Edge of Tomorrow
Endless day
As I love literature and cinema, I get super anxious when they make the adaptation of some book I liked. Most of the time, unfortunately, the result is not good, but from time to time some adaptations get very well done. It was a pleasant surprise to watch the science fiction “Edge of Tomorrow” (USA/CAN, 2014) and see that in my favorite genre of movies great products are still made.
Although the theme alien invasion is frequent, the story is presented as if a single day were repeated without ceasing. This way of building history has been widely used in cinema, being the best known “Groundhog Day” (USA, 1993), starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell.
The same formula was repeated in “12:01” (USA, 1993), “Repeaters” (USA, 2010), “Source Code” (USA, 2011), “Run, Lola, Run” (“Lola rennt”, GER, 1998) and even in Brazilians movies “The Man of the Future” (“O Homem do Futuro”, BRA, 2011) and “The Big Family: The Movie” (“A Grande Família”, BRA, 2007). For different reasons, time repeats itself, although the characters seek to change events with various objectives.
In “Edge of Tomorrow”, Earth was invaded by strange arachnid aliens, extremely aggressive and endowed with a very advanced technology. Starting the invasion by Europe, in a short time they dominate the continent, killing or expelling all humans from there.
The story begins with the arrival of Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) in London. An officer in the Communications Area of the U.S. Army, Cage joins the war effort in London, where the Allies are preparing a major landing operation in continental Europe to fight the invaders.
But a disagreement with General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson) causes him to be detained and placed as a private in a squadron that will participate in the landing in France the next day, under the orders of Sergeant Farell (Bill Paxton).
Without the slightest training, Cage finds himself lost in the middle of the combat zone, witnessing the massacre of his colleagues by the aliens, far superior in number and armaments. When he himself is forced to face an enemy, they fight a deadly combat, where they both die.
Cage wakes up in the same place where 24 hours before he was awakened by Sergeant Farell. To his surprise, he had returned in time, and all events seem to repeat themselves in exactly the same way, without anyone realizing it, but him.
Saving the life of the famous combatant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), she gives him a strange order: “Come to me tomorrow when you wake up”. Cage dies, once again, and the cycle repeats itself.
When he wakes up the next day, Cage finds Rita, and discovers that she had already been through the same situation as him. On another occasion, like him, she had killed a special kind of alien named Alpha, and had been struck by his blood. To protect the Alphas, the supreme leader of the invaders turns back time, and as both Rita and Cage were contaminated with the blood of the aliens, they also go back in time retaining the memory of the events that happened.
From there, Rita and Cage work together, with the help of a discredited scientist, Carter (Noah Taylor), to find a way to destroy the aliens. Cage must die hundreds of times, repeating the tragic cycle of events, but always improving their combat skills and looking for new clues that lead them to the leader of the invaders.
The film is full of action scenes and special effects, well integrated into the story, which keeps the viewer always involved from start to finish. Even in a home environment, the high-definition images and the sound DTS place the viewer at the center of the action, especially in the initial scenes of landing in France.
This landing seems to take place in the same place as the famous D-Day in World War II, which marked the reversal of Nazi domination in Europe. The film, incidentally, was released on June 6, 2014, on the 70th anniversary of the most famous operation of that conflict.
The film is a typical product for the new generations of viewers, with incessant action, without great intellectual or emotional deepening, although some may see a parallel to spiritist or Buddhist philosophies, where it is required to live many lives seeking evolution to achieve a state of enlightenment.
The story is based on the book “All you need is kill”, by Japanese writer Hiroshi Sakurazaka. And for those who like curiosities in the movies, the name of the character Rita was a tribute to the character lived by Andie MacDowell in “Groundhog Day”.
“Edge of Tomorrow” can be watched on the Netflix streaming service.