MovieChat Forums > Edge of Tomorrow (2014) Discussion > Where does Rita find the motivation to.....

Where does Rita find the motivation to...

posted 6 years ago by Interlepos (1818)
18 replies | jump to latest

I have seen this film 3 times, and every single time I watch it I have the same thought.. where does Rita find the motivation to just kill Tom Cruise every time something goes slightly wrong, and reset the timeline, when she will not be there to experience any of it? The Rita who kills Tom will die in that timeline, while Tom will go back to a new timeline while the day resets. Rita even says in one scene: "let's just reset the day I'm tired," but if they do this Rita will die and stay dead forever, while Tom will wake up to live another day. In real life, Rita would do anything to survive.. to live and breathe. She would try to do anything in her power to succeed in her timeline. To her it's really easy to let another version of herself continue where she left off, which is not realistic at all.

I get that she cares about the greater cause, and that she is a character that wants to be effective and has no time for bullshit, and that she has had this power herself before. But her character has ZERO will to live, and the biggest lack of ego that I have ever seen in a character. She kills Tom (and therefore herself) as easy as somebody pushes a button.

Strangely, I did not see anyone else raise this question.

[–] GotWood84 (384) 6 years ago

Eddie Barzoon, Eddie Barzoon... Ha! I nursed him through two divorces, a cocaine rehab, and a pregnant receptionist. God's creature, right? God's special creature. I've warned him. I've warned him every step of the way. Watching him bounce around like a fucking game. Like a wind-up toy. Like 250 pounds of self-serving greed on wheels. The next thousand years is right around the corner. Eddie Barzoon... Take a good look, because he's the poster child for the next millennium. These people, it's no mystery where they come from.

[–] Interlepos (1818) 6 years ago

Devil's Advocate. Cool Movie. But... Anyone else want to try?

[–] Lampedusean (498) 5 years ago

I have to return some videotapes

[–] RoboReCop (3379) 3 years ago

My fourteen-year-old self made sure to make a copy of the VHS before returning it back to Blockbusters. haha

[–] ExTechOp (2770) 5 years ago

I don't get the impression there's any more than one timeline in this film

The timeline just sorta "rewinds" when an alpha gets killed

So Rita's hitting the rewind button. She won't "die," but she also won't remember having hit the button.

I don't see her having a problem with that, after what she went through at Verdun. She knows killing Cage will simply wipe her memory and allow the day to restart. She's not "dying" in her mind. She's simply letting Cage advance in experience.

Strikes me as painless for her, in other words

[–] Interlepos (1818) 5 years ago

Firstly, thank you for taking a stab at this. You’re the only person so far willing to even attempt discussing this “plot hole”. If what you’re saying is correct, that there is only one timeline in the film, and everything resets when Tom is killed… we still have our problem. Imagine you live your whole life to become, let us say 32 years of age, would you be willing to sacrifice yourself so another person can advance his or her knowledge? Even if you’re aware of how it all works, would you so easily be able to stop everything without even a care in the world, to end it all (for you)? Therefore, we still have the same existential question here. When Rita kills Tom, the Rita who pulls the trigger will be gone forever... and it's as easy as changing gym socks for her.

>> So Rita's hitting the rewind button. She won't "die," but she also won't remember having hit the button.

That's the same as dying. The Rita who pulled the trigger is gone, and a new Rita (her former self) has taken her place.

[–] ExTechOp (2770) 5 years ago

More like self-imposed amnesia.

The Rita who pulled the trigger is "gone" the same way a lost memory is "gone"

But as for the "why" of it, (A) she's a soldier, and says as much, so it's hr duty to die for the greater good and (B) she has the unique perspective of knowing the "truth" of the situation, that she's just another player in Cage's "Groundhog Day" scenario

Killing Cage is the small but significant amount of control she is able to exert. She's like a self-aware videogame avatar for whom, at a certain point, living becomes too much of a chore. So she hits reset herself in order to facilitate Cage's progress. Cage winning the war saves them all.

So it's not that she has zero will to live so much as an absolute will to win.

[–] Interlepos (1818) 5 years ago

Very good clarification -- and you have me more convinced that I thought I would be at this point, but I still feel the will to live/fear of dying should be a bit stronger than being all gung ho “don't care if I live or die” because of Tom’s Groundhog Day scenario. Still, your explanation makes it more plausible.

[–] Lampedusean (498) 5 years ago

It's the same fear some people have about teleporting. Irrational when you look at the bigger picture, really.

[–] ExTechOp (2770) 5 years ago

Ever see the "Outer Limits" episode, "Think Like a Dinosaur"?

Teleportation works by first generating a perfect copy of the subject at the other location. Then, when the copy is confirmed, the "original" gets destroyed.

The episode's central conflict involves a subject whose confirmation gets delayed, so she has time to think about the fact that she, the original at the transmission location, will have to die to "balance the equation."

Like you said, irrational, but ONLY when you look at the bigger picture.

[–] Lampedusean (498) 5 years ago

I used to be afraid of having a copy continue my life but I've come to appreciate the fact that the copy is me, too. Sleep and wake up a changed man after all! (Cells changing in the night)

[–] ExTechOp (2770) 5 years ago

Tell that to Hugh Jackman's character in "The Prestige"

He thought it took enormous will to potentially die each time he did the trick

Honestly, I tend to agree. But if given the chance, I'd probably agree with Lampedusean - "I" won't be around to know the difference anyway

[–] faqbaby (55) 5 years ago

People misuse the term plot hole lately... you are failing to look at the bigger picture here, if the alpha is killed time is reset, if cage dies time is reset, Rita already knows that time has been reset a lot already and if cage dies even if she is not the one to kill him time will be reset again including her... she might as well take advantage of that and be willing to kill him herself for the sake of humanity... also if anything dying is a lot harder on cage who has to remember his death over and over than live through the same day over and over while those around him dont even know time is being reset

[–] Interlepos (1818) 5 years ago

I thank you for the explanation and I get what you are saying (about the time resetting), but you are failing to look at the strongest instinct human beings have (and perhaps all beings on earth) -- the will to live. Now, it seems convenient that Rita is able to kill herself so easily, even if we have established these two basic facts:

1. Time will reset itself anyway when Tom is killed.

2. She knows how it all works because she has been through it before.

As I said in another post, even if we know these facts, it is still unlikely that she is able to kill herself with such ease every time. Because again, that version of Rita is gone forever. The Rita who pulled the trigger.

[–] ExTechOp (2770) 5 years ago

All true, but Rita's a battle-hardened soldier who's experienced her own death countless times.

Even the survival instinct can be overcome under the right conditions.

And for what it's worth, Emily Blunt plays Rita like the kind of person who's had a lot of "normal human instincts" burned out of her

[–] faqbaby (55) 5 years ago

i think the right term to use is she erased herself from existence, she didnt technically kill herself since she wouldnt feel pain or even know if she died along with killing cage. its like time dilation,, if you travel near the speed of light 10 years would feel like 1 hour for you

[–] Ranb (11307) 5 years ago

"But her character has ZERO will to live,"

This was another thing from the book they left out of the screenplay. Rita devoted herself to destroying all of the mimics after she saw her family and town slaughtered by the mimics. Her only possession was a coffee service. Her special forces company pretty much existed to back her up while she was mopping up mimics after an air strike. In the book, Rita's motivations were very clear, in the film, not so much.

[–] acidraindrop (3055) 2 years ago

Because she was a soldier, and she was focused on salvation of the human race. She wasn't pondering philosophical questions about identity.

In her mind, she was rewinding time by a day, not killing herself (or even contemplating whether multiple versions of herself exist, or how they could exist.)