The "time loop" scenario may be over-familiar to anyone with a passing interest in sci-fi, but it is almost the ultimate "What if?" plot line, offering up a multitude of approaches to entertain and explore interesting themes. And here, Liman goes for broke and offers pretty much everything he can throw at it, with Cruise revelling in the role and they have created an entertaining and thrilling film that feels fresh despite borrowing from a multitude of others, not least because it commits to telling a standalone story that does not rely on previous entries nor tries to set up future sequels. Action and humour are prevalent to hook the audience into an intriguing set-up, but rather than simply rely on repeating the formula, Liman takes it beyond the initial hook as Cruise initially, and later Blunt, explore a multitude of approaches to solving the puzzle they find themselves in, which ensures the film does not become stale. Both Cruise and Liman are intent on showing the inherent gruelling nature of repeating the same day over and over, learning a little each time, even keen to emphasise the frustration when avenues explored reach dead-ends and have to be abandoned. Cruise is great here, getting to play a little with his own action hero persona, that helps to make his development from coward to determined soldier that much more believable. It is a shame that the final coda to the film drops this down a notch as the resolution doesn't quite ring true in the context of the story the audience has experienced but that doesn't prevent this from being great summer film.