Guilty Pleasures #16 - Cruise Month - Live. Die. Repeat./Edge of Tomorrow

It's Cruise Month

Well, with our look at Mission: Impossible out of the way, time to look of some of Tom Cruise’s more recent work. It’s time to look at Live. Die. Repeat. Or is that Edge of Tomorrow?

 Loosely based on the novel “all you need is kill” – the title was dropped from the movie after concerns about having the word ‘kill’ in the title. This movie was hit with critics but it met with a lukewarm reception from a wider audience, earning only $370m on its $180m budget (I’m rounding here) once you factor in marketing costs, that doesn’t leave a large profit.

The film did suffer from some botched marketing. The title of the movie was Edge of Tomorrow and some marketing pieces came with the Tagline ‘Live. Die. Repeat.’ In fact it was so large people confused it for the actual title of the movie (seriously, bad idea to have the tagline larger than the title!) When it came to releasing it for home video “Live. Die. Repeat” became the prominent title, with Edge of Tomorrow being only on the side of the DVD.

Seriously, having a / on the side of your DVD is a terrible idea! It doesn’t look neat, and once your product’s off the new product line, it might well be the first thing a customer would see. Might not encourage them to buy it.

But I’m arguing semantics here, let’s dig into the movie and see what we’ve got here

 OK, this DVD comes with the typical DVD entry menu and I’m not gonna lie, it looks f*cking awful. Maybe it’d look better on a blu-ray but the image quality of the still used is atrocious. Sort your sh*t out WB! Yeah, it’s Warner Bros doing the distribution of this one.

We open to a montage news report as things are happening. Aliens called the mimics have landed in Europe and have begun spreading across the globe. The United Defence force, tasked with combating the mimics, have recently won against the mimics in Verdun. We have Major William Cage (played by Tom Cruise) expositing how they’re attempting to win the war, citing the success of Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) aka the Angel of Verdun aka the full metal b*tch (I'll be using this name until she actually becomes a major character) who was able to kill hundreds of mimics on her first day using their battle armour.

Major William Cage - from the army's p*ssy squadron

Operation Downfall is soon to take place, it’s a massive mechanised invasion against the mimics hoping to be their last stand against the creatures. Cage is flown into Trafalgar Square because you can totally land helicopters there, much like TARDISs.

The United Defence Force headquarters is here and Cage is sent to meet General Bringham played by Mad-Eye Moody. Wait, it isn’t Harry Potter Month yet? Whoops, make that Brendan Gleeson. No stranger to Tom Cruise movies as he played John C McCloy in Mission Impossible – 2. Don’t know who he is? I don’t either, I just looked it up. God, Mission: Impossible - 2 sucked.

He explains that all of the IDF (only one letter off IMF) will be joining this invasion, a lot of good men will die and he will likely shoulder the blame for that. Cage rambles some suggestions but Bringham has one of his own. Cage will be going to the front lines to sell the war to the people. Cage doesn’t agree, he’s not a soldier and does PR to avoid having to fight.

Bringham explains that he now has military command over Cage, that he’ll keep his rank but now must follow that order. Cage tries to blackmail him out, by threatening to turn the media against him after the war is won. Bringham appears to concede but after Cage tries to leave, Bringham orders his arrest. A small chase ensues and cage is knocked unconscious.

Cage wakes up in a military training camp, handcuffed and lying on a pile of bags. He’s brought to Military training camp Heathrow and is introduced to Major Sergeant Farell played by Bill Paxton. He explains that Cage can’t make calls to Washington to get out of the situation he’s in as the invasion only hours away.

Cage thinks he has Farell taking him to a phone, but soon realises that he isn’t. Farell had been told that Cage was a deserter (which was sort-of true) and would likely try and make an outside call. Cage is taken into the barracks, with Farell giving monotonous speech about the nature of battle. He’s introduced to his team: J-squad, who are made personally responsible for Cage and are to ensure he’s combat ready by the time the ships leave in the morning.

The guy one the right has just p*ssed himself

As the dawn starts to rise, we see J-squad getting into their battle suits. Cage is clearly not comfortable in his but Kimmel is, showing his butt to everyone, classy. Cruise is clearly untrained to use it, he doesn’t even know how to turn the safety off. The men are loaded into planes ready to be dropped on the enemy.

