15 Movies To Watch If You Like Edge Of Tomorrow

There are few actors who have been as successful in their trade as Tom Cruise. Although in terms of box-office Edge of Tomorrow never reached the same height as some of his other blockbusters, the ratings definitely indicate that it’s one of his best movies. The time-loop trope is one that has been used in many movies, TV shows, and all kinds of other media over the years.

Based on the Japanese light novel All You Need Is Kill by author Hiroshi Sakurazaka, 2014’s Edge of Tomorrow makes use of the same trope in a familiar but yet fun-to-watch way. Some might say that it is just another one of the many Tom Cruise action flicks out there, but that would be doing a disservice to the merits of this film.

Updated on July 8th, 2021 by Mark Birrell: The best movies like Edge of Tomorrow make up some of the entertaining thrilling action titles and most thought-provoking sci-fi mind-benders of recent years. Fans of the movie have no shortage of options available to them across the major streaming platforms if they’re looking for more time loop hijinks and mech-driven thrills.

Tom Cruise himself has even starred in a number of must-see action and sci-fi movies himself that fans will want to relive over and over again whether they are or aren’t looking for movies like Edge of Tomorrow (a.k.a. Live Die Repeat) and just want the best that genre movies have to offer.

15 Aliens (1986)

● Available on IMDb TV and Fubo TV

Action movies about heavily armed futuristic commandos battling terrifying aliens come no finer than James Cameron’s seminal sequel to Ridley Scott’s Alien. Sigourney Weaver’s return as Ellen Ripley quickly became the yardstick by which all female leads in sci-fi action movies were measured and there’s more than a little of the Colonial Marines in the soldiers of Edge of Tomorrow.

The explosive horror plot sees Ripley, the sole survivor of the first movie, return to the planet that her crew found a deadly extraterrestrial on, only to get trapped in a race against time to escape an empty terraforming facility that’s become infested by the fearsome “Xenomorphs” and their queen.

14 Ready Player One (2018)

● Available on HBO Max

Steven Spielberg gets up to all kinds of the best sci-fi action fun in this movie adaptation of Ernest Cline’s novel of the same name. The plot of the movie revolves around an advanced VR game in which the most devout players compete to find a hidden prize within the game’s worlds.

Though it doesn’t play with time, Ready Player One is packed with that kind of Groundhog–Day-style fun where the main character understands that the world around them can only impact them so much, resulting in lots of weird and wonderful action ideas that mix and match lots of different styles.

13 Avatar (2009)

● Available on Disney+

After the success of movies like Aliens, James Cameron only kept getting more and more ambitious with his projects, breaking box office records yet again in his career with this gigantic space saga involving a human mining operation on a far-flung alien world.

It’s the humans who are the aggressive invaders this time around, with the central concept revolving around technology that places a human’s consciousness into an alien body. The movie has its own strong romantic thread running throughout also but if that and the huge battle sequences aren’t enough for an Edge of Tomorrow fan then Cameron’s expansion on his mech suit action in Aliens is sure to hit the right spot.

12 Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

● Available for purchase on Prime Video

A long-gestating project from writer and producer James Cameron, Alita: BattleAngel, like Edge of Tomorrow, has Japanese origins and a Hollywood sensibility that doesn’t hurt it. The story follows a young cyborg who awakens in a dystopian society with and new body and no memory.

Fans of the robot action in Edge of Tomorrow will certainly not be left wanting by this colorful but violent adventure story that sees the titular fighter take on an array of other deadly cyborgs.

11 Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)

● Available on Fubo TV

Of all Tom Cruise’s action movies, the Mission: Impossible series sits as the clear flagship for the actor’s most ambitious ideas for stunts and sequences. The sixth installment in the long-running franchise, Fallout, continued the franchise’s quest to constantly keep upping the ante with each new entry.

The sci-fi connection is fairly thin, as the plot revolves around the fan-favorite hunt for errant nukes before nuclear armageddon can be started, but the action is second to none and will impress anyone who enjoyed the outstanding choreography in Edge of Tomorrow.

10 District 9 (2009)

● Available on Starz

Alien invasion movies are a dime a dozen, and as all exceptional ones do, District 9 sets itself apart from the rest by being strikingly contemporary. Fans of Edge of Tomorrow are sure to love the weapon and armor designs during the movie’s more action-heavy moments.

The movie, however, also provides in-depth social commentary about various kinds of refugee situations around the world while still managing to be as entertaining as possible. In the world of District 9, an alien spaceship has come to Earth. But instead of the typical invasion shenanigans, the aliens are depicted as stranded travelers who are oppressed by humans.

9 War of the Worlds (2005)

● Available on Pluto TV

Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds was based on the book by seminal sci-fi author H. G. Wells, one of the first pieces of literature to depict the modern-day concept of an alien invasion.

