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NOTE: If you have not seen this film, you should. Also, there are spoiler alerts ahead. You have been warned!
The 2014 science fiction film Edge of Tomorrow, starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, is an awesome film. For those of you who don't care for Tom Cruise, even you will love this film, as you get to see Cruise die multiple times. Watching Emily Blunt kick alien ass alone makes the film worth it. Aside from this, and just being a decent sci-fi film, there is a serious mystical teaching underlying the entire story.
First, to summarize, there are three main characters of this film: Cage, played by Cruise; Rita, played by Blunt; and the aliens, of which there are three kinds known as Mimics, Alphas, and the main alien called the Omega. The aliens invade earth, and humanity unites to fight the alien threat.
Cage is a US military talking head; a public relations officer for the war effort. He's not a soldier at all, but is put into battle right on the front lines in a scene that is reminiscent of D-Day in WWII.
Rita is a warrior. She is also know as the Angel of Verdun, after her noticeable fighting skill in an earlier battle in the area of Verdun in France. She is a battle hardened special forces soldier, and sometimes called the Full Metal Bitch.
The human military has developed mechanical suits worn by the soldiers that make them faster and stronger, and more capable of fighting the aliens. This is actually a pretty cool feature. The suits are also equipped with weaponry.
The main alien is the Omega. The Alphas are sort of like the generals, or supervisors for the war effort. There are fewer of them, and they are rarely seen. Then there are the Mimics, the soldier aliens. They are all a hive mind. The Omega has the ability to restart the day at its choosing. Somehow, if anyone kills an Alpha, they, too, acquire this ability to restart the day. All one has to do is die and the day starts over.
Rita apparently had the ability, but lost it. (This was how she was able to do so well in the Battle of Verdun, because she already knew what was going to happen.) Cage acquires the ability after simultaneously killing an Alpha and dying in the process. When trying to save Rita from being blown to bits, she notices he has it, and tells him to find her when he wakes up. This begins a partnership between them. Rita trains Cage to fight, and they team up to find the Omega and destroy it, thus, winning the war.
The film is an adaptation of a Japanese novel written by Hiroshi Sakurazaka titled All You Need Is Kill.
Now, let's change direction for a bit.
Within a particular esoteric tradition there is something referred to as the Holy Guardian Angel. This is an entity that is a reflection of an individual's true divine nature. The goal within this tradition is to seek out this Angel, make contact with it, and then allow the Angel to guide one along the spiritual journey of which the ultimate goal is union with the Divine itself. Along the way one discovers their True Self, and their True Will or divine purpose. This entity also acts as a guardian with other entities, and a mediator between other entities to insure one's spiritual safety.
The language used is unfortunate, as this entity is so much more than a mere Angel. For the individual, it is a reflection of the Divine, and oneself at once. The concept in many respects is comparable to the personal Daimon/Daemon of the Greeks, the Genius of the Romans, the Atman of the Hindus, and more. American psychologist James Hillman used a similar idea to create his acorn theory, which proposes that we each have a personal daemon who guides us toward our purpose in life (though, not necessarily in a literal sense). This idea was the subject of his book, The Soul's Code (highly recommended reading).
The source for the Western Esoteric Tradition and the source of the actual term, Holy Guardian Angel, comes from a book entitled The Book of Abramelin. In this text, instructions are given for the completion of this task of achieving what is called "Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel". "Conversation" is literal communication with this entity, and may include visions, dreams, synchronicity, and other forms of communication. "Knowledge" here is in the Biblical sense. That is, a sort of spiritual wedding with the entity. In the text one is instructed to achieve this contact, and once contact is made one is instructed to conquer the demons of the lower realms. This is sort of like establishing to the universe and all within it that you have made contact with your Angel, and that you have a certain degree of divine authority, granted by the Angel itself.
Now, it is uncertain if Hiroshi Sakurazaka has read into this concept or not. Artist can and do tap into universal concepts and are able to express these in subtle ways through their art. It was of the mysteries of art, for sure. this movie, Edge of Tomorrow, when viewed with this concept of the Holy Guardian Angel in mind, becomes an interesting story, indeed.
Cage is the seeker, the student, the reluctant hero. He is thrust onto the "spiritual path", here represented as a war. This is not the first time war and battle have been used to express the spiritual journey². The Aliens represent the beings of the lower realms. This can be interpreted a millions ways, for example, they may be his ego impulses, his attachments, his fears, or however one wants to interpret this. He finds he has a strange new power, and has trouble at the start learning to use it. This idea of dying and being reborn is again and again is akin to the process of samsara, or reincarnation.
Rita is Cage's Holy Guardian Angel, or personal Daemon. Curiously, she is referred to as "The Angel of Verdun" (i.e. Angel). She wields a custom sword in battle that is made from a helicopter propeller blade. The sword wielding Archangel Michael comes to mind, as he is a protector and guardian. Rita trains Cage in battle (i.e. spiritual discipline), and together they work toward the ultimate goal of finding and destroying the Omega.
Here we come across a teaching within the Hermetic Qabbalah as established by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and further taught by one Aleister Crowley, and many others. In the Qabbalah, the universe, god, man, and the spiritual journey itself are represented by a diagram known as the Tree of Life. Without going into too much detail here, there are three main goals for the spiritual seeker: first, establish contact with one's Angel, or Genius (or whatever term one wants to use); next, one must cross the Abyss, a place in which the ego identity must be destroyed in order to pass on to the higher states of being which are equivalent to the many Saviors, Avatars, Buddhas, and teachers who have existed before; the final goal is that of union with the Divine source itself.
Rita, being Cage's Angel, trains him for this goal of crossing the abyss and uniting with the Divine. In the movie we see this play out as the two finally make it to the Louvre museum where the Omega is hiding, which happens to be right underneath the Pyramid (this can't possibly be a coincidence). Once their, both of them sacrifice themselves in their effort to destroy the Omega. Rita distracts an Alpha while Cage has to dive into this watery "abyss" in order to reach the Omega. Just in time, as an Alpha kills him, he tosses a grenade belt full of grenades into the Omega, killing it. It immediately send out a signal and destroys all of the other aliens. He is killed by the Alpha, but is covered the blood of the Omega. This causes him to be able to start the day over again as before, only this time everything is different.
He wakes up in the helicopter he was in during the beginning of them film. There is news of the triumph over the aliens, but a mystery as to what happened exactly. He travels to the base as an officer, and visits Rita, who seems to have no idea who he is or why he is. The film ends with him smiling and letting out a brief laugh. (Note some of the statues of the Buddha with a big smile, as if to be laughing.) He has achieved the ultimate goal, and is allowed to return to his life in an enlightened state, with full awareness of the journey. This recalls the old saying: Before enlightenment, fetch water, chop wood, after enlightenment, fetch water, chop wood.
In conclusion, I have no idea whether this underlying theme was intentional or not. I may just be crazy, too, or overanalyzing the film. As an artist, however, I do know that inspired work often contains such hidden, underlying significance. This might be the case with this story; that it is revealing some greater spiritual teaching that we may not pick up on consciously, but that our inner being recognizes. This story is, also, the Hero's Journey (see the work of Joseph Campbell and his monomyth). This is obvious. If you haven't seen this film, you should. Maybe it will inspire you to start your own spiritual journey.
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