Edge

When Master Sergeant Farrell started talking about combat as the path to redemption , it was clear what sort of movie Edge of Tomorrow was going to be. We have Tom Cruise (GenX, 1961), as Lieutenant Colonel Cage, a PR flack for whom the military is a way to handle reality during a Crisis. He attempts to blackmail a general and ends up in an untenable position, one that starts bad and then gets worse.

(And although the movie was well done, it did seem a little odd to have a 53-year-old Light Colonel being bossed around by a nearly 60-year-old Master Sergeant, and them bantering about bachelor parties as an excuse for Cruise's situation. Although both actors do look fine, actually - believable, even.)

It turns out to be perfectly natural for this particular fellow to be in this part of the battle.

Which manages to set the scene very well for a redemptive arc - the usual one for Nomad stories, that is. We have someone who is emphatically not a Hero, is the kind of "people person" mocked in Jerry Maguire, and whose reaction to a dangerous assignment is to do anything to run away. (Not that it helps him to try.)

As the story continues, he improves in the directions that were lacking earlier. He recognizes what he needs to do to actually be on people's good sides. He sees that he has to do his duty, because everything depends on it. And he becomes brave enough to take on the missions he needs to. 

Still, he is not required to be a full Hero, as he is not called upon to make a  sacrifice. One could say that the redemptive arc means sacrificing the old self in favor of the new one. That's not the same, though, as Katniss giving up the one she loves or Hiccup losing a limb. The weakness of the ending may come down to the incompleteness of the arc, whether the very minimal redemption or the lack of sacrifice. If Cage had been more of a jerk, learning to be brave might have been sufficient. It could have been set up that he had to be even more brave, so the depth of his redemption was clearer. There were options for enforcing a sacrifice, too. It could have been that the circumstances of the time looping meant only one of the two main characters could survive. Maybe the final battle could have left a mark, some reminder of what he (or she, or both) had been through. Either way - fuller redemption or heroic sacrifice - could have helped the ending. 

Although it's still a fine movie, and well worth seeing.