William Cage is the main character in the film adaptation of the novel: Edge of Tomorrow. 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.
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.
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.
Powers and abilities
Time-altering:
William Cage has the ability to respawn after dying 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 waking up inmediately after and with this unique ability he is capable of predicting and manipulating the events of every situation given his knowledge of what happened previously.