Tom Cruise is dying to live, die, repeat — again. In the 2014 time-loop sci-fi thriller Edge of Tomorrow, the Top Gun and Mission: Impossible star played Major William Cage, who was dropped into a suicide mission against time-controlling aliens. Thrown into a time loop with the ability to reset each day by dying over and over, Cage trained to harness this power with warrior Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), a.k.a. the “Full Metal Bitch,” a.k.a. the Angel of Verdun. A sequel with Cruise and Blunt was announced in 2019, but the followup to the Doug Liman-directed movie has been trapped in a seemingly endless loop of life, death, repeat.
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“We keeptalking about it,” Liman told Empire Magazine when asked about reuniting with Cruise for Edge of Tomorrow 2. “We love that world.”
Acknowledging the decade-long wait for a sequel, the director referenced the lengthy gap between James Cameron’s original 1984 Terminator and its seven-years-later sequel, 1991’s T2: Judgment Day. “I don’t know how long Cameron took his Terminators,” Liman said, “butat the time if felt like a long time.”
Speaking of time, Liman and Cruise recently revisited their film based on Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s 2004 light novel, All You Need Is Kill, for the first time in a decade.
“Tom and I justactually rewatched it about two months ago, because I hadn’t seen it in10 years,” the director said. “I was like, ‘Wow, that is a really goodmovie.’” Despite fresh reviews, the Warner Bros. movie — which was effectively rebranded as Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow when released on disc — opened in third place behind teen romance The Fault in Our Stars and the fairy tale fantasy Maleficent in June 2014.
“Ihaven’t necessarily always had the good fortune of having movies thathave huge opening weekends,” Liman said. “Bourne Identity lost to Scooby-Doo [on] its opening weekend. And Swingerscame and went from the theaters. What I’ve come to understand is, I’mmaking movies for the long term. I’m an ego-driven guy, I’d like to getaccolades now. But I also recognize that, if I was given the choice,I’ll choose making films that people 50 years from now are stillwatching.”
The Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Road House (2024) director has described Edge of Tomorrow 2 as “the only sequel that I’m considering doing,” adding that “the story is so amazing — much better than the original film, and I lovedand loved the original film — and second of all, it’s a sequel that’s aprequel.”
The Edge of Tomorrow sequel/prequel would also “revolutionize” sequels, Liman said in a 2016 interview. “I’ve had some radical ideas about how to make a sequel that wouldinterest me, in the same way that I had ideas of how you make anindependent film and then Swingers came along and it was like,’Aha, that’s the perfect movie for me to test these ideas out on,’” he explained. “I had these intellectual ideas on how you should make asequel that [is] unlike how anybody else makes a sequel, and thisscript and this idea fit perfectly into that idea. So it’s gonnarevolutionize how people make sequels.”
After starring in 2023’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Cruise next returns as IMF Agent Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible 8, which is dated for May 23rd, 2025. Cruise has since inked a development deal with Warner Bros., which hasn’t released a Cruise-led film since 2014’s Edge of Tomorrow.
