EDGE OF TOMORROW “We Came Up With The Biggest Anti-Hero We Could”

In his signature roles as Maverick in Top Gun and Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible movies, Tom Cruise has always found it easy playing the hero. But in new movie Edge Of Tomorrow his Bill Cage is much more reluctant to save the day – in fact, says director Doug Liman, this PR guy is something of a “coward”.

“We were trying to come up with the biggest anti-hero we could,” the Swingers and Bourne Identity helmer tells SFX. “In this case it was somebody who sold other people on fighting, but had no interest in ever fighting himself. He’s a coward and totally inept.”

In the movie (based on Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s novel All You Need Is Kill), Earth is at war with alien invaders known as “Mimics”. After a chance encounter with one of these Mimics, Cage finds himself thrown back in time to the day before a devastating battle every time he gets killed – a useful Groundhog Day-like “skill” that could help him learn how to win the war. Despite constantly revisiting the same day, however, Liman says the movie shouldn’t get boring.

“We always found ways to do things differently, so it never feels repetitive. That’s one of the things I’m most proud of in this film, given that it is the same day over and over again – there isn’t a moment that drags.”

Source