#WhatThomWatched Glance*:
Edge of Tomorrow (a.k.a. Live Die Repeat)
(Doug Liman, 2014; Streaming/Also available on disc from Warner Bros.)
The original title of this movie, Edge of Tomorrow, is a rare example of a marketing choice that didn’t give enough away (thus the rebranding for the home video market). This post could follow suit and attempt to hide the main conceit, but to do so would only compound this excellent movie’s problem, which was that it was largely overlooked. Via a not-too-shabby sci-fi mechanism, a character (played by Tom Cruise) resets time and jumps back to a specific point when he dies; he’s a doofus with no combat experience at first, but after hundreds of (implied) iterations, he gains not only skills but also the knowledge to progress a little farther on each try — where the enemy is hiding, which is the best path to take, who to trust and not to trust, and so on. (Yeah, Einstein — “Just like a video game!”) Thing is, as directed by Doug Liman and scripted by Dante Harper, Christopher McQuarrie and Jez and John-Henry Butterworth (and based on the book All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka), Edge of Tomorrow turns out to be more: a damn credible satire of the big-budget explosive-y sludge into which Hollywood (and, increasingly, network television) must mash every story. Okay, it’s not satire at a Starship Troopers level, and the time-travel plot is played straight and has plenty of emotional heft. But there’s a definite current which is poking fun at the need to formulate every action movie as an Xbox first-person-shooter and vice-versa.
Reminds me of:
I really don’t expect less from Liman, who I will always love for Swingers and Go (and for whom I carefully guard my respect via the simple expedient of refusing to view Jumper, for all eternity). He has demonstrated (in movies like The Bourne Identity) that he can do big-budget while still focusing primarily on character. Edge also benefits greatly from Cruise’s comic timing and his willingness to play against his action-hero image; Emily Blunt as another time-jumper brings all of the seriousness and weight and pairs with Cruise beautifully. I am also always pleased to spot Noah Taylor in anything (he plays Dr. Carter, the scientist that Blunt’s character is working with to defeat the bad guys); his childhood character Danny Embling (from John Duigan’s The Year My Voice Broke and Flirting) has always felt like my best friend from another life (you know, the one where I grew up in Australia. And went to boarding school with Taylor. Along with Nicole Kidman and Thandie Newton.) At any rate, I jumped out of my chair when he showed up.
But then — the guilt!
When I look at those box office numbers . . . . yeah, I was one of the many who saw the ’splody trailer in a theater, ho-hummed at a poster of Cruise in yet another futuristic suit of armor, and at Liman’s name allowed myself the fleeting thought: “Ugh. Jumper.” When I should have thought: “Yay! Swingers!!”
My bad, Doug. You’re so money and you don’t even know it.
Pitch:
Maybe it’s just me but I get a huge kick out of Brendan Gleeson’s two scenes as General Brigham; first where Cruise ticks him off enough to get shanghaied and sent to the front lines, and later when Cruise returns (many lives down the road and much wiser).
*For movies and shows which are current — in theaters or streaming — I'm posting a short, less-spoilery take on #WhatThomWatched (and generally only when something really strikes me as worth passing on). These shorter essays are labeled Glance.
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