Edge of Tomorrow

In the future, Earth is fighting a crazed, vicious alien force that's shredding our armies with little effort. Tom Cruise plays Cage, an armed forces officer who serves more as a public relations man than anybody who belongs on a battlefield. After a publicity tour, he sits down with a hard-nosed general (a cold Brendan Gleeson) and finds out that he is going into battle. Cage is justifiably terrified, and his first taste of battle doesn't go well, and he's killed in especially gruesome fashion. For reasons I won't give away, he instantly wakes up after his death, transported back to a moment shortly after his meeting with the general, and before the battle that will take his life. Cage is in a seriously messed up situation. He starts repeating the same day, and dying every time. He does his best to change that outcome, but he always winds up meeting a grisly death and waking up in the same place. He eventually comes into contact with Rita (Emily Blunt), the military's poster girl for the perfect soldier. By repeating days with Rita, Cage starts to build himself up as a soldier, discover secrets about the enemy, and increasing life longevity chances for himself and mankind. The film's handling of this situation is thrilling and even funny, thanks to Cruise's strong performance and nice direction by Doug Liman (Swingers, The Bourne Identity). It will easily stand as one of 2014's best.