ALL YOU NEED IS KILL... AND MAYBE TOM CRUISE & EMILY BLUNT, TOO

so while my "one-man marketing campaign" on facebook (according to Daniel Aguel) only helped EDGE OF TOMORROW land in a distant third place over the weekend (the moviegoing public just sucks sometimes -- it really, really sucks), a lot of you did actually see the movie and have been asking me what changed and what other endings the film had previously. so here's an intensely SPOILER-filled analysis. 

did i say there would be SPOILERS? if you haven't seen the movie, stop reading you jerk and go see it immediately. okay so i saw three different cuts of the film last fall and this is what changed -- the first version i saw did not star Brendan Gleeson as a general, but actually Jeremy Piven as a military colonel/PR guy that was basically Tom Cruise's superior -- and TC's successful campaign had him poised to take over Piven's job... or something. 

so Piven has TC arrested and thrown into combat as a deserter, which was the catalyst for the movie. this set-up didn't really make a whole lot of sense, and Piven's presence in the movie didn't quite feel right. maybe because he was an American stationed in London, or it seemed like he'd just crossed over from his job at OLD SCHOOL, i'm not sure. but i'm guessing that test audiences didn't like it/him, because by the second screening, he was out and Gleeson was in. 

there were pros and cons to this -- one thing that actually made MORE sense in the Piven cut was that after TC and Emily Blunt (EB from now on) break into Whitehall and steal the device (which was actually a really funny sequence -- TC surprises Piven as he's coming out of an elevator and punches him, knocking him out), they attempt to escape the facility and fail -- just like in the subsequent cuts. the only thing that never made sense to me, and still doesn't, is why they would NEED to escape Whitehall once they'd convinced Gleeson to give them the device. Unless he changed his mind and signaled the alarm as soon as they walked out of his office? no, that makes no sense either... so unless i'm crazy, that's just a script problem they couldn't ever quite solve once they replaced Piven but knew most people wouldn't notice. 

edit: a few people have pointed out that perhaps Gleeson was just acting like he believed them in order to not get shot, and betrayed them the minute they walked out of his office. this is definitely plausible, but if that's the case, i would have appreciated an alarm on their way out, or something, to imply what happened, but i suppose the soldiers greeting them outside was sufficient for most people, so there you go. my only real gripe solved!

also, i'm fairly certain TC and Gleeson were never in the same room -- i could be wrong, but in the 2nd and 3rd cuts i saw, TC was completely green screened into shots with Gleeson and it looked horrible. i was really impressed that in the final cut, you never would have known. some amazing technical wizardly going on there. anyway, i do think the movie was ultimately better off with Gleeson. 

another change, the intro -- it always started with the news footage, but TC being part of it was a late change. like the Whitehall sequence, i wasn't sure about the logic here -- because if TC's been on the news repeatedly, it's less believable that nobody in Bill Paxton's outfit would recognize him when he's called a deserter. but then again, maybe nobody actually at war watches news about it. or they did, and it just didn't matter, but i feel like it should have been addressed with some line of dialogue, and probably would have been had this originally been part of the script, TC talking about the suits in the intro, etc. 

another scene in later cuts but not in the first -- TC taking a 'personal day' from his own private hell. that scene where he just says 'fuck it' and escapes the base by going back to London and having a pint was added in later, and i could swear it was originally positioned in the film right after he realizes he can't save EB no matter what he does. but again, maybe i'm simply mis-remembering, but i feel like they experimented a bit with the placement/editing of this sequence. there were a few more seconds of him actually waking up, seeing that blank look on his face while he's being called a maggot, walking out of the base while nobody notices (implying he'd tried to walk out many times and finally found the perfect timing without even breaking a sweat) and riding his motorcycle into London. they probably trimmed it for time but i thought it played a bit better in previous cuts. 

another minor editing change that didn't seem to work as well for me -- in the final cut, TC tells EB that no matter what they do, they just can't get off that beach. but then just 20 or 30 seconds later, you see them successfully sneak off the beach and reach the cars. probably another trim for runtime, but this played out a little better before, where they make it off the beach and were like "holyshit -- we FINALLY made it... we might just be able to DO THIS!"

