Edge Of Tomorrow Plot Descriptions Emerge
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SPOILERS FOR EDGE OF TOMORROW BELOW
After starring in Oblivion last year, Edge of Tomorrow might show that Tom Cruise wants to be the new king of science fiction. An adaptation of Japanese author Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s novel All You Need Is Kill, the film sounds similar to Groundhog Day, only there are invading aliens. Although the movie doesn’t open for another three months, Warner Bros screened the first 20 minutes to a small group of journalists and bloggers.
According to Total Film, Edge of Tomorrow establishes its premise pretty quickly. Set in a distant future, after an alien race called Mimics attack Earth, Cruise plays an army officer, Colonel Bill Cage, who has never seen a day of action but is thrown into combat with very little training. Killed within minutes, Cage is caught up in a time loop that forces him to relive the battle again and again. Total Film writes:
The footage opened on Cruise as he wakes up in the middle of a military base. Bill Paxton’s Master Sergeant Farell approaches, and reveals that Cruise is being processed with the other new recruits ahead of a big battle tomorrow.
Cruise explains he’s a PR man, not a soldier, and THAT there’s been some kind of mistake. He asks for a phone call, and Farell pulls a switch-a-roo, revealing that Cruise is a deserter, and he’s going to be forced to fight the next day.
It sounds like Cruise isn’t playing his typical movie hero. His character appears to be an army deserter. It’s likely that Cage will have an arc that features him going from a coward to a real hero. The article continued:
After a rousing speech from Paxton – “Remember, there is no courage without fear!” – Cruise has just enough time to ask one of his fellow soldiers how to take the safety off his gun, before a sudden explosion rips through the craft and bodies start to drop.
… After a spot of battlefield fun – including a very dark gag drawn from a falling spaceship – we’re introduced to Emily Blunt as she punches and blasts an alien into submission. The aliens look a bit like Matrix squids covered in ultra-violet lights, and were probably the only minor disappointment in the footage.
Emily Blunt plays Rita Vrataski, a Special Forces soldier that will most likely be Cruise’s better, as she’s tasked with trying to keep him alive during battle with shifty aliens. It also sounds like the Mimics looks like the Sentinels from The Matrix, but organic rather than metallic. From the description, it sounds like the battle scenes resemble those featured in Starship Troopers.
… Cruise joins his group, who are quickly torn up by an attacking squid. He manages to switch on his gun, blasts one of the aliens, before working out how to use a rocket launcher, and exploding another. Unfortunately, that creature’s weird acidy blood splashes Cruise’s face, and kills him in a gross melty way
He wakes up back on the base, where we first found him, and the movie’s Groundhog Day concept is revealed. He relives the processing day, the battle sequence, with each time trying to change events.
It also seems that Rita was also once caught in the time loop and believes Cage’s story when he is resurrected. She agrees to help him out because she understands what he’s going through. From this description of the first 20 minutes of Edge of Tomorrow’s, the science fiction film sounds very very cool.
.. We cut to Cruise seeking Blunt out, who, after a minor confrontation (it turns out she doesn’t remember him) is convinced of Cage’s time-loop situation, and tells him “What happened to you, happened to me, I had it and I lost it.
We then go into an impossibly cool training sequence, as Blunt trains Cruise to be the ultimate fighter, swinging a massive sword about and generally being amazing. Then, when Cruise fucks up, falls down and complains of a broken back, she wearily pulls out a gun and shoots him in the head so they can start all over again.
It’s unclear if the footage screened will be the same first 20 minutes we’ll see in theaters when it’s released. Edge of Tomorrow sounds really genre heavy, full of blood and gore, so it remains to be seen if they will go for an R rating. It sounds like it certainly should be, but with today’s PG-13 action BS, director Doug Liman and Warner Bros. might seek a lower rating instead to draw in a wider audience in theaters.
In addition to Cruise and Blunt, the science fiction film also stars Lara Pulver, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Jeremy Piven, Bill Paxton, Charlotte Riley, and Jonas Armstrong.
Edge of Tomorrow will hit theaters everywhere on June 6, 2014.
