Anyone who has played video games knows what checkpoints are, but checkpoints are a way to save your progress in a game. Certain games allow saving progress at any point, but some games allow saving progress only at predefined points known as checkpoints. Imagine having this ability in real life; you could revert back to a checkpoint with future knowledge. There is a catch though, to reset, you have to die. The protagonist of this movie finds himself in a similar predicament. Dying sends him back in time, and he is forced to relive his life again.
The movie is set in an alternate 2020 where aliens conquered most of Europe in 2015. Technological advancements lead to the creation of mech suits that give their pilots superhuman strength and reflexes. After success in Germany, the UDF or United Defense Force, a global military organization set up to fight against the aliens, plans on using the mech suits to invade France. The movie turns its focus to the protagonist, Major William Cage, played by Tom Cruise. He finds himself demoted to the rank of private and assigned to the invasion party. Lacking combat experience, he dies but not before killing an unusually large mimic known as an Alpha.
Cage wakes up on the morning when he was demoted to a private and assigned to the invasion party but strangely remembers landing and dying. He tries to warn his commanding officer but to no avail and keeps on being reset after dying and remembers the actions and tries to act accordingly. In one of many such loops, he tries saving Seargent Rita Vrataski, a hero of the attack on Germany against the aliens played by the lovely Emily Blunt. She realizes that Cage can loop back time when he saves her by apparently anticipating every move that could lead to her death. She asks him to find her when he resets again.
When Cage finds Rita and explains what has been happening, having experienced a similar situation, she takes Cage to Dr. Carter, an expert on the Aliens biology. Dr. Carter explains how Cage hijacked the aliens’ ability to loop back time; the ability is a defense mechanism used by the Alien leader “Omega” that reset time to prevent losing. Vratski begins training Cage to use his ability and warns him that a blood transfusion will take away the ability. After many failed loops, Cage learns about the location of the Omega and plans to end the fight once and for all.
After even more failed loops and almost having the ability taken away, Cage and Vrataski decide to track the Omega together. Cage suffers a major injury but is saved by a blood transfusion that inadvertently takes his ability away. Realizing that he has only one attempt at destroying the Omega, he enlists the help of his previous squad. After a grueling fight, Vrataski is killed, and Cage wounded. Cage uses whatever strength he has left to destroy the Omega, drowning in its blood in the process.
Cage wakes up two days earlier and realizes the world is different than he remembers. His effort in killing the Omega helps weaken the aliens and gives humanity the edge required to win.
In conclusion, it is an amazing movie that shows knowing what the future holds can help. The name is apt as Cage literally has the edge over tomorrow, knowing what the future holds for him. A VFX-heavy movie that gives the aliens a menacing look which helps sell the terror and fear. Based on the 2004 Japanese light novel “All you need is Kill” by Hiroshi Sakurazaka checks all the right boxes for a science fiction enthusiast like myself. I heartily recommend the movie to any Science fiction fan or to the fans of Tom Cruise.
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