So a few months ago I met a girl in New York whose brother worked on the set of Edge of Tomorrow and she said that in the scene where Tom Cruise is strapped to a gurney and trying to wriggle away her brother’s job was to strap Tom Cruise to the gurney, and Tom Cruise kept yelling at her brother that the straps weren’t tight enough because he wanted to make it look real, like he was really strapped to that gurney. And that totally fits my perception of what it’s like to be around Tom Cruise.
Anyway, I liked Edge of Tomorrow! It’s basically Groundhog Day, with violent aliens. I think I like the fact that the movie doesn’t try to explain all of the crazy shit it throws at you outside of giving a really brief, vague explanation. When Tom Cruise dies, he always wakes up at the same point of the previous day? It’s because of alien blood! There’s a fine line between being way too vague about key plot points and just having fun and not taking yourself too seriously, and I think Edge of Tomorrow kind of nails it which is a good contrast from Oblivion.
Also I just like the parable of Edge of Tomorrow, which is about how to be truly amazing at something you have to be terrible at it for a very very long time and fail so horribly that it feels like you will never get it, and it’s ok if you feel like giving up because as long as you keep trying you will eventually succeed.
I think the reason Edge of Tomorrow works is because most of the movie is just Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt talking. Yes the circumstance of the movie is extreme but it focuses on a relationship and lets the plot develop within the context of that rather than create a complicated plot line with lots of dips and dives and then shoehorn characters in to explain what’s going on. Tom Cruise does what he does at first not because he wants to save the world which is an abstract concept that it would make sense that his character (not to mention the audience) would have a hard time grasping, instead he does it because he likes Emily Blunt and he doesn’t want her to die. The audience has seen that relationship and they can relate.
The other thing that happens when you establish a meaningful and powerful relationship between two characters in a film is that it doesn’t matter how the plot ends. The ending of Edge of Tomorrow makes no sense but you are rooting for the people so it’s satisfying.
I’m going to write up ROGUE NATION (which can only be referred to in all caps) today and then I have some final Tom Cruise thoughts. I’m also going to review Going Clear in some capacity. Hooray!
Every Tom Cruise Movie 