Edge of Tomorrow: Movie Review

2014, PG on IMDb, 16+ on Amazon Prime

The best kind of sci-fi.

In this intense-action, sci-fi version of Groundhog Day, the hero is made by endlessly revisiting failure to save the world. It’s a great premise to follow to its conclusion for anyone who needs inspiration to keep at it. 

The movie opens with news reports piecing together an alien invasion. The “mimics” are wreaking havoc on Earth, and no one knows exactly what they want or how to stop them. Major Cage (Tom Cruise) makes an understandable but cowardly attempt at blackmail to avoid going into battle, and he’s smartly blackmailed in return to end up on the frontlines as a private. The viewer can sympathize with his desperation and empathize with the extreme sense of danger. But it’s only his first failure of an entire movie’s worth of them before victory. 

Characteristic of Tom Cruise movies, the character development is believable, as is the sequencing from one realistic choice and scene to the next. This means that one must only suspend belief about the alien invasion, and everything thereafter is realistic. Human. The best kind of sci-fi. 

Major Cage must transform from a coward into a battle-hardened soldier with more trauma than one person can reasonably handle, but with an increasingly driven conviction that it’s worth it to get victory. He comes to embody resilience by incessantly reliving the same failed attempts to get one costly step further at a time. 

Conversations and characters become increasingly meaningful until winning becomes not a matter of save-your-own-life, but of save-the-one-you-love. 

What struck me on my second watch was the unusual way in which this film puts women and men warriors alongside each other to cooperate for a shared goal. Once the characters have proven their nobility, the result is mutual admiration. This floored me: not many stories offer such a clean (albeit violent) version of such a narrative. 

And then the resolution: the last twist into the ending, including the credits music score, heals the viewer’s 1h45 sustained tension. It’s just enough emotion to heave a big sigh and feel carried back into safety. 

At a 91% Rotten Tomatoes rating, this movie is a fantastic watch if you have adequate adrenaline for it. I managed by muting several of loud, high-action sequences. 16+ is definitely accurate. In fact, I’m disturbed that IMDb would only rate it PG. But the story and characters are just so good it was well worth the compromise. 

Review written by: Jazmine Lawrence, Captain (Retired, RCAF), BSc Honours Physics, MA (Theology) student, future sci-fi author