INDEPENDENT COMICS: Edge of Tomorrow (All You Need Is Kill)

Independent Comics in the Media

BOOK: All You Need Is Kill
The story is told from the perspective of Keiji Kiriya, a new recruit in the United Defense Force which fights against the mysterious 'Mimics' which have laid siege to Earth. Keiji is killed on his first sortie, but through some inexplicable phenomenon wakes up having returned to the day before the battle. This continues and he finds himself caught in a time loop as his death and resurrection repeats time and time again. Keiji's skill as a soldier grows as he passes through each time loop in a desperate attempt to change his fate.

MOVIE: Edge of Tomorrow
In the near future, an alien race has invaded the Earth starting from Germany and overtaken almost the entirety of Western Europe. The aliens are nicknamed "Mimics" for their ability to mimic and respond to Earth military combat strategies with efficiency, thus making them nearly unbeatable. After various losses, humankind finally achieves success with the creation of combat "jackets", along with the battle victories of Special Forces soldier Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) at Verdun, who becomes a symbol for the war effort.xxxA final surprise assault is planned on the beaches of west coast of France, with the soldiers dropped from their base across the English Channel at Heathrow Airport. As success is expected, General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson) orders Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) to be sent to the front with a camera crew. Cage's background is in advertising and he has no combat experience. When Cage attempts to weasel his way out with blackmail, Brigham responds by knocking him out and dumping him at the Heathrow base, with a fabricated background that says he is a deserter and a con man. He is forced to join J-Squad, an infantry unit, and is sent off to take part in the invasion. Upon arriving at the beach front the soldiers are ambushed; the mimics were waiting for them. Cage kills an unusually large mimic and is soaked in its blood and blacks out.xxxCage wakes up at the moment he arrived at Heathrow, and lives out the same day of training and deployment the following morning. Every time he dies, he loops back to the moment he arrives on the base, and despite his efforts to warn and save people, they dismiss his claims and the assault keeps playing out tragically. In one loop he saves Vrataski, and when she realises that he knows what is going to happen, she tells him to find her the next time he wakes up.xxxIn the next loop, Cage manages to find Vrataski at the barracks, and she explains that she experienced the same phenomenon at her first day of combat in Verdun. Mimics have the ability to manipulate time, and when Cage killed the rare Alpha Mimic, its blood transferred its time-control powers to him. Using the loops, Vrataski is able to train Cage to improve his combat skills so they can hunt down the Omega, the brain of the Mimics. Cage improves, but seeing Vrataski die repeatedly on the battlefield strains him.xxxCage has a vision of the Omega hiding in a dam in Germany. After many loops he and Vrataski are able to escape the beach front, but the farthest point they can reach is an abandoned house, where no sequence of events can prevent Vrataski's death. In the next loop Cage goes to the dam alone, only to find that it is a decoy. The following loops have Cage teaming up with Vrataski again, and after multiple tries they obtain a transponder that Vrataski's confidant Dr. Carter (Noah Taylor) created before being fired from his high ranking job at Whitehall that enables Cage to access the Mimic hive mind and find the real Omega. Cage learns that the Omega is under the Louvre, but he and Vrataski are involved in a car accident and fall unconscious. Cage wakes up in a hospital after a blood transfusion that has removed his time-control powers.xxxAfter Vrataski rescues Cage, they recruit J Squad for an assault on the Louvre, Cage using his intimate knowledge of the squad members to convince them to join. They attack the Louvre but only Cage and Vrataski manage to enter the sewers where the Omega is hiding. After sharing a kiss, Vrataski lures the guard Alpha away while Cage jumps into the Omega's pool and detonates his grenades. The Omega is killed, but its blood seeps into Cage's body before he dies.xxxCage wakes up at his arrival at General Brigham's office about to receive deployment orders. News arrives that there was an unexplained explosion in Paris and that Mimics are dying. Cage goes to the barracks to see Vrataski who is, from her point of view, meeting him for the first time.