Tom Cruise's innovative sci-fi movie Mission: Impossible franchise, he hasn't had too many opportunities to branch back into the sci-fi genre after appearing in two notable sci-fi movies in 2013. Cruise tried to get two other major franchises off the ground, Jack Reacher and The Mummy reboot, which took up most of his schedule during the 2010s.

Cruise had originally starred in more traditional dramas, comedies, and other genre films before the meteoric rise of his Mission: Impossible and Top: Gun franchises. He made his feature film debut in the tragic romantic drama Endless Love (1981) before rising to prominence as the star of Risky Business (1983), The Color of Money (1986), and the original Top Gun (1986). Cruise has been nominated for 3 Best Actor Oscars for Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Jerry Maguire (1996), and Magnolia (1999). Cruise's other notable sci-fi entries include 2013's Oblivion, 2005's War of the Worlds, and 2001's Vanilla Sky, which blends sci-fi with several other genres.

Edge Of Tomorrow Is Now Streaming On Netflix – What Tom Cruise's Sci-Fi Movie Is About

Cruise is stuck in a Groundhog Day-esque predicament in Edge of Tomorrow

With an Edge of Tomorrow sequel more likely than ever thanks to Cruise's new deal with Warner Bros., now is a great time to check out or revisit the 2013 sci-fi classic. The official logline of Edge of Tomorrow reads, "An alien race has hit the Earth in an unrelenting assault, unbeatable by any military unit in the world. Major William Cage (Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously dropped into what amounts to a suicide mission. Killed within minutes, Cage now finds himself inexplicably thrown into a time loop-forcing him to live out the same brutal combat over and over, fighting and dying again...and again." This premise inspired the memorable movie slogan, "Live, Die, Repeat."

Edge of Tomorrow is highly inventive, relying on a familiar movie premise seen in Groundhog Day in which the protagonist essentially wakes up on the same day over and over. In the case of Cruise's Cage, he is forced to fight in a seemingly unwinnable war against an alien invasion, resulting in him starting each day from square one after dying, typically in combat. Directed by Doug Liman (Swingers, The Bourne Identity, Mr. & Mrs. Smith) and co-written by Mission: Impossible director Christopher McQuarrie, Edge of Tomorrow combines action, sci-fi, and comedy to create a one-of-a-kind and highly entertaining viewing experience.

Why Edge Of Tomorrow's Reviews Are So Great & How They Compare To Other Tom Cruise Sci-Fi Movies

Edge of Tomorrow is Cruise's highest-rated sci-fi movie

Edge of Tomorrow has the highest critic and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes out of any Tom Cruise sci-fi movie, which is why I'm stunned that a sequel hasn't already been made or officially announced to be in the works. David Sims of The Atlantic calls Edge of Tomorrow, "the perfect mix of blustering action and sci-fi thinky nonsense that is best enjoyed without picking at it too much." Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair writes, "This is the kind of thoughtfully constructed movie that other summertime blockbusters should aspire to be more like, clever and cool and never giving you that ho-hum sense that you've seen it all before."

Critics praise Edge of Tomorrow for being highly original, concept-driven, and unexpectedly smart. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times writes, "It's a star-driven mass-market entertainment that's smart, exciting and unexpected while not stinting on genre satisfactions." In the same vein, Ian Buckwalter of NPR calls Edge of Tomorrow, "refreshing and unexpected, both for its humor and for its upending of action norms." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone perhaps sums the movie up best. "It shouldn't work. A human-versus-aliens epic that keeps repeating the same scene over and over again as if the comic tilt of Groundhog Day had turned suddenly dangerous. But Edge of Tomorrow will keep you on edge."

Why Edge Of Tomorrow Was A Box Office Disappointment In 2014

The film had a large budget of $178 million

A large budget combined with stiff competition in the sci-fi genre resulted in a disappointing box office for Edge of Tomorrow.

For a film with such high critical reviews, fan , and great leading performances by Cruise and Blunt, it's truly confounding why Edge of Tomorrow was not a box office hit in 2014. The film earned a worldwide box office total of $370.5 million against a hefty production budget of $178 million. Due to Edge of Tomorrow's large budget, it needed at least a worldwide gross of $500 million to enter the realm of profitability, considering the costs of marketing as well. Had Edge of Tomorrow been made for half its budget, around $90 million, the film would have been considered a box office success, but those repetitive CGI battle scenes certainly add up.

In short, Warner Bros. likely thought that Edge of Tomorrow would be a $550-600 million movie, which it arguably deserved to be but ultimately was not. The film earned over $100 million domestically and was the 20th highest-grossing film of 2014 in a year that had some steep competition in the sci-fi genre. Interstellar, the 10th highest-grossing film of 2014, grossed a worldwide total of $681 million, while the sci-fi action blockbuster Transformers: Age of Extinction was the highest-grossing film of the year, earning $1.1 billion worldwide. Collectively, a large budget combined with stiff competition in the sci-fi genre resulted in a disappointing box office for Edge of Tomorrow.

Edge Of Tomorrow 2 Has Been In The Works For Almost 10 Years – Will It Ever Happen?

It's closer than ever to happening with Cruise's new Warner Bros. deal

Edge of Tomorrow 2 has been in the works for quite some time but there has yet to be any official announcement of the project moving forward. It feels closer than ever with Cruise's new Warner Bros. deal and his questionable future in Top: Gun and Mission: Impossible after their next installments. Director Doug Liman said back in 2016 that he had a clear and innovative vision for Edge of Tomorrow 2, calling it a sequel that would also act as a prequel. He told Collider that Edge of Tomorrow 2 would “revolutionize how people make sequels", a lofty promise that still hasn't come to fruition.

Blunt recently starred in The Fall Guy alongside Ryan Gosling, a similarly great movie that underperformed at the box office, making its chances of a franchise sequel questionable. Blunt doesn't necessarily have to return to Edge of Tomorrow 2, although it would be disappointing after her impressive decade in film including A Quiet Place, Jungle Cruise, and Best Picture winner Oppenheimer. What's clear is that Cruise must return in any extension of the budding Edge of Tomorrow franchise and Liman, who needs a comeback after his recent misfire with The Instigators, should also be tapped to direct. Until then, you can Live-Watch-Repeat Edge of Tomorrow on Netflix.