Yup. I’m writing about Tom Cruise again. It’s a thing I do, I guess. I had on my schedule plans to write about something else, but got distracted rewatching his 2005 sci-fi remake of War of the Worlds, a flawed but ultimately entertaining film that did a lot right, even as it fumbled some key moments. Some very key moment. I’m looking at you Tim Robbins.
Anyway, it was during this casual viewing that I got struck by something familiar (admittedly not a hard thing to happen when you watch a ridiculous number of movies for a living). It’s a minor thing, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it and how, well, it sort of bothered me in a way. Was it the lack of creativity? I dunno. Whatever. On with it. Here’s two Tom Cruise movies with one movie moment. And yeah, spoilers. Wicked, story-ending, massive spoilers.
War of the Worlds
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Slacker dad Ray (Cruise) has got his kids for the weekend, the rebellious, angry teen Robbie (Justin Chatwin) and the younger, vegan Rachel (Dakota Fanning), both of whom seem like they’d rather be anywhere else. It’s awkward from the start, with friction like a tinderbox between them. I mean, the guys can’t even play catch together without busting a window. That’s tension. No matter though, nothing like a big ol’ alien invasion to bring a family together. And that’s just what happens when a nasty species from outer space, using massive mechanical tripod-land-rover-thingys embedded in the ground eons before come back to take over the planet and use humans as fertilizer. Or vaporize them. Or something. They do both. It’s random choice, I guess. Either way, now Ray’s gotta keep his kids safe while on the run as the world crumbles around them.
THE MOMENT: Late in the show, Ray and Rachel – Robbie’s made his own path – are hiding out in a madman’s cellar as a ground attack by the Army against the aliens has proven futile. Ray’s made some tough choices in defending his children, and now only with Rachel, is desperate to find safety. Unfortunately, the aliens have other plans, and in an opportune moment, snatch the little girl into their pod cage mounted high atop one of the tripod machines. It’s a creepy bit and I’ll just admit, genuinely scary.
Ray, knowing he’s got no other choice, allows himself to be scooped up too and gets stuffed in the same cage along with a dozen or so others … including (and this is crucial) a soldier who has conveniently left lying about a belt of grenades. These come in pretty handy a moment later when Ray is then plucked by his legs from a slithering tentacle with a slurpy maw that sucks him up while that soldier and a few others grab his arm and try to pull him back. Meanwhile, fast-thinking Ray has the forethought to whip up that belt of explosives and carry it with him into the beast where, using only one hand and his mouth (unseen by us), he pulls the pins, something we realize after he’s successfully extracted and plopped back down in the cage.
A tick later, things go ka-blewy. Bye-bye one mean ol’ alien. Oh, and a four story fall from the cage for everyone else. Don’t worry, all the plot-important people survive. Moving on.
Edge of Tomorrow
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Slacker army brat Cage (Cruise) – not making that name up, just a coincidence – is a soldier in a war against an invading alien attack, though he’s not seen a single second of combat, he part of the PR department trying to boost morale. However, that changes when a commanding officer in the UK sends him into battle after arresting Cage for saying to the commander that he won’t go into battle. Ballsey. Once there though, way out of his element, Cage is brutally killed within minutes, using a claymore mine to take out a big blue monster that sprays its blood all over Cage. That’s a good thing it turns out though. This ain’t your everyday average monster blood. It’s laced with time travel. Cage wakes up at the army barracks where he started the day, now caught in a Groundhog Day-like loop of living the same day each time he dies. Using this to his advantage, he meets a warrior woman named Rita (Emily Blunt) who experienced the same thing he did, and so the two take to building a plan to end the takeover and save humanity, even at the expense of their own lives.
THE MOMENT: Way late in the game (remember that thing I said about spoilers?), Cage and Rita have with numerous failed attempts, worked their way to some key information, the location of the alien attack force’s brain called the “Omega”. Now they must try and reach the site, which is of course heavily guarded, and do so without dying, something that takes a few tries, and for Cage, a lot of emotion as he bonds with Rita even as she only really meets him for a short time each day. It’s clever and touching.
Anyway, as luck would have it, by the time they find the place, Cage loses his powers of restoration, so their last attempt becomes just that, the final chance to save Mankind. Worse, the Omega is underwater, below the Louvre in Paris, and there’s an army of gooey, menacing aliens in the way. Using all the help they can muster, Rita and Cage, along with a handful of friends they’ve picked up, manage to get Cage close, each losing their life as they do. At last, as Cage watches Rita die, he leaps into the water as a big blue beast dives after him, landing a mortal blow that ends Cage … but not before he unleashed his belt of grenades with pulled pins that settles into the Omega and lets off the big boom that kills every alien on the planet. Game, set, match.
DISCUSSION: The pulled pin on a grenade is hardly a fresh idea. From The Guns of Navarone to Starship Troopers to well, a bunch of movies really, this is a weazy trope to say the least. I saw both War of the Worlds and Edge of Tomorrow in theaters on release and rolled my eyes both times when this bit happened, though more so in War of the Worlds as the grenade belt just sort of appears by magic beside Ray as he needs them. Bing! It’s laughable really, and then, like, how the heck did he pull the pins on each of them with his teeth while being sipped up the throat of that tentacle mouth as others yanked on his free arm? Movies. What fun.
In Edge of Tomorrow, it made more sense at least, having the grenades with him as part of the plan to blow Omega to bits, but how he was able to pull the pins while swimming and then attacked seems a wee bit of a stretch though the reveal shot is decidedly cool. Either way, with both of these movies, from some very talented directors – that’s Doug Liman for Edge of Tomorrow and Steven freakin’ Spielberg on War of the Worlds – it’s disappointing to see creativity stripped away for some obvious clichéd visuals. That hurts more for Edge of Tomorrow simply because the rest of the of the film is intelligent and clever, right up to the moment when the whole grenade thing happens. Boom. Expectations. Two movies One moment.