Emily Blunt Endured Months Of Intense Physical Combat Training For Edge Of Tomorrow

Should aliens ever find the time and effort to invade Earth, humanity will surely have some trouble in beating back an intergalactic threat. Sure, even with our best technology, humanity would be hard-pressed to fight against a space-faring species, if only because the technology used to cross the vast distances of space would be an order of magnitude higher than anything we may have down here — we are still burning compressed dinosaurs to get from here to there and using magic exploding rocks to propel tiny projectiles when it comes to violent conflict. In other words, humanity would be sorely outmatched, and that is probably best highlighted by science-fiction movies like "Independence Day," "The Day the Earth Stood Still," and, of course, "Edge of Tomorrow."

2014's "Edge of Tomorrow" is a live-action adaptation of "All You Need Is Kill" by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. The plot of the film follows Major William Cage (Tom Cruise), a public relations specialist with a unified global military force. At some point, an alien force known as Mimics invades Earth, and they deliver several destructive blows to humanity and essentially take over most of Europe. However, at the start of "Edge of Tomorrow," a recent battle gives humanity hope, and most of the Earth's military forces mass in England in a similar vein as D-Day for a massive assault on the Mimics, though things definitely don't go as planned.

With the eve of battle on the horizon, Major William Cage attempts to blackmail General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson), though this backfires, and Cage is busted down to the rank of private and sent to become a part of J-Squad, which is set to be one of the first squads of the invasion. Utterly inept at the powered mechanized suits of his fellow soldiers, Cage survives for a few seconds, though the invasion is quickly routed and Cage killed. However, Cage wakes up on the previous day and begins to relive all of that day's events, which then repeats when Cage finds himself killed once again.

Realizing that he is caught in some kind of time loop, Cage eventually comes across the path of Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), the so-called "Angel of Verdun," who is personally responsible for humanity's hope of turning the tide of the alien conflict. Brandishing a helicopter blade-turned-sword, Rita realizes that Cage possesses the ability to rewind the day — an ability that she once possessed but lost after a blood transfusion. Rita then trains Cage, repeating each day after Cage's death, in order to train him to be a soldier capable of beating back the Mimics. One of the major aspects of the movie was that Cage and Rita both had exo-suits, which apparently were a huge pain behind the scenes, with director Doug Liman explaining to Movies.ie, "I had such envy of basically every other movie because actors could move freely from point A to point B. These suits were a nightmare because literally everything is a stunt. Physically moving could require cables and cranes, and then to change direction was incredibly complicated."

Of course, with the director of "Edge of Tomorrow" talking about how much of a pain the exo-suits were in the production of the movie, one might expect that the actors involved would have to put their bodies to the test. In an interview with ScreenSlam over on YouTube, Emily Blunt was asked about what kind of physical preparation she undertook for "Edge of Tomorrow," and she replied that she had done lots of training for several months and was told by co-star Tom Cruise that "Edge of Tomorrow" was part of the deep-end of action, which made Blunt very aware of what would be required of her in the movie.

Blunt then elaborated on the process that she undertook before "Edge of Tomorrow" and said, "So I did every form of workout I could think of. It was like six days a week, two and a half hours a day. All kinds of different things, from martial arts to gymnastics to weight training, and then I learned all the stunts once I came to London, so the prep was huge. But I wanted it to be a transformative role. I knew what was required of the character. I wanted her to look lethal, and so I was kind of willing to go all the way." Luckily, Blunt's months of hard work paid off, and her character of Sergeant Rita Vrataski is a convincing and rugged individual that comes across as very believable as she transforms Major William Cage into a living weapon, often killing him when things start to go wrong in order to reset the day. One doesn't earn the moniker of "The Angel of Verdun" for nothing.