Edge of Tomorrow: fun movie but can someone please explain the ending?

[KGator]

Re: Edge of Tomorrow: fun movie but can someone please explain the end

Nothing about the military in this movie makes any sense. Officers can't be busted down without hearings, paperwork, etc., and they certainly can't be demoted to enlisted status, nor would any enlisted infantry leader let a stranger he considered mentally unstable in his ranks right before a battle.

Another reason Battle: LA is the superior film; it takes a ludicrous scenario (alien invasion) and then takes it fairly seriously, whereas this takes a ludicrous scenario, treats it fairly ludicrously (Cage's mixup/demotion), then throws a ludicrous time travel plot on top of all that.

I disagree. Cage wasn't really "busted down" to a private. He was framed by the General who told people he was a deserter with the rank of private. In a desperate situation with the fate of the world looking pretty grim, I think you can excuse the authorities for not paying more attention to protocol before a crucial battle. I bet you could have easily railroaded someone before D-Day also. I'm sure it could have been sorted out later (had they survived). As for motivation, perhaps the General had a God Complex or maybe he just had supreme power. Who knows?

As far as throwing him into such a dangerous combat situation, forgive me if I'm wrong about this but didn't they expect little to no resistance at the beach? Wasn't this supposed to be a fairly uncontested beachhead before a larger push inland against the Mimics??? The other squad members wouldn't even tell him how to release his weapon safety. The tradition of throwing raw recruits into battle with little or no training is a pretty common occurrence in human warfare. Its called OJT (on the job training) and historically many raw recruits get killed in the first few engagements anyways. So in essence they often are no more than cannon fodder.

 

[Ometiklan]

Re: Edge of Tomorrow: fun movie but can someone please explain the end

Was it ever explained why they called them Mimics? They didn't seem to mimic anything.

I didn't really catch it either, but other reviewers have said that they are called Mimics because they seem to adapt to all human military tactics immediately (or so it seems since we human's don't know about their time manipulation ability). Maybe it is mentioned in the opening exposition?

I really liked the movie. There is generally only one or two movies a year that I feel like seeing more than once in the theater and this is one of them. I just keep thinking about the interesting aspects of the universe, the aliens, and the dark comedy and want to see it again.

As for the question of what happens at the end of the movie: I went in worried that it might have been screwed up (after having seem some headlines/reviews to that effect), but to me the ending felt totally and tonally appropriate to the movie with its time travel aspect. Yeah, it could have gone a darker way with Cage & Rita actually sacrificing themselves without anyone knowing, but I don't think you can really be a fan of sci-fi/time travel and not imagine that this kind of "reset" ending was a potential.

 

[Gaith]

Re: Edge of Tomorrow: fun movie but can someone please explain the end

In a desperate situation with the fate of the world looking pretty grim, I think you can excuse the authorities for not paying more attention to protocol before a crucial battle. I bet you could have easily railroaded someone before D-Day also

Okay, I'm not a military historian, so I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure you have no earthly idea what you're talking about. Here's a CNN article saying "Some Allied units in Normandy had been preparing for four years for this campaign." And here's a professor of military history writing "Among the units earmarked to carry out the pending invasion of Europe, the 29th Infantry Division had been in England the longest. The 29’ers had arrived in Britain in October 1942 and been there ever since. For nearly a year and a half they had endured a litany of training exercises that included, for some of them, grueling Ranger training."

So no, you couldn't have just shown up to a British airfield the day before D-Day and hitched a ride, because you hadn't earned the trust of your peers, much less your unit leader. That would be exponentially more true, I'd think, of an accused deserter.

As far as throwing him into such a dangerous combat situation, forgive me if I'm wrong about this but didn't they expect little to no resistance at the beach? Wasn't this supposed to be a fairly uncontested beachhead before a larger push inland against the Mimics???

Now you're contradicting yourself. If they didn't expect much resistance, and didn't need every last body, why bring along a wildly untrustworthy fool who might accidentally disengage his weapon's safety and shoot up a bunch of fellow countrymen the moment he landed and started stumbling around?


Like I said before, if you liked the movie, that's fine. But you probably shouldn't let a Hollywood sci-fi action movie shape your perceptions of contemporary professional militaries.

