T&K Go Loopty Loo: Edge Of Tomorrow

 [Toast and Kent love time loop stories.  With this "Loopty Loo" series, T&K explore just what's happening in a film or TV show loop, and maybe over time, they will deconstruct what it is that makes for a good time loop]

 2014, d. Doug Liman - recorded from tv, with commercials (gasp!)

[Kent] Maybe my series recap of Mission:Impossible is a total "TL:DR", so if you didn't read it, the two key points are:

1. Christopher McQuarrie, at this stage a multi-time collaborator with Tom Cruise, is working really hard to save Cruise's career, by ensuring he's not pushed out of the Mission:Impossible franchise and by giving him a second action franchise in Jack Reacher
   
2. By injecting into Cruise's career an active display of humility. Edge of Tomorrow, the last draft of which was written by McQuarrie, starts Cruise off as a coward (something he's never played on film, at least not like this) and then, when caught in the "time-loop" (I put it in quotes, we'll get to why), we see Cruise killed over and over again.  It's a catharsis for anyone in the audience who disliked him, or soured on him or was just uncertain about him.  But each new rebirth requires Cruise to change in order to survive, to become a better, more likeable, more relatable person.  He comes out of the film like the phoenix rising from the ashes, a much different star than he went in.

[Toast] Part of me also wonders whether this movie was meant to lift people out of the assumption that they won't see Cruise movies because they don't like Cruise. But, in many ways this is as much a typical Cruise carrier, almost as much as its not.

How did the Loop Begin?

[Kent] Cruise portrays Major William Cage, but his rank is more ceremonial thanks to his adept publicity and marketing skills.  Otherwise, he's a coward. 

There's a massive global battle that is going on with an invading alien enemy.  They seem to know when to strike and where, and human casualties are massive.  Humanity has only had one victory in an otherwise lopsided battle.

Cage is conscripted into serving in battle by a spiteful General.  He tries to run, but he's tased into unconsciousness.  When he wakes up he has barely a days worth of basic training before he's sent out to the big battle, the last stand for humanity.  If they lose it's pretty much over for our species.  Utterly out of his element Cage is just there as a body, to distract the enemy, nobody is expecting anything useful from him.  His cowardice leaves him prone on the field and he's killed, but not before getting sprayed in the face with the toxic blood of one of the enemy.

And then he wakes up, at a point he's already lived, the same point when he woke up after being tased into unconsciousness... on a pile of duffle bags at the military barracks outside London, the Sergeant yelling "On your feet soldier!" 

[Toast] Bill Paxton is just brilliant in this minor role, just utterly captivating in playing the Science Hill, Kentucky staff sergeant who is working under the assumption that Cage is a deserter, a coward and deserves whatever quick death he gets. I love the subtle reactions he gives from later iterations, when Cage knows what he is about to do or say, and eerily interrupts.

[Kent] Something about Paxton as a screen presence has always rubbed me the wrong way, but it kind of rubs me the wrong way the right way here.

[Toast] That first death of Cage, the blue blood pouring all over him, is horrific. I wonder if he carries that horrible memory with him for the rest of the loops.

What was the main character's first reaction to the Loop?

[Kent] The usual: confusion. But he clearly is aware that this has all happened before.  These events he's experiencing are so outside his usual reality that it's very clear he's not dreaming, that quickly he knows he's living the same day over again.  But a little cog in a big machine, he doesn't know enough to change much of what's about to happen (to him or anyone else)... just enough to do a little better .

[Toast] I wonder how he so quickly changed his direction. I get that the first couple of loops, he is disoriented, as well he should, but instead of knowing what's ahead and immediately trying to perfect his escape, he actually tries to survive the battle AND help his fellow soldiers with their own doomed fates. So, was Cage not such a bad guy to begin with, just never expected to be in battle?

[Kent] I don't think he was ever a bad guy...just a coward.

WHY did the main character get put into the Loop? Can someone else be brought into the Loop?

