrow, let's address its unusual marketing.
00:13The film is based on the 2004 Japanese sci-fi light novel All You Need Is Kill. It took a while
00:18for the big-screen adaptation to get off the ground, but when Tom Cruise signed on in December
00:222011, the project was officially on its way. A little more than two years later, the first
00:27footage debuted at San Diego Comic-Con under the Edge of Tomorrow moniker. Now, movie title swaps
00:32aren't that uncommon, but Warner Bros. and director Doug Liman disagreed on what to call the film
00:36from the beginning. While the studio was happy with Edge of Tomorrow, he preferred the cheekier
00:40live-die-repeat. Liman believed that his choice better communicated the plot and tone of the film,
00:45but the studio ultimately got its way. After the movie disappointed at the box office,
00:49he lobbied executives to switch to live-die-repeat mid-run. And now,
00:53various marketing materials can be found varying both titles. Maybe this was all
00:57just a ploy to make viewers as confused as if they were in an actual time loop.
01:02Most of Edge of Tomorrow takes place in an alternate 2020, five years after aliens called
01:06Mimics crash-land onto Earth by an asteroid. The Mimics quickly begin to assert their dominance
01:11over Europe, with humanity then fighting a losing battle against these tentacled aliens — or so
01:16we're told by an opening montage of news footage. But the ferocity of the Mimics and the current
01:20stalemate they seem to be locked in with Earth don't really add up. While it's conveyed that
01:24entire nations have been lost to the invaders, everyday life seems to be more or less intact
01:29for a sizable percentage of the population. There are TV broadcasts, most infrastructure
01:33is still in place, utilities are available, and the food supply appears to be in good shape.
01:37Sure, Earth is losing, but it's hard to believe that in five whole years,
01:41the superior and relentless hive mind hasn't completely laid waste to the planet.
01:45Although, perhaps, the Mimics are just toying with us.
01:48We were allowed to win.
01:50The mech suits utilized throughout the film look pretty cool, particularly when
01:53sported by Rita Vrtasky in propaganda photos. But once their human operators actually start
01:58to move around in them, it becomes painfully obvious just how clunky they are. They make
02:02walking into a chore, their controls are tricky to figure out, and they require external batteries,
02:07which seems fairly short-lived. But the most ridiculous thing about the mech suits is that
02:10they offer little protection to vulnerable body parts, as most of the torso and all of
02:15the limbs are exposed. Moreover, they don't seem to provide enough structural support to safely
02:19encase a human body from a crushing injury. This is curious, since the soldiers who wear
02:23them are dropped out of aircrafts. To be fair, they're not without their benefits, as they can
02:28be outfitted with multiple weapons and can be fired with limited recoil. But is that really
02:32a worthwhile trade-off for heavy metal stilts? After Major William Cage fails miserably in his
02:37misguided attempt to avoid the battlefield, he's sent to a prep zone under the watchful eye of
02:41Master Sergeant Farrell. General Brigham has demoted Cage to private and labeled him a deserter.
02:46Farrell, in turn, assigns him to J-Squad and tasks the soldiers under his command to ready him for
02:50action. The scene when Cage first meets J-Squad is one of the parts that plays out over and over
02:55again throughout the time loops. The soldiers in J-Squad are cartoonishly rough and tumbled,
02:59and they don't take kindly to having to train Cage, whom they notice is wearing an officer's
03:03uniform. While this is all a bit cliche, it's in keeping with the spirit of the movie. What
03:07stretches plausibility, though, is that nobody in J-Squad recognizes Cage from the news.
03:12Have any of you met me before? Cage, I don't know you. Exactly! Yes! Thank you.
03:18Maybe there aren't TVs at makeshift military bases in the apocalyptic future. But just before
03:23meeting the squad, Cage claims that he's basically the spokesperson for the armed forces. This is a
03:27pretty small plot hole, but it's also a missed opportunity, as J-Squad could have had a lot
03:31more fun ragging on the new guy if they knew who he was. Cage first meets Rita during the
03:36central fight against the Mimics. After a few more encounters and resets, she tells him to find
03:41her after he wakes up. So during his next loop, he locates her at a training facility that looks
03:45like the most dangerous gymnastics studio the world has ever seen. Large, fast-moving bots
03:50whirl around the space, which Rita easily avoids, whereas Cage barely avoids them.
03:55Convincing her that he's stuck in a time loop goes well, though. It turns out that Rita used
03:58to have the same ability, which is how she became the Angel of Verdun, but her help comes at a high
04:03price. Rita spends a considerable number of Cage's loops working with him in her gym,
04:07and each time he gets injured, she kills him so that they can try again tomorrow.
04:11It makes sense that she puts him out of his misery, but it doesn't make as much
04:14sense that the mechanical Mimic simulators are so lethal in the first place. Not only are they
04:18wasting whole chunks of days every time Cage makes a mistake, Rita's also putting herself
04:22at unnecessary risk, seeing as she's lost the time loop gift.
04:26Then you better start over, don't you?
04:31Time loop movies live or die by how much viewers buy into the explanation behind the central
04:35premise. Sometimes, less is more. Groundhog Day and Palm Springs are both great examples of how
04:40you don't really need to get into the science of it all, but Edge of Tomorrow makes more of an
04:44effort to explain how its loops work. And while it certainly succeeds in terms of entertainment
04:49value, that doesn't mean that it's perfectly logical. The Omega Mimic manipulates time as
04:53a defense mechanism, and whenever an Alpha Mimic is killed, a reset is triggered. The Omega
04:57mistakenly recognizes Cage with his accidental Alpha blood transfusion as one of its own,
05:02and winds back the clock each time he perishes, with no butterfly effect to speak of. That's
05:06actually a pretty elegant rationale for a time loop, so long as you don't dig too deep.
