{"id":52232,"date":"2024-05-28T20:00:34","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T18:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=2044476"},"modified":"2024-05-28T23:20:28","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T21:20:28","slug":"tom-cruises-best-film-is-10-years-old-and-broke-new-ground-for-sci-fi","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/tom-cruises-best-film-is-10-years-old-and-broke-new-ground-for-sci-fi\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Cruise\u2019s best film is 10 years old \u2013 and broke new ground for sci-fi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Edge of Tomorrow is a decade old today. <\/p>

By George White\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 28 May 2024 at 18:00 PM<\/p>

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Repetition is boring. The same thing over, over, and over. It becomes easy to zone out, it\u2019s difficult to stay engaged.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet in Edge of Tomorrow \u2013 or \u2018Live Die Repeat\u2019, as it was once known for\u2026 reasons \u2013 repetition is anything but boring. In fact, it provides the basis for <\/span>Tom Cruise<\/span><\/a>\u2019s best ever film \u2013 and one of sci-fi\u2019s highest points in the 21st century.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, achieving the honour of topping Cruise\u2019s decades-spanning filmography is no mean feat, nor is bestowing that honour an easy decision.<\/span><\/p>\n

After all, in the past few years alone, the Hollywood icon has released several of the big screen\u2019s most exhilarating blockbusters, with <\/span>Top Gun: Maverick<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Mission: Impossible \u2013 Fallout<\/span><\/a> chief among them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cruise has also shown his dramatic chops with Oscar-nominated turns in the likes of Magnolia and Born on the Fourth of July since his screen debut in 1981, and delivered one of cinema\u2019s most iconic lines when he told Rod Tidwell to show him the money in Jerry Maguire.<\/span><\/p>

But for all of these highlights, it is Doug Liman\u2019s 2014 movie Edge of Tomorrow \u2013 a bit of a sleeper hit that <\/span>underwhelmed at the box office<\/span><\/a> but has since attracted a mass viewership on streamers \u2013 that sits at the summit of his big-screen achievements.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the surface, the blockbuster feels like it could offer a fun couple of hours, a brainless form of escapism that passes the time while you eat some popcorn and slurp down an Ice Blast.<\/span><\/p>\n

It feels akin to a Fast & Furious<\/a> or later-stage Marvel movie<\/a> at first glance, an enjoyable but forgettable adventure that likely won\u2019t trouble many people\u2019s Four Favourites on Letterboxd.<\/span><\/p>\n

But what Liman and co deliver is so much more than that \u2013 a uniquely thrilling sci-fi adventure that breaks new ground in the genre.<\/span><\/p>\n

Firstly, there\u2019s the premise. The time loop has been done to death in cinema, of course \u2013 in comedies both old and new, for the most part, from Groundhog Day to Palm Springs, but also in horrors like Totally Killer and dramas like the Oscar-winning Two Distant Strangers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Emily\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Emily Blunt as Rita in Edge of Tomorrow. Warner Bros<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Yet to see it done \u2013 and done well \u2013 in a hard sci-fi setting is inspired, with the basis of Hiroshi Sakurazaka\u2019s All You Need Is Kill<\/a> providing a core principle around which screenwriters Christopher McQuarrie and Jez and John-Henry Butterworth craft both a gripping narrative and gripping action.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In terms of the latter, from the very first battle scene, the viewer is thrown into a chaotic futuristic setting, becoming immersed in a battlefield like no other.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By closely following Cruise\u2019s Cage as he works his way through the warzone, as discombobulated as us viewers, Liman keeps the camera close to our hero in every breath, showing every emotion as he witnesses bloodshed and fallen brethren.<\/span><\/p>\n

And as if that\u2019s not enough, the director drops us into that action again, and again, and <\/span>again<\/span><\/i>, making the torturous time loop<\/span> as stressful for the audience at home as it is for Cage on the scene.<\/span><\/p>\n

But what makes Edge of Tomorrow so effective overall<\/span> is that just when that repetition could, in fact, become boring, the film takes its cue and mixes things up, bringing Cage and Emily Blunt\u2019s Rita together \u2013 with full awareness of each other and their situation \u2013 to evolve the narrative.<\/span><\/p>\n