It’s been a while since I’ve seen the movie, and maybe it came from a synopsis of the book or something, but I have the distinct impression that they mentioned how the aliens went dormant or ceased activity or something and they thought it was because of some victory they had won. They thought the tide had turned.
Hey, if you can’t send people who annoy you into a meat-grinder, what’s the point of making General?
Definitely one of the perks of the job. King David would say much the same.
They thought they beach was going to pretty much empty, just a few aliens to shoot. Cage wasn’t going to be in any sort of danger, until his blackmailed the general.
I don’t think there needs to be any backstory on why Cage was picked. They’re about to embark on the single most important military campaign in the history of the human species. The general wanted the best media guy the army had on the beach, covering it. Cruise was their best media guy, so the general requisitioned him for the position. Cruise not learning about it until he’s sitting in the general’s office can be chalked up to the overall chaos of planning a major military operation - although I kind of suspect that Cruise’s previous general didn’t like the smarmy asshole any more than his current general, so maybe there was a bit of revenge there in letting him get blindsided. But that’s not necessary to understand the scene: the army needed a person in a particular position, so they ordered one of their guys to fill it.
I just watched this movie last night, and have a question that I expected to be answered at some point in the movie, but I don’t think it ever was. I’ve also looked through some of the threads here discussing the movie and haven’t seen it addressed or answered.
Why are the aliens called “Mimics”? They don’t look like anything I’ve ever seen. What are they supposed to be mimicking?
They blended into the terrain.
Mira Sorvino.
Our tactics: they adapt to, and counter, our battle plans as if anticipating them.
I don’t recall if this is correct, but when they played all the media clips at the beginning, wasn’t Cruz the only one IN the military? I think he was picked because was competent and he could be ordered to do the job – everyone else was a civilian and couldn’t be ordered.
Well, that’s most of the men and some of the women conquered. Women and gay men, let’s hope you can hold out for humanity.
I actually thought that was obvious. The General asks Major Cage to do his Public Relations stuff near the front lines. But Cage is a coward and tries to weasel out of it with an “I don’t fight, I talk” argument. This pisses the General off, very very much. He views it as a dereliction of duty, and knows that even though this PR flack is a Major, a General outranks a major. Because Cage hasn’t actually “deserted”, the General does the next best thing and orders him to be cannon fodder. That was a pretty big plot point there. It set up the whole movie. A guy who has no idea how to fight ends up getting killed because of course he does. But he comes back. Again. Again. and Again. and Again. and Again, etc.
This is how I remember it as well.
The General thought the war was over, and this beach-head was clean-up duty. The perfect photo op.
They didn’t think the war was over. The general said they were expecting massive casualties during the offensive. But they weren’t expecting any resistance on the beach. They thought the fight would be further inland. Of course, in the early timelines, that’s probably exactly what happened.
I saw the movie and I don’t remember how Cruise gets his Groundhog Day powers.
Can anyone shed some light?
In his first time on the beach, he manages to kill an alien at close range. He gets drenched in the aliens blood, which passes on the aliens “time reset” powers, setting up the rest of the film.
T/Y… now I think I remember that scene.
Not just any alien, though, a special one. There were certain uncommon ones that were special, IIRC. It had to be one of those, right? And/or he couldn’t be killed by one of the special ones or it would stop the rebooting? They were the ones with the timeline-control powers, which he (and the “Angel” before him) had picked up from their blood.
Right, and apparently it was the same one that shows at the end.
no - he was the one in the clips because of his role in PR - all of the soldiers on the ground were clearly in the military and taking orders - the crew he ends up with were the best of the worst.
He was initially sent by the general because of his role as the ‘face of the war’ - he then pisses off the general, then threatens the general with blackmail, then gets arrested and sent (and summarily de-commissioned at the time).
There were 3 alient types -
Drones - basic (infantry - little guys) - nothing special really - just alien, nasty and mean.
Alphas - blue guys - this is the one Cage kills with the claymore and gets drenched in its blood (killing Cage and giving him the reset power) - there are much fewer of these. (1 in 6 millioN)
The “Omega” - this is the one at the bottom of the Louvre Museum - this is the one that actually “has” the power - the death of hiis blue guys he uses to reset the day - when Cruz got the blue guy power - he essentially ‘became one of them’ in thier system. He dies, big guy resets to beginning of day (‘wake up maggot’ in Cage’s case) and begins again - this time, with full knowledge of what could happen and how to ‘try again’. Only one of these (that we know of)
In the end, Cage manages to kill the Omega and get covered in it’s blood, allowing him to reset further back (or potentially to any point he chooses).