As they reach the drop point their ship comes under attack. They drop quickly aside Cage who doesn’t know how. He finally manages to drop and he narrowly avoids enemy fire as he drops to the ground. That suit somehow protecting him from the impact of that drop. I say somehow because it doesn’t have a lot of padding and it was quite a high drop, that impact should’ve shattered his legs at least.

As one of the crew celebrates a successful landing he’s crushed by a ship because funny? Cage wonders around the battlefield as others die around him, accidentally setting off weapons as he tries to figure out the suit. He is soon knocked to the side as another ship crashes onto the beach, the ship containing the full metal b*tch herself, Rita.

Anyone else wanna hear Ride of the Valkyries with this?

As Rita uses an axe rather than guns to fight off the mimics before actually using her guns she approaches Cage, being knocked down and killed as she stares at him (how anticlimactic) . The troops begin to realise that the Mimics knew the attack was coming. Farell and his men are backed into an area with an army approaching them. They prepare to face it but Cage notices coming at them from below. The mimic is fast and slaughters the soldiers before Cruise finally gets his guns working and kills it before falling back from the recoil.

A second mimic approaches, much larger than the first one. Cage is out of ammo and needs to reload. He sees a bomb nearby that one of his comrades had packed and uses it to destroy the mimic, seemingly himself with it.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen let me introduce your nightmares for the next week

He wakes up back at the army base, and we now need our reset counter, because believe me, there are gonna be a lot of them. The concept of the story is based on video games wherein if your character dies, they restart from a checkpoint but potentially with knowledge that you didn’t have on previous attempts (enemy locations, potential obstacles/techniques etc)

Reset Counter: 1

Cage wakes up and we the see some flashes from the first time round with Cage getting déjà vu. He still doesn’t know how to turn the safety off. The drop approaches and basically the same thing happens. He warns the guy who got crushed by the ship last time, and manages to save the full metal b*tch from her former comeuppance, getting a hole in the chest part of his suit to compensate. She rewards him by taking his battery and leaving him for dead, our heroine

I'm the full metal b*tch, so f*ck you! Also I think she likes it on top

Reset counter: 2

This time Cage confronts Farell, giving him information in the hope of saving the lives of everyone on the base. Naturally no-one believes him and he’s taken to J-squad. He tries again to tell everyone about his gift, but they duct-tape his mouth and in the next scene he’s on the jet. He tries to warn everyone when his tap comes off but is too late. He actually deploys early. He tries again to save the guy who got crushed by the ship but then gets crushed himself

Reset counter: 3

In the next scene he successful saves the guy crushed by the ship but is hit by a truck on his way to save the full metal b*tch (I know, she has a real name, but full metal b*tch is funnier, especially since her character hasn’t really done anything yet)

Reset counter: 4

He avoids the truck and finally approaches her, seemingly it’s been reset a few times as he’s able to shoot a mimic behind him without looking, knows the dropship is about to explode and then tells her to halt as another mimic attacks. (I’ll add 3 more to the counter) she realises what had happened and tells him to come and find her when he wakes up. The ship explodes

Reset counter: 8

We’re back at the camp, and we get flashes of scene from before, altered in light of Cage’s newfound bravery, or possible playacting. As a training scene we hadn’t seen before the Sarge orders them to stop and Cage is already on the ground (I would count that as another rest, but it’s entirely possible it was part of the original scenes so…) As a convoy passes by, Cage attempts to roll under them and is flattened

Reset counter: 9

This time Cage successfully get under the truck and runs behind so the others don’t see. Cage enters a room where several people in the suits are training by shooting spinning disks.  In the middle of the arena with the spinning blades is the full metal b*tch, he crosses the floor and talks to her, explaining his situation to her and she seems to understand.

Erm, you know, why would she be doing pushups there, there are lines saying DO NOT CROSS

She tells Cage to tell no-one else of this as they’d either laugh or dissect them then proceeds to ask what happened the first time he died. He explains that the mimic he killed was bigger and blue and he got covered in its blood. Rita realises from this that the mimics know they’re coming and the battle will be a bloodbath. Cage still seeks explanation and Rita explains that she’d undergone a similar experience herself.

