Tom Cruise’s Most Underrated Movie Is Dominating Streaming
Tom Cruise's Edge of Tomorrow is the second most streamed movie on HBO Max.
The 2014 Tom Cruise starrer, Edge of Tomorrow currently holds the number two position on the HBO Max streaming chart. As the only action film in the top three, it is followed by 2009’s Bride Wars, starring Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson. While the top spot goes to the 2007 comedy Superbad, led by Jonah Hill and Michael Cera.
Edge of Tomorrow is adapted from the 2004 Japanese novel All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. The Tom Cruise starrer is directed by Doug Liman from a screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie. Jez and John-Henry Butterworth also served as part of the writing team. The story takes place in a future where most of Europe is occupied by an alien race.
Tom Cruise leads the cast as Major William Cage. Although he is introduced as an unassuming military public relations officer, he is eventually tasked with battling aliens known as Mimics. But due to his limited combat skills, Cage dies within minutes of his first battle. In a very Groundhog Day twist, he wakes up in the airport the previous day.
After realizing he is stuck in some sort of time loop, forced to relive the same battle and die over and over again, Cage (Tom Cruise) teams up with UK Special Forces soldier Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt). Together, the pair tries to figure out how to stop the alien invasion, kill the leader of the Mimics, and save the world.
Starring alongside Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt in Edge of Tomorrow are Bill Paxton and Brendan Gleeson as Master Sergeant Farell and General Brigham, respectively. The supporting cast features Noah Taylor as Dr. Noah Carter, Jonas Armstrong as Skinner, Tony Way as Kimmel, Kick Gurry as Griff, and Charlotte Riley as Nance. Franz Drameh, Dragomir Mrsic, Masayoshi Haneda, and Madeleine Mantock also star.
Edge of Tomorrow had been in the works years before its 2014 release. The rights to All You Need Is Kill was purchased by 3 Arts Entertainment in 2009, who sold a spec script to Warner Bros. Filming with the Tom Cruise-led cast began in England in 2012 at WB Studios in Leavesden. Other locations featured in the movie include London’s Trafalgar Square and the Coastal Saunton Sands.
Warner Bros. spent over $100 million advertising Edge of Tomorrow, which was released in 28 territories on May 30th, and 36 more locations a week later. The movie was a hit with viewers, earning over $370.5 million at the global box office. The film also received positive reviews from critics, who praised the plot, direction, action sequences, and performance of Tom Cruise.
The humor, along with the aliens’ design and the ability of the time-loop premise to remain fresh was also hailed. The Tom Cruise film currently holds a 91% critics score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with the site’s general consensus describing the film as gripping, well-acted, funny, and clever.
Edge of Tomorrow also proves that Tom Cruise is still more than capable of shouldering the weight of a blockbuster action thriller. However, some critics had issues with the film’s conclusion, which sees Cage trapped in a new time loop. The Tom Cruise movie currently streams on HBO Max, so watch it while you can.
