Tom Cruise has grown from a 1980s teen heartthrob to a 1990s acclaimed actor to a 2000s action star to an overall odd celebrity. Maybe it’s the Scientology stuff. The whole Oprah episode didn’t help his reputation. There’s a lot of people who don’t like him even though at 61, he’s still jumping out of airplanes and hanging on the side of buildings by himself. Actress Leah Remini, a former Scientologist herself, said that Cruise wanted guests at his estate to play a fun game of hide-and-seek which is both one of the strangest and coolest thing at the same time.
Ten years ago, he made what might be one of his greatest movies, Edge of Tomorrow, based on the Japanese light novel All You Need is Kill. Set in 2020 following an alien invasion of Europe by the “Mimics” a hostile alien species that moves fast and has multiple tentacles, Cruise plays Major William Cage, a cocky man who has mostly been doing the public relations part for the American military from the comfort of his office and TV news stations is sent to England. General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson) with the United Defense Force orders Cage to cover an offensive on the front lines in France. But Cage makes two mistakes – first he tries to blackmail Brigham to avoid being sent and then he tries to run when Brigham orders him arrested.
Cage finds himself on the military base at Heathrow Airport where he’s assigned to J Squad under Master Sergeant Farrell (Bill Paxton), who has orders that Cage is just a private and a deserter. There’s a sense that Farrell knows that the top brass have done this to Cage as payback and he’s kind of enjoying this. (It’s quite possible Cage would’ve really been put in a stockade even during war times. Because he’s appeared on TV, it’s hard to believe someone wouldn’t have access to the Internet even though Farrell says communications are down as they prepare which doesn’t make a lot of sense.) Anyway, Cage is reluctant to get anyone to believe he’s an officer and sent to the front lines with the squad with the battle gear and mech-suits the others wear but he’s unable to fight as well. He did ROTC in college and worked his way up the ranks.
He sees Sgt. Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) who’s been idolized for the way she fights and people call her the “Full Metal Bitch” but not to her face as one soldier discovers. When an Alpha Mimic comes to attack him, he grabs a Claymore to defend himself but the explosion kills them both covering him in its blood. And then he wakes up back at Heathrow with all the same things happening as they did the day before. He tries to get the squad to know what happens but they don’t listen. And he dies again on the front lines. And he wakes up back at Heathrow. And he is sent to the front lines. He temporarily saves the life of Vratraski before they are blown apart by an explosion. But before that Cage tells her he saw what was going to happen and she tells him to find her when he wakes up.
Vrataski herself was stuck in a time loop when she got infected with the Alpha Mimic’s blood. She is initially hostile to him but soon begins to train him to be an efficient soldier like her to find the Omega that could end the invasion. Mimic expert Dr. Noah Carter (Noah Taylor) tells Cage and Vrataski he believes all Mimics are controlled by the Omega, a superorganism. Apparently, the Mimics are able to use time travel to get an advantage on their adversaries.
However, the training takes some trial and error for Cage even to get away from the squad. In a somewhat comical scene, he finds himself run over by a military truck when he tried to sneak away letting out a surprisingly funny scream, leading to a hilarious WTF look from Paxton. And there’s something funny about how Vrataski is quick to shoot Cage when he breaks a leg or his back during training or it seems something has gone wrong they can’t fix.
I call this the best movie for the people who like and hate Cruise. On on hand, it’s a great sci-fi action thriller. On the other, Cruise’s character gets killed a lot. It’s almost like Cruise made it just appease his haters who will watch just to see get repeatedly killed off. Prior to this movie, he made only a handful of movies where his character is killed and it always by gunfire. Here, Cage gets killed by gunfire, explosions, crushed by machinery and even the Mimics.
Cruise really plays Cage as someone you really would be annoyed to hear him talk for five minutes and he initially plays up that snarky weasel of a side to him. Aside from small roles in Tropic Thunder and Austin Powers in Goldmember, he’s never really done a true comedy. Yet he does have the abilities to play the straight man in a comical situation. His scenes with Gleeson and Paxton work because they can sense his B.S. coming from a long way.
The biggest surprise is Blunt in an action role. She was reportedly the first choice to play Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe but didn’t take it for many reasons. Her role as Vrataski is a memorable one. She obviously hit the gym toned her body putting on some muscle. And she plays the character with a no-nonsense approach frankly asking Cage “Do I have something on my face?” whenever he looks at her too long. Some fan theories have actually said she is the main character not Cage and I’ll agree she’s a far more developed character than Cage.
While the movie seems to be confusing in the end with its climax that focuses more on action and explosions, it still works. This was Cruise’s first collaboration with director Doug Liman and one of many he’s had with Christopher McQuarrie since they did Valkyrie in 2008. It’s also worth watching for Paxton’s role and a reminder of how underrated an actor he was seven years since his death. John Boyega, before his star-turning role in the Star Wars franchise, appears as one of the members of J Squad. The rumor mill has been circulating for years that Cruise and Blunt would be returning for a sequel. However, I don’t know if it would be as good as this one.
Produced on a budget of $175 million, it made more than twice that worldwide with over $370 million and received rave reviews from critics and fans who noted the social commentary about gender roles. Yet some critics weren’t fans of the possible budding romance between Cage and Vrataski even though I’d say Cage really just learns to care for her in a platonic way.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 