 

[Snaploud]

Re: Edge of Tomorrow: fun movie but can someone please explain the end

I would recommend the book. I wouldn't recommend the movie.

http://www.amazon.com/All-Need-Kill...03229502&sr=1-1&keywords=all+you+need+is+kill

 

[Star Wolf]

Re: Edge of Tomorrow: fun movie but can someone please explain the end

In a desperate situation with the fate of the world looking pretty grim, I think you can excuse the authorities for not paying more attention to protocol before a crucial battle. I bet you could have easily railroaded someone before D-Day also

Okay, I'm not a military historian, so I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure you have no earthly idea what you're talking about. Here's a CNN article saying "Some Allied units in Normandy had been preparing for four years for this campaign." And here's a professor of military history writing "Among the units earmarked to carry out the pending invasion of Europe, the 29th Infantry Division had been in England the longest. The 29’ers had arrived in Britain in October 1942 and been there ever since. For nearly a year and a half they had endured a litany of training exercises that included, for some of them, grueling Ranger training."

So no, you couldn't have just shown up to a British airfield the day before D-Day and hitched a ride, because you hadn't earned the trust of your peers, much less your unit leader. That would be exponentially more true, I'd think, of an accused deserter.


.

It has happened in other battles of the 20th Century. Perhaps not Normandy but after August 1944 when the US Army ran out of infantrymen service support troops who were no longer needed in their specialty were thrown to the front as infantry replacements. In many cases they were early volunteers trained on the Springfield bolt action rifle and had never fired a M1 or the other weapons developed during the war that were standard for a 1944/5 US rifle squad. Some divisions had a short training course for their replacements others sent them to the front and depended upon the squad leader to bring the soldiers up to speed while their unit was in a tactical reserve position. by Vietnam they were calling replacements fucking new guys

I forget if it was the movie Exodus or Cast a Giant Shadow but they also had a scene were Jewish immigrants were taken off the boats and sent directly into battle in Israel's war of independence.

 

[KGator]

Re: Edge of Tomorrow: fun movie but can someone please explain the end

Okay, I'm not a military historian, so I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure you have no earthly idea what you're talking about. Here's a CNN article saying "Some Allied units in Normandy had been preparing for four years for this campaign." And here's a professor of military history writing "Among the units earmarked to carry out the pending invasion of Europe, the 29th Infantry Division had been in England the longest. The 29’ers had arrived in Britain in October 1942 and been there ever since. For nearly a year and a half they had endured a litany of training exercises that included, for some of them, grueling Ranger training."

So no, you couldn't have just shown up to a British airfield the day before D-Day and hitched a ride, because you hadn't earned the trust of your peers, much less your unit leader. That would be exponentially more true, I'd think, of an accused deserter.

After having spent 10 years in the military as both enlisted and a commissioned officer . . . I'm getting the strong feeling you've never served. I don't think you realize how disorganized things get on the ground when trying to conduct a complex operation with multiple moving parts.

And unless you are contending that all the forces involved in D-Day were training for the amount of times that "some" were (4 years, 18 months). Then clearly you understand the difference between "some" or "a portion of" and "all" or "every single soldier" right??? The US was building its forces during the years prior to the invasion, there was no "18 month cutoff" where any assets available after that time could not be used to assault France.

And if Eisenhower or Bradley or any number of generals who had operational authority had ordered you to or decided you could participate in D-Day you could unquestionably show up on any British Airfield and hop a ride. I don't care if you are not combat trained, your only training was is in knitting oven mitts or your only reason to go to France is to try and locate your pet chimp "mongo". If you don't believe that then you have absolutely no understanding of how the military chain of command works.

And your obsessing about D-Day obscures the fact that this wasn't a movie about D-Day but a future battle. These Aliens weren't essentially defeated by the time this beachhead occurred (as the strategic situation for the axis had become at that stage of World War 2), they had lost one battle since their assault on earth has begun. UDF won a single battle and thought it was due to these "new" armor suits and decided to press the advantage and re-establish a presence in mainland Europe. I only used D-Day as an analogy of a large scale operation where which a number of things could have occurred unnoticed to commanders and leaders who would have been to busy to worry about this kind of minutia (like Cage being railroaded by the General and sent into battle with a bunch of grunts).

