“It’s Groundhog Day!” 5 Time-Looping Tales You’ll Want to Experience More Than Once
“I’ll give you a winter prediction: It’s going to be cold, it’s going to be grey, and it’s going to last you the rest of your life.” – Phil Connors (Bill Murray), Groundhog Day
One of the greatest science fiction films of all time (and one of the most widely seen), 1993’s Groundhog Day is rarely classified in any genre other than romantic comedy, though the scenario it explores as cynical weatherman Phil Connors is forced to relive the same silly holiday over and over (possibly for as long as 10,000 years!) is pure speculative fiction. True, there’s no technological explanation for how or why Phil sets time’s record player skipping, but the same existential questions still apply.
Time loop stories are distinct from time travel stories due to the presence of that critical “narrative reset button” that sends the loopers back to the start (not always the wiser). While it’s hard to top everyone’s favorite February 2 classic, here are 5 infinitely repeatable looping stories from books, TV, and film.
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Edge of Tomorrow, directed by Doug Liman
Though the name makes it sound like a Douglas Sirk melodrama from the 1950s (at least until they changed it on the DVD to Live Die Repeat, which is a little on the nose) and the trailer made it look like a mishmash of Tom Cruise’s earlier sci-fi under-performer Oblivion and the power armor from Elysium, Doug Liman’s adaptation of the Japanese novella All You Need is Kill is one of the best sci-fi action films in ages. It’s also a perfect example of a looping narrative: Cruise plays slick military P.R. man who pisses off the wrong general and is sent to the front lines in humanity’s brutal, losing war with a feral alien race. He’s quickly (and graphically) killed on the battlefield by one of the creatures exhibiting strange behavior, only to wake up the day before the battle to do it all over again. Though no one else is aware of the repeating days, Cruise does get some help from an elite commando named Rita (Emily Blunt), who previously fell into a similar temporal loop and has some theories about how to use it to stop the aliens. Of course, like any plan, it involves a lot of trial and error. In this case, the “error” usually involves Cruise getting a bullet to the head.
Edge of Tomorrow, directed by Doug Liman
Though the name makes it sound like a Douglas Sirk melodrama from the 1950s (at least until they changed it on the DVD to Live Die Repeat, which is a little on the nose) and the trailer made it look like a mishmash of Tom Cruise’s earlier sci-fi under-performer Oblivion and the power armor from Elysium, Doug Liman’s adaptation of the Japanese novella All You Need is Kill is one of the best sci-fi action films in ages. It’s also a perfect example of a looping narrative: Cruise plays slick military P.R. man who pisses off the wrong general and is sent to the front lines in humanity’s brutal, losing war with a feral alien race. He’s quickly (and graphically) killed on the battlefield by one of the creatures exhibiting strange behavior, only to wake up the day before the battle to do it all over again. Though no one else is aware of the repeating days, Cruise does get some help from an elite commando named Rita (Emily Blunt), who previously fell into a similar temporal loop and has some theories about how to use it to stop the aliens. Of course, like any plan, it involves a lot of trial and error. In this case, the “error” usually involves Cruise getting a bullet to the head.
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“Cause and Effect,” Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5
If you’ve ever seen this classic fifth season episode, you remember it: It’s the one where the Enterprise explodes with the entire crew onboard even before the opening credits roll. We return from commercial to find everyone alive and well, but soon the ship becomes trapped in a strange subspace anomaly and explodes again. And again and again—I haven’t counted, but I’d guess we see the ship bite the big one about 10 times in 45 minutes. It looks hopeless, even when the crew begins to experience deja vu and considers different options to end the cycle as, of course, unaware of what they’ve done before, they keep making the same mistakes. Luckily, Data’s presence gives Picard and Co. a small advantage, as they determine they are able to send a small bit of, er, data back through time just before the ship explodes. Again.
“Cause and Effect,” Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5
If you’ve ever seen this classic fifth season episode, you remember it: It’s the one where the Enterprise explodes with the entire crew onboard even before the opening credits roll. We return from commercial to find everyone alive and well, but soon the ship becomes trapped in a strange subspace anomaly and explodes again. And again and again—I haven’t counted, but I’d guess we see the ship bite the big one about 10 times in 45 minutes. It looks hopeless, even when the crew begins to experience deja vu and considers different options to end the cycle as, of course, unaware of what they’ve done before, they keep making the same mistakes. Luckily, Data’s presence gives Picard and Co. a small advantage, as they determine they are able to send a small bit of, er, data back through time just before the ship explodes. Again.
