Tom Cruise is one of Hollywood’s last true movie stars, consistently churning out blockbuster films like Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning more than forty years after making his acting debut in 1981. Though he has seen his fair share of highs and lows during his career, Cruise has stood the test of time, in large part due to his commitment to diversifying his projects. Over the last four decades, the Academy Award-nominated actor has taken part in projects of all genres, from romance to spy thrillers and even science fiction.
While the actor has seen incredible critical and financial success over the years, not all of Tom Cruise’s movies got the credit they deserved. In fact, one of Tom Cruise’s best movies of all time is considered a box office bomb despite its overwhelmingly positive reviews. The 2014 science fiction film is more than a solid entry in Cruise’s filmography, however. If given the credit it deserves, this underrated sci-fi project could serve as a benchmark for what the genre could be.
Edge of Tomorrow Is an Underrated Sci-Fi Classic
Tom Cruise’s 2014 Sci-Fi Film Is an Exhilarating Ride
Edge of Tomorrow is an excellent Tom Cruise film from 2014 that raises the bar for all other sci-fi projects. Based on the graphic novel All You Need is Kill by Keiji Kiriya, Edge of Tomorrow depicts a post-apocalyptic world, wherein humans are locked in a gruesome war with an alien species known as “Mimics.” Cruise plays Major William Cage, a public affairs officer who travels the world recruiting new soldiers to the United Defense Force (UDF) despite having never seen combat himself. When Cage crosses his superior, he is demoted and sent to the front lines of Europe, where the Mimics have transformed the continent into a lifeless battleground. Cowardly and unskilled in combat, Cage is killed during his first combat experience–only to wake up again, unscathed. It is eventually revealed that exposure to Mimic blood caused Cage to become locked in a time loop, allowing him to relive the day leading up to his death. Each time he dies, the loop resets to the exact same moment on the exact same day. Realizing the value of this bizarre occurrence, Cage works to destroy the Mimics once and for all, using the information he gathers during his infinite experiences living through the same day over and over again. Along the way, he teams up with Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), who experienced a similar time loop during the historic Battle of Verdun. Together, Cage and Vrataski do everything in their power to save the human race–no matter how many times they must die to do so.
Edge of Tomorrow relies on an old movie trope popularized in Bill Murray’s 1993 classic, Groundhog Day. However, this time around, the time loop trope is paired with incredibly high stakes, as Cage must fight for the very existence of humanity. Applied to epic sci-fi action sequences, the time loop becomes a selling point of the film, as it depicts the same action sequences with slightly different results each time. Unlike many other movies in the vein, Edge of Tomorrow is edited perfectly, always showing audiences what they need to see from each version of the time loop without ever feeling repetitive or dull. The film is the crowning achievement of this brand of storytelling, outclassing every other Groundhog Day ripoff from the last thirty years. But the time loop isn’t the only selling point of the film. Edge of Tomorrow thrives on dazzling visuals as it brings an epic war between humans and aliens to life. With creative designs for its sci-fi elements, the film feels unique, which can’t always be said for other offerings from the genre. Moreover, Cruise and Blunt make for a compelling pair, with both actors perfectly delivering on the film’s emotional beats just as well as they do the action sequences. Edge of Tomorrow is a perfect model of a standalone sci-fi film, even if it never got the attention it deserved.
Why Did Edge of Tomorrow Fail?
Several Key Marketing Decisions Doomed Tom Cruise’s Sci-Fi Film
Edge of Tomorrow was a hit with critics, who praised the film’s leads, dazzling special effects, and surprisingly cohesive story in light of what could have easily been a cluttered and repetitive mess. The film earned a coveted fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, with a critic approval rating of 91%. Unfortunately, the acclaimed sci-fi film was not the box office success that it needed to be, earning about $370 million against a budget of $178 million. While not an utter disaster, Edge of Tomorrow wasn’t quite as financially lucrative as Warner Bros. had hoped, especially for a film of its size and scale starring a reliably successful movie star. Even so, those who did see the film generally held it in high regard. The Rotten Tomatoes audience score rivals that of critics, with 90% of viewers giving Edge of Tomorrow a positive rating. Other outlets, like IMDb and Metacritic, only cement the film’s praise, with similarly positive reviews from the vast majority of those who have seen it. Unfortunately, positive word of mouth wasn’t enough to draw the film out of obscurity, and it went down in history as a disappointing performance at the box office.
Edge of Tomorrow‘s disappointing box office could be attributed to any number of factors. One of the things working against the film was its name. According to director Doug Liman, the title of the original graphic novel, All You Need is Kill, was rejected because it didn’t quite fit the tone of the film. This might have hurt the film’s box office because certain fans of the original story wouldn’t have necessarily recognized it as an adaptation. Worse, Liman’s title suggestion, Live. Die. Repeat., was rejected by Warner Bros. in favor of Edge of Tomorrow. The final title, however, doesn’t necessarily indicate the kind of movie it is trying to sell, sounding more like a coming-of-age teen flick than a sci-fi action film. The phrase “Live. Die. Repeat.” was originally used as the film’s tagline, but became more prominent on posters and thumbnails for home release, where Edge of Tomorrow saw greater success.
Will Edge of Tomorrow Ever Get a Sequel?
Tom Cruise Wants to Make Edge of Tomorrow 2
Even over a decade after the film first hit theaters in 2014, fans still want a sequel to Edge of Tomorrow. While it works well as a standalone story, the door is left open for a continuation of some kind. Although the film ends with the humans emerging victorious in the war with the Mimics, there is always a chance for the vengeful aliens to return with reinforcements from their homeworld for a second round of war against Earth. Conversely, the story could go in a different direction, with Cage and Vrataski facing a different existential threat that would force them back into action. Wherever the story may go, the demand for an Edge of Tomorrow sequel hasn’t died down over the last eleven years.
For fans hoping for more from this would-be sci-fi franchise, there is both good news and bad news. The good news is that an Edge of Tomorrow sequel is indeed in the works. The bad news is that this has been the case for years. Cruise, Liman, and Blunt have all been open about their desire to return for a sequel, but it seems the story and busy schedules are holding production back. All hope isn’t lost, however, following Tom Cruise’s recent deal to appear in various Warner Bros. projects. This could potentially include an Edge of Tomorrow sequel, though nothing has yet been confirmed to this end. There have also been talks of a spinoff HBO Max series continuing Edge of Tomorrow‘s story, though there have been few updates on this project’s status in recent years.
Edge of Tomorrow is a solid sci-fi action film that makes the most of what could have easily been a tired and repetitive premise. Though the film wasn’t the box office juggernaut Warner Bros. had hoped it would be, it found new life on streaming and continues to enjoy a passionate fanbase eleven years later. As such, there is still hope for a sequel of some kind in the not-too-distant future. Nevertheless, as fans wait and hope for a continuation, Edge of Tomorrow remains a solid bar by which all other sci-fi movies of the modern era should measure themselves.
Edge of Tomorrow is available to stream on Peacock.
Edge of Tomorrow
- Release Date
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June 6, 2014
- Runtime
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114 minutes
- Director
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Doug Liman
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