i guess runtime was an ongoing concern because each subsequent cut (and i've seen it now four times) seemed shorter than the one before, and featured less TC deaths on the beach/battlefield, but luckily there were still plenty. 

another minor but puzzling change -- when TC is at the German dam and realizes the alpha wants him to bleed out slowly, he ducks and rolls into the vent thing and eventually finds himself at the edge of the dam and jumps/falls to his death, resetting the day. this was a great shot. not sure why they'd delete it. 

some super minor changes -- when TC gets off the chopper in the beginning and greeted by the female officer (Madeleine Mantock, I believe) they had a much longer exchange as she briefed him on the worsening situation. once Piven was replaced by Gleeson, they basically gave that dialogue to him. also, there was a female reporter (Lara Pulver) at Whitehall that was implied to have had a romantic past with TC, but since it had nothing to do with anything, they mercifully cut it out. 

major deleted scene near the ending -- and this is one i can imagine the filmmakers wrestled with for days -- in the later cuts of the film, during their flight to Paris, TC mentions that if anyone is about to be killed by an alpha, they have to "take one for the team" because as we know by then, killing an alpha resets the day in the aliens' favor and ruins any chance of success. but it's quickly implied when they are blown out of the sky moments later that somebody must have done just that and this isn't their first attempt to attack the louvre. and implying that is probably the way to go, as it's efficient, less time-intensive, and in keeping with the motifs established throughout the film. (the beach attack, EB's realization in the barn, etc)

but originally, they DID show that sequence, and here's what happened -- they are able to successfully land the plane and sneak into the louvre, where an alpha is about to kill Kimmel (balls out guy) but Kimmel naturally panics and detonates his explosives, killing the alpha. SMASH CUT to TC on the ship giving his speech about how they cannot kill an alpha or they aliens will know they're coming and BOOM. that sequence probably added a seven or eight minutes, so i can understand the cut, but i'm sure glad i saw it since it enhanced my experience. 

so the ending -- none were wildly different, but there were subtle changes along the way. the way it ends in the final cut of course is with EB looking up at TC indignantly and wondering why here's there and he just laughs. 

i thought that ending was good. but there was another where EB looks at him and you can tell she REMEMBERS. she has a gradual look of realization on her face, and she gives him a wry smile like, we just saved the world and nobody will ever know. maybe this ending doesn't make perfect sense, but i think it worked. 

my favorite ending was what i just described plus a quick starship troopers-esque tag where we hear the news voiceover explaining the power surge in Paris and the aliens' sudden inability to fight effectively, and TC and EB suit up one last time and board a dropship and take off with all the other soldiers, and we know they're going to win this time. this was my preferred ending, so once again, i'm real glad i saw it, since it exists now in my mind as the proper ending. and if there was a third variation, i can't remember. i think the third ending was the one we actually got in theaters, so maybe it's for the best.

all in all, an amazing movie and in my mind, already in the discussion for best Tom Cruise movie. and seeing as Oblivion is also in that discussion (again, if you're asking me), holycrap is he on a roll right now. also, it must be said that Emily Blunt killed it as the Full Metal Bitch/Angel of Verdun, just killed it.

and while the film might not be perfect, it's pretty damn close and Doug Liman deserves a ton of credit. easily the best sci-fi/action film in years and years. hopefully it turns a profit. maybe a less generic title, easily the weakest part of the movie, would have helped. 

i'm also not sure embracing the "groundhog day" element in the marketing was such a good idea. maybe there was no other way. but i'll tell you this much, seeing it in a theater where nobody knew that was coming REALLY enhanced the experience. seeing EB and then TC die, and then wake up, everyone was like "what??!" oh well. in any event --

LIVE. DIE. REPEAT. 

if you're reading this, you probably liked EDGE OF TOMORROW, which means you probably also liked Tom Cruise's last movie, OBLIVION. if so, check out my short story inspired by Oblivion here --

http://rafjordan.blogspot.com/2013/08/oblivion-aeons.html