Edge of Tomorrow
Based on Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s novel All You Need is Kill , Edge of Tomorrow features Tom Cruise as Major William Cage, a public relations officer in the US Army who hasn’t seen a day of combat. Directed by Doug Liman, ( Mr and Mrs Smith, The Bourne Identity ), the film is set in the near future where aliens have overrun the earth.
Called Mimics for their ability to well, mimic battle strategy, they seem to be indestructible. Earth fights back with the creation of a new combat suit.
The victories of Rita Vratask, a Special Forces soldier, also helps boost morale. Cage is sent to the front to film a decisive battle on the beaches of France to horrific results. Cage finds himself in a loop repeating the same day over and over again and each time getting better at his job.
Source Code
Called a techno-thriller, Source Code (2011) tells the story of Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal), a U.S. Army Aviation pilot on a mission in Afghanistan. When Stevens finds himself on a train to Chicago as a school teacher Sean Fentress, he is confused.
The train immediately explodes killing everyone and that is when Stevens realises he is in the Source Code, a programme, to find the bomber on the train.
The programme is designed to make him live the last eight minutes of another person’s life. Directed by Duncan Jones who also directed Moon (2009), the creepy British sci fi thriller involving doppelgangers and clones, Source Code features taut action, a sweet romance and just the right amount of paranoia to keep things interesting.
Run Lola Run
Tom Tykwer’s adrenalin-charged film is again not about time travel but revisits Lola’s 20 minute dash to get money for her boyfriend Manni thrice.
Each run starts with the flame-haired Lola hanging up the phone after promising Manni she would get him the 10,000 Deutsche Mark that would save his life.
Each sequence follows the consequence of different actions. The conclusions for Lola, Manni and random people Lola comes in contact are different depending on the paths they take.
Tykwer pulls all stops, using different palettes, styles and speeds to create the perfect mind-bending cocktail.
The 1998 film made a star of Franka Potente who plays Lola.
Fifty First Dates
Though not technically about time travel, this 2004 romantic comedy starring Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler features Barrymore’s character, Lucy, suffering from a kind of amnesia that sees her waking up every day thinking it is October 13, the day she had an accident that caused her condition. Sandler, as the womanising Henry Roth who falls in love with Lucy, and has to get her to fall in love with him every day is sweetly charming.
Set in Hawaii with Rob Schneider playing Sandler’s marijuana-smoking assistant and Dan Aykroyd as the brain specialist, Fifty First Dates was good fun.
Groundhog Day
Bill Murray plays obnoxious TV weatherman Phil Connors who learns about life and love as he is stuck in time loop waking everyday on February 2 in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.
Directed by Harold Ramis, Groundhog Day (after the 1993 movie, the phrase is used to describe an unpleasant occurrence happening over and over again) the movie works because of its light-hearted touch to delivering important life lessons and thanks to Murray.
