William Cage is the main protagonist of the movie Edge of Tomorrow, an adaptation of the light novel and manga All You Need is Kill. William served as a major in the United Defense Force media relationship department. His surname is derived from "Keiji Kiriya", the main character from the original novel.
He was portrayed by Tom Cruise, who also played Maverick in Top Gun and its sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible films, Charlie Babbitt in Rain Man, John Anderton in Minority Report, Ray Ferrierin War of the Worlds, Ron Kovic in Born on the Fourth of July, Daniel Kaffee in A Few Good Men, David Aames in Vanilla Sky, Nathan Algren in The Last Samurai, Jack Harper in Oblivion,
Personality[]
At the beginning of the film, Cage was quite a coward and feared the idea of going into battle, because he had no real combat experience. He comes to threaten and blackmail General Brigham only to avoid participating in the invasion. He is initially confused and in shock when he gets caught up in the cycle of time, but as he repeats the days he becomes a much more courageous and experienced soldier with Rita's help. He begins to develop romantic feelings for Rita, and seeing her death over and over again begins to affect him emotionally. His love goes so far as to jeopardize his mission to kill Omega just to save his life.
Early Life[]
Before the Mimic War broke out Cage was in ROTC in college, and as the war started he lost his advertising firm and found a job in the United Defense Force. Cage played a major role in the recruitment of soldiers for the UDF before the invasion of France using Rita Vrataski's victory at the Battle of Verdun.His entire propaganda program was used to convince the media and public that the UDF's victory at Verdun was ensured only by the usage of the newly developed exo-suit, and that by equipping untrained soldiers we can create an army of super soldiers whose combat experience will be greatly enhanced by the exo-suit
Operation Downfall[]
A day before Operation Downfall, Cage was called in to London by General Brigham. There, Cage was ordered to land on the Normandy beach with the first wave of soldiers to film the invasion and thus promote it.Cage, having never seen combat his entire life, panics and black mails the general in order to avoid combat the next day.
Cage was arrested and taken to Forward Operating Base Heathrow where he was labeled a deserter caught impersonating an officer. At the base, Cage meets Sergeant Ferrell and J-Squad. The squad along the other soldiers in the barrack despises Cage for his cowardliness. Operation Downfall began the next morning, Cage and hundreds of thousands of soldiers were transported onto the beach of Normandy via dropships. However during the flight Cage's dropship was hit by a mimic javelin thus forcing him and J-Squad to drop on to the beach. The battle proves to be a slaughterhouse as the mimics anticipated the human's invasion and were waiting for the new trained soldiers. In the midst of chaos Cage comes across Rita Vrataski who kills a mimic with her Angel Arms Rail Gun, as the two make eye contact Rita is all of a sudden struck and killed by an incoming mimic javelin. As Cage relocates with his squad a single mimic claw its way out of the sand and slaughters the entire J-Squad except Cage, Cage manages to kills the mimic with his arm mounted machine-gun but comes face to face with a mimic alpha. The alpha spots Cage and launches towards him, however Cage picks up his dead teammate(Skinner)'s claymore and blows the alpha to bits. The alpha's acidic blood splatters all over Cage, melting his face and killing him.
Live. Die. Repeat.[]
Cage finds himself awaken in FOB Heathrow again in dazed confusion. He meets Sergeant Ferrell and J-Squad again and is launched into battle again the next morning. There on the beach Cage tries to find Rita Vratask and is killed within minutes. He repeats the battle several time, each time-loop he becomes more aware to his surrounding until finally he confronts the female warrior. Rita is astonished by Cage's ability to predict incoming mimics and drops her weapon telling Cage to find her when he wake up. A nearby dropship explodes, killing both Cage and Rita.
Enlightenment[]
Cage awakes once again in FOB Heathrow, he goes through the same routine of meeting Sgt. Ferrell and J-Squad. Cage and his platoon go on to PT, where he tries to escape by rolling beneath an incoming army truck. After a humorous death of being crushed by the truck and finally succeeding in meets Rita Vrataski at a nearby firing range. Cage tells Rita of his other worldly encounters and Rita responds immediately by bringing Cage over to Doctor Carter. There the doctor and Rita explains the Mimic's biology while helps Cage understand his new adopted power of resetting the day. Cage is told that he must continue the cycle of live/die/repeat until he has the "vision" of the Mimic Omega, the brain and command central of the Mimic horde. The presentation ends with Rita requesting to see Cage's fighting skills by fighting off robotic Mimic dummies.As an untrained grunt Cage fails miserly time after time again resulting in him seriously damaging nearly all parts of his body, to which Rita would execute him on the spot due to his inability to continue fighting. This becomes Cage's new daily routine as he awakes each time to train with Rita by fighting the robotic Mimics.
