Trivia / Edge of Tomorrow

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• Acclaimed Flop: Zigzagged. It made its money back but under-performed in America partially due to its release directly competing with the teen Tear Jerker The Fault in Our Stars and thus lost its female audience and in part due to its vague, unmemorable title, though critics and audiences both loved the movie. Thankfully, Germans Love David Hasselhoff is in full effect and the movie did well overseas. In particular, it did amazing in China and South Korea, and was widely loved worldwide. The strong word-of-mouth made the movie hold well and pushed it just over the $100 million mark in North America, despite its disappointing $29 million opening, after which Box Office Mojo stated the movie had very little chance of approaching triple-digits.
• Approval of God: Hiroshi Sakurazaka thought the film was "very well done." He even visited the set of the movie and tried wearing one of the 35kg suits being used.
• California Doubling: The entire film was shot in the United Kingdom, which is the location of the army camp, but the battles also take place in France (Doug Liman wanted to shoot on location, but the executives preferred a beach set) and as far as Germany. In fact, the landscape and scenery from the "German Dam" are actually from Torres del Paine National Park in Chile (Patagonia), with a fully CG dam added.
• Career Resurrection: This film (along with Into the Woods released the same year) provided Emily Blunt with a much-welcome boost after the Star-Derailing Role that was her part in Gulliver's Travels (2010).
• Corpsing: When Cage guesses if Rita's middle name is Peyton, she's struggling not to smile - because Tom Cruise is using an in-joke in an attempt to get a laugh out of Emily Blunt.
• Deleted Role:
  • Re-shoots added in a role for Jeremy Piven, but it was left on the cutting room floor.
  • Lara Pulver was also meant to have a role, but ended up only appearing as a short cameo near the end of the film.
• Development Hell: The sequel. Everyone wanted to return, and it kept being announced. But Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt and Doug Liman couldn't find a gap in their schedules to line up where they can make it, and Blunt also noted that the studio was finding the follow-up too expensive. And then a lawsuit between Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow revealed the former was developing a TV spin-off instead.
• Dyeing for Your Art:
  • Emily Blunt seriously ripped herself for the role, training in everything from sprinting to weightlifting to aerial wire work and gymnastics.
  • She (and the rest of the cast) also deserve praise for wearing those heavy suits of armor. Not to mention having to act out the same scenes over and over. Emily Blunt confessed to having a mini breakdown on the first day wearing them.
  • Tom Cruise, as usual, did most of his own stunts in the movie - wearing the ridiculously heavy prop armor, no less. Doubly impressive for him, since he's infamously such a short guy.
• Executive Meddling: Doug Liman stated he wanted the title Live Die Repeat, for not feeling All You Need Is Kill fit the movie he made. The studio instead took his title and reduced it to a tagline in lieu of Edge of Tomorrow. Still, Liman got the last laugh given the sequel will be Live Die Repeat and Repeat.
• Hide Your Pregnancy: Emily Blunt had become pregnant when it was time for some re-shoots, necessitating a stunt double for action scenes.
• Meaningful Release Date: The film was released in the U.S. on June 6, 2014, the 70th Anniversary of the D-Day invasion during World War II. The film shares many similarities to the attack on Normandy Beach.
• Missing Trailer Scene: Cage and Rita's exchange of "I'm not a soldier." "Of course you're not. You're a weapon." never takes place in the movie.
• On-Set Injury: Emily Blunt missed her mark while filming a driving scene and crashed the car into a tree. It nearly killed Tom Cruise but the two of them burst out laughing immediately.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Nance - the tomboy Action Girl of J-Squad - is played by Charlotte Riley, who often does period pieces and love interest roles.
  • Downplayed with Emily Blunt, as this marked her first Action Girl role. She had flirted with being an Action Survivor in Looper.
• Playing with Character Type: Initially, William Cage is a very un-Tom Cruise character, trying to weasel his way out of combat and demonstrating himself as a bumbling novice on the battlefield. However, he gradually develops into the badass that Cruise is known for playing.
• Post-Release Retitle: Edge of Tomorrow had a lackluster performance in the box office, so Warner Brothers attempted to rebrand it for the home video release by emphasizing the movie's Tag Line over the actual title. Live. Die. Repeat. was plastered across the Blu-Ray cover in massive letters, while Edge of Tomorrow was shrunken and exiled to the bottom corner. Several digital retailers listed the film as Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow.
• Real-Life Relative: Emily Blunt's younger brother has a cameo as a soldier who she punches - the one who says "Oh God, it's the full metal b-"
• Shoot the Money: Cage abandons his suit in a field at one point; the camera lingers on it for a bit. Partly to show that he has to go on without the armor, but probably also because it cost a shitload of money to make props that complex and the audience deserved a good look at one.
• Sleeper Hit: The film stumbled during its opening weekend, grossing $28.7 million, and was quickly written off by many as a box office bomb. However, thanks to Tom Cruise's international appeal and good word of mouth, it managed to show its worth throughout the summer and became a sleeper hit, grossing $369.2 million worldwide, making it the 19th highest grossing film of 2014.
• Throw It In!: Cage and Rita's kiss before the final battle was added in by Emily Blunt on the spur of the moment.
  "It just felt right. It felt right and I did it."
• What Could Have Been:
  • Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling were both considered for the role of Cage.
  • More streamlined Jacket designs closer to those in the manga version were considered at one point, but were ultimately changed.
• Working Title: The movie was originally going to have the same title as the light novel.

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