[Toast and Kent love a Time Loop. We love watching them, thinking about them, wishing we were in one...Wish work didn't always feel like a bad example of one. 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 Toop (time toop? loopty toopty too!) versus a bad one...? Who knows. Maybe we do. Tomorrow. Or the nth loop.]
[Toast] Full disclosure. I already saw this movie. And I actually wrote about it!
We join ... wait, do I write about the plot again, since I already did? Or would that be like inducing our own Time Loop of rewatches. And yes, I did rewatch, as the original viewing was January, and I barely remember yesterday. But what the hey, we join Roy a hundred odd loops into his particular Loopty Loo. He's the reliable narrator relating to us what's going on, with the assumption of the knowledge of Time Loop mechanics, and what he has had to deal with. By the time we are joining him, he's already a bit fed up. He's been killed a.... lot.
You see, Roy gets killed every day by Mr. Good Morning, or he gets killed by the helicopter with the chain gun, or he gets killed by assassin team Pam & Esmerelda, or by Roy #2, or by Kaboom (little person with bombs) or by the German Twins, or by Guan Yin (and Guan Yin has done that). But he has learned enough each day to go on a little bit more, but not long enough to get past the diner where he gets drunk, just before whichever assassin has survived finds him.
Roy's more than a bit of a dick, and not entirely that bright. As Time Loop fans, we are expected to wonder why, if Roy is aware of what is going on, he doesn't try to understand what is going on. He doesn't seem curious about it, more than he is just resigned. Sure, there is the trauma of finding out his ex is dead, but that doesn't motivate him as much as it depresses him.
But an accidental interruption of the loop's progression (I originally said it took only about 22 minutes, but its much longer) leads him to his son, a son who doesn't know Roy is his father. But that brief moment with his son tells Roy he can indeed extend the loop, and therefore he can find out what is going on.
And get to the Boss Level.
How did the Loop Begin?
[Toast] It takes quite a few more iterations before we and Roy find out that it is not a video game, not a magical experience forcing self-reflection upon dick Roy, but a science experiment gone wrong, or ... well, setup to put Roy into a repeating period of time so he can stop the Big Bad Evil Guy Boss, Mel Gibson. Of course Mel Gibson.
Also, are sciency-machine invoked Time Loops always going to involve a big, swirly machine that likely accelerates particles? I never really got what this machine was supposed to do; I got what Mel wanted to do with it, but what was her original plan for said machine? Why did she invent it?
[Kent] As you implied, Toasty, there's very much a video game framing aesthetic here. The film opens with 8-bit graphic interpretations of the production studio cards with accompanying digital fanfare, as well as a SNES fighting game menu screen with which selects both Frank Grillo's Roy as the player character and the aforementioned Mr. Good Morning as the 2P opponent and then launches into the digital title card "Attempt 139". Each time Roy starts a new loop we get a new "Attempt XYZ" title card in the same pixelated format. This framing aesthetic is very confusing since it implies that the character isn't stuck in your conventional time loop, but rather a Wreck-It Ralph-type situation where the character becomes self-aware that they're in a video game.
But, that's not the case and it really does the film a disservice. As you note in your original review, it certainly feels like this was intended to be more of an "in-video-game world" but got abandoned or written out of the script, even though the bones of the story feel very video gamey.
After we witness a few different "Attempts" (jumping back and forth in Roy's "Attempt" timeline) we get to "Yesterday" at the end of the first act, which tells us more about Roy, his background, and his relationship with his ex (Naomi Watts in a role that seems meant more for Malin Akerman) as he heads to her workplace with resume in hand and hangs out in her lab where top secret classified work is going on. It's a baffling breach of security. We meet her Boss (Melly Gibsons) and his right-hand goon (a monstrous Will Sasso) who lean into her about loyalty and commitment and weird story about a snake that I don't quite get the metaphor for. Already keenly aware her life's in danger she puts Roy's DNA into the thingy and the thingy does its thingy which puts Roy in a time loop, so breadcrumbs his ex left him all he has to go on to figure out how to maybe stop the machine from destroying the world/universe.
[Toast] Holey Crow, if this movie hadn't been done in Australia, it would have TOTALLY been Malin Akerman!!
Also, Will Sasso? He doesn't strike me as Right Hand Goon, villain NPC type. Huh?
Also, said breadcrumbs (Egyptian Mythos) are EXTREMELY thin gluten-free crumbs !
What was the main character's first reaction to the Loop?
[Toast] We don't know. We never saw. But knowing Loopties, and knowing Roy, it was a LOT of confusion. I suspect Roy is easily confused. Also, he was getting killed a lot. That can be taxing.
In fact, I set aside the latest game I am playing (The Last of Us 2) because it put me into one of those Boss Battles where it requires a delicate ballet of run & hide & shoot that is next to impossible with my terrible reflexes. After dying about 50 times, I just gave up. Unlike Roy, I am not forced to reload.
[Kent] Yeah, it's weird that we never see "Attempt 001". I think you're underestimating Captain Roy Pulver, "of Delta Force fame". He's clearly not a brainy guy but I think his strength here is kind of his perseverance (of course he does get depressed at a certain point an lets Mr. Good Morning kill him repeatedly a dozen times or so), So I think when he wakes up to find a machete wielding maniac coming at him while he's asleep in his studio apartment, and he's killed (maybe a couple of times) he's actually probably pretty excited to get another chance at taking on the asshole who snuck up on him and then taking on all the other various assholes who are coming after him.