Cage is relieved to hear that there’s a cure, she doesn’t currently have that ability but before then Rita needs his help winning the war. She takes him to another camp where they encounter Doctor Carter and expert in particle physics and advanced microbiology (because you can be an expert in both apparently)

He reveals that the mimics act as a hive species essentially. With the mimics being the claws, alphas being the nervous system whilst the brain, known as the omega exists, in a single place. The Omega can control time, and will do so any time an alpha is killed, and that’s how the mimics knew they were coming. They were allowed a victory in Verdun so that they’d send everything they had to the slaughter. When Cage was covered in the alpha’s blood because of the Mimic’s weakness to humanity (go figure) he now has entered the nervous system and seized control of the ability to reset the day (again, go figure)

In order to win, he has to die every day until the Omega is destroyed. Even now the Omega is searching for him, and may provide useful information via visions as he closes in. Rita had this ability and saw the Omega in Verdun, but it had gone by the time she attacked, and she lost the power. Rita wants Cage to get her to the Omega so she can kill it. Cage remarks that he isn’t combat trained, so Rita agrees to start.

They fight against the blades and Cage is hit, only able to feel his lips. Rita tells him that if he gets injured he’d better die. If he gets a blood transfusion he’ll lose the power, as she did. She then kills him so they can start over

Reset counter: 10

I'm the full metal b*tch. So f*ck you!

We have a montage, and I think I counted at least 7 deaths so

Reset counter: 17

He begins to have visions of a dam in the mountainside, this is where the alpha is, with some german writing. Rita announces the training to be over, and they’ll meet on the battlefield. Cage needs to find a way to get them off the beach. Time for another montage, as the strategise after every death using their new information to plan. I think I counted another 6 deaths

Reset counter: 23

So battle day approaches but this time, Cage decides to duck out entirely. He sits in a bar listening to people telling war stories. They question what the aliens want, which is actually a good point, what do the aliens want? I don’t think we ever find out. But Cage says it doesn’t matter. The lights go out and sirens begin to sound, the mimics come through the water and kill him

Reset counter: 24

Feel the sexual tension in the room

In the next one we see Cage redouble his efforts in training. Doctor Carter says he’s found the dam, but Cage says it doesn’t matter, they can’t get off the beach. Back on the battlefield they Cage and Rita work like a well-oiled machine, taking down dozens of mimics. They finally get off the beach (in the scene immediately after he says that they couldn't get off the beach, what a shock!) and to an abandoned playground, and I think I need to add a few more resets to the counter, since Cage knows not only of the ambush but of several vehicles they tried that didn’t work

Reset counter: 27

He warns Rita to uncouple the caravan from her vehicle before departing and she proceeds to ignore that instruction. The radio reveals that the mimics have breached Dover and are heading inland, breaching London, Cage destroys the radio before mimics attack from within the trailer. Cage manages to destroy them with his suit, ultimately decoupling it in the process.

Top Gear approves of this scene

It’s time for lovey dovey stuff and for me to add a another couple of resets to the counter as Cage is able to recall details about Rita she tells him later on in the journey (they're lies as it happens, but I bet there more than 3 vehicles they tried, so I'm gonna add them anyway) including the name Hendrickson which he asks him not to bring up again. He died and she watched him die 300 times her own perspective

Reset counter: 29

The car runs out of fuel and they have to proceed on foot, with Rita having abandoned her suit entirely. Cage’s suit runs out of power and he has to abandon it, carrying only a trusty blaster thing for protection. They enter an abandoned house, discovering a garage and a helicopter which Cage is reluctant to go in despite the obvious benefits of aerial advantage. Rita had been hurt in the fight, and Cage stops to patch her up.

Better add another reset to the counter for the fact that Cage knows she likes sugar in her coffee. It’s revealed that Cage had the keys to the helicopter the whole time and can pilot it (I think another 3 resets would be an appropriate number) but mimics attack when the helicopter is started up and Rita never survives. Oh goody, we have Tom Cruise fraternising over the safety of a woman. This is an all too common a trait in his movies. It was bad enough in Mission Impossible 2 and 3, we also saw it in Knight and Day (although at least there the tables turned in the last third) and we’ll see it in at least another movie I’m reviewing. 

Reset counter: 32

Rita starts the engine anyway and the mimics attack. Rita is killed and Cage is injured but beats the mimic to death before another mimic kills him to reset the day.

