There’s a secret remake of one of Tom Cruise’s best movies

Tom Cruise is the biggest movie star on the planet, but with little fanfare, one of his most beloved movies has recently been remade.

Tom Cruise might be shifting gears when it comes to his acting career. Having spent the best part of the last decade making Mission: Impossible movies, he concluded that series with The Final Reckoning this past summer.

With Ethan Hunt therefore out to pasture, Cruise is now tackling more serious fare, with ‘Untitled Alejandro G. Inarritu Film’ his next project, set for release next October.

But one of his best movies has received the remake treatment, and is screening somewhat under the radar at 2025 film festivals.

Edge of Tomorrow has been remade as All You Need is Kill

All You Need is Kill is a light novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka that that was first published in Japan in 2004. It was then turned it into the movie Edge of Tomorrow by Doug Liman a decade later, with Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt starring.

The story revolves around a soldier caught in a time loop while trying to save the earth from aliens, and the film was a hit – grossing $370 million worldwide – prompting talk of everyone returning for a sequel ever since.

But before we get Edge of Tomorrow 2, the source material has been turned into an animated feature, with Kenichiro Akimoto directing, Demon Slayer and Dan Da Dan star Natsuki Hanae voicing the character that Cruise played, and Ai Mikami voicing lead character Rita.

The official synopsis is as follows: “In a time loop during an alien plant invasion, Rita relives the same day repeatedly, becoming a skilled warrior. Exhausted by endless deaths, she discovers Keiji, another person trapped in the loop.”

What the critics are saying

All You Need is Kill screened at the Fantasia and Annecy film festivals, and early reviews have been generally positive.

Fandom Wire liked the visuals, writing: “Its hallucinatory, mesmeric designs draw you into the sci-fi world, with more than a few images looking downright painterly and worthy of being displayed in any art museum.”

Screen Anarchy liked the action sequences, saying: “They keep growing in size and scale as Rita learns more about their enemy.”

Anime New Network calls it “a film which feels worth seeing in spite of the similarities which are there. It’s also set apart by a hallucinatory style – not just in the different ways in which Akimoto presents the interaction between the alien threat and Rita’s mind, but also how the earth has mutated in response to their arrival.”

IGN didn’t like the ending, explaining that: “All You Need Is Kill stumbles hard in the third act, to the point where the whole movie is nearly derailed. The story leaps forward too far and too hard, and in the blink of an eye delivers its climax minus much build up and plus some odd, unexpected plot twists.

“Worse yet, its attempts to veer off from any previous ending of All You Need Is Kill renders Rita – who’s been our entry-point into this saga all the way up to now – a passive observer.”

The Wrap waxes lyrical about that climax, claiming it outdoes the Cruise flick: “The movie’s giant heart cuts through all of that and even makes the film’s last act, which like Edge of Tomorrow meanders a bit when it should be more dialed-in, emotionally resonant and affecting.”