Now you're contradicting yourself. If they didn't expect much resistance, and didn't need every last body, why bring along a wildly untrustworthy fool who might accidentally disengage his weapon's safety and shoot up a bunch of fellow countrymen the moment he landed and started stumbling around?


Like I said before, if you liked the movie, that's fine. But you probably shouldn't let a Hollywood sci-fi action movie shape your perceptions of contemporary professional militaries.

I'm not contradicting myself. If my memory serves they made a big deal of not expecting resistance at the beach and that Rita had killed "hundreds" of mimics with minimal training in the new battle armor. This is, in fact, what buoyed the UDF's hopes so much. That even untrained soldiers could utilize this equipment with amazing effectiveness on the battlefield.

Of course they didn't understand that Rita had become quite proficient by fighting and dying in hundreds of battles to gain her expertise.

As to why they would bring along someone they didn't trust on such an important operation . . . refer to my comment in the section above. THEY WERE ORDERED TOO!!! By the COMMANDING GENERAL in fact (as implemented by Master Sergeant Farrell)!

It reminds me of a long time Sergeant Major telling me that even though he disagreed with the orders of the Battalion Commander he made sure he got in the last word. The last two in fact . . . "YES SIR!"

I think out of the two of us, the one who has an idealistic perception of modern militaries . . . might be you.

 

[DarthTom]

Re: Edge of Tomorrow: fun movie but can someone please explain the end

I disagree. Cage wasn't really "busted down" to a private. He was framed by the General who told people he was a deserter with the rank of private. In a desperate situation with the fate of the world looking pretty grim, I think you can excuse the authorities for not paying more attention to protocol before a crucial battle. I bet you could have easily railroaded someone before D-Day also. I'm sure it could have been sorted out later (had they survived). As for motivation, perhaps the General had a God Complex or maybe he just had supreme power. Who knows?

As far as throwing him into such a dangerous combat situation, forgive me if I'm wrong about this but didn't they expect little to no resistance at the beach? Wasn't this supposed to be a fairly uncontested beachhead before a larger push inland against the Mimics??? The other squad members wouldn't even tell him how to release his weapon safety. The tradition of throwing raw recruits into battle with little or no training is a pretty common occurrence in human warfare. Its called OJT (on the job training) and historically many raw recruits get killed in the first few engagements anyways. So in essence they often are no more than cannon fodder.

I always got the imprssion that Cage was busted down to a private and sent to the front lines on a suicide mission. Surely the General knew that he wasn't prepared for battle since he had never trained before as a front-line solider.

Therefore, Cage's role duirng the invasion was to simply - die.

 

[KGator]

Re: Edge of Tomorrow: fun movie but can someone please explain the end

I disagree. Cage wasn't really "busted down" to a private. He was framed by the General who told people he was a deserter with the rank of private. In a desperate situation with the fate of the world looking pretty grim, I think you can excuse the authorities for not paying more attention to protocol before a crucial battle. I bet you could have easily railroaded someone before D-Day also. I'm sure it could have been sorted out later (had they survived). As for motivation, perhaps the General had a God Complex or maybe he just had supreme power. Who knows?

As far as throwing him into such a dangerous combat situation, forgive me if I'm wrong about this but didn't they expect little to no resistance at the beach? Wasn't this supposed to be a fairly uncontested beachhead before a larger push inland against the Mimics??? The other squad members wouldn't even tell him how to release his weapon safety. The tradition of throwing raw recruits into battle with little or no training is a pretty common occurrence in human warfare. Its called OJT (on the job training) and historically many raw recruits get killed in the first few engagements anyways. So in essence they often are no more than cannon fodder.

I always got the imprssion that Cage was busted down to a private and sent to the front lines on a suicide mission. Surely the General knew that he wasn't prepared for battle since he had never trained before as a front-line solider.

Therefore, Cage's role duirng the invasion was to simply - die.

If the General really thought it was going to be a suicide mission and a wholesale slaughter . . . why would he wanted to have Cage embedded with a film crew to record the occasion in the first place?

