Edge of Tomorrow: An Article As Pointless As the Movie

Disclaimer: This is not a review. It is a metaphorical take on the entire movie. The whole thing may be pointless and I have just written this for the heck of it. If you don’t like it, you’ve just wasted precious minutes of your day. If you liked it, you’ve still wasted precious minutes of your day. You have been warned! Seriously, it is absolutely pointless.

From a very personal point of view the movie Edge of Tomorrow was disappointing. While I must admit, the concept is very unique the movie in itself was stretched and boring, barring a few scenes though. For those who have not watched this movie, basically it’s about a soldier who gains the ability to reset time every time he dies and restart the day. A series of events unfold and he saves humanity…typical. It is important to note that the protagonist is able to remember the events every time he wakes up at the beginning of the day once he has been killed.

I’m not going to waste precious fake pages on the story and what-not of the movie. I’m simply going to focus on the concept and take it a step further. Here is the thing, take any individual, any average person and record the events of his/her day. Now give that person the opportunity to live that same day again, wherein the same set of events unfold, like a re-run of that day. Let’s define event here, so that the remainder of this pointless thought process gains some perspective. An event is defined as the basic act at any given instant of time during aforementioned repeatable day. For example, eating breakfast is an event but not eating a specific cereal for breakfast, that is what describes the event. To be clear, whether the person ate cereal for breakfast or toast they have done essentially the same thing; eating breakfast. I hope I’m being clear (if not, screw this article, it’s pointless anyway).

Here’s what I found worth taking away from Edge of Tomorrow. Any average person runs through a day having a set of specific events. At the end of the day he/she “kills” themselves and resets the day to do the whole thing again; the exact same events but, there is a very real possibility of making a different choice with regard to a specific event. Now let’s say on the first run of the repeatable day, person “A” had cereal for breakfast, on the next run person “A” may or may not have cereal, he/she may have toast or eggs or whatever the heck it is people can possibly eat for breakfast. Similarly every event that runs through the twenty-four hour long day has various possibilities and results based on that instants specific choice. Basically what I’m saying is that the day in essence remains the same, it is nothing but a sum total of a series of events. What we choose with regard to those events creates a very not-so-optical illusion that it is unique. It’s not unique; you’re doing the same thing and fulfilling the same purpose. We all are. We excite different taste buds with different foods, but does that make any difference to why we eat? Absolutely not. We eat to kill hunger, we sleep to kill exhaustion and we drink to quench thirst and/or alcoholic desires. Yes, we are all sorry suckers who are doing the exact same thing every freaking day to meet the same ends. We only think we are doing something unique but we aren’t. I write to pass the time as a hobby, someone plays sports, someone eats, and someone sleeps. The purpose of all the above though is to pass time. There is nothing unique about it.

What does this have to do with the movie though? The protagonist keeps dying and waking up to do the same thing again just a little differently, with the end result being him ending up killing himself. Now, let’s bring into the picture that this protagonist can remember the day that was before it repeated. So he knows how the events are going to play out and tries something different again and again and again until he can predict almost everything and walk through that day to achieve whatever he wants to.

Let’s bring that perspective to our regular person. He/she is able to remember the events of the previous day with exemplary detail. The result of which would be he/she making a different choice forcing the day in a different direction, or – more appropriately -- apparent direction. He/she would still end up living through the exact same events again and again and again, it would just excite different parts of the brain creating the illusion of moving in a forward direction with regard to a specific day. Basically making re-run 456 different from every other re-run. What’s the point? Absolutely nothing. At the end of re-run 456 our average person still ends up “killing” himself and performing re-run 457 when he wakes up.

Let’s push this concept a little further. Let’s say that average person is incapable of remembering the events of the previous re-run. So when he/she wakes up basically they think it is an absolutely new day with entirely new possibilities. Here’s what can happen in this case. In the previous case memory of the events of a previous re-run allowed the current re-run to play out apparently differently. However, in this case, the possibility that our average person could end up doing the exact same thing, running through the same events making the exact same choices again and again and again, essentially even killing the apparent direction in which his/her life was apparently moving in essentially creating an infinite vortex of repeatable choices along with repeatable days. Before the set was exhaustive, after a countable infinite number of re-runs that average person would have to create a new “event” altogether in order for a feeling of “unique”. However, in both cases, there is absolutely no point in waking up again to experience the same events again and again and again.

The idea that time is playing this sick joke on us is scary and at a very psychotic level comical as well. It’s brilliant! The joke is always on us. We think the dates of the calendar are moving forward but they aren’t. we are and have always been stuck in that same god damned day and we keep creating new ways and “solutions” to make ourselves feel that “yesterday” is gone, “today” is here and “tomorrow” is yet to come. We are living all three at exactly the same time. We don’t age, we are supposed to evolve. We claim we have “new” experiences, we don’t; we perceive the same experience differently every time. But is it possible to do something to break this shitty cycle? Or are we forever doomed to live in this bullshit circle of “today” again and again and again.

What about growth, what did we do to grow physically, mentally, emotionally etc. What did we do to reach where we are? Have we reached anywhere? I think I can safely say (solely based on the assumptions made through this pointless article) that we can and we have grown. The thing we forget is that every time we add a new “event” in our lives is when we actually move ahead. How exactly we can do this, I have no clue. One possibility seems to be that we have to exhaust every re-run of the same day before we can actually create a new event in order to apparently experience an apparent unique. We are equipped with memory, so this is possible. But, anyone would agree that a lifetime is too short for this to happen. I call bullshit on this. We do create new events every day, its part and parcel of evolution. We don’t realize their existence. Hence, we remain stuck in a cycle and complain about it.

What? That’s it. The end of my pointless article. If you enjoyed it, you have just as much free time on your hands as I do. If you didn’t, please read the disclaimer again. For all you neutral people, I really don’t care. Have a nice day (Pun majorly intended)! Ciao suckers.

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