The Time Loop as a Temporal Loupe Epistemic Structure and the Magnification of Subjective Experience in Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

As a prime example of the time loop genre, Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman, 2014) deals with the experience of time. But not only does it present the macroscopic time distortion of a character trapped in a daylong time loop; it also draws the viewer to experience the characters’ subjective dimensions of the instant. Doing so, it proposes a psychological exploration that is relevant even for us ordinary denizens of non-looping time. In this article, I will argue that the movie succeeds in immersing the viewer in the microscopic level of the “psychological moment” by means of the combination of two devices within the context of a time loop: first, the entanglement of the epistemic states of the characters and of the viewer; second, the inchoate romance between the two main characters.