While Cruise is widely known for such adventure thrillers as Top Gun, Top Gun: Maverick and his Mission: Impossible movies, the action star has also occasionally done films in the sci-fi genre. As such, Cruise has appeared in such sci-fi thrillers as War of the Worlds, Minority Report and Oblivion.
Also prominent on Cruise’s sci-fi resume is Edge of Tomorrow, which debuts on Netflix on Saturday, September 7. Released in 2014, Edge of Tomorrow stars Cruise as Major William Cage, a soldier who dies on the battlefield during an invasion by an alien species called “Mimics.” But death is hardly the end for Cage, as the soldier soon discovers he is caught in a time loop.
The loop allows Cage to live the same day over and over again, and after dying over and over again, he begins to figure out a way to cheat death to carry out his mission to the point where he just may be able to figure out a plan to defeat the mimics.
Essentially, Edge of Tomorrow plays like the 1993 Bill Murray classic Groundhog Day, except this day that repeats over and over involves a battle with aliens.
Based on Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s Japanese novel All You Need is Kill, Edge of Tomorrow is directed by Doug Liman and also stars Emily Blunt and the late Bill Paxton.
How Did Critics And Audiences Receive ‘Edge Of Tomorrow’?
Edge of Tomorrow was widely embraced by Rotten Tomatoes critics, who collectively gave the movie a 91% “fresh” rating based on 340 reviews.
The RT Critics Consensus for Edge of Tomorrow reads, “Gripping, well-acted, funny, and clever, Edge of Tomorrow offers entertaining proof that Tom Cruise is still more than capable of shouldering the weight of a blockbuster action thriller.”
RT users were also impressed with Edge of Tomorrow, giving the film a 90% “fresh” Audience Score based on 100,000-plus ratings.
Released in theaters on June 6, 2014, Edge of Tomorrow, per The Numbers, went on to earn $100.2 million in North American theaters and $266.8 million internationally for a worldwide box office tally of $367 million. The box office tracker reported that the production budget for Edge of Tomorrow was $178 million before prints and advertising costs.
Since Edge of Tomorrow didn’t live up to expectations at the box office, its studio, Warner Bros., per AV Club, took the unusual initiative of rebranding the film Live. Die. Repeat. for the film’s home video release. The film’s title still remained Edge of the Tomorrow, except the new three-world title was more prevalent on the film’s Blu-ray and DVD cover art.