He originally wanted Cage on the front lines because he expected the attack to go well, not knowing his entire invasion force would be massacred and never make it off the beach. Sure, being with the grunts would be more dangerous and potentially deadly than with a film crew, but there's no guarantee Cage would have perished (as you would expect in a suicide mission). I'm guessing the casualty rate during the war was pretty high (hell, the mimics won just about every battle convincingly) but this was coming off Verdun where troops with little to no training had successfully won a battle for the first time with minimal losses thanks to the newly fielded exoskeleton.

I got the impression that the General an impatient, abrupt, arrogant and stubborn man with a bad temper but I didn't think he was a deranged sociopath who had lost touch with reality.

 

[Star Wolf]

Re: Edge of Tomorrow: fun movie but can someone please explain the end

I disagree. Cage wasn't really "busted down" to a private. He was framed by the General who told people he was a deserter with the rank of private. In a desperate situation with the fate of the world looking pretty grim, I think you can excuse the authorities for not paying more attention to protocol before a crucial battle. I bet you could have easily railroaded someone before D-Day also. I'm sure it could have been sorted out later (had they survived). As for motivation, perhaps the General had a God Complex or maybe he just had supreme power. Who knows?
As far as throwing him into such a dangerous combat situation, forgive me if I'm wrong about this but didn't they expect little to no resistance at the beach? Wasn't this supposed to be a fairly uncontested beachhead before a larger push inland against the Mimics??? The other squad members wouldn't even tell him how to release his weapon safety. The tradition of throwing raw recruits into battle with little or no training is a pretty common occurrence in human warfare. Its called OJT (on the job training) and historically many raw recruits get killed in the first few engagements anyways. So in essence they often are no more than cannon fodder.

I always got the imprssion that Cage was busted down to a private and sent to the front lines on a suicide mission. Surely the General knew that he wasn't prepared for battle since he had never trained before as a front-line solider.
Therefore, Cage's role duirng the invasion was to simply - die.

If the General really thought it was going to be a suicide mission and a wholesale slaughter . . . why would he wanted to have Cage embedded with a film crew to record the occasion in the first place?
He originally wanted Cage on the front lines because he expected the attack to go well, not knowing his entire invasion force would be massacred and never make it off the beach. Sure, being with the grunts would be more dangerous and potentially deadly than with a film crew, but there's no guarantee Cage would have perished (as you would expect in a suicide mission). I'm guessing the casualty rate during the war was pretty high (hell, the mimics won just about every battle convincingly) but this was coming off Verdun where troops with little to no training had successfully won a battle for the first time with minimal losses thanks to the newly fielded exoskeleton.
I got the impression that the General an impatient, abrupt, arrogant and stubborn man with a bad temper but I didn't think he was a deranged sociopath who had lost touch with reality.

Compared to the other soldiers J squad seemed to be out of uniform foul ups. A propose that their unit was a Dirty Dozen like amnesty if you survived as the Master Sergeant said. And in the end we stopped doing future Saving Private Ryan as the future Dirty Dozen went behind the lines on the eve of D-Day

 

[Gaith]

Re: Edge of Tomorrow: fun movie but can someone please explain the end

After having spent 10 years in the military as both enlisted and a commissioned officer . . . I'm getting the strong feeling you've never served.

Well then, it looks as though we've both made wrong guesses about each other; I certainly didn't think a former mustang would have dropped a "???" at the end of a sci fi message board question. (FWIW, I'm serving now, though not in the Army, and not in overseas.)

As for your points, if I'm totally wrong on Army culture, then I'm totally wrong. Wouldn't be the first time. But regardless of the intensity of the expected alien resistance, I'm having trouble seeing how ordering that a completely non-combat-trained soldier crazy enough to run out of a military headquarters into a tense battle situation where there's a high likelihood of him hurting or killing his fellow troops isn't "deranged sociopath" behavior.

 

[KGator]

Re: Edge of Tomorrow: fun movie but can someone please explain the end

After having spent 10 years in the military as both enlisted and a commissioned officer . . . I'm getting the strong feeling you've never served.

Well then, it looks as though we've both made wrong guesses about each other; I certainly didn't think a former mustang would have dropped a "???" at the end of a sci fi message board question. (FWIW, I'm serving now, though not in the Army, and not in overseas.)

As for your points, if I'm totally wrong on Army culture, then I'm totally wrong. Wouldn't be the first time. But regardless of the intensity of the expected alien resistance, I'm having trouble seeing how ordering that a completely non-combat-trained soldier crazy enough to run out of a military headquarters into a tense battle situation where there's a high likelihood of him hurting or killing his fellow troops isn't "deranged sociopath" behavior.

