Memo #378
By: Cyrus Huiyong Qiu – cyrusqiu [at] mail.ubc.ca
Doug Liman’s epic action sci-fi movie Edge of Tomorrow (starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt) in 2014 was the very first adaptation of Japanese “light novel,” in this case one titled All You Need is Kill, by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. The story is about humanity’s fight to survive against the relentless invasion of an alien species that possesses the power to reset time whenever they fail in a battle. In the film, Liman has changed the ending significantly and constructed a different type of heroism from the original novel. What was changed?
The anti/hero is the callow US-PR-officer-turned-soldier Cage, who accidentally acquires the alien’s power to reset time, thereby becoming imprisoned in an endless loop every time he dies in battle. As Cage gains knowledge and experience during the recursive cycles and consequently meets the heroine Rita, who has had the “power” before and lost it. With Rita’s training and instruction, Cage ultimately breaks the loop, saving not only the world but also the heroine.
The ending in the novel is not so optimistic; it is because both Cage, named Keiji in the novel, and Rita have been exposed to this “power”, one of them must die to break the loop. For that reason, Rita initiates an attack on Keiji, which ultimately forces him to kill her to break the loop and win the battle against the aliens.
The vital difference between the two thus lies in the mobilization and manipulation of the heroine Rita. Rita in both cases is portrayed as the real hero who proactively uses Cage/Keiji’s power to save the world, implicitly demonstrated by her suicidal attack on Keiji in the novel and explicitly by her training of Cage in the film. Rita’s death in the novel is due to her equal power to Keiji as they both were exposed to and cursed by the alien’s “power,” one of them must die. In contrast, Rita’s survival in the film is due to her lack of “power”; she devolves from an experienced and powerful warrior to a subordinate and consequently a “rescuee” just to be revived by the hero in the end. Such modification helps crown Cage to be the ultimate and unnamed hero who saves both humanity and personal love as encapsulated in this Hollywood-style fairy tale ending.
About the Author:
Cyrus Huiyong Qiu is a PhD student in the Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia. His research focuses on Japanese popular culture and its circulation among Japan, Korea and China.
Cover of the light novel All You Need is Kill written by Hiroshi Sakurazaka (Left) and Poster of the film Edge of Tomorrow directed by Doug Liman (Right) (Credits: Shueisha and Warner Bros).
Rita Vrataski from the novel All You Need Is Kill portrayed as Emily Blunt in Edge of Tomorrow (Credits: Yoshitoshi Abe and Warner Bros).
Links
- David Fear, “No ‘Tomorrow’: Doug Liman on the Blockbuster That Almost Broke Him,” Rolling Stone. June 06 2014.
- Edge of Tomorrow, Dir. Doug Liman. Perf. Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. Warner Bros. 2014.
- Garin Pirnia, “Doug Liman: How to Make an Original Hollywood Blockbuster,” Esquire. Hearst Communications Inc, June 06 2014.
- Hiroshi Sakurazaka, All You Need Is Kill. Tōkyō: Shūeisha, 2004. (Japanese). Published in English as Alexander O. Smith, All You Need Is Kill. San Francisco: VIZ Media, 2009.
- Linda Hutcheon, A Theory of Adaptation. New York: Routledge, 2006.
- Sandy Schaefer, “’Edge of Tomorrow’ Writer on the Ending & Abandoned Plot Twist,” Screenrant.
- Tomonori Miyazu, “Author Hiroshi Sakurazaka discusses the sources of inspiration behind the feature film ‘Edge of Tomorrow’,” 「映画「オール・ユー・ニード・イズ・キル」特集、原作者・桜坂洋が発想の源泉と映像化への期待を語る」 Comic Natalie. (Japanese).
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See our other memos on Japan.