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Without a doubt, Groundhog Day has become synonymous with the Time Loop genre. Though a story of a character reliving the same day over and over works across almost every genre imaginable. Groundhog Day may have paved the way for Happy Death Day, Palm Springs, Edge of Tomorrow and countless others, but the real question is how long will Hollywood keep repeating itself with Time Loop stories?
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You know what your little scenario reminds me
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What? Uh... What's that? Groundhog Day. The movie Groundhog Day? I don't know
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With Bill Murray? Who's Bill Murray? It's no secret that studio executives like to repeat success
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The endless cycles of copy-pasted content speaks for itself. You might say that the industry is stuck in a time loop
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which is apt because one of Hollywood's favorite ideas to revisit is that of the time loop
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It's one of those infinite time loop situations you might have heard about
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It's a pervasive concept that crosses genre borders and literally transcends time
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But unlike many tired tropes, time loops never seem to get old in the eyes of audiences
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So why do we keep making time loop movies? What is it about these stories that bears repeating
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It's one of those infinite time loop situations you might have heard about
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Maybe the appeal of the time loop lies in its history. To fully understand it, we have to snap back to the beginning
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all the way to 1939 with an episode of the mystery radio show, The Shadow
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Two years later, a time loop would be put to print in the science fiction short story
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doubled and redoubled. The trope would continue to be revisited several times over the next few decades
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cropping up all over the world in novels and their adaptations, TV shows
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and eventually big star-powered Hollywood movies. 1993's Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray is by far the most well-known use of a time loop
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so much so that the movie's title has overshadowed the titular holiday and become synonymous with the trope itself
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Chances are you've heard someone refer to a time loop as a Groundhog Day loop
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and we have director Harold Ramis and screenwriter Danny Rubin to thank for it
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But this history lesson didn't actually answer our questions. So why do we keep making time loop movies
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What is it about these stories that bears repeating? And wait, didn't we already say this
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It's one of those infinite time loop situations you might have heard about
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Maybe the appeal of the time loop lies in its mechanics. Not only did Groundhog Day become ubiquitous with the trope
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but it also created the structure that the majority of time loop movies are built around The first act hyper focuses on the mundane details of our main character life Simple things like waking up to bantering radio DJs or being greeted by an annoying insurance salesman
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will later be used to denote to both the audience and the character that they're experiencing the same thing over and over again
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Once the main beats of the day are established, our character is usually brought into the loop for the first time, leading into the second act
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The character realizes they're in a loop, and they go through a period of disbelief and fear
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which eventually gives way to carefree partying or wild experimentation. Hey, Phil Connors, man
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After exhausting every eventuality and giving up hope of escape, our second act
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ends with nihilism. Then, just when all seems to be lost, the third act launches the protagonist
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into one last grand action with some kind of plot catalyst. They might solve an important mystery
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or come to an internal realization, but either way, they learn a thematically important lesson
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and the loop is finally broken. It's a neat and tidy story that has served many screenwriters and directors well
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When done properly, time loops are an easy way to pace out a script that keeps the audience engaged in what's happening
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It's a well-known trope that needs next to no explanation to get an audience on board
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And each new step in the process shines a little more light on the protagonist's predicament
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and draws us further into their plight. The time loop trope can also be applied to any genre you can imagine
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which makes it a prime target for constant reinvention. 2011's Source Code is a sci-fi thriller
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2017's Happy Death Day leans into tongue-in-cheek horror, and 2020's Palm Springs stirs up drama in a more traditional rom-com
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All three are vastly different movies with the same basic structure. There are a few examples of time-loop movies that deviate from this formula
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2014's Edge of Tomorrow establishes why our main character is stuck in a loop fairly early on
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instead of using most of the second and third acts to build up the action and mystery
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surrounding the war. And 2022's Meet Cute begins with the time loop already
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in progress, allowing for the dynamic between our two leads to be the true star of the movie Usually when these kinds of changes are made the time loop takes a backseat to another more important plot point But even these movies can escape the most ingrained features of the trope
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like a focus on b daily details and a final thematic lesson to break the loop at the end
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For the most part, unless you're Edge of Tomorrow, time loop movies also tend to be cheap to produce
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By necessity, time loops are very localized phenomena that take place in just a handful of locations
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Any big set pieces usually get reused multiple times, and the cast is limited to the small selection of people
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our protagonist runs into during the day. Obviously, the ease in which the trope can be implemented
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has something to do with why we've seen so many time loop movies over the years
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Writers and directors like to flex their creative muscles with a trope as old as time
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and executives are happy to approve low-budget flicks with high box office rewards
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But that's only one piece of the puzzle. The questions we started this video with still remain largely unanswered
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So why do we keep making time loop movies? What is it about these stories that bears repeating
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It's one of those infinite time loop situations you might have heard about
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Maybe the appeal of the time loop lies in something less tangible than historical facts or structural mechanics
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While The Shadow may have invented the wheel and Groundhog Day may have reshaped and refined it
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Palm Springs highlights something amorphous and inherent to all time loop films
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Released in a time when the real world was stuck indoors and essentially doomed to repeat the same routine for months on end
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Palm Springs was immediately relatable to a wide audience. It allowed viewers to easily step into the two main characters' shoes
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and imagine what they might do if they were in a similar situation. Through that lens, Palm Springs explores some deeply human ideas
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about fantasy escapism, loneliness, and anxiety. On their most basic level, time loop movies are wish fulfillment stories
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This is why they work so well across genres. Baked into the premise is an implicit question directed
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at the audience. What would you do if you had the chance to relive the same day until you got it absolutely perfect
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How would you escape a murderer or save the world from annihilation If you had all the time in the world how would you spend it The possibilities are endless With that in mind there a level of escapism to these questions and the vacation destination setting of Palm Springs really allows the viewer to insert
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themselves into the fantasy. But Palm Springs isn't just fluffy escapism. It perfectly illustrates
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the terror, helplessness, and isolation that accompanies that stuck-in-time feeling. We've all felt trapped before, maybe not quite as literally as the characters in a time loop
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but still. If you've ever had a dead-end job, lived in a seemingly inescapable city
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found yourself in a bad relationship, or been forced to stay indoors for most part of a year
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you can relate to the themes of a time loop movie. We've experienced the same flurry of emotions
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these characters go through, and we, like Andy Samberg's character in Palm Springs
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might even be apprehensive to get out of the rut for fear of the unknown
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Seeing our own struggles reflected back at us with a happy ending helps us ease some of our anxieties
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and it's these fundamental human experiences and emotions that really seem to captivate audiences
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It's certainly what made Palm Springs so interesting. So let's do this one more time
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Why do we keep making time loop movies? What is it about these stories that bears repeating
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It's one of those infinite time loop situations you might have heard about
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Clearly, the appeal of the time loop is multifaceted. They're a solid and impactful storytelling device in the right hands
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They're such a universal and easily understood concept that they can be applied to any genre
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with virtually no tweaking, and they're usually inexpensive to make. They provide a fun and engaging fantasy for viewers to slip into, but more than that
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time loops are intrinsically linked to the human experience. Much like individual people, these movies have many commonalities, but they're all unique in
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their philosophy. They can be light and comedic or dark and horrifying. They can be an action-filled adventure or a slow crawl
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Like us, the characters express a need for escapism and deal with nihilism in the face of unending monotony
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And by the end, they're stronger than they were before, like we hope we will be when we're faced with difficult times
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It's one of those infinite time loop situations you might have heard about