The meaning of the film Edge of Tomorrow
Imagine waking up in a computer game. Your task is to defeat the enemy, cunning, insidious, endowed with superpowers … almost invincible. Fortunately, you were given the chance to “survive.” And here you are, over and over again, doing the hard way to the goal, periodically returning to the place of preservation. Everything is like in the game – only in real life. This is exactly what happened to Major Will Cage in Edge of Tomorrow. No matter how difficult the task seemed, the hero coped with it – but the ending, although happy, was not completely clear. Therefore, we will try to figure out what happened at the end and how the time travel system generally works in the film’s universe.
People, facial expressions and the logic of time travel in the film “Edge of Tomorrow”
Mimics are insidious enemies of humanity, with whom Will Cage and the invincible heroine of this bloody war, Rita Vrataski, fight. Mimic – from the word “mimicry”: the ability of these creatures to adapt to the conditions of battle is amazing. The secret to the success of the Mimics’ military tactics lies in their ability to manipulate time. More precisely, only Omega can control time – the main organism in the mimic colony, a kind of brain. Omega keeps aloof from the battlefield, while her subordinates, mere mortal mimics, carry out an attack on humans. Common facial expressions are colored orange, but there are also rare individuals of blue – these are Alphas. Alpha is the Omega’s eyes and ears, valuable to this collective organism. Therefore, as soon as Alpha dies, Omega hurries to return time back in order to avoid losing a valuable soldier. Only if Omega perfectly remembers everything that happened up to this moment, then people are deprived of such an opportunity. Therefore, they lose to mimics, despite all efforts.
Luckily for this world, no one took Will’s time travel story seriously – except for Rita Vrataska. Otherwise, our hero will sit in a psychiatric hospital
What is the secret of Rita Vrataska’s super-soldier? As luck would have it, she was nearby when another Alpha died. Alpha’s blood, “infected” by the connection with Omega, and hence the ability to control time, fell on Rita, and this helped her win, over and over again, military operations. But then the irreparable happened – injury, hospital and blood transfusion. Rita lost control of time, but remained an important figure in the American military. But now Will Cage acquired this ability in a similar situation, and Rita became his teacher and guide to the world of time travel.
Here it will be useful to remind that, according to the logic of the film, only one creature can control time. That is, when Will received this opportunity, Omega lost it – otherwise humanity would not have a single chance of winning. As long as Will is in control of time, the people have the advantage. But such a powerful organism as Omega, of course, cannot stand aside while Will and Rita prepare a plan to destroy it. Omega sends “visions” to Will, which turn out to be a deception – a trap in which Omega can kill the heroes and regain his superpower.
Finale of the film “Edge of Tomorrow” and the development of Will Cage
The ending of the film is pretty dramatic. The heroes suffer one defeat after another: Will’s “visions” are trapped, attempts to get help from the general (who had previously sent Cage to certain death) fail, finally, Will receives a blood transfusion, and the superpower is finally lost.
Think of the Will Cage we saw at the beginning of the movie. This is a confused, insecure, cowardly person, trying with all his might to avoid being sent to the front line. Will’s first “rebirths” in time brought him only annoyance and pain. I think that Will would give everything to just wake up alive and without the damned Alpha blood in his blood. And so it happened – but what happened to the former Will Cage? That cowardly deserter did not remain in this strong courageous fighter. Will and Rita have lived a thousand lives, made a million steps towards their goal, they had a billion attempts and “re-saves”. And now both have only one life and one try. Is it worth the risk? The old Will Cage wouldn’t even dare to think about it. The current one does not even ask himself such a question. He knows he must try.
Multiple training and repetition turns Will Cage into a killing machine
Will and Rita seek out Omega’s true lair, and Rita sacrifices herself to distract Alpha while Will makes his way to Omega. Alpha inflicts a mortal wound on Will, but he manages to undermine Omega. Dying, Omega takes with it the lives of all mimics on Earth – after all, these are only parts of a huge organism, whose brain she was. Rita Vrataski is dead, Will has only a few seconds to live … Until Omega’s blood gets on his body.
The meaning of the ending of the film “Edge of Tomorrow”
Will now has a superpower again, and his blood is throwing him back in time. The question remains: why will Will not return at the same moment of “save”, where he returned many times before? And besides, why is the death of the Mimics an irreversible event? It seems that, according to the logic of the movie, Omega should still be alive at the moment Will returns on the timeline, right? There are two possible explanations for these discrepancies.
Let’s think, could Will Cage ever return to the moment he was returning to before? If the Mimics died, then the military operation that the general sent Will to could not take place. This means that Will could not have been in this place at this moment in time. And so the omnipotent blood of Omega chose an earlier point on the timeline – there and Will ended up.
Will’s main lessons are taught by Rita Vrataski – the hero of this war
But there is also another explanation. Over the course of the film, we seem to have learned all about the properties of Alpha’s blood, which Will possessed. But about the abilities of Omega, the heroes knew little, as well as the audience of the film. What if Omega can not only mechanically roll back time, but also perform more complex manipulations? Thus, Will, having received the blood of Omega, was able to consciously choose an earlier point of “awakening”, and the death of the Mimics remained “overboard” of the existing reality, too, at Will’s will.
Whether you accept one of these explanations or invent your own – I don’t know, but one thing remains indisputable: no matter how Will managed to save humanity, he did it deliberately, by an effort of his will. Throughout the film, we watched the development of a person who was entrusted with an almost impossible task. Influenced by the selfless Rita Vrataska, Will becomes a real hero, and a thousand repetitions of the same lesson temper his body and spirit. Nobody will know about the heroism of Will and Rita in the new world, freed from mimics, even Rita herself does not suspect about it, having returned to the past without her knowledge. But Will Cage, yesterday’s coward, today’s hero, will remember this invaluable lesson for the rest of his life.
