Doug Liman



Getting In (1994)
Swingers (1996)
6.9 Go (1999)
5.9 The Bourne Identity (2002)
5.0 Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005)
4.0 Jumper (2008)
6.8 Fair Game (2010)
7.2 Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
6.2 American Made (2017)
7.3 The Wall (2017)
5.7 Chaos Walking (2021)
5.0 Locked Down (2021)
5.0 Road House (2024)
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Doug Liman (USA, 1965) debuted with Getting In (1994) and Swingers (1996).

6.9 Go (1999)

After the mediocre The Bourne Identity (2002), based on Robert Ludlum's character Jason Bourne, Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005), and Jumper (2008), he directed the biopic Fair Game (2010), scripted by the brothers Jez and John-Henry Butterworth.

Edge of Tomorrow (2014), written by Christopher McQuarrie (the screenwriter of Bryan Singer's The Usual Suspects in 1995) with the Butterworths, loosely based on Hiroshi Sakurazaka's novel "All You Need Is Kill" (2004), feels like a sci-fi version of Harold Ramis' Groundhog Day (1993): a man trapped in a time loop. Except that this time there is no humor, replaced instead by a lot of pomp and by an implausible Hollywoodian happy ending. The poor acting doesn't help, but the idea of being able to replay and improve the past is used skillfully by Liman who dissolves the intricate puzzle in fast-paced suspense. He also benefits from several stellar visual effects.

The world is under attack by an alien race. Soldiers are drafted in England for a major invasion of Europe. A US military reporter, Cage, arrives and is told by the general that he will be sent to the front. Cage is a cynical coward and objects that he is not meant for battle and even threatens the general to report negatively about the mission (i.e. to ruin the general's career) if he is forced to go. The general has him arrested as a deserter and sent to join an infamous J-Squad ready for the mission. Cage argues in vain to J-Squad's sergeant Farell that he has no combat training. The sergeant provides the training. Cage is wrapped inside a high-tech uniform that turns him into a cyborg but is not told how to use it. The J-Squad boards a plane, the plane is attacked, the soldiers eject, and all of them are killed on the battlefield by aliens that were expecting them. Before dying Cage blows up a giant alien whose blood enters his body through his mouth. Cage is dead but he wakes up exactly where he was when the general dispatched to the J-Squad. The sergeant and the J-Squad soldiers repeat the exact same sentences and actions. Cage tries in vain to explain that he knows what will happen, that the mission is a trap, that they will all be killed, but the sergeant and the other soldiers think he is just trying to desert again. Cage is killed in the exact same pointless battle. The loop repeats several times and each time Cage, knowing what is about to happen, manages to survive a little longer, but each time he is eventually killed by the aliens and each time he is reborn in the exact same place. Each time he tries in vain to warn the soldiers of what expects them, shocking them with his knowledge of details that he can't possibly know (he learned them in previous loops). Nobody listens to him. One day, however, before being killed on the battlefield he runs into legendary war hero Rita Vrataski who realizes that he is inside a time loop and asks him to see her when he wakes up. When he wakes up, Cage finds a way to run away from the J-Squad and finds Rita. She doesn't remember him but he convinces her that they met in the future (the battle always happens tomorrow). Rita explains that she too was thrown in a time loop after killing a giant alien and being infected with its blood. That's how she was able to win an epic battle and became a war hero. She lost the power to see the future after being wounded: a blood transfusion removed the alien power. She takes Cage to a scientist, Carter, the only man who believed her story but was demoted because nobody believed him. Carter explains that the aliens are actually just one alien, the Omega alien. To win the war, humans must find and destroy the Omega. The Omega has the power to see the future and that's how it has been winning battle after battle. The coward Cage, an unlikely hero, now has the same power and is the only soldier who can defeat Omega. Cage goes back into battle but this time finds Rita before being killed. Each time Cage learns how to avoid being killed... for a while and protects Rita... for a while. Each time they are killed, but they get a little closer to the Omega. Each time Cage has to relive the same actions and words by the sergeant, the J-Squad, and Rita, and each time he has to convince again Rita that the two of them are on a secret mission. Rita warns Cage never to get wounded because the hospital would give him a transfusion and remove his powers: better to get killed each time than get wounded. Rita has no qualms shooting Cage dead whenever it's convenient to restart from scratch, whereas Cage suffers whenever Rita is killed. Rita reveals that she is still traumatized because during her own time loop she experienced the death of the man she loved hundreds of times. Cage reveals that he doesn't want to go back to the future because he knows something that she doesn't know: whatever they try, she always dies. It looks like she is going to die tomorrow no matter what. Rita, however, is a true hero and doesn't mind dying forever as long as she kills the Omega and saves the human race. They are killed again. Cage is reborn. But this time he doesn't look for Rita. Instead, he decides to go into battle alone, having learned how to reach the Omega without being killed. Cage fails. Cage wakes up again in the same place, goes through the same routine, finds Rita, convinces her that they have met dozens of time, and decides on a new course of action: Carter had built a prototype transponder that once successfully located the Omega but the general had confiscated it and they approach the general with the incredible story of the time loop. The general didn't believe Rita the first time but this time Cage has enough knowledge of everything and everybody that the general let them borrow the transponder. They locate the Omega beneath the Louvre pyramid in Paris. Cage and Rita try to destroy the Omega but Cage is wounded. While he is unconscious, he is given a blood transfusion that removes his power. Cage is now a real hero, willing to die for the mission. He convinces the J-Squad to help him at the Louvre. The Louvre get destroyed, all J-Squad members are killed, Rita is killed, but Cage destroys the Omega and gets again an injection of miracle fluid. He is mortally wounded in the operation but wakes up again in the same place but a few hours earlier, when he first arrived at the general's office. He hears the announcement that all the aliens have been killed after a mysterious explosion in Paris. Cage looks for and finds Rita, who doesn't remember him. Cage smiles.

