In Edge of Tomorrow, Tom Cruise plays a soldier who kills an alien, gets covered in its blood, and from then on repeats the same day, a la Groundhog Day. He relives the same invasion over and over, getting killed each time. At first he plays against type; he's not much of a soldier. But fear not. Soon the universe rights itself, and Tom Cruise is the very, very best at something again.
He meets a woman in battle who, seeing how he anticipates everything that's about to happen, recognizes what's going on. How? Because time-looping happened to her, too, but she "lost the ability."
How does she know she lost the ability? Wouldn't determining that require, like, dying? I thought for the next 90 minutes.
"It's called suspension of disbelief," my friend sneered later, eyes rolling.
I hear that dismissal a lot, and I've never understood its invocation. It's not like I want to find fault with a movie I paid to see. Sometimes, though, a flashing neon "FAULT" sign distracts me.
I have no problem with aliens, or time looping, or alien blood causing time looping, or Tom Cruise macking on women 20 years his junior. Are those not sufficient disbelief-suspending credentials? Can I hold a movie to the standard of its own internal logic without it being my own character defect?
"I guess I just like liking things," my friend sniffs.