Tom Cruise lived, died and repeated his fight against an invading swarm of aliens in the 2014 movie Edge of Tomorrow, which has landed on Netflix as of Saturday, September 7, and immediately goes onto my personal list of best Netflix movies to watch. I absolutely love this movie and the fact that it's found a passionate fan base after an initially disappointing run at the box office. But I have to be honest — I have no interest in a proposed Edge of Tomorrow sequel.
In case you missed Edge of Tomorrow when it was first released and have yet to discover it online, here's a quick summary. Based on the novel All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, Edge of Tomorrow follows Cruise's Cage, a military PR officer who gets conscripted into active duty as world forces are fighting an invasive breed of aliens known as mimics. Not properly trained, Cage scrambles on the battlefield and is killed by a mimic. However, having been covered in the alien's blood, Cage somehow wakes up the day before the battle, with everything playing out as it did before. He continues to die again and again in battle, but gets better each time, and eventually he's noticed by Rita (Emily Blunt), a skilled soldier who knows what Cage is going through because it happened to her. Together, they must figure out how they can defeat the mimics once and for all. All Cage has to do is die each and every day until they do.
Edge of Tomorrow is "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes with a score of 91%, yet it only made $100 million at the US box office despite its good reviews. A disappointing figure considering its $178 million budget. One possibility for its poor performance is its title; Edge of Tomorrow was kind of generic. Although the movie performed better internationally and once it was available for at-home viewing. So much so that there is a legitimate interest to make a sequel. And not just from fans, but from Cruise, Blunt and director Doug Liman as well.
In an interview with Empire Magazine earlier in 2024, Liman said he and Cruise rewatched the movie for its 10th anniversary and acknowledged that they have continued to discuss a possible sequel, refuting a question by the interviewer if the chances for an Edge of Tomorrow sequel were dead.
The thought that the sequel may have been nixed probably came after Warner Bros. announced plans to develop Edge of Tomorrow 2 in 2019, but in the five years since no details have been announced. Blunt, on one of Variety's podcasts, said that while she would do another sequel, acknowledges that 10 years on, it may be difficult.
There are few actors as dedicated to delivering on the big screen spectacle as Tom Cruise (exhibit A, the actor's list of best stunts), but he is 62 now. Even if they were to fast-track things, Edge of Tomorrow 2 would likely be at least two years away. Could that big of a time gap with the story work? And if Cruise opted just to be a producer and have new, younger leads take over, could the story work as well without him as the star?
I don't know. Even while Top Gun: Maverick proved a Tom Cruise legacy sequel could work and the Mission: Impossible franchise continues to churn out entertaining movies, I would kind of prefer we just leave Edge of Tomorrow as a great one-off movie. Not everything needs a sequel.
Edge of Tomorrow is now streaming on Netflix and is available via digital on-demand platforms. Watch the trailer right here:
