A few years ago, an asteroid carrying an alien race called The Mimics crashes into Europe and
quickly devastates the continent with their superior technology and the surprise factor.
Soon people are rioting on the streets, demanding the world leaders do something before humanity is
lost. After five years, when things look hopeless, an allied army of humans utilizing new mechanized
suits wins a major battle in Verdun, and a Special Forces soldier named Sergeant Vrataski is hailed
as a hero after being credited with hundreds of Mimic kills. She becomes an instant icon and
a recruiting boon for the human military as the united human armies try to use the momentum for
Verdun to launch a multi-pronged final assault on Europe. One of the talking heads on the newsreels
selling Vrataski and the war effort is Major Cage of the US Army. One morning, Cage flies to London
the day before the operation to retake Europe. He meets with the Commander of the Western Allies
General Brigham, who orders Cage to accompany the first wave of Allied troops to land in France and
provide ground coverage for the media. Cage was an ROTC Cadet in College and has no experience in the
field, so he does not want to go to battle. He tries various tactics to avoid the deployment,
to the point he tries to blackmail the General via the media. At first the General pretends to
let him go, but as soon as Cage crosses the door, Brigham makes the guards go after him. Cage tries
to run away, but he barely gets to reach another corridor before he is tased into unconsciousness.
Later in the afternoon, Cage wakes up on a pile of duffel bags at Heathrow Airport,
which has been turned into a military base. A sergeant shoves boots into his hands before
Sergeant Farrell takes over. It turns out Brigham sent orders to Farrell stating Cage had tried to
desert and has now been demoted from an Officer to Private. Cage is assigned to a band of eccentric
soldiers called the J-Squad, who are caught gambling by Farrell when Cage is introduced
to them. As he scolds them, Farrell makes them eat the cards before instructing them to get Cage
ready to deploy with them tomorrow. Hearing Cage is a deserter that thinks he is above battling
puts him on everyone’s blacklist, and Cage is sent to training. The next day is invasion day
and Cage is given his own suit, but the members of J-Squad do not even bother teaching him how to
use it because they believe he will die quickly. Cage watches everyone move freely and find their
favorite weapons with ease, but he feels nervous and lost. On their way out, Vrataski leads the
army with pride, yet Cage still tries to escape. However the others drag him back quickly. All the
planes take off swiftly, but as soon as they are about to drop onto the French Coast, the back of
their airship suddenly explodes. The squad drops down prematurely, but Cage is so scared that is
not until the explosion fire comes closer that he drops as well. As they fall through the sky,
explosions keep happening around them, and many soldiers are dead before even reaching the ground.
Even though the operation to retake Europe was supposed to be a surprise attack, the Mimics seem
to be completely prepared with a proper ambush and proceed to slaughter the humans without mercy.
Cage lands properly but still has not been able to remove the safety from his weapon, so he runs
around in panic, watching how people are dying all over the place. Both crafts and humans seem to be
catching fire, and Cage ends up falling when a plane crashes near him. Vrataski comes out and
begins fighting with outstanding ability, but after exchanging a few blows, she is distracted
when she sees Cage on the ground and something hits her from behind, instantly killing her.
Cage immediately rejoins the J-squad and they try to form some sort of plan, but suddenly a mimic
comes out of the ground and attacks them. As the other soldiers desperately shoot at the creature,
Cage finally manages to unlock his weapons as well, helping destroy the alien and feeling
proud of it. Unfortunately there is another alien incoming, and Cage refuses to go without a fight,
so he grabs a mine and holds it while the blue mimic jumps on him, killing them both. This causes
the alien blood to drop on Cage and enter his body. Suddenly, Cage awakes in a panic on top of
the duffel bags, with the same sergeant giving him the boots and Farrell again taking him away. Cage
is confused, especially when he guesses everything Farrell is about to say, proving the battle had
not been a dream. He goes through the meeting with the J-squad, putting the suit on, and getting on
the plane exactly the same way, guessing what everyone will say to him. The explosion happens
again and this time, Cage remembers to drop faster. As soon as he lands, he remembers his
companion dying and tries to warn him, but he is not fast enough and the guy dies anyway. Next Cage
sees Vrataski and pushes her to the ground, taking the shot for her. Seeing him wounded, Vrataski
takes the chance to steal his suit’s battery, and at that moment another alien kills him. Once
again, Cage wakes up at the airport. Understanding that everything he saw is real and they will be
jumping right into an ambush, he tries to warn Farrell about it, trying to prove his story by
calling each J-squad soldier by name and revealing where they hid the cards. Unfortunately he is not
believed, and Cage is sent to the plane with tape over his mouth. The plane explodes, and Cage drops
to then immediately save the other soldier, only to get killed instead. Cage finally understands
that dying resets his day and begins using him to his advantage. Nobody believes what he says,
so he just jumps into battle and tries his best to save people while getting killed over and
over again. After dozens of failed attempts, he reaches one loop where he pushes Vrataski
far away enough to give her a few warnings while shooting at anything that gets too close without
needing to look because he already knows where everything is. Vrataski stares at him in shock
but still believes everything he says, and when another alien is about to kill him, Vrataski says
“find me when you wake up” before they both die again. Cage awakens on the duffel bags again,
but this time, he starts cooperating with Farrell and J-Squad in order to buy himself time to find
Vrataski. He shows good manners and even helps the squad hide the cards before Farrell sees them. Now
every time they go training, he begins studying a way to sneak away. His first try consists of
waiting for the exercise routine and rolling away into the traffic, but this gets him run over by a
truck. After a few deaths, he manages to roll without trouble and hide behind the vehicle to
escape. He enters the advanced training facility by dodging a few training machines, and Vrataski
looks down on him until he says she sent him. Vrataski immediately knows what he is talking
about and takes him away, saying he must not tell anyone except her because they will send him to
the psych ward, which apparently already happened to her. Then she takes him to see Doctor Carter,
who immediately believes everything and checks if this is the first time they are talking. It
turns out Vrataski used to have the looping power too, which is acquired from the blood of a blue
Alpha mimic, but she lost it after she got a blood transfusion. Cage has to always make sure he dies
fully instead of being accidentally resuscitated like she was not to lose it too. This power is how
she got that huge victory for womankind, and this is how the aliens always know when they
are coming. Carter’s theory is that all Mimics are just neural manifestations of one overmind
Omega alien creature, so he created a device that could locate the Omega if inputted into an Alpha,
but this experimentation got him fired and the machine was confiscated. To be able to find the
Omega, first they need to win the invasion tomorrow, so Vrataski begins training Cage in the
advanced facility. The training machines are too fast and Cage can not defend himself, so when he
gets hurt, Vrataski shoots him to restart the day. For the following hundred loops, Cage goes through
the same routine over and over: he finds Vrataski, explains everything from zero, and jumps into
training right away. He gets better each time, learning patterns and managing to last longer in
training almost like an expert, but Vrataski still has to shoot him at the end of it every day. After
being shot for the zillionth time, Cage has a vision of the Omega in a dam in Germany before
waking up. He immediately goes to Vrataski and Carter, who believes the visions are due to Cage
in effect being an 'Alpha' now thanks to the blue blood. Now their next step is to survive
the invasion to be able to escape to Germany afterward. Now the duo spends each loop discussing
strategies with the knowledge Cage acquires, and in the morning they enter the battle ready
to fight. Through hundreds of loops they fight and kill mimics over and over, dying every time
and barely getting to advance a step or two on the field. Spending all this time together makes Cage
develop affection for Vrataski, even if she does not remember him to feel the same, so when in one
loop she dies early in the fight, Cage begins to wonder if this is worth it. During the few loops,
Cage does not bother with the battle and tries to escape the base. Other soldiers try to stop him,
but Cage goes through it so many times that he learns their moves and dodges them with
his eyes closed. He takes a bike to the city and tries to get drunk at a bar, but at that moment,
the aliens arrive through the river. Seeing civilians die makes Cage go back to training,
impressing Vrataski with his new skills. The next time they see Carter, he has found out the
exact location of the dam, but Cage already knew and thinks it is pointless information if they
can not escape the invasion. Once again, Cage and Vrataski go through a bunch of loops on the beach,
killing mimics without mercy until they finally manage to run to a hill. Carter tells Vrataski
what vehicles not to take since apparently, this is not the first time they are here,
but he has not been able to escape the aliens yet. They get in a car with a trailer and speed up to
reach the road as they avoid the bullets shot in their direction. The radio announces the aliens
have reached London as a mimic jumps on top of the trailer, quickly attacking with its tentacles.
