Edge of Tomorrow: Watch Tom Cruise explore yet another sci-fi dystopia

(Image credit: (Facebook/Edge of Tomorrow))

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Tom Cruise just can't catch a break. Less than one year after navigating the bombed-out world of Oblivion — and less than a decade after surviving the War of the Worlds — he's trapped in yet another sci-fi dystopia in Edge of Tomorrow, which just dropped its first trailer.

The story follows Cruise's Lt. Col. Bill Cage, who's a key fighter in a war against an alien race. "What I am about to tell you sounds crazy, but you have to listen to me" says Cage at the outset of the trailer. "Your very lives depend on it. You see, this isn't the first time that we've had this conversation." As it turns out, Cage is caught in the middle of some kind of time warp. Armed with the knowledge that the human soldiers will lose the war, he goes back in time in an effort to change history before it's too late. (Think Groundhog Day by way of Terminator and you'll have the basic idea.) Along the way, he teams up with fellow soldier Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), who may have the key to completing his mission.

It's all a little dizzying, but Warner Bros. is clearly doing everything in their power to make this twisty sci-fi movie an easier sell to mainstream audiences. Edge of Tomorrow was originally titled All You Need Is Kill, a title that was simultaneously dumber and more memorable. It's the first in what will likely be several attempts to pitch this big-budget blockbuster as one of next summer's most promising action flicks. Will all the effort pay off with audiences? We'll find out when Edge of Tomorrow hits theaters in June of 2014.

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Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.