- "What I am about to tell you sounds crazy. But you have to listen to me. Your very lives depend on it. You see, this isn't the first time."
- —William Cage, trying to warn J-Squad.
| William Cage | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Personal Information | |
| Title | William "Bill" Cage |
| Gender | Male |
| Hair Color | Black |
| Nationality | American |
| Status | Alive |
| Professional Statistics | |
| Affiliations | United Defense Force |
| Organization Rank | Major |
| Other Occupation(s) | Officer |
| First Appearance | |
| Debut | Edge of Tomorrow |
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.
History
Early Life
William Cage was born Cranberry, Pennsylvania. 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 labelled 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's (Skinner) 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 awakens in Heathrow after dying
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 Vrataski 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 explain the Mimic's biology and help 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. Cage and Vrataski improved their combat skills and progress on the beach during the invasion, but despite everything, they both keep dying and Cage remains stuck in his loop. Cage becomes attracted to Vrataski and watching her die in repeated loops starts to take an emotional toll on him.
Road to the Omega
Cage at a local pub
Cage experiences a vision showing the Omega deep inside a dam in Germany. Vrataski and Carter believe the visions are due to Cage being exposed to an Alpha Mimic's blood. They believe the Omega can manipulate time and perception. Cage and Vrataski focus their efforts on surviving the invasion beach and getting inland to Germany. After multiple failures and deaths, Cage and Vrataski finally make it inland. During the repeated attempts Cage develops an attraction to Vrataski, and he slowly gathers details about Vrataski. In one loop, Vrataski tells Cage that she had a boyfriend at Verdun who she watched die three hundred times until she could no longer loop and he was dead for good. After they find a helicopter at a farmhouse, Vrataski realizes Cage is trying to coax her to stay in the farmhouse while he goes alone and confronts Omega. Cage admits they have looped to the farmhouse multiple times already, but every single time Vrataski dies, so he is trying to prevent her from dying again by going alone. Shocked and offended, she intentionally gets them killed. During one loop, believing the fight is pointless, Cage decides not to meet Vrataski and instead goes to London and stops in a pub. There, Cage sees the Mimic's next step in its attack: a large-scale amphibious assault on London while Operation Downfall forces are destroyed. Cage is killed in London, and Vrataski and Cage work on a plan to get off the beach. After numerous loops, they make their way inland towards the Omega.
The Truth
Cage at the dam
Cage eventually succeeds in making it to the German dam alone, but finds nothing and is almost captured by the Mimics before he manages to drown himself. In the next loop, Cage, Vrataski, and Carter put the pieces together and figure out the visions: Vrataski's success in Verdun was all a ruse by the Omega Mimic. The Omega had let the humans win at Verdun in order to lure the humans into invading Europe, where all the human armies would be ambushed and annihilated. With no other leads, the device Carter made which got him fired is their last chance. Vrataski and Cage switch focus to getting the device, which is at Whitehall in a safe in General Brigham's office. They infiltrate the Ministry of Defense and, after numerous loops, persuade Brigham to give them the transponder. Brigham relents and gives them the transponder before sending troops after them as they attempt to escape by car. As they escape, Vrataski stabs the transponder into Cage's leg. Cage sees the true location of the Omega: deep under the Louvre Museum in Paris. As they attempt to escape from the Allied headquarters, their car is stopped by a soldier in a mechanical jacket, and the airbag knocks out Vrataski before she can kill Cage. Cage awakens strapped to a hospital gurney, under arrest. He sees that he is receiving a blood transfusion and realizes that he can no longer loop in time. Vrataski helps Cage escape, but without the ability to loop in time again and only several hours before the doomed invasion, Cage decides to recruit the misfit J-Squad to help them get to Paris. Cage's now-intimate knowledge of J-Squad and Vrataski's credibility convinces J-Squad to accompany them. They steal an aircraft and fly to Paris.
Battle of Louvre
Cage revealing to have set off multiple grenades in Omega
Once in the vicinity of the Louvre, the Mimics attack their aircraft. They must avoid killing the Alpha Mimic guarding the Omega, because that will cause the Omega to reset time, so all the team members are told to "take one for the team" - that is, to accept death - and not try to kill any Alpha Mimic in case they find themselves with one face-to-face. In the ensuing firefight half of J-Squad are killed. Cage, Vrataski, and three remaining J-Squad members decide to use the remaining engine power to slide the aircraft into the Louvre. Once inside, they plan to use grenades to destroy the Omega. The rest of J-Squad sacrifice themselves in the slide, and Cage and Vrataski make it into the museum. Once there, Vrataski tells Cage she will distract the Alpha Mimic while he attempts to drop a belt of grenades onto the Omega, which is under water deep under the Louvre. Vrataski tells him that neither one of them will survive the ordeal and kisses him, telling him that she wishes she had more time to get to know Cage better. Vrataski leaves to distract the Alpha Mimic and Cage dives underwater to find the Omega. After a brief chase, the Alpha catches and kills Vrataski. The Omega senses Cage and dispatches the Alpha to kill Cage. The Alpha dives after Cage and stabs him, but before he dies, Cage pulls the grenade pins and drops the grenade belt into the Omega. The Omega explodes and dies, and all the Mimics die with it. After Cage dies, the Omega's blood washes over and seeps into him, like the Alpha's blood did on the first day of the loop, and his eyes open.
Rewind
Cage awakens in the helicopter
Cage wakens suddenly, confused, and finds himself on the helicopter en route to London on the morning before the invasion and his meeting with General Brigham. He disembarks and hears the celebratory pealing of bells. He watches a news conference during which the General announces that a huge mysterious energy blast was detected in Paris. The General says that the Mimics have died and the human forces will commence sweeping through Europe the next day. He sees J-Squad engaging in PT at the base. Cage looks for Vrataski and everyone treats him with respect due to him still being having an officers rank. He finds Vrataski and she greets him with the same rudeness she has every time they meet in every loop. Cage smiles broadly.
Personality
At the start of the movie, Cage is shown to be quite cowardly and feared the idea of going into battle, due to not having any real combat experience. He goes as far as to threaten and blackmail General Brigham just to avoid participation in invasion.
He is initially confused and in shock when he gets stuck in the time loop, but as he repeats the days he becomes a much more brave and experienced soldier with the help of Rita. He starts developing romantic feelings for Rita, and watching her death over and over again begins to take a toll on him emotionally. His love goes as far as him jeopardizing his mission to kill Omega just to save her life.
Trivia
- Brad Pitt was originally considered for the role of Bill Cage.
- During the opening credits, Cage is making a statement on the upcoming Operation Downfall. The room behind him is NORAD command from the movie WarGames (1983).
- Cage never mentions how many times the reset had happened to him, during the entire movie. Even though Rita asks him on few occasions about how many times, he never answers with a number. Rita once says she watched Hendricks die 300 times. That is the only mention of reset times.
- The default language set-up for Cage's battle armor is Japanese, a nod to the novel's country of origin.
- At the end of the movie, just before Cage destroys the Omega, there is a scene where he opens his hand to reveal multiple grenade safety pins, preparing the viewer for the pending explosion. This scene is similar to his scene in War of the Worlds (2005) where Cruise's character is almost sucked up into the alien machine, but he is pulled out by fellow humans. In that scene he also reveals multiple grenade pins indicating that several hand grenades will be exploding in the interior of the machine within a few seconds.
Gallery
