Edge of Tomorrow was a science fiction film that did well enough at the box office when it was initially released, however, in the time since the film's following has grown significantly, creating a large fan base excited at the prospect of a sequel. Now, writer Christopher McQuarrie has given us the first indication of exactly what sort of story the sequel will tell. Apparently, the new film will take steps to actually explain the ending of the first film more completely.
If, by chance, you haven't seen Edge of Tomorrow, then be ready for spoilers. Edge of Tomorrow follows Tom Cruise as he gets involved in a massive war between humanity and an alien race. During a battle, he is inadvertently affected by alien biology and he gains an ability they have, which results in him living a time loop. Every time he dies, he wakes up at a particular moment in time, with complete knowledge of his previous loops. Eventually, the alien Alpha is defeated and Cruise's character dies once again in the process. However, this time when he wakes up, he finds himself at an earlier point in time than his previous loops, and once he discovers where he is, he learns that the war has already been won and the aliens have been defeated. How this has happened, since in this time loop he has yet to perform the actions that won the war, is never explained, though according to Christopher McQuarrie, it appears it will be in the sequel.
It will be very interesting to see what sort of explanation we get for the original film's ending. At the time, it felt like the ending was just contrived to give us a "happy ending" to the story where both our heroes survive and the war ends. We were mostly willing to forgive that due to the fact that the rest of Edge of Tomorrow was so damn good. It's entirely possible that was the reasoning behind the ending in the first place, as from everything we've heard the idea to make a sequel at all came much later.
Perhaps how that ending could be used to launch a sequel was the idea that got everybody on board to make Live. Die. Repeat. Repeat., a title we're praying somebody changes before release. Doug Liman, who directed the original and will be back for the sequel has been singing the praises of the new movie in a big way, claiming the film will change the way people make sequels. We're certainly curious how the films will tie together. The sequel to Edge of Tomorrow is still some time off so we have plenty of time to speculate.
