Edge of Tomorrow at 10: When Tom Cruise Reshaped His Narrative

Tom Cruise knows that nothing he does is ever “just” a movie. We often think of him, deservedly or not, as one of the last movie stars, one of the holdouts of a dying breed that’s been eclipsed by the kind of films that sell the characters and the premise more than the actors. We think of Cruise this way because he can still reliably front a movie, of course, but also because he’s learned the hard way what the greatest movie stars always knew: That every film, if you do it right, tells us something about who you are.
In a career spanning more than four decades, Cruise has worked to carefully craft an image to accompany his stardom, and while it hasn’t always worked in his favor, his awareness of this dual purpose to his film choices is undeniable. He spent the ’80s establishing his star persona, the ’90s simultaneously launching blockbusters and proving he could work with the likes of Paul Thomas Anderson, Neil Jordan and Stanley Kubrick, and the 2000s cementing himself as a filmmaking force beyond acting, using his clout to make sequels and take bigger swings, becoming a film industry unto himself.
Then came the 2010s, and a transformative period for Cruise that gave birth to the movie star we now know, the guy who emerges every couple of years to deliver a rollicking, stunt-packed spectacle unlike anything else his peers can offer, complete with behind-the-scenes footage proving that he’s putting his life on the line for our entertainment. Cruise came to that decade awash in controversy over his marriage, his views on psychiatry and his association with Scientology, all of which threatened his carefully controlled image as the Golden Boy Who Just Loves Movies. Two things happened in response. The first was an effort to pull back on what aspects of his private life were revealed following his divorce from Katie Holmes. The second was Edge of Tomorrow.
Released a decade ago this month, Doug Liman’s sci-fi action film is best remembered now as a film critics loved, but audiences simply didn’t turn up for in Mission: Impossible-style droves. In the years since, it’s only grown in esteem, as more and more fans see it, love it and clamor for a much-whispered-about sequel. Its status as a slept-on Cruise gem has only helped its reputation, and it’s now a kind of secret handshake for sci-fi action fans, a movie you make sure your buddies have seen.
But looking back at the film now — in the context of the increasingly bonkers Mission: Impossible sequels Cruise has released since, and his self-proclaimed quest to save the theatrical experience with movies like Top Gun: Maverick — Edge of Tomorrow feels like something more. If we take for granted, and I do, that every movie Cruise chooses to make is a reflection of an image he’s trying to convey to us, Edge of Tomorrow becomes a keystone for everything that’s happened since its release, the film from which Cruise emerged as the relentless showman we now know.
Cruise plays William Cage, a slick and TV-ready media manager for the U.S. military who’s become one of the primary spokesman for a global war against an alien menace called “Mimics.” After crash-landing on our planet, the Mimics launched a land war against humanity, conquering much of Europe and leaving world governments struggling to find a solution. They think they’ve found it in a line of high-tech battle suits that allow humans to stand against the aliens with less training, and Cage leads the charge to promote the new tech and enlist as many volunteers as possible. Then, thanks to his own arrogance, he’s unwillingly put on the front line of the invasion that’s supposed to win it all for humankind. In battle, he dies quickly and brutally, soaked in corrosive alien blood that, somehow, also places him in an endless time loop. Forced to live the day of the invasion over and over, dying each time, Cage eventually links up with Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), a badass war hero with a chip on her shoulder, and sets out to defeat the alien menace once and for all, even if no one else believes his time loop dilemma.