(ambient music)

(train horn blowing)

Hello.

The new Tom Cruise movie Edge of Tomorrow

is about time travel.

Well, no wait.

That's not quite right.

(guns firing)

(train horn blowing)

Hi there, the new Nicholas Cage movie Edge of Tomorrow

is about a man stuck in an endlessly repeating time loop.

I said Nicholas Cage.

Okay.

(bombs exploding)

(train horn blowing)

Howdy, the new Tom Cruise movie Edge of Tomorrow

is a total rip-off of Groundhog Day.

(gun firing)

(train horn blowing)

The new Tom Cruise flick Edge of Tomorrow

is the best movie about video games ever made,

even though it isn't about video games.

Cruise plays a clumsy nube of a soldier

killed in battle with hideous aliens.

But then, he somehow wakes up right before the battle,

dies again, and wakes up before the battle again.

It keeps happening, and he gradually gets

more and more adept at combat, lasting longer and longer.

It's based on a Japanese sci-fi novel

by a former engineer and a hard-core gamer.

And the movie does a better job of capturing

the experience of playing a game

than all of these adaptations put together.

You see, most movies about video games

present the protagonist, the character the player controls,

as an unstoppable killing machine.

But if killing bad guys was really that effortless,

it would mean that the game was lousy.

If a game is actually challenging,

then you will die when you play it.

You will die a lot.

Edge of Tomorrow unfolds like a well-designed game.

A game that makes you tackle obstacles over and over again,

honing your technique, memorizing patterns,

and learning by trial and error.

Most movie adaptions of games ignore that,

and focus all their energy on recreating the story.

That's crazy.

The story is the least important part.

You see there are two schools of thought

about what constitutes the fundamental element of a game.

On one side are the narratologists,

who are of the opinion that...

(electronic beeping)

And those are just a few of the titles

that you should peruse if you want to read more about it.

Hey, did you just skip my fascinating lecture

on video game theory like it's some kind of bad cut scene?

Well I guess we'll just have to start over then, won't we?

(electronic beeping)

What moment of your life would you

most like to go back and retry?

Don't say hitting play on this video.

Let me know in the comments,

and subscribe to the Wired Channel.

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