Happy Groundhog Day! Time to sit down and experience your favorite time loop stories until you reach enlightenment.
Happy Groundhog Day! Is it an absurd holiday that is more often forgotten than celebrated these days? Sure. But does it also serve as the inspiration for one of the greatest time loop movies of all time? You bet it does. And so, with that in mind, we're going to bring the whole genre into the spotlight, you know, for those Groundhog Day parties you're no doubt dying to plan.
The neat thing about the time loop movie is that while, these days, it could be considered a sub genre all to itself, it doesn't actually have to be part of any bigger, more traditional genre to work. You can make time loop horror, time loop comedy, time loop romance--the sky's the limit! We've pulled out 15 different time loop titles that, hopefully, span the breadth of what's possible. From anime to romantic comedies, time loops really have done it all, over, and over, and over again.
Did your favorite make the list? Let us know in the comments below.
1. Groundhog Day
We can't start this list with anything else. Bill Murray's cult classic is about a selfish weatherman who is forced to live, you guessed it, Groundhog Day over and over and over again until he eventually learns to tone down his ego a little bit. It's not the first time loop movie ever made, but it might be the most famous.
2. Happy Death Day & Happy Death Day 2U
From the horror-comedy bubble comes the Happy Death Day series, which feature a girl stuck in a time loop forced to be murdered by a slasher killer over and over until she ultimately solves the killer's identity and figures out some sort of perfectly contrived sci-fi logic to the whole thing.
3. Looper
While most time loop stories involve characters stuck in a loop and figuring out how to escape it somehow, Looper takes a non-traditional spin on the device and tells the story of assassins who actually use the ability to travel through time and create loops to dispose of bodies and erase specific people from existence all together.
4. Palm Springs
Rom-com Palm Springs stars Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti as two unwitting wedding guests stuck reliving the same day over and over and eventually (and unsurprisingly) realizing that they're falling in love. It's very sweet, even when they're cooking up all sorts of somewhat terrible things to do and try in a world without consequences.
5. The Endless
On the more cerebral side of things comes The Endless by acclaimed sci-fi/horror directors Benson and Moorhead. This one is less traditional in the sense that the loops themselves are generally observable to outsiders (which makes for some truly horrific moments). There's also a cult involved. Things get weird and wonderful. As a bonus, this movie also dovetails nicely with the director duo's other film, Ascension, so give that a watch as well for a totally different experience.
6. Edge of Tomorrow
Time loops work a whole lot like lives in video games, which is exactly what Edge of Tomorrow capitalizes on. This movie turns Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt into sci-fi gun toting super soldiers squaring off against aliens, able to "restart" their lives over and try again whenever they're killed. It's all in the tagline: Live, die, repeat.
7. The Butterfly Effect
Remember when Ashton Kutcher gave sci-fi thrillers a go back in 2004? No? That's okay, we're here to remind you. The Butterfly Effect involves a man who realizes he can travel back in time and inhabit his past self, but must deal with the consequences thereof--which are, unsurprisingly, very dramatic.
8. Interstellar
Perhaps a bit closer to something like Looper than a more traditional time loop, Christopher Nolan's Interstellar uses a lot of the director's typical mind-bending techniques to tell a story that is all about time. And, yes, some of that involves the particularly surreal reveal at the end that it's actually possible to loop back in time and do all sorts of crazy stuff.
9. Run Lola Run
This is a bit of a special case for this list, in that it technically doesn't involve any time travel at all--but it does, however, loop the the characters through the same day over and over to show the effects of different actions on the outcome of the story. The characters themselves don't actually know they're looping, but we, the audience do--and hey, you really can't beat that '90s techno soundtrack.
10. Mine Games
A more traditional horror movie, Mine Games is about a group of friends who go camping and continue to stumble upon horrific accidents and corpses that appear to be versions of themselves. This one has the added bonus of the loops occurring independently from one another so different versions of the characters are actually able to come in contact with one another. Spooky.
11. Source Code
The time loops themselves don't have to be metaphysical anomalies. In Source Code, Jake Gyllenhaal is sent in to solve a mystery through a digital recreation of a train explosion. He's able to replay the same 8 minutes over and over until he figures out the identity of the bomber.
12. Before I Fall
Teen drama Before I Fall sends a young girl through a loop where she's forced to live the same day over and over and uncover the truth of a tragedy. There are elements of death-escaping stories like Final Destination in this one, but with a whole lot less campy gore and shock value.
13. The Final Girls
Yet another horror comedy, The Final Girls sends a group of friends into a modified time loop where they're sent through a literal slasher movie over and over on a loop--there's even a moment where giant credits begin to roll in the sky. Unsurprisingly, it becomes a meta commentary about horror as a whole.
14. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
A 1966 novel turned into both a live-action movie in the '80s and an anime in 2006, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is about a girl who can, well, leap through time. She creates a time loop to attempt to fix various frivolous problems and ends up in over her head.
15. Project Almanac
Project Almanac is a found footage movie about some high school kids who invent a time machine that allows them to loop through different moments to try and change the future--with, unsurprisingly, terrible consequences. This one's basically The Butterfly Effect, but with a found footage twist--and, sadly, without Ashton Kutcher.
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