“The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou” shares more than you might think with “The Edge of Tomorrow.”

Thematically these two movies could hardly be more different. But I watched them back to back and couldnt help noticing some parallels and connections. The more I looked into it the more surprised I was, spoilers obviously.

1. The narrative, standard ego manic media figurehead is stuck in a circular headspace, is forced to confront themself in the face of people dying around them (Cage a military PA figurehead, Zissou a figurehead for a brand in his own right)

2. Bill Murray is the daddy of the groundhog day concept, the edge of tomorrow is the biggest film of this type.

3. Both films have an ongoing thread of names as a commodity, Steve offers Ned a set of names as a bridge of intimacy, and as a form of control, which he finally lets go of in the end. Cage coerces Rita using names as an attempt to break her shell until she finally offers him her middle name as another act of intimacy.

4. Both films feature characters from tiny towns in Kentucky who serve as a stark contrast to the ego and proverbial bigness of the protagonist.

5. Both films feature a set of combatants who reject the outsider for being new to them (interns with glocks vs J squad and their mech suits) additionally both Cage and Plimpton have never handled a weapon before and are unfamiliar with it and combat in general.

6. Both films feature a scene where they steal some kind of technological equipment from the big to-do of their respective films.

7. Both films feature a tiny, two seat, bubble helicopter, both of which crash and kill one of its occupants, both Ned and Cage are novices at flying them.

8. Both movies have a constant of grief, in the life aquatic its the beginning and the end, Esteban and Ned, in the edge of tomorrow Rita has grief over a former love interest, and Cage wrestles with the idea that he probably wont be able to save and be with Rita throughout.

9. Unrequited Love is a thread, both protagonists meet a professional and closed off woman whose affection has to be earned, but at the end neither of them truly “gets the lady” Jane chooses Ned over Steve and while Cage does ultimately save Rita and the world, she doesn’t remember any of their time together.

10. Both films open to a “film within a film” where the protagonists false self is on full display and then are immediately brought down to the reality of their true selves.

11. Noah Taylor plays a resident nerdy scientist in both films.

12. Both films feature a big blue monster thing at the outset and conclusion of each, the Jaguar shark and the alpha mimics respectively. Both kill someone at the beginning, both are big beautiful and glowing blue, and both are always accompanied by numerous smaller orange creatures of the same type (Jaguar shark and fluorescent snappers, the alpha mimics and swarm mimics respectively)

13. Both films feature vfx with the eyes of the main character. Steve with crazy eyes in the beginning, Cage throughout with the connection to the hive mind.

14. Both feature water heavily throughout, but notably at the end of both, when the stakes are the highest, when both protagonists are at their most vulnerable and expect to die (forever in cages case) water is everywhere. I think its a narrative tool in both cases that accomplishes the same thing.

15. Both characters attempt to run away from their problems at the end of the first act but are both confronted with the perpetuity of reality. Cage runs to a pub in London, only to be killed when the mimics invade anyway. Steve tries to ignore his problems after his ship is ransacked by pirates, tries to send his interns home, similar to how cage was rejecting the people in his story.