50 Essential Sci-Fi Films of the 21st Century (So Far)

50. Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Although the film has gone on to become known as Live. Die. Repeat. in some quarters due to its confusing marketing materials, those of us there at the beginning remember Doug Liman’s Edge of Tomorrow not for the size of the text on its posters, but for the way it took its big budget and stars and made something genuinely interesting that deserves its life beyond the standard blockbuster release cycle.  

Tom Cruise is Major William Cage, a coward who serves as a handy poster boy for the United Defence Force (UDF), a planetary military tasked with expelling the alien "Mimics" vying for global domination. Abruptly thrown into combat alongside Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), William finds himself face-to-face with the aliens in an unexpected offensive, and a close call with an “Alpha” grants him one of its powers - namely, the ability to loop back in time when he dies. 

Handy. Or it would be, if he could get anyone to listen to his warnings about the impending attack.

A high-tech, sci-fi Groundhog Day with all the stylised action of a Marvel movie and none of the obligatory tie-ins, cameos, or kowtowing to a bigger universe, Liman’s film adapts Christopher McQuarrie’s screenplay into something that feels studio but remixes enough of the familiar elements to keep things fresh.