[Toast and Kent love a time loop. We love watching them, thinking about them, wishing we were in one...(better that than a zombie apocalypse, amiright?). Ahem. The subgenre has basically exploded over the past decade, so we thought we would take a guided look at as many of them as we can. Maybe by the end of it we'll have deconstructed what it is that actually makes a good time loop versus a bad one...? Who knows. Maybe we do. Tomorrow.]
1993, d. Jack Sholder [The Hidden, Nightmare on Elm Street 2]
[Kent] A particle accelerator...science!
[Toast] Yeah, one of my favourite examples of pop-culture science, the other being cold-fusion, which has dropped out of fashion of late. And like in the short, something has caused a Bounce, a side-effect of the particle acceleration that the Weirdo Scientist predicted might happen. BUT but ! But how did it happen, as the project was supposed to have been shut down! Duh duh duhhhh....
What was the main character's first reaction to the Loop?
[Kent] Barry Thomas is basically the same guy as the lead character from Office Space - a disaffected office worker just done with his job (white privilege at its finest, people...[hey I resemble that comment]) just didn't understand what was happening after first the first time bump. When he wakes up and the a news report on morning TV is the same as yesterday (informing that the government is shutting down the particle accelerator test) he's confused. When the flower pot he broke the night before is back in its usual spot, and his jacket is somewhere other than where he left it, he just thought he drank too much the night before. When he witness the same car accident on the way to work as yesterday (because drivers are staring at the same woman in the same tight skirt...the '90's everyone!) he begins to suspect something is up. When conversations and events in the office repeat themselves, Barry checks a helpful newspaper article that he noticed earlier warning about the possibility of a time bump. It's called a time bump in this film.
[Toast] Bump or bounce? Loop will always have my heart. I like how quickly Barry catches on. I find one of the later examples of the trope is that the person seems to shrug off the repeating circumstances the first time or two. Some think they are misremembering, some think they are going nuts. Barry only briefly thinks he is just hung over and then begins catching on. But dude, one look at the newspaper should tell you everything you need to know. Only at the end of the day does he look at his dayminder and catch the date. Doofus.
No wonder his boss hates him. Sure, your low level HR (*cough* Personnel... we recently replaced HR with People & Culture) job sucks but you are still responsible for it. But tying into the short, Barry is drinking his way through life, stuck in a rut he knows he needs to get out of. But at least he is somewhat capable of human interaction, unlike Myron.
[Kent] Haha, stupid Kent brain. It's totally called a "time bounce" not a "bump". I was writing this literally just after I watched it and I already forgot it was "bounce".
WHY did the main character get put into the Loop? Can someone else be brought into the Loop?
[Kent] He got shocked by his lamp at the precise time the accelerator engaged...and died maybe? It's a little vague. But I think he died. Toasty, what do you think? Was it him dying at the same moment that triggered the loop?
[Toast] I actually thought he just got a nasty shock, but dying makes more sense. What happens to the consciousness at the moment of death, especially if someone has been fucking with the constants of the Universe.
I still find it rather amusing that we as humans think we can affect the entire Universe by actions in a single lab in southern California. I like to envision it has a bubble of effect, that probably only encompasses the planet, maybe the solar system, and the extra terrestrials have never visited because we have been quarantined as a 'Time Anomaly - No Fly Zone'.
How long is this time Loop? What resets it? Can you force the reset?
[Kent] 24 hours, resetting at 12:01 AM every day. It's the time the accelerator is engaged in the story.
We do learn that, yes, death can reset the time loop.
[Toast] Yup, fine example of forced reset through death. BUT I still wonder if his consciousness gets to "live" out the rest of the day, with a somewhat brief moment of being aware of an Afterlife before he is tossed back into his body. Alas, not in this movie.
How long does the main character stay in the Loop? Does it have any affect on them, their personality, their outlook?
[Kent] There are about 6 or so "time bumps" that Barry experiences. He witnesses Lisa Fredericks, a scientist who he's had crush on for years get shot at the end of the work day the day before the first time bump. When he realizes he's in a time bump bounce he sees it as a second chance to both get to know her and save her. He doesn't succeed until the third time bump bounce. And in the fifth loop they both get killed. So really, Barry's motivation is getting together with Lisa, making sure she doesn't get killed, and maybe figuring out why she's being killed... in that order. His priorities are kind of messed up and selfish.
[Toast] Wuv, truuuue wuv. Not really; true infatuation with the work crush. It is only somewhat heroic that he focuses on the bounce in order to save her, not understand what is going on nor actually break the loop. I am somewhat disappointed that the movie, in the efforts to be a 90s light-thriller, focuses more on the 90s tropes instead of loop tropes. But it was a new subgenre, so forgiven.
I do like that he writes things down, and does soon grab some pertinent details in order to guide him in later loops.
That said, Barry does get some confidence from his iterations. He seems sort of lost and confused early on, but as he becomes more motivated and aware he has some impact, he also becomes rather confident he can save her. Also, one night of "getting lucky" can do wonders for a boy's self-confidence.
