Arriving at the beach, it becomes evident that the aliens, who weren’t supposed to know the humans were coming, are more than ready for them, and have turned the operation into a massacre. Nobody even tells him how to disengage his weapon’s safety for fear that he’ll end up killing them. Cage, without camera crew and recognised by nobody, is thrown into barracks, given a mech suit and told he’ll be forming part of tomorrow’s assault, and will probably die. This is where we get into the film proper. He nervously tries to blackmail Brigham into not sending him Brigham’s response is to knock Cage out and send him anyway, stripping him of his rank before he wakes up in handcuffs at a military base. When General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson), a real soldier with little time for Cage’s PR antics, tells Cage he’ll be sent to the front of a major upcoming invasion with a camera crew in tow, the smarm turns to fear. The real-life Tom Cruise does somehow seem as though he was genetically engineered to be a huge star and smile on chat shows, and that’s the version of Cruise that’s revealed to us here. When Cage flashes his smile, just as when Cruise does it, it’s pure showmanship – the trick is admitting it. It’s very astute of the film to articulate this. And I love a bit of cynicism in a Hollywood flick. The Action Movie Cruise you’re expecting is replaced with a Public Relations Cruise that is more cynical. He’s just a PR guy, hired to put a pretty face on things. Which is when you find out that he’s not. He’s in so many that you begin to wonder whether he’s actually involved in the war at all. We’re introduced to the film’s world through a succession of news clips from around the world describing an alien invasion, many depicting interviews with Cruise’s Major William Cage as he talks up the US military and seeks to boost morale. In some ways it’s a real throwback to the way it used to be done before Christopher Nolan showed up with his grumpy Batman. This is what action movies should be like. It eschews darkness and introspection – it’s constantly on the move, doing new things. While my sarcastic description is absolutely correct, I didn’t realise that there was a good version of that mashup to be made. I’m so glad to say that I needn’t have worried. I was anticipating two hours of unintelligible nonsense with Cruise’s face glued over it in the hope I wouldn’t notice. I’d seen the trailer and sarcastically summed up the premise as Groundhog Day meets Starship Troopers meets D-Day from Saving Private Ryan. After Knight and Day, I was wondering whether Tom Cruise should give up the action movies. I had low expectations of Edge of Tomorrow. Starring Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton.Īren’t we getting tired of my reminding you that I reveal plot spoilers in these things? It’s like I’m repeating myself day after day after day… Based on “All You Need Is Kill” by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. Screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie and Jez & John-Henry Butterworth.
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