Live, Die, Repeat
Why it is hard sci-fi
A war film that runs as a finite-state loop. Cage is exposed to alien blood that resets the day every time he dies. The film commits to a strict grammar. Information persists, body state resets, the loop is anchored to a specific stimulus. The combat training arc is shown as a literal speedrun with deaths as iteration.
Science inside it
Time loops as a learning mechanism. The Mimics use a hive-level optimisation algorithm that resets the day to gather information, which is an effective strategy if you can pay the price. The film treats the loop as an exploit class to be reverse-engineered rather than a curse to be lifted.
Spoiler alert
Cage loses the loop after a blood transfusion strips the alien blood from his body. The team has to stake the entire war on a single linear run to kill the Omega Mimic at the Louvre. The kill resets time one final time, this time to a point before Cage was demoted, which is the only way the film escapes its own rule and is also where it tips into wish fulfilment.