Edge Of Tomorrow B Roll Shows Off The Practical Side Of Production

By Brent McKnight | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

There’s been a lot of talk about how this past summer was a bad season for movies. We tend to disagree with this stance and think there were some great movies, and to be fair, many of those who argue it was a bad time for movies are coming from a box office numbers perspective, and we don’t give a crap about that. We did notice that one fantastic movie that was an absolute bomb in theaters (while dreck like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Transformers: Age of Extinction were big hits), and that is the Tom Cruise vehicle Edge of Tomorrow (or Live, Die, Repeat or whatever you want to call it). The movie hits the home video market soon (you can actually already buy a digital copy), and in advance of that we have a cool behind the scenes look at the production.

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy may be the most fun movie of 2014 thus far (audiences certainly seem to think so, as the film recently became the first movie of the year to top $300 million at the domestic box office), but Edge of Tomorrow isn’t far behind on our list. A big part of this is that the action sequences are incredible, fast paced affairs that blend practical and digital special effects with great results. More than anything, this video gives you a feel for how director Doug Liman and the crew used actual physical applications to give these scenes a more grounded, visceral feel.

Before the film opened back in June, there was a lot of talk about those big exoskeletons that so many members of the cast wear. They apparently weigh hundreds of pounds and Cruise and co-star Emily Blunt actually wore for much of the shoot, which must have been exhausting. And while that definitely plays a part—watching them run looks like they’re wearing bulky metal suits—that’s far from all there is to witness.

You can see in this video that they built huge, extensive, and intricate set pieces (like that helicopter busting through a wall that’s all three of those). And while so many modern productions would have added in all of those explosions digitally, you see how they actually blew things up during the sweeping battle sequences (and there are a quite a few of them). Again, this adds a very immediate, primal feel to these scenes that add so much to the final film.

edge of tomorrowIt’s really too bad that almost no one saw Edge of Tomorrow in the theaters. It’s one of our favorite movies of the summer, and the year, and while we’re sure it will still be a great deal of fun on the small screen, seeing it in IMAX was a good use of that particular viewing technology. Hopefully this movie will follow the path of Dredd, a film that no one saw in theaters, but that received a whole new life on home video, it’s very worthy of such admiration.

And if you haven’t seen Edge of Tomorrow yet, like I said, you can get your hands on a digital copy now, or you can wait until October 7, which isn’t too far off now, and pick up a physical copy if that’s more to your liking. Either way, you can’t go wrong.

Edge of Tomorrow