Here's a photo of Tom Cruise wearing armor and ridding himself of aliens that is not a metaphor for anything 

In what is not at all a visual metaphor for the cumbersome armor one must don every day to protect one's vulnerable self from unpredictable flare-ups as well as the alien races who seek to destroy you, here is a totally literal photo of Tom Cruise in a robot suit trying to rid himself of aliens. It comes from the March 2014 release All You Need Is Kill, an adaptation of the book from the same name by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, which stars Cruise as a soldier who's doomed to relive his last day of battle over and over again—an immortal being who eventually learns to free himself of past traumas, become master of his own destiny, ascend to a higher operating level, and finally rid himself of aliens. Again, this is not a metaphor for anything.

[Photo by David James / via EW]