EDGE OF TOMORROW
A clever, redemptive battle thriller for discerning adults.
Should You Watch It?
Edge of Tomorrow is a rousing, clever, well-acted science fiction thriller with strong redemptive and moral content. Its story of a reluctant soldier learning through repeated sacrifice includes overt Christian imagery, references to baptism and being “born again,” and an uplifting ending.
That hope comes with serious costs. The film contains intense battles, scary alien monsters, plenty of foul language, brief nudity, and ideas about changing the past that the source review finds humanist, pagan, and morally troubling. The time-loop structure also creates confusion and apparent plot holes.
If you are a discerning adult who can weigh those elements without harm to conscience, this may be worth seeing. For children and young teens, choose something else.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESMajor Cage is a public relations spokesperson for the American military when alien monsters invade Earth and decimate Europe. Despite having little fighting experience, Cage is forced into a D-Day-style invasion of France.
After a disastrous battle, Cage finds himself reliving the same recent events again and again. With help from Special Forces soldier Rita, he must learn from each attempt, discover how the aliens’ power works, and find a way to defeat their leader.
Is It Any Good?
Three stars means this is a strong, entertaining thriller with notable flaws. The action is rousing, the science-fiction premise is clever, and the acting is excellent. The movie also contains some brilliant twists, while the growing romance between Major Cage and Rita gives the story emotional weight.
The alien monsters lack much personality, which makes them less enjoyable as villains. The time-loop structure may confuse some viewers, and it seems to create a couple of plot holes or unanswered questions. Still, the film’s redemptive elements and uplifting final scene give its spectacle genuine moral and emotional force.
The Worldview
The film presents strong Christian, redemptive, and moral elements. It includes references to baptism, a “born-again” experience, resurrection, self-sacrifice, and the hero’s efforts to save others and defeat an evil force. The story’s ending contains an overt water baptism and resurrection scene that leads to an inspiring final moment.
At the same time, the time-loop device gives the story a humanist and pagan framework. The characters can relive the past to change the future, and the hero is sometimes deliberately killed so he can try again. That minimizes the consequences of death and reality in a way the source review describes as morally relativistic. The alien leader’s power is also presented as God-like, and the film includes possible symbolic references to Alpha and Omega.
The film’s central longing is for redemption through sacrifice and a new beginning. Scripture connects baptism with that deeper hope: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead … we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
Light mixed pagan worldview with strong Christian, redemptive, moral elements including a water baptism and resurrection, references to having a “born again” experience, possible symbolic references to Alpha and Omega (one of the names of Jesus), other references to baptism, elements of self-sacrifice, hero tries to save others and defeat an evil force, but the time loop plot device is a bit humanist, nominalistic and pagan because it allows the heroes to relive the past so they can win, but they sometimes have to kill themselves in order for their plans to change the future to work, so the consequences to reality are minimized; 22 obscenities (mostly “h,” “s,” and a** words, but one “f” word and a couple SOBs), two strong profanities, and one light exclamatory profanity; strong, intense action scenes, many involving scary alien monsters, but not extremely gory or bloody or graphic, including war battles with fast-moving alien monsters with tentacles, lots of gunfire, lots of explosions, lots of aliens being shot, two men are squashed by falling helicopter, man’s face burned by falling debris from explosion, some black alien blood splashes dying human soldier, man tased; no sex scenes or lewd content; brief upper male nudity and rear male nudity in one scene as soldiers dress for battle; no alcohol use; no smoking or drugs; and, soldiers caught gambling but their sergeant says gambling is bad because it leads them to rely too much on luck or fate rather than themselves, and some moral relativism when wounded hero is deliberately killed a few times so he can go back in time again to stop the bad guys.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
The film connects battle with baptism and a “born-again” experience. What does Scripture say baptism represents about dying to an old life and beginning a new one?
Romans 6:3–4 · 2 Corinthians 5:17The hero repeatedly sacrifices himself while trying to save others. How does his sacrifice compare with the self-giving love Scripture calls Christians to practice?
John 15:13 · Philippians 2:3–4The characters try to change the future by reliving the past. What does the Bible teach about learning from the past while trusting God with what comes next?
Proverbs 3:5–6 · Philippians 3:13–14The sergeant warns that gambling can make people rely on luck or fate. Where are you tempted to trust chance, control, or personal strength instead of God?
Proverbs 16:33 · Psalm 20:7The Final Word
Edge of Tomorrow offers clever science fiction, excellent acting, moral seriousness, and an uplifting redemptive thread. Its language, violence, scary aliens, nudity, and pagan elements make it unsuitable for children and young teens. For discerning adults, the answer is WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY. For younger viewers, consider.