[Kent] Alien blood, my good man.  It's explained in the film that the Mimics have developed the technology to reset time.  Out in the field a very small percentage of the Mimics are blue, these are the ones that are recording the events of the day and able to upload their knowledge to the master control hive mind, so that when they die and the day is reset the whole Mimic army knows how things played out before and can easily counter their enemy.

It's the alien blood of the blue Mimic that wound up killing Cage, and somehow is now in his system time-after-time (don't think too much about it...it's comic book science).  

In theory, anyone can gain this ability if they basically get soaked in this acidic, toxic, alien blood and die.  But, what isn't clear is that they say Cage now controls the Loop, and I'm not sure I really understand that, why he is now in control of the Loop.  I would think the hive mind would do that (and when I say "hive mind" I mean just that, a giant glowing blue brain that controls the hive.

[Toasty] I am not sure there is any control given until the end of the movie, where Cage knocks it all the way back to waking up on the helicopter. Sure, they talk about the "control" being Cage's hands, but I am not sure he does anything more than run on automatic.

How long is this time Loop? What resets it? Can you force the reset?

[Kent] So, here's the thing we need to discuss, Toasty... is this a time loop? It's more of a time reset, rather than a loop.  As long as Cage stays alive, time moves forward, it's just they're up against a pretty overwhelming army, and avoiding death is so, so hard.  It's only his death that causes time to loop back.  And they force that reset a LOT. 

We haven't talked about Emily Blunt... the amazing Emily Blunt as Sgt. Rita Vrataski, the Angel of Verdun.  She is the face of the military effort, because her squad is the only one to be victorious in a battle against the Mimics (at Verdun).  It's because she, too, had the ability to reset the loop... but lost it.  In the process though, she's become the most badass soldier in existence.

[Toast] This is a fun one to postulate. Is each loop (or reset) in the same timeline, or does each manipulater create their own new timeline? So, if Cage was to shoot a Big Blue and it would once again soak Rita, would she be shunted into her own timeline entirely separate from Cage? So, in effect, the Hive Mind doesn't care about its own timeline, but uses the knowledge it got from the failure/death of a Big Blue and sends it into the next timeline, albeit a bit further back, to allow THAT timeline a better chance at a positive outcome, for their race?

That said, but with more thought, I believe there is only ONE Looper (cough) / Resetter allowed at any one time. Its why the Hive Mind needs Cage blue blood depleted, so it can take back the "power".

To answer your question, I still think it's a time loop, just one that can be stretched out.

But that aside, the forced reset we are presented with is fun here. Loopty Loo's do love their montage scenes and this movie is full of them. Once the training montage is in full swing, you can see the boredom on Rita's face and her desire to force a reset every time the training session hits a merely inconvenient stage. Poor Cage.

How long does the main character stay in the Loop? Does it have any affect on them, their personality, their outlook?

[Kent] I don't know that the film ever calculates how many times Cage lives, dies and repeats. It must be thousands upon thousands of days.  It can't help but have an effect upon him. He starts to think outside himself rather quickly, attempting to save as many people on the battlefield as he can, before realizing it's kind of futile, that they're so outmatched, he can't possibly save them all.  He zeroes in on the badass Angel of Verdun, thinking, appropriately for a marketing guy, that if he saves anyone in this battle should survive it needs to be the face of their war effort.  

It's through saving her that she realizes he's Looping ("Resetting?") and that he needs to come to her when he wakes up, which he does, and over dozens, maybe hundreds of repeat days they train and think through and execute their battle plan, still losing every time, but becoming closer in the process.  Suddenly, more than anything, Cage doesn't want to save himself, he wants to save Rita, and then starts thinking of the bigger picture, saving humanity.

[Toasty] Obviously Cage's viewpoint changes. Its not only a requirement of Loopty Loo's (Palm Springs is probably the closest example where someone refuses to change) but it necessary to the plot here. Even Cage's one brief loop (even if you call it a reset, from Cage's brain, he is still looping through the timeline[s]) outside of the heroic acts, he is presented with the horror of Not Doing Anything and the consequences. I don't think he really has a choice but to try and Solve the Mimic Problem because the horror he will see without trying surpasses anything he will see in battle. And he will die again along with all those innocents.

