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Tom Cruise stars in this Sci-fi movie about an alien invasion and the ability of an American Army Major to reset time when he dies. As my wife said, its plot is something of a Groundhog Day meets Aliens. And it is much too involved & complicated to try to sum up in this review. Therefore, I am assuming that everyone reading this review either has seen the movie or plans to see it, and I will simply give the themes by writing this. Also, I will avoid giving away too much of the plot of the movie so those who have not seen it can enjoy it.
Major Cage shows up as a PR man with no combat experience or desire for combat. He’s a talker who builds up other people’s images, or his own, for the sake of his audience. We learn that he is a coward, and incompetent as to combat at all, and a deserter. He is a man-pleaser trying to save his own skin, and he deals more in words and images than in action. In other words, he is a hypocrite and totally unfit for the role for which he is chosen, seemingly randomly, in the story.
But in order to become fit and trained for the job he must do, which is to save the world, he must take up his cross and die daily. He must do this in order to become fit and trained to defeat what looks like a demonic type of enemy from another world. This enemy is a single system or organism controlled by a massive brain called the Omega. The Omega has the power to control time, and it resets the day so that it knows the strategy of its enemy, mankind, long before that strategy is executed. Therefore, the alien Omega organism will win because it has ultimate knowledge of what its enemy is doing.
The Omega’s foot soldiers, which are called “Mimics” & have no feet as we know it, are individual entities, but they are controlled by the Omega. The “Alphas” are something of a nervous system for the Omega. An Alpha is a bluish and larger creature than the foot soldiers. Even at Major Cage’s most unfit, unworthy state, he dies covered by the blood of an Alpha. This gives him the power to reset time, to start the day over again. And he does so over and over and over again, learning throughout the process how to fight enemy soldiers, the terrain of the battlefield, how to use the weapons he is given, whom he needs for help in training, the strategy for defeating the enemy, and ultimately why he was chosen to save the world. Problem: For the reset to occur, Cage must die. But in dying, Cage has the same ability as the Omega, making the playing field more level.
Major Cage’s partner in the project is a woman, played by Emily Blunt, who understands what is at stake and helps train Major Cage. It is Cage’s duty to get this woman to the Omega to destroy it. Cage meets her, is trained by her, gets to know her, & ultimately falls in love with her. In other words, except the time during which she trains him, he acts as a husband to a bride, as Christ to the Church. And in the end, raises her back to life.
Christ, The Alpha and the Omega & controller of all time, gave his blood, to redeem the Church. Christ raises the dead & controls time. He loves us, the unfit, the worthless, the sinner, enough to train us in sanctification & give us second chances until we can face our enemy in victory. Cage represents a mixture of both Christ, the savior of the world, & sinner, redeemed and sanctified over time by Christ. And the key to it all is his being covered by the blood of the Alpha and the Omega. One more thing; Cage loves the woman, who represents the Church, & raises her from the dead.