Quite frankly whenever he finds a new extension point to the loop, he seems pretty excited and goes at it with some gusto.
[Toast] Thumbs Up Emoticon.
WHY did the main character get put into the Loop? Can someone else be brought into the Loop?
[Toast] Roy's ex, the scientist who wears a stylish dress in the science lab (Naomi Watts, The Impossible), makes a machine that does ... I am not sure. Does Timey Wimey stuff. She clips his hair, gets his blood and records his current weight & height, and plugs it all into the machine. And I think, when Roy is killed the next morning by Mr. Good Morning (because Evil Boss Mel observes her being suspicious with Roy) he just resets to that exact moment. I imagine it took Roy a few times getting stabbed by Mr. Good Morning before he caught on.
No, nobody can be brought into the loop. But not because its impossible, but mainly because I doubt Stylish Scientist would have a chance to gather the required data components to get someone else into the loop. BUT if this movie wanted to do a sequel (saaaay, Boss Level Save Point) the concept is still there.
[Kent] It's a machine meant for time travel. Melly Gibsons (who we hate here from moment one because we know what shit Melly Gibsons has been up to and we kind of hate Melly Gibsons, so it works to the advantage of establishing this military guy as a real asshole) talks about how he's going to use it to right all the wrongs of history and ostensibly put himself in charge. It's a Dictator Machine.
Your sequel title is PERFECT!
How long is this time Loop? What resets it? Can you force the reset?
[Toast] Its as long as it takes for Roy to die OR for the world to end. Did I mentioned the timey wimey machine is going to end the world in a big gray cloud that emanates from the machine? No? Its because I was not entirely sure of what that was about. Sure, messing with Time is often a cause of the Universe's destruction. We know that. But I got the impression that it was because Roy keeps on looping, that it is triggered. Alas, it takes Roy a very long time to survive long enough to reach the End of the World level in the game, so we are never sure how connected it all is.
And yeah, I am still disappointed they didn't tie the movie closer to video games, instead of the lame passing reference.
[Kent] Comic book science!
Okay, so if the destruction of all reality starts at the machine ("The Osiris Spindle", and the machine is what's causing Roy to loop, wouldn't the destruction of all reality (including the machine) then negate the Loop? It's weird that Roy's death resets the loop...
unless...
...each loop is actually an alternate timeline, and Roy's consciousness is jumping between timelines when the crisis wave hits?
Anyway, the destruction of the world/universe/all-space-and-time seems to happen early evening, and Roy wakes up around 7am, so his max Loop time is about 12 hours.
[Toast] Maybe if Roy had failed, the TVA (pronounced in French, as Tey-Vey-Ahh) would have intervened?
How long does the main character stay in the Loop? Does it have any affect on them, their personality, their outlook?
[Toast] How many loops do we get... about 200 ? Does it have any affect on his personality? Not until he interacts with his son enough times to really get to know the boy.
Interestingly enough, apparently there is an alternate ending, one where he doesn't just step into the timey wimey Osiris Spindle but it ends with him waking up.... one more time, where he utters, "Piece of cake." Apparently it infers the looping has stopped, but he still has to live through the day and save both his son and ex.
That said, notice how we don't have the question, "How do they break the loop?"
[Kent] The last "Attempt" title card is "Attempt 249", and there seems to be at least two more loops after that before the film's ending.
For some reason, that doesn't seem like enough loops.
It's especially egregious when he learns swordfighting from Michelle Yeoh in order to defeat Guan Yin, the one assassin he just can't seem to get past. Guan Yin is so nimble she can literally dodge bullets, and she kills him in their face offs a dozen times over. The training he does with Michelle Yeoh (who is introduced as a champion sword fighter) begins a handful of Loops after "Attempt 150" and their training ends on "Attempt 200" where he manages to disarm her. Even if Roy is a quick study with weapons, there's no way in, at best, 50 Loops with at most 7 hours training each loop is enough time for him to best either Michelle Yeoh or Guan Yin. That caliber of fighting skill takes years to hone, not a couple hundred hours, What he should have done, at a certain point in his competency is figured out a way to best her. And even still, there should be over a hundred, even hundreds of loops to develop his swordsmanship.
[Toast] Not just dodge bullets, but dodge FULL AUTOMATIC bullets. And Guan Yin has done that. Yeah we commented out loud to the TV that there was no way a mere 40 loops would have given him the edge to defeat Yeoh. But, whatever, Player Character.
What about the other people in the Loop? Are they aware? Can they become aware? Does anything happen if they become aware?
[Toast] No, I don't think they can become aware. They really are just NPCs in his great big video game life. His Ex learns she was successful, but that doesn't do much. We also get brief glimpses of others in the loop just after they kill him, probably just as the last of his life is fading. If his ending was a particularly odd choice, they notice, but that's about it.
[Kent] Yeah, it quite late in the stages before Melly Gibsons realizes that Roy has actually been put in the machine