Believe it or not, it’s been more than a decade since Doug Liman’s Edge of Tomorrow hit theaters, and in that time, the film has become remembered by many as one of the best sci-fi movies of all time. As you may or may not be aware, the Tom Cruise/Emily Blunt time-loop thriller was one of the big book-to-movie adaptations to hit theaters in 2014. If you’re a fan of the sci-fi novel or the movie, don’t worry, I'm not here to pick apart Edge of Tomorrow as it relates to its source material, Hiroshi Sakurazaka's novel, All You Need Is Kill.
To say that the film takes liberties with the original story would be an understatement, and that's ok, because in the end, while Edge of Tomorrow – sometimes known as Live, Die, Repeat – is by no means a page-for-page adaptation, it holds up nicely as its own movie. Basically, what Doug Liman's film has done is take the concept and characters from the book, change some of the rules and a lot of other major details (character specifics, locations, etc) and make its own similar story, with a very different ending. And it's the ending we want to talk about here, both in terms of what happens and also how it compares to All You Need Is Kill.
We will be discussing All You Need Is Kill here with spoilers, especially as it relates to the book's ending, so if you haven't read the book but plan to and don't want the ending spoiled, read no further. Also, this might be obvious but MAJOR EDGE OF TOMORROW SPOILERS AHEAD!
What Happens During The Edge Of Tomorrow Ending
Edge of Tomorrow ends with Rita (Emily Blunt, in one of her best movies) and Cage (Tom Cruise) diving head first toward their own deaths as they attempt to destroy the "Omega," which is the being that's at the center of everything. Because Cage lost his ability to reset the day, due to a blood transfusion, he and Rita are aware that there's no way they are going to walk away from this. They have one chance to kill the Omega, and they will most certainly die, regardless of whether or not they’re successful, because the day won't reset for Cage.
Rita and Cage get the job done, as Rita holds off the mimics while Cage blows up the Omega, but as Cage is drowning in the water and the spreading blood of the Omega, he re-inherits the Omega's day-resetting powers and a new reset happens. Cage wakes up at an earlier point than the previous reset.
Why Does Cage Wake Up At A New Point In Time?
The simplest explanation for why Cage doesn’t wake up on base like he did every other time is presumably because, unlike when he came into mimic blood on the beach during the battle, which started the original loop, his contact with the blood this time was likely earlier in the timeline, so his new reset was also earlier as a result. In this case, he wakes up on his way into London.
Cage awakens from the reset to find that the war has shifted drastically in humanity's favor. As the Omega was killed by Cage and his team in the now looped-out day before, the mimics are being killed off in battle and humanity is finally making strides to take them down. Cage is alive and so is Rita, though she technically hasn't met Cage yet, but they're last seen looking at each other.
Only Cage Will Remember What Actually Happened
The only way the movie’s ending could have been happier would have been if Cage and Rita could have earned any credit for their efforts. Same goes for J-Squad. Those people have no idea that they helped save the world, which is a shame, but they'll hopefully have the opportunity to take down some of the remaining mimics and live through what's left of the war as heroes.
Cage and Rita are the last two characters we see before the credits, and it's kind of implied by Cage's smile that he'll try to win Rita over again. Maybe they'll live happily ever after together. Who knows?
What Happens At The End Of All You Need Is Kill
In the book, there's a different set of rules involving the aliens. While they're still called mimics, instead of the Omegas and Alphas, there are Servers and Backups and Antennas, and if a person inherits the day-resetting power, they can't lose it with a blood transfusion. Without going into the complicated specifics about how looping works in All You Need is Kill, we'll just skip to the ending, which reveals that Rita has become an "Antenna," which means the Mimics are still able to loop. After Keiji kills the Server, Rita lures him into a fight and reveals that Keiji has to kill her in order to end the loop. If he dies, it's forever. If she dies, the loop will end and so will the war eventually. Only one of them can escape either way. Keiji reluctantly fights back, beats her and kills her.
The book takes a much more tragic approach to the ending, which has Keiji emerging as a hero of the war. It's drastically different from Edge of Tomorrow in both respects, as the film's version allows Rita to keep her life but takes away Cage's glory. I get the impression Keiji would have been very willing to give up the medal he received when the war was over for a chance to have Rita back, so there is a trade-off, but it's definitely an uneven one.
Did Edge Of Tomorrow Take The Right Path With Its Happier Ending?
Even before I knew the ending of All You Need Is Kill, I couldn't help but feel like Edge of Tomorrow's ending was a little too happy. I didn't hate it, but I did wonder if any alternate endings had been seriously considered, and whether or not I would have liked a slightly more tragic conclusion, especially when we consider how affected Rita was by the war and the loss she'd experienced. The thought of Cage emerging from his never-ending day victoriously while Rita remained a casualty might have worked as a bittersweet but ultimately more satisfying conclusion to an extremely entertaining movie. At the very least, I don't think it would have hurt the film.
I get why Liman's adaptation made the changes it did, and I kind of like that it took an alternate approach to the original story. It allows the movie to stand a bit more on its own. But I would also understand if book fans were disappointed that this movie veered in its own direction, not only as it relates to the ending, but also to the aliens, the locations and background history of its lead characters. With that in mind, maybe someday it'll be re-adapted. A big budget limited would be kind of cool, I think. And of course, there’s the ever-anticipated sequel to Edge of Tomorrow, which is still a possibility.
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