Final Edge Of Tomorrow Trailer Focuses On Character Over Action

By Brent McKnight | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

Next up on the big summer sci-fi list is Doug Liman’s actioner Edge of Tomorrow. Despite the fact that the film is gathering up largely positive reviews that call it a lot of fun and a nice change of pace from a season full of superheroes and sequels, it is tracking to be a significant flop. If it is as entertaining as may people have said it is, we definitely hope it finds an audience. To get you primed for the June 6 release, Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow have delivered a final trailer and an extended featurette.

While the action has been at the forefront of all the marketing so far, this trailer takes a different approach. While there are still plenty of explosions and scenes of high-octane combat, the main focus is on the human connection between Tom Cruise’s Bill Cage and Emily Blunt’s Rita Vrataski, and the story, rather than all of the bells and whistles.

Based on the novel by All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, Edge of Tomorrow follows Cage, a career military officer who has never seen a day of combat in his life. When a hostile alien race called Mimics invades, he is pressed into action and dies within the first few minutes of battle. Surprise, surprise, he wakes up at the beginning of the day, very much alive again. Every day he dies, but every day he wakes up. With each reincarnation he gets a little better, a little smarter, and lives that much longer, until he meets Rita, who knows what he is going through. She had his ability, which is how she became a total badass, but lost it, and she agrees to train him. Together, they may be the last hope for the human race.

Clocking in at more than 13-minutes, this featurette has a lot going for it. In addition to being full of new footage that you haven’t seen, Cruise and Blunt dig even deeper into their characters and the story. Cage is a bureaucrat, a paper pusher, accustomed to talking his way out of situations instead of fighting. I love that moment when he runs away from his commanding officers and gets tasered for his efforts. It’s nice to see Cruise not play a heroic character, at least not at first. You even find out how he came to possess this new power of his.

There’s also a ton of behind the scenes material. You see the production, and the actors talk about those bulky exoskeletons that are so prominent in the film. While many films these days would go with a CGI suit, Cruise and company were adamant that they had to be practical. The result weighed north of 100 pounds, and, instead of making everything easy and smooth like they’re supposed to in the movie, they created another difficult element the team had to deal with.

Will all of this add up to a good movie? We’ll have to wait and see, but the closer we get, the more excited we get.

Edge of Tomorrow