Replay
Paperback $13.99
Replay
By Ken Grimwood
Paperback $13.99
Replay, by Ken Grimwood
This World Fantasy Award-winning novel opens with the death of its main character, 43-year-old nobody Jeff Winston. The only thing remarkable about him is that his story doesn’t end there—he wakes up in his college dorm room, 25 years younger, with a chance to do it all over again. He does things differently, correcting past mistakes and using his knowledge of the future to become rich…only to die again at age 43. This time when he wakes up, it’s closer to present day—the replays keep getting shorter. Grimwood’s main thesis is that you need to live every day like it only comes around once (because, as far as we know, it does), and Jeff’s struggles to accept this really pack an emotional wallop, but getting to that point with him is great fun: The ways he employs his foreknowledge (from winning big at the track to producing a Star Wars-like space opera with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg in the early ’70s) feel like exactly what I’d do if I was stuck in a time loop.
Replay, by Ken Grimwood
This World Fantasy Award-winning novel opens with the death of its main character, 43-year-old nobody Jeff Winston. The only thing remarkable about him is that his story doesn’t end there—he wakes up in his college dorm room, 25 years younger, with a chance to do it all over again. He does things differently, correcting past mistakes and using his knowledge of the future to become rich…only to die again at age 43. This time when he wakes up, it’s closer to present day—the replays keep getting shorter. Grimwood’s main thesis is that you need to live every day like it only comes around once (because, as far as we know, it does), and Jeff’s struggles to accept this really pack an emotional wallop, but getting to that point with him is great fun: The ways he employs his foreknowledge (from winning big at the track to producing a Star Wars-like space opera with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg in the early ’70s) feel like exactly what I’d do if I was stuck in a time loop.
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Run Lola Run, directed by Tom Tykwer
With a plot structure ripped from a video game, this late-’90s indie thriller features Franka Potente as Lola, a young woman with candy-colored hair who gets mixed up in a bad bit of business and must use all her wits (and run as fast as she can) to save her small-time crook boyfriend from being killed for fouling up a job. Like Mario with an extra life, each time Lola messes up, she goes back to the beginning to try again. It’s not a pure loop, as things play out a little differently each time even though Lola doesn’t seem to realize what’s happening to her, but it definitely makes for a pulse-pounding film (mostly because I hate running so much and watching Potente high-tailing it across Germany makes me want to lie down and take a nap).
Run Lola Run, directed by Tom Tykwer
With a plot structure ripped from a video game, this late-’90s indie thriller features Franka Potente as Lola, a young woman with candy-colored hair who gets mixed up in a bad bit of business and must use all her wits (and run as fast as she can) to save her small-time crook boyfriend from being killed for fouling up a job. Like Mario with an extra life, each time Lola messes up, she goes back to the beginning to try again. It’s not a pure loop, as things play out a little differently each time even though Lola doesn’t seem to realize what’s happening to her, but it definitely makes for a pulse-pounding film (mostly because I hate running so much and watching Potente high-tailing it across Germany makes me want to lie down and take a nap).
Life After Life
Paperback $18.00
Life After Life
In Stock Online
Paperback $18.00
Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson
This celebrated 2013 novel opens with the birth, and near immediate death, of Ursula Todd, who comes into the world on a cold evening in 1910 and dies a few minutes later, only to be reborn, though this time she makes it a few minutes longer. The book follows Ursula through dozens of lifetimes, some that end in childhood tragedy, others that last long enough for her to get wrapped up in the global tragedy of World War II. Each time, fate twists things a little differently (or, perhaps, a small part of her realizes what is happening and changes things), and the book veers off into the alternate history realm as she tries to use her premonitions of disaster to avert a worldwide conflict. Unfortunately for Ursula, they call them Sisyphean tasks for a reason.
What would you do if you got stuck in a time loop?
Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson
This celebrated 2013 novel opens with the birth, and near immediate death, of Ursula Todd, who comes into the world on a cold evening in 1910 and dies a few minutes later, only to be reborn, though this time she makes it a few minutes longer. The book follows Ursula through dozens of lifetimes, some that end in childhood tragedy, others that last long enough for her to get wrapped up in the global tragedy of World War II. Each time, fate twists things a little differently (or, perhaps, a small part of her realizes what is happening and changes things), and the book veers off into the alternate history realm as she tries to use her premonitions of disaster to avert a worldwide conflict. Unfortunately for Ursula, they call them Sisyphean tasks for a reason.
What would you do if you got stuck in a time loop?