Like many adaptations before and after it, the film changes a great deal from the novel but remains a classic invasion story nonetheless. Tom Cruise appears in the role of a father of two, trying to protect his children during a full-on attack by extraterrestrials. He may never be the action hero that he is in either Oblivion or Edge of Tomorrow, but Spielberg’s sense of scale is second to none and the movie has plenty of spectacle to marvel at.

8 Oblivion (2013)

● Available for purchase on Prime Video

Tom Cruise starred in another high-concept sci-fi action movie with very similar concepts to Edge of Tomorrow the year before its release. Oblivion shares a number of plot elements with other famous sci-fi movies, from lonesome caretakers in dystopian futures like the ones in Wall-E, Moon, and Silent Running to heroic duty in all-out alien warfare like Edge of Tomorrow.

The movie follows Cruise’s drone technician on a ruined Earth who begins to question his entire life after a mysterious woman from his dreams suddenly appears in his life, causing his entire notion of reality to unravel. The movie may sound cerebral but it’s a slick action-adventure deep down and keeps the action fast-paced throughout.

7 Source Code (2011)

● Available on Showtime

Though a lot kore small-scale, Source Code is another more recent movie that has just as much fun with the time loop concept as Edge of Tomorrow does. Its plot follows an army captain who awakes on a train in a body that is not his own, with him quickly discovering that he’s stuck reliving the final few minutes before that same train explodes in a terrorist attack.

Attempting to track down clues as to who the bomber is, Jake Gyllenhaal’s protagonist has to figure out the ins and outs of time travel on the go as Tom Cruise’s does in Edge of Tomorrow and their steady progress throughout their many run-throughs of the same events builds to a similarly satisfying climax.

6 Pacific Rim (2013)

● Available for purchase on Prime Video

Pacific Rim takes the mech suit concept to its fullest extent with an anime-inspired action extravaganza from Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro. The alien invasion movie sees a group of giant robot pilots taking on colossal interdimensional monsters that emerge from beneath the Pacific ocean.

Like Edge of Tomorrow, it’s a movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously, allowing it to really dive into its weirder and wilder concepts. The conventional story is really just a framework for the much more substantive style of the movie’s world.

5 Looper (2012)

● Available on Starz

Looper mixes sci-fi, time travel, and action as perfectly as Edge of Tomorrow while dialing up the drama, and it also stars Emily Blunt. Written and directed by Rian Johnson, the futuristic crime thriller revolves around a “looper”, an assassin working for an organization that uses time travel to deal with its targets.

Like Edge of Tomorrow, it’s always a movie that’s pushing the limits of the rules of time travel narratives, producing some very entertaining–if not entirely scientifically accurate–results.

4 Elysium (2013)

● Available on Sling TV

Elysium and Edge of Tomorrow are two movies that are quite different in terms of plot but a lot of their biggest design influences are clearly cut from the same cloth.

In the dystopian future presented by the film, segregation among the global populace has reached an all-time peak, and the rich and privileged live on a space station while the unfortunate are left on a devastated Earth. Elysium might not contain aliens or time travel, but Edge of Tomorrow fans who liked the robotic exoskeletons and advanced weaponry shown used throughout the movie will have a blast with Matt Damon and his ragtag crew of criminals looking to break onto the titular space station.

3 Predestination (2014)

● Available on Pluto TV

A movie that more faithfully adheres to the theoretical concepts surrounding time travel and–more specifically–time loops, Predestination follows a time-traveling agent on the trail of a bomber but their journey leads them on a winding trail of self-discovery that’s ultimately more thought-provoking than nerve-shredding.

There is action in the movie, but the memorable wow factor of the experience is derived much from the ideas than the visual style or execution.

2 Cloverfield (2008)

● Available on AMC+

Cloverfield focuses less on fighting an alien invasion and more on how a group of regular people try their level best to survive one, using handheld cameras to give a grounded view of the action using a found footage style.

The filmmaking technique has become a very niche practice that if used properly can give impressive results, and Cloverfield is definitely one of the best found footage movies. Directed by Dawn of the Planet of the Apes director Matt Reeves, it follows a group of friends in Manhattan when a giant monster from unknown origins attacks the city.

1 Tenet (2020)

● Available on HBO Max

Virtually every one of Christopher Nolan’s films is a must-watch, not just for Edge of Tomorrow fans but for any moviegoer out there, as many of them have earned a reputation as some of the best movies of all time.

Tenet is one of the director’s most mind-blowing ever, revolving around a time travel plot where a secret agent must race both forwards and backward to save the world from a nefarious group in the future trying to destroy his present. Action and time manipulation are no more perfectly married than they are here, with an emotional connection between two soldiers also giving off Edge of Tomorrow vibes.

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