Edge of Tomorrow by Doug Liman (2014)
Adapted from Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s All You Need Is Kill — which, let’s face it, is an awesome title — Edge of Tomorrow finds Tom Cruise stuck in a time loop after killing a bizarre alien creature intent on conquering Earth. It’s like Groundhog Day if Bill Murray spent his endlessly repeating days learning how to operate a cool mech suit and shoot aliens instead of the ins and outs of charming Punxsutawney. Doug Liman’s movie has plenty of intense, mech-powered action, something we frankly don’t get enough of from Hollywood. Edge of Tomorrow works best, however, in its bleakly comic moments, when Cruise’s character figures out how to use the time loop to his advantage, but only after dying many, many, many times. Same goes for the quieter moments between him and Emily Blunt’s war hero, which highlight the inherently disquieting, and even terrifying aspects of being stuck in a time loop.
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