05:11Things begin to fall apart, though, when we prod further. It seems like the Omega can actively
05:15control time, whereas Cage is a passive recipient. When the Mimics are victorious after the initial
05:20battle, why doesn't the Omega just choose not to reset things? And why does it reset to an exact,
05:24but random, moment instead of the start to the previous day, or 24 hours prior to each death?
05:29What happens if Cage lives more than 24 hours? What does reset moment change? Fortunately,
05:34Edge of Tomorrow keeps moving along fast enough that you can mostly ignore these concerns and
05:38still be entertained. Reader warns Cage that if he tells anybody else about his newfound ability,
05:43he'll probably get sent to a psychiatric ward. It's implied that this is what happened to her
05:48after she told her superiors about it. The only person who believed her was her friend Dr. Carter,
05:52an underground scientist who studies the Mimics. The two of them have to start each day meeting
05:57Cage from scratch, but they still manage to devise systems to keep track of the information they all
06:01put together. That information includes two key pieces of advice that Reader passes on the Cage.
06:06The longer he has alpha blood in his system, the more he'll start to experience visions of
06:10the Omega. They want to exploit this power to hunt the Omega down and destroy it.
06:14Just as important, he must make sure that he doesn't survive if he gets wounded.
06:17As Reader tells Cage that she lost the power to reset after she received a blood transfusion
06:21following the Mimics' apparent defeat at Verdun. This plot point adds high stakes,
06:25but it's probably not something Reader could know for sure. She hasn't actually died again
06:30and tested out the theory — at least, not in the days between Verdun and meeting Cage.
06:34I lost the power. Do you understand?
06:38Reader does die occasionally within Cage's time loop, but since there's no butterfly effect and
06:43nothing's permanent, he finds her in the same place every day, no worse for wear.
06:47He initially uses his apparent immortality to escape, while also gathering intel on his fellow
06:51soldiers and wielding more power within J-Squad. Cage and Reader also harness the reset to try
06:56different tactics, in the hopes of either winning the battle in France or finding and killing the
07:00Omega. For the most part, Cage learns from his mistakes and makes progress. However,
07:04there are points along the way when he makes choices that he should already know results in
07:08loss. In one scene that amps up the romantic tension, Cage and Reader run out of gas and
07:12wind up in a farmhouse. He reveals that they've been here before, but if that's true, then he
07:16should have remembered to take or find extra fuel. Why would he bring her to the same spot
07:20over and over again, where he knows Mimics are lurking and Reader is likely to die in the
07:24helicopter? It's clear that Cage is falling for her at this point, and sometimes love makes you
07:29do stupid things.
07:30This is as far as you go. No matter what I do, this is as far as you ever make it.
07:37The logic of Edge of Tomorrow unravels a bit as it barrels toward its conclusion.
07:41Dr. Carter has invented a prototype of a device that he hopes can ping the whereabouts of the
07:45Omega. For it to work, its prongs have to be stabbed into the body of an Alpha.
07:48Reader realizes that they can try the transponder on Cage, since he has Alpha blood. The only
07:53problem is that the United Defense Force and Brigham currently have it, and Cage and Reader
07:57will be captured if they show their faces at headquarters. After multiple attempts to get
08:00into Brigham's office, Cage and Reader finally pull off their heist. But then they make their
08:04stupidest decision yet. The smart move would be to stick it in Cage's leg right then,
08:09discover the Omega's hiding spot, and dispatch Cage so that the day and mission begin anew.
08:13They only have to break in. With Cage's power intact, they never actually have to break out.
08:17But instead, they try to make a run for it for absolutely no good reason.
08:21Maybe the adrenaline that's coursing through their bodies makes it too hard to think straight.
08:25What's wrong with you?
08:26They use the transponder in the middle of a car chase,
08:28which does supply them with the location of the Omega, but also results in a horrific crash.
08:32They're taken into custody, and Cage is given a life-saving blood transfusion.
08:36This presumably robs him of the chance to wake up again the next time he dies.
08:41I feel it. I can't reset the day anymore.
08:45You have to suspend your disbelief quite a bit to fully enjoy Edge of Tomorrow,
08:49particularly when the happy ending arrives. In the final attack on the Omega,
08:52Rita is killed, and Cage uses his last breaths to bomb the hive mind. Then he wakes up — not
08:57at the base camp as a private, but on his way to Brigham's office in his old capacity as a major.
09:02The humans have prevailed, and everybody we've met along the way is perfectly fine.
09:05Even Rita, who happens to be back in her familiar yoga pose on the training floor.
09:10It's emotionally satisfying, but it doesn't quite check out intellectually.
09:14The resets are the Omega's defense mechanism. Either Cage defeats it and time keeps moving on,
09:19which means that he and Rita die, or it's back again to another loop of the same day.
09:23Plus, since there's no butterfly effect, the reset should mean that everything else is the
09:26same as well. And yet, there's not really any explanation offered about why things
09:30play out differently. Maybe it's just the power of love.
09:34Yes? What do you want?