Reset counter: 33

Cruise goes up to Rita again but ends up walking away, not getting her involved at all. Cruise does his loner shtick, killing all the mimics at the house and taking the helicopter to the dam. He breaks in and makes a discover: the omega isn’t there. He’s ambushed by a mimic and then by another alpha. Both not wanting to kill him else the day be reset. He shoots himself but only in the arm and he begins to bleed out. The tunnel begins to flood and Cage traps himself in a narrow gap in order to drown and reset the day

Reset counter: 34

Come to <wherever this is> we have mountains!

He reports his findings to Rita and Doctor Carter. The Omega was never there, just like it was never in Verdun. It was just a trap to get their blood. Doctor Carter has a device to link an alpha to the Omega which may be their only way, but the only working model is now with Whitehall. They enter the United Defence Force’s London HQ. And I’d better add another few to the reset counter as Cage knows when the right times are to move and strategise

Rest counter: 40

Cage explains things to the general and I’ll be adding even more to the reset count. They get the devise after several attempts but are ambushed on their way out

Reset counter: 42

 

Gotta love how she just sits there when the fate of the world rests on this outcome

They use the device on Cage and he sees the Louvre, in a garage underneath the museum. Cage is hit by a bullet in the leg and a car crash occurs. Cage gets a blood transfusion, losing the ability to reset the day. But don’t think this is the end for our reset counter. Cage finds himself strapped to a hospital bed, he flips himself over and finds himself rescued by Cage. 

In order to kill the Omega, they’ll need a dropship and more soldiers in order to carry out a raid in Paris. Cage returns to J-squad and tries to convince them, again, of what’s to come and how to stop it. They initially refuse but after seeing Rita they agree.

The dropship prepares for their attack. But is quickly discovered. They’re attacked and forced to drop out with several J-squad redshirts dying in the process. (Yeah, I don’t bother remembering their names, I don’t even know them) Cage of them survives the crash but is injured, he goes out through the flooded city, looking for other survivors and comes across Rita. Several others have survived, but they’re still some way away from the Louvre, with a thousand mimics in their way.

They agree to use the dropship to skim across the water, with Griff and Skinner providing cover fire as mimics begin to attack, even destroying themselves taking a few mimics with them when they run out of ammo. The mimics then attack the ship, with the remaining 3 people (Cage, Rita and the black guy who eventually dies) holding them off. They use the ship to punch a hole straight into the Louvre.

Visit the Louvre. Fun for all the family!

They head down to the lower levels to find the Omega. There’s an alpha guarding it which if killed would allow the Omega to reset the day and anticipate their attacks. Cage offers to distract it but under his injuries he wouldn’t make it far. Rita says since neither would make it out alive she would do it, allowing Cage to destroy the Omega with his grenades. They share a final kiss before she goes to distract the alpha. Cage makes his move, diving into the water and getting as close as possible to the Omega. The alpha, having killed Rita comes after him. The alpha kills Cage but not before he’s armed his explosives destroying the Omega, and taking down all the mimics as well.

Cruise is covered in the Omega’s blood and we have another reset.

We’re right back at the beginning of the movie where Major Cage is brought to London via helicopter. A large surge of energy was detected in Paris and the mimics were shut down. Major Cage sees Rita one last time, she remembers nothing of the events and asks what he wants, he just laughs as the credits role.

I really really enjoyed this movie: Cruise in many respects starts off as reverse version of his usual type. In most movies he’s already the expert in some field. Here he starts off a coward forced into a situation where he has to fight.

Where did she get that nickname from anyway?

The dialogue is great adding humour to the mix. It would be all too easy to make this super serious, but given the nature of its premise, it would’ve been a massive mistake to take this too seriously. The pacing is nicely done too, we only see scenes repeated in montage form, and scenes are added later when necessary.

The acting from our two main leads is fantastic, and Bill Paxton does a great job as the overbearing commander.

However it’s not without its problems. The biggest is the aliens themselves. Whilst their premise and power set fit well into the movie. With them lacking any distinctive design or motivation we don’t have a clue what they’re fighting. Also, where are all the blasts coming from? We don’t ever see a mimic armed. The we have J-squad who are underdeveloped to say the least, because we know little about them, we don’t connect with them, making their demises unsatisfying.

Game over!

My biggest issue with this, as is the case with a lot of Tom Cruise movies is the ending. Here it just feels like a giant dues ex-machina. Everyone survives and yet the mimics are defeated anyway? It might however have been necessary to have a happy ending given how bleak that final battle quickly became.

Rage Rating -100%

Next: Oblivion

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Images used in this review are from Edge of Tomorrow and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use.