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Edge of Tomorrow

Edge of Tomorrow

Year - 2014
Studio - Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures
Stars - Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Brenden Gleeson, Jonas Armstrong, Tony Way, Kick Gurry, Franz Drameh, Dragomir Mrsic, Charlotte Riley
Director - Doug Liman
Writing Credits - Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth (screenplay), Hiroshi Sakurazaka (novel)
Music - Christophe Beck

Synopsis

The world is at war with a powerful invading force of terrifying alien beings, and Major William Cage (Tom Cruise), a military public relations officer, is sent to London to meet with General Brigham (Brenden Gleeson). Cage is shocked to learn that the General wants him to personally cover a secret D-Day like assault on the aliens in France. When Cage balks, the General has him arrested and sent to join the troops as a regular soldier for the invasion.

With no combat training or experience, Cage is thrust into action with an assault team who have little respect for him. They join the massive invasion on the French beach, but are no match for the ferocity of the aliens. As Cage feebly attempts to fight, he sees Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) valiantly battling. He recognizes her as a revered Special Forces warrior, famous for leading a major allied victory at Verdun, France. But Rita dies in the battle, and then Cage himself is killed.

Edge of Tomorrow poster

Cage awakens to the exact same moment of his arrival to the military unit the previous day. He is alive and has gone back one day in time. He attempts to warn the others of the futility of the invasion they are about to begin, but simply relives the same experience, this time with a bit more success. But, again, he dies, and, again, awakens at the same starting point. The events continue to repeat over and over, and Cage actually gains some success in the battle because of the knowledge and skills he gains with repetition. Rita sees Cage's anticipatory fighting abilities and says to him, knowingly, "Come find me when you wake up."

When Cage is killed and awakes the previous day, he seeks out Rita who is in the midst of training for battle. She doesn't know him but understands when he tells her his story. She explains that the aliens have the ability to control time, and she inherited that when her blood was infected by them. But she lost the ability after a blood transfusion when she was wounded. She tells Cage that it is essential that he be killed, not wounded, in every repeat episode. Also, her colleague theorizes that to destroy the aliens, they have to locate and destroy the "Omega", the central nerve system of the "Alpha" aliens. Cage continues to repeat the invasion battle, now with the goal of saving Rita and, each time, getting closer to the goal of finding the Omega.

Cage and Rita make progress with each repetition ("Live. Die. Repeat."). They learn that it is underground, below the glass pyramid at the Louvre in Paris, now flooded. But Cage is seriously wounded and taken unconscious to a hospital where he receives a blood transfusion. He realizes that he has lost the ability to go back in time and has only one chance to finish the job. He recruits some of his fellow soldiers by convincing them that their future is hopeless unless they help him destroy the Omega. They travel to Paris and, after a furious underwater battle, Cage detonates the Omega's lair, killing himself as well. But he wakes up, after all, and finds himself back in London the previous day, where the victory is being celebrated.

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Trailer

Like Source Code and The Adjustment Bureau, Edge of Tomorrow is first a science fiction action thriller. But the Groundhog Day-like time loop theme, as well as its eventual romantic angle, give it sufficient credentials for inclusion in a blanc inventory.

The film was released in the U.S. on June 6, which, perhaps not so coincidentally, is the anniversary date of the D-Day Allied invasion in France in 1944.

Edge of Tomorrow, Upside Down, and Gravity are the only films blanc on this site, to date, to have been released in 3-D.