Powers and abilities[]
- Time-altering: William Cage has the ability to respawn after dying, control time and adapt to new changes, depending on what happens in the environment he is in at any given time. He caught it from inadvertently being exposed to a mimics blood and then wakes up inmediately after. With this unique ability he is capable of controlling of respawning the day before the battle and therefore he can predict and manipulate situations, the more he repeats the cycle of living, dying, repeating and learning from everything that happens around him.
- Clairvoyance: With the mimics physiology, William is psychologically interconnected with the Mimic Omega creature, who is basically the brains and command central of the Mimic horde giving him the ability to see visions of the Omegas supposed hideout coordinates track it much like how its minions are capable of. To better explain this, Cage is told that he must continue the cycle of live/die/repeat until he has the clearest "vision" of the creature. He also was able to predict every movement of the way one of his comrades was going to attack him and therefore he fought them without breaking a sweat and shocking the other soldier.
- Extensive combat prowess: Aside from having elemental powers, William became a formidable oponent to the aliens after rigorous training from Rita Vrataski with Robots that resemble the mimic creatures. He also was able to handle a fight very efficiently with one of his comrades when being confronted about them having to do extra push-ups because of his absence. He was able to dodge every punch every punch from comrade so effectively that in the end he dodged the last punch allowing his comrades blow to send him against the wall and hitting his head. William also has decent knowledge about combat regarding the use of firearms in action. In a trip to the supposed location of the Omega, he carried a gun to protect him self while he was inside the Dam, only to find out that the Omega was not even there in the first place. He also uses his when fighting a mimic in a sudden random attack inside a barn and manages to kill it with deadly efficiency.
Gadgets[]
Mechanical armor: William was obliged to use a unique type of robotic exosteleton-like armor known as the Combat Jacket which is a highly advanced exoskeleton suit that enhances soldiers abilities in the battlefield. When wearing the suit, soldier can run faster, jump to extremely high heights, lift and push heavy objects. The suit also lets soldier to avoid damage when falling from great heights. The suits visor can show upcoming threats even in smoke. Jacket is powered by a sole unspecified battery that needs to be periodically replaced after the last one runs out of power. Without the battery the Jacket can't function and soldier inside of it becomes immobilized.
The suit is equipped with high calibre rifle and rocket launchers that are controlled from a small screen on right hand. What appears to be a black FN SCAR-H is seen as one of the more common weapons mounted on the UDF soldiers' "Combat Jacket", notably the one worn by Major William Cage. Cage later is seen removing the weapon and using it as a regular infantry weapon. Despite the fact that at one point it is referenced as using 5.56mm ammunition (suggesting that it is a SCAR-L), close examination of the magazine indicates that it is actually a 7.62x51mm SCAR-H. While mounted on an exoskeleton, the weapon visibly lacks the grip (as is normal for vehicle-mounted, remotely triggered machine guns), with the trigger assembly covered by a solenoid device; nevertheless, both the grip and a normal trigger reappear when Cage takes the rifle off. The suits interface comes in few different languages so soldiers of different nationalities could used it without hindrance.
Combat Jacket requires extensive training before operating in battle, because as shown when Cage first uses the suit, inexperienced soldier using Jacket becomes extremely clumsy and slow. While the suits enhances user capabilities it doesn't fully protect the wearier from all forms of damage. Grunt and Dog variants of the suit are especially vulnerable to damage. Cage was shown have broken back after being thrown into a wall while wearing the Jacket and numerous soldiers wearing Tank variants were immediately killed by a direct hit from a Mimic javelin. Because of the heavy weight, soldiers can easily drown in deep pools of water while wearing it (this nearly happens to Cage in one instance). The Jackets damaged electrical circuits can also shock the wearier to death (as seen by Cage on the beach). They can also get set on fire, causing the soldier inside to slowly burn to death.