[Kent] Right, I think Barry certainly found some kind of resolve in himself going through the time loop. I have to think that after repeating time over and over again, you start to feel your actions don't have any real consequences and therefore you feel emboldened to do whatever you want.
What about the other people in the Loop? Are they aware? Can they become aware? Does anything happen if they become aware?
[Kent] The people in the loop can be made aware of the loop but Barry is the only one who retains his memories. When people are made aware they kind of think Barry's talking nonsense (I like in the first loop how he wasn't paying attention the day before so he can't point out to Lisa anything that happened to exemplify that he's been in the loop before. That would be me.)
[Toast] I really like how easy he found it to convince Not Bad Guy Denk that they were in a loop caused by the particle accelerator firing when it should have been turned off. While we know he is a stooge for the Justice Dept, and a bit of a dick, he must be pretty on the ball. Once Lisa clues in, she also starts catching on pretty quickly that Barry feels more connected to her, than she is to him. I know this is 90s style romance, but in today's climate, it all feels a bit heavy handed and creepy. Leave her alone Barry, she doesn't feel the same way despite the nookie you got in previous iterations.
[Kent] It's interesting to compare Lisa's reactions to
finding out that her and this stranger had sex in a previous loop,
versus Sarah in Palm Springs. There's definitely a violation as well as a sort of power dynamic that comes into play. Genre movies until recently vary rarely took into account the woman's perspective on a situation, instead just using them as party to the male wish fulfillment. I like that Palm Springs finally examines that dynamic. I just really love Palm Springs.
[Toast] Ooooo nice catch. I walked in on Marmy (re)watching Palm Springs the other day and watched a bit of it, before going back to the desk to work, and yeah I really like it as well. It was that lil snippet that inspired me to ask us to do this feature.
What does the main character think about the other people in the Loop? Are they real? Do they matter?
[Kent] I guess, Barry's really only fixated on Lisa and everything that revolves around her, so unless they tie into her murder or the conspiracy around it, he doesn't really pay too much attention to them. Like poor Denk, who gets murdered in the final bump, then Barry and Lisa stop the particle accelerator from engaging and ending the loop. I mean, they could have tried again, maybe, you know, saving him too?
[Toast] Yeah, I was pretty shocked with what they did to Denk as well. Dude, let yourself get shot just before the loop ends and save Denk before he gets shot. Sure, it might take a few loops to find out he was assassinated in the parking garage, but c'mon give the guy a chance -- he sure had your back!
[Kent] Do you think that, were this a theatrical or DTV movie that didn't have to adhere to TV movie length run-time, do you think they would have had another loop/bounce/bump/montage to save Denk?
[Toast] Beyond that Barry doesn't really think of other people as not real or worthy his attention but he's a pretty self centered guy to begin with. Does he ever do anything about Ted (was it Ted?) getting coffee spilled on him every single loop. Also, while his boss is a bit of a dick, she doesn't deserve the abuse he heaps on her. Be the bigger man Barry. And do your fucking work.
[Kent] The office scenario is so...not great. His boss is a jerk to Barry because he's a bad employee. His white male entitlement thinks this b* should just lay off. I mean, she repeatedly calls him "one of the cute ones", which is, yes, highly inappropriate, but I think she really kind of likes him romantically. When the tables turn in the one loop, and Barry pats her on the ass (wrong!), does the film insinuate that she kind of likes it despite being surprised by it? It's all pretty yucky.
[Toast] Oh man, that slap on the ass. I forgot that and I literally cringed when it happened. Oh, 90s boys will be 90s boys. As for a montage scene for Save Denk? Probably not, as they probably wanted to toss the heroics onto Barry, where Justice League Dept Denk would have probably bopped Weirdo Dr. Moxley in the nose while Barry cringed behind Lisa.
Most memorable event in a Loop? Most surprising event during a Loop?
[Kent] Most surprising is that Barry and Lisa just let Denk die so that they could selfishly end the loop. Also, before the loop started, Barry stops his neighbour kid from getting hit by a car when they chase their football into the street (and the ill-mannered kid curses him out when he tells him to be careful) It surprised me that when Barry didn't intervene the kid didn't get hit by a car. That's called lack of payoff.
[Toast] Yeah, this is not one of those loop movies where the main character settles into the "million little things" aspect, and fixing them. He has one woman on his mind and that's it.
Poor Denk.
But really the ending was the surprise for me. Sure, Dr. Moxley was a bad guy, but did he deserve to have his particles accelerated all over creation? No, but maybe it was making room for a sequel when the Weirdo Scientist returns to show how he has become a Not Puny God?
[Kent] Oooh, I'd like to see that. Dr. Moxley whose power is the ability to thrust people into time loop bubbles (like the ones in the Benson and Moorhead movies).
How does this stack up in the subgenre?
[Kent] It's fine. Very concentrated, self-contained, rudimentary but then it's basically a rushed-to-market made-for-TV movie cranked out to capitalize upon the success of Groundhog Day (as well as try to secure some sort of plagiarism lawsuit against the producers of Groundhog Day). It's quite watchable even if the music is awful and production values aren't tremendously high.
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