Better the second time

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, April 17th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: another reluctant hero.

The best science fiction films tell stories of human invention and ingenuity at odds with the biggest challenges and threats we can dream up.

EICHER: WORLD reviewer Steve Limkeman says the new sci-fi blockbuster Project Hail Mary brought to mind a different movie.

STEVE LIMKEMAN: Tom Cruise stars as Major Bill Cage in the 2014 movie Edge of Tomorrow. Like the protagonist in Project Hail Mary, Cage is forced to embark on a dangerous mission against his will. Cage is being deployed by his superior officer to help beat back an invasion by an alien race known as Mimics that threatens to engulf the planet:

CAGE: While it is an honor, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to decline. Can't stand the sight of blood. Not so much as a paper cut. [CHUCKLES]

GENERAL BRIGHAM: It's not an offer, major. It's an order.

Though he’s comfortable recruiting millions to join the war effort, Cage is desperate to steer clear of the front lines. However, his efforts to persuade his general to take a different course end in a pitiful failed attempt to flee from his duty:

CAGE: I would prefer not to be filming acts of heroism and valor on that beach tomorrow.

GENERAL BRIGHAM: You won't be.

CAGE: I'm glad we could, uh, work this out. Now if you'll excuse me, general. I… Thank you.

GENERAL BRIGHAM: Arrest this man.

As consequence for his cowardice, Cage is busted down to the rank of private and forced to fight the next day under the command of no-nonsense Master Sergeant Farrell, who foreshadows Cage’s impending transformation:

FARRELL: Come nightfall, these men will all reach the same conclusion: that you're a coward and a liar, putting your life above theirs. Good news is there's hope for you, private. Hope in the form of glorious combat. Battle is the great redeemer. The fiery crucible in which the only true heroes are forged.

Cage was not wrong about his prospects of survival. The battle is just as chaotic and devastating as he fears, and the legendary warrior Rita Vrataski — played commandingly by Emily Blunt — is killed moments after landing in what is meant to be a successful repeat of the 1944 D-Day invasion. But there’s a fascinating twist, one that Cage is able to travel back in time to recount:

CAGE: Tomorrow's invasion is a slaughter. I'm dead within minutes of landing along with every other soldier you are sending. And that's because the enemy knows we're coming. How do I know this? Before I died… I killed a Mimic, only this one was different. It passed something on to me. In my blood. Now I live the same day over and over again. Just like they do.

Stellar film editing provides an excellent vehicle for this narrative. Cage repeatedly relives the same day, but each day feels fresh, funny, important and increasingly emotionally significant. Cage parlays his hard-won wisdom into growth in compassion for Rita and commitment to win the war. At first, the battle scenes are played for laughs as Cage is subjected to one unexpected, often humiliating, death after another. Slowly but surely, he leaves behind his self-serving motives and becomes dedicated to completing his new mission, even at the cost of his own life.

RITA: I can’t believe you found coffee.

CAGE: Sugar, Right?

RITA: Yeah.

Cage, of course, saves the day. But there’s more than meets the eye. When I watch films like Edge of Tomorrow and Project Hail Mary, I am reminded of our faith in a God who gives life to the dead, one who calls into being that which did not yet exist. Biblical heroes like Moses and Gideon were similarly terrified at the prospect of what they were expected to accomplish. They, too, tried to bargain for a way out from the responsibility being placed upon their shoulders.

But we don’t rely on a cosmic accident or a stroke of fortune for our deliverance. Rather, God has promised that He himself will be with us, that He will give us the words that we need to speak, that His grace is sufficient for us, and that His strength is made perfect in our weakness. When we are facing a future that feels too frightening for us, we need not run in terror. We are not alone.

I’m Steve Limkeman.

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