On the surface, it may have seemed as though Edge of Tomorrow, Doug Liman’s under-seen cerebral sci-fi from earlier this year, leaned heavily on CGI to bring its time travelling tale to life. However, in this recently-released clip the creative team reveal just how much work went into the film’s practical effects.
Here’s the five-minute video, courtesy of io9:
From the extensive battle sequences to the mechanised power suits, it turns out that a major chunk of Edge of Tomorrow was hand-crafted. Which is refreshing, given that a lot of similar genre pieces would so easily turn to CG effects in lieu of this more realistic approach — we’re looking at you, Oblivion.
Released back in May, Edge of Tomorrow orbits around Tom Cruise’s Major William Cage who repeatedly dies on the battlefield only to wake up at Heathrow airport earlier that morning — think Groundhog Day meets Source Code. And so, Cage must hone his skills under the tutelage of Emily Blunt’s Rita Vrataski — a poster girl in the war against the alien Mimics.
Upon release, Liman’s ambitious sci-fi was met with stellar reviews and performed relatively well at the box office — recouping just under $370 million on a $170 million budget. In combining the time travel elements of classic sci-fi with the character progression of Cruise’s Cage, the film is essentially a video game movie in all but name.
Edge of Tomorrow will release on Blu-Ray on October 4th, 2014. Until then, be sure to check out the B-roll footage above and let us know whether you’ll be picking up the film in a few weeks time.