The number of loops does weigh on him eventually, especially that little bit where he keeps on trying to save Rita, and fails. I like that they present "stable points" in the loop, points in time that cannot be changed (a very Whovian concept) and only after he lets it happen can he move forward. Very... self-helpish.

What about the other people in the Loop? Are they aware? Can they become aware?  Does anything happen if they become aware?

"Live. Die. Repeat." was the later marketing/
home video marketing tag which supplanted
the "Edge of Tomorrow" title. I long thought
L.D.R. was a better title, but now I think
"Edge of Tomorrow" is appropriate, as he's
always living on the edge...of tomorrow.

[Kent] Other people are certainly made aware.  Some refuse to accept it, others are maybe less skeptical but need to be convinced.  Cage learns who he can convince (or manipulate) and who he can't over repeated Resettings.  Of course Rita is on board immediately because she's lived it herself, and knows what that experience is like.  And then there's the squirrelly Dr. Noah Carter who had theorized about the time looping and got busted down from military scientific counsel to working on the factory floor.  He's the one who has the solution to defeating the enemy, by tracking the hive mind.  

[Toast] Rita is easy. She's been through it. The short-hand that Cage must develop to begin interacting with her must take time, but work. It also must be REALLY weird for her, given she knows what its like on the other side. But imagine being Dr Noah, and seeing those two go at it (banter, not that it) in the 3D map room, as Cage fills them in more fully each time. 

What does the main character think about the other people in the Loop? Are they real? Do they matter?

[Kent] Yes and no.  I mean, Cage is fully aware that the people are real, they matter, but I think instead he gets comfortable with the concept that time is immaterial, and death is certainly nothing to be feared.  At a certain point he becomes endgame oriented, that he needs to focus on the end result or all of humanity will be lost, and so he can't fixate too much on the individuals or he may never win.  Even, at a certain point, that means letting go of Rita, whom he's fallen in love with.  It's basically the same choice she had to make at Verdun, letting go of the man she loved who she couldn't save.

[Toast] And himself. Imagine that last loop. Sure, he saves humanity but at the cost of all of J Squad and Rita, and himself. If anything the looping gave him perspective above all. There was no way he knew he would get another loop shot, with even MORE control. 

Most memorable event in a Loop? Most surprising event during a Loop?

[Kent] I like the training montage where Rita keeps shooting an injured Cage over and over again, his progression from pretending to be fine to resigned acceptance that the only path forward is Resetting.

[Toast] For me, it will always be that yelp he gives when he mistimes the roll under the truck. And the look on Sergeant Farrell's face. It is that brief moment that tells me multiple timelines are being created. OK ok, not serious on that at all, as I imagine Cage is squashed and dying, but not dead/reset yet. 

Dead Reset Yet -- my new band name.

How does this stack up in the subgenre?

[Kent] I'm not going to be nitpicky about whether this really does count as a time loop, it's still "in the mold".  As such, this is one of my absolute favourites.  Maybe my very favourite? Possibly?

[Toast] It is definitely one of my favourites, and a wonderful example of reworking the trope. We cannot always just follow the mould can we?

That said, let me tell you about a WONDERFUL example of reworking the trope I just saw on the TV show Debris. The show is about a team (one American, one British) tasked with collecting the debris from a crashed alien ship that came down all across the US. Each piece has magical powers that affect anyone who comes into contact with the piece.

In the multi-part episode, a 20sumthin and his twin sister discovered a piece that sends someone back in time 2 days. The problem is that they emerge into another timeline, not their own original. And he appears without his twin sister, as in this timeline he doesn't have a twin. So he keeps on resetting time / looping in order to return to the timeline in which she exists. But the more loops, the more tears in the "fabric of reality". So the team has to stop him, but not before one of them gets caught in the loops, and needs to return to THEIR own timeline, so they can "return" to their own partner.

Haven't finished the story, and its also not a "true" time loop story, but it borrows tropes and was kind of a fun spin on it. 

[Kent] I need to watch this [update: cancelled] show.