American Made (2017)

The Wall (2017), his best film, written by Dwain Worrell, is a psychological war movie, a cross between Hitchcock and Coppola's Apocalypse Now. The invisible sniper is almost a supernatural force, an invincible sci-fi monster.

The story takes place in 2007, four years after the USA invaded Iraq, at a time when in theory the war is over and reconstruction has started. Two soldiers, camouflaged in the scarce vegetation, are watching over a stretch of desert where a number of US personnel have been killed: contractors who were repairing a pipeline and their security escorts. Isaac is patiently scanning the landscape, while Shane is getting impatient: they have been there for 20 hours. Shane convinces himself that there is no danger and decides to venture down. The moment he reaches the scene of the killings he gets shot by an invisible sniper. Isaac rushes to help him but the sniper shoots three times, wounding him. Isaac makes it behind a ruined wall that protects him from the sniper. Isaac is in a desperate situation and can't help Shane who is agonizing, who eventually stops moving and talking, presumed dead. Isaac's radio is damaged but Isaac hears a superior on the walkie talkie and responds. The superior asks him to reveal his position and Isaac realizes that it's the sniper impersonating a US captain. The sniper has been trained by the USA and now spends his time killing US citizens, whether civilians or soldiers. Isaac realizes that this is the famed "Juba", who not only uses US guns but also has a US walkie talkie tuned on the right frequency. The sniper engages Isaac in a conversation, extracting as much information from Isaac as possible, pretending to be just curious. The sniper states that he didn't miss: he shot Isaac in the knee to cause an unstoppable hemorrage, shot his water bottle and shot the antenna of his radio. The sniper keeps talking to Isaac and makes him talk, like a psychoanalyst. The sniper overheard Isaac talking to Shane about a soldier named Dean and now is curious to learn more about Dean. He insists until Isaac reveals that Dean was from his hometown and they were good friends. Isaac insists that the war is over and the sniper is killing the very people who are trying to reconstruct Iraq's economy, but the sniper doesn't buy it, and keeps asking why Isaac is still in Iraq. Isaac uses his brain to calculate where the sniper is hiding and concludes that he must be hiding in a heap of garbage. Taking advantage of a sandstorm, Isaac crawls out and grabs the radio and the backpack of a dead man, where he finds water and food. The radio, however, has been damaged by the sniper. The sniper continues his psychological torture, forcing Isaac to reveal more details about his life. Suddenly, Isaac realizes that Shane is alive and is regaining consciousness. Now Isaac is eager to talk to the sniper on the walkie talkie because he needs to distract him while Shane slowly reaches for his gun. When the walkie talkie is off, Isaac can shout to Shane without being heard by the sniper who is too far. Shane reaches for the gun, and following Isaac's instructions, shoots at the distant pile of rubble. The sniper shoots back and kills Shane. Isaac breaks down and confesses in tears that he accidentally killed his best friend Dean and then lied about the accident to everybody. Isaac has a new idea: he uses the two broken radios to make one working radio. He is now able to hear conversations going on, and hears someone pretending to be him calling for help. He realizes that the sniper is impersonating him and setting a trap for the helicopters who will come to look for him. Isaac realizes how they all got in the same trap: the sniper impersonated the contractors to get the security guards and the security guards to get Shane and him and now he is using the information gathered from Isaac to get the helicopters. The sniper now doesn't talk to him anymore: obviously, the sniper got what he wanted (information) and is now waiting for a bigger prey. When he hears the helicopters approaching, Isaac decides to act: he manages to grab Shane's powerful weapon and shoots at the pile of rubble. He then stands up, basically luring the sniper to shoot so that the helicopters will realize where the sniper is. But the sniper doesn't shoot back. We don't know whether the sniper is alive or dead. The helicopters pick up Isaac and take off. Then the sniper strikes: he shoots the soldiers one by one and the helicopters crash, presumably killing everybody. We then hear someone impersonating the helicopters calling for help: the sniper keeps repeating his trick. Another rescue mission will soon be on the way and the sniper will be ready for them.

Chaos Walking (2021)

Locked Down (2021)

Road House (2024) is a remake of Rowdy Herrington's 1989 blockbuster.

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