Its not optimal, granted. But there are a lot of seemingly stupid things that you can be ordered to do. And there are many instances, in desperate situations, where civilians, untrained REMFs, etc, have had to take up arms and join the fight.

Clearly the suits you are referring to seem as if they would need specialized training but based on the results of the film either Cage HAD a rudimentary understanding of how to fight or they really were as easy to use as the beginning newscasts suggested where virtually anyone could use them with minimal training.

I mean hell, once he cycled through the languages it seems like he killed as many mimics in his first actual combat as the entire J Squad did combined.

And J Squad would likely think he was a simple deserter who had basic training and any danger he posed would be in running from combat or freezing in a combat situation rather than gunning down his own comrades. JMHO (Although I realize you are more or less questioning the General's decision to put grunts in harm's way than his subordinates.)

 

[Argus Skyhawk]

Re: Edge of Tomorrow: fun movie but can someone please explain the end

I just wanted to share a relevant comic:

http://spoilerninja.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/2014-06-06_EdgeOfTomorrow.gif

 

[Mr Light]

Re: Edge of Tomorrow: fun movie but can someone please explain the end

Initial returns had some declaring this movie to be a financial disappointment, but it has now made $352 million which is more than Oblivion did which was considered a success ($286).

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/showdowns/chart/?id=cruisescifi.htm

 

[KGator]

Re: Edge of Tomorrow: fun movie but can someone please explain the end

Initial returns had some declaring this movie to be a financial disappointment, but it has now made $352 million which is more than Oblivion did which was considered a success ($286).

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/showdowns/chart/?id=cruisescifi.htm

Oblivion reportedly cost about $60 million less than EOT to make.

And keep in mind that only a fraction of ticket sales go to the studio. Its not like the movie studios own the theaters. Cinemas keep roughly half the profits of a movie (a small percentage earlier in the release and a greater percentage later in the release).

Plus marketing for a major release can easily run another $50-150 million world wide. I've seen it stated that EOT marketing ran about $100 million. So for a total cost of $280 (production budget plus marketing) EOT would need to make about $560 worldwide to break even at the theaters. And when you consider that $66 million of that current foreign revenue came from China (which only pays 25% to the studios) the actual number would be closer to $600 million.

So did it do well at the box office? Not really considering the cost. Can it still make money in the end once all the revenue streams are completed (DVD, digital downloads, PPV, Television Broadcasts, etc)? Possibly.

Remember that Elysium made about the same total as Oblivion and cost less to make yet was considered a big financial flop at the box office. In fact, comparing EOT to Oblivion isn't all that flattering as Oblivion is often mentioned as a box office disappointment for 2013.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Re: Edge of Tomorrow: fun movie but can someone please explain the end

Edge of Tomorrow comes to Blu-Ray and DVD October 7th

 

[Dream]

Re: Edge of Tomorrow: fun movie but can someone please explain the end

Did Warner Bros. Change Edge Of Tomorrow's Title Again?

Tom Cruise's Edge of Tomorrow retitled Live Die Repeat for home release

 

[Aldo]

Re: Edge of Tomorrow: fun movie but can someone please explain the end

I read that article and I think it's stupid, just stick with the title. And if they really wanted to re-title it, why not just revert to the original title of the graphic novel: "All you need is Kill" ?

 

[Professor Zoom]

Re: Edge of Tomorrow: fun movie but can someone please explain the end

I remember the billboards in LA, and I kept thinking, Live Die Repeat is a much better title than Edge of Tomorrow--which sounds like a soap opera

 

[Aragorn]

Re: Edge of Tomorrow: fun movie but can someone please explain the end

They didn't change the title. They're just burying it under the tagline.

 

[Trekker4747]

Re: Edge of Tomorrow: fun movie but can someone please explain the end

They didn't change the title. They're just burying it under the tagline.

Which pretty much is going to have the same effect given that "Live. Die. Repeat." dominates the front of the box art where "Edge of Tomorrow" is nowhere to be seen.

Which.... Though I suspect many people will know what movie this is, renaming it for home video seems like an odd choice.