Taking advantage of the resulting hole in the car, Cage pops out and shoots at the mimic, immediately
destroying it. As the duo drives away, Cage tries to bond with Vrataski, revealing the details
he learned from other loops like her family situation. This time Cage learns that Vrataski
used to have a significant other. He had been a soldier too, and she had to watch him die hundreds
of times until she was out of the loop and he was dead for good. Eventually the car runs out of gas
and the suits run out of battery, so they leave them behind and enter a farmhouse they find near
the road. There is a helicopter in the backyard, and Vrataski wants to use it to get away. Cage
buys time by offering to patch up her wounds as he points out why the helicopter is a bad idea.
Vrataski realizes Cage is trying to make her stay and demands the truth, so Cage reveals they have
been here before many times and she always dies. He has not found a way to fix this, so he wants to
continue alone. Feeling offended, Vrataski gets on the helicopter anyway and tries to fly off,
but she does not know how to pilot it. After struggling with it and destroying the house in
the process, the helicopter crashes and Cage has to watch her die again before the aliens arrive
and kill him. In the following loop, Cage goes to Vrataski, but seeing her face makes him feel
guilty and he decides not to tell her anything. When he gets ready for the battle, he asks for
extra ammo and does not even bother with a helmet, not needing it to kill a bunch of mimics with ease
thanks to his looping knowledge and he escapes the area again. After a few tries, Cage learns to
pilot the helicopter and finally makes it to the German dam alone. He sneaks around carefully using
flares just in case, but when he finally makes it to the center of the building, he is devastated to
find it empty. At that moment two mimics block his path and shoot him, but before he can lose blood,
Cage jumps into the water in order to drown. During the next loop, Cage goes to Vrataski and
Carter to tell them the Omega is not in the dam. They figure out the visions and Vrataski's success
had been all a ruse by the Omega Mimic Overmind to lure the humans into invading Europe, where they
would be ambushed and annihilated. With no other leads, the device Carter made becomes their last
shot, but unfortuantely it had been confiscated by Brigham. Vrataski and Cage make their next plan to
recover the machine. They go through several attempts to get into the admin base, learning
the pattern of the guards and every employee in the building to move undetected through the
building and safely take the elevator. When they finally reach Brigham, they tell him they have had
this conversation many times. To prove it, Cage predicts everything the secretary is about to say
or do. Impressed, Brigham takes the machine from the safe, saying he wants to be the one to use it,
but Cage refuses because it can go wrong and he can not loop. Brigham gives them the machine and
lets them go, but it is a trick again: outside his guards are waiting and they try to arrest
them. The duo immediately runs back to the parking lot and steals a car to drive as fast as possible,
having to dodge all the bullets from the guards chasing them. While Vrataski drives, Cage injects
his leg with the machine and his eyes go black as he starts to have a vision: it turns out the
Omega is underneath the Louvre Museum in Paris. Cage wakes up and tells Vrataski about it as she
manages to drive into the street, but the shooting keeps coming and suddenly, a soldier in a mecha
suit blocks the road. With the suit’s strength, he manages to stop the car, and the crash causes
the duo to lose consciousness. Some hours later, Cage awakens strapped to a hospital gurney and
under arrest. He realizes he is out of the loop now because he was given a blood transfusion.
As he struggles with the gurney and falls trying to escape, Vrataski shows up and frees him. She
intends to kill him, but he stops her just in time to explain he can feel he can not loop anymore.
Afterward Vrataski breaks the two of them out, and they carefully sneak back into the base thanks
to Cage’s old security knowledge. They only have three hours before the invasion and they will need
soldiers to be able to kill the Omega without the loop. Cage decides to approach the J-squad and to
convince them he is telling the truth, he reveals a bunch of their secrets that he has learned
during previous loops. The squad is impressed but they are not sure they want to follow a stranger,
luckily the famous Vrataski comes forward and immediately wins their loyalty. In the morning,
the squad gets the suits but instead of joining the rest of the army, they steal a plane and fly
away. Cage reminds everyone not to kill the blue Alphas or they will reset the day, they must only
kill the orange aliens. He does not want Vrataski to come because he can not reset her death now,
but she refuses to stay behind. When they make it to Paris, the mimics immediately begin shooting
at the plane, intending to protect their leader, and the first soldier dies. His best friend begins
shooting from the plane door for revenge as the rest of the squad drops outside, but the plane
loses control and crashes to the ground, killing a few more soldiers. The sudden drop causes Cage to
fall into the water, and the weight of the suit is keeping him at the bottom. He has no choice
but to take it off to be able to swim out. Then he carefully makes his way to the Louvre, devastated
to find the whole area in ruins. A noise suddenly startles him, but it is only Vrataski, who reveals
three squad members have also survived. They get together and realize they do not have enough ammo
to proceed, only a few grenades to kill the Omega. Then Cage gets an idea: the plane can not fly but
its engine is working, so they could make it slide through the mimic defenders and right into the
museum. The two soldiers that still have the suits move all the debris out of the way and decide to
stay behind as backup. Vrataski makes the plane move and the mimics immediately come after them,
so the soldiers use their suits to engage them in a fight. They shoot all the ammo they have
available and manage to kill quite a few orange aliens, but it is not enough and sadly they both
get killed pretty quickly. The mimics approach the plane next, and the third soldier also opens fire
with all his might using the plane’s artillery. Unfortunately there are too many aliens shooting
at the same time and he gets killed as well. Cage immediately runs to take over the artillery,
shooting at the mimics as fast as possible. However he is only human, and he can not kill
them all fast enough. The mimics jump on top of the plane and start destroying the roof,
so Cage turns his shooting toward the inside. The impact causes Vrataski to get off her seat,
but Cage quickly offers cover and she is able to rush back to the control panel, guiding the plane
right through some famous monuments. Cage is left hanging outside the plane as it finally smashes
through the museum, where Cage rolls off and safely makes it to the ground. Vrataski survives
the crash as well thanks to her seat and grabs all their remaining weapons before joining Cage. The
duo begins running through the main museum floor, although Vrataski is slower because her leg is
hurt. They shoot a few aliens in the way and Cage then drops a grenade before they jump into a hole
in the floor, only to land on top of a car in the underground area. Debris is about to fall
on top of them too, but Cage rolls them away just in time. While they hear the mimics on the floor
above trying to find a way to reach them, the duo notices the area is flooded and realizes the
Omega is hiding underwater. At that moment an alpha makes it to the area, and they quickly
hide behind debris to make a plan. Cage wants to distract the alpha while Vrataski kills the Omega,
but she refuses, saying she’s a better fighter and she can be a better distraction. After giving him
the grenades, Vrataski thanks Cage for bringing her this far and says she wishes she had gotten
to know him better before kissing him, knowing how he feels for her even if she can not return it.
Afterward Vrataski begins running away to make the alpha mimic follow her, not attacking it to avoid
restarting the loop. She tries to hide behind a car, but the mimic takes an alternate corridor and
surprises her from behind, jumping on her to kill her. Meanwhile Cage jumps into the water and swims
around the debris, looking for the omega. The alpha dives in as well to chase him, so Cage tries
to go through narrow spaces to slow it down. After lots of desperate swimming, Cage finally finds the
omega, which looks like a huge glowing ball. As he gets the grenades ready, the alpha mimic catches
up to him and stabs him with its tentacles. Cage cries out and drops the grenades, but
when he turns around, he reveals he had already removed the pins. As soon as the grenades reach
the center of the omega they explode, and the mimics immediately begin wiggling in pain as the
alpha slowly disintegrates right before the omega blows out, creating a huge explosion that destroys
the museum and kills every single alien outside as well. While Cage’s dead body floats in the water,
the omega’s blood seeps into him, giving him those black eyes again. Suddenly Cage wakes
up and finds himself on the helicopter trip to London from the morning before the invasion. To
his shock, not only he is alive, but everyone in the city is celebrating: it turns out that
after a mysterious explosion in Paris, the Mimics have all died off and now the human forces are
sweeping through Europe without resistance. The next day they will advance to the western front
and claim victory for good. Afterward Cage goes to the airport base, where he is glad to see all
the members of J-Squad are alive and well. Next he goes to the training facility, where he is
received with respect because he is still a Major and never lost his position. Cage finds Vrataski
at the usual spot and she greets him with the rudeness of a stranger, making Cage laugh.