Girls on Film: Hollywood keeps stranding women at the Edge of Tomorrow

Badass characters like Edge of Tomorrow's Vrataski seem to push Hollywood forward — but when will a woman be more than a "Female Yoda"?

Edge of Tomorrow

Given the number of roles he's had over the course of his career, it's amazing that we have yet to see Tom Cruise sing the Mighty Mouse theme, "Here I Come to Save the Day." For the last 30 years, Cruise has saved the day time and again. He'll run and run toward any danger until he's victorious. It's a formula that turned him into one of Hollywood's most bankable stars.

But in his latest must-see action film, Edge of Tomorrow, things play out a little differently. Here, Cruise is the cowardly man who will save the day only after a powerful woman teaches him how.

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Monika Bartyzel

Monika Bartyzel is a freelance writer and creator of Girls on Film, a weekly look at femme-centric film news and concerns, now appearing at TheWeek.com. Her work has been published on sites including The Atlantic, Movies.com, Moviefone, Collider, and the now-defunct Cinematical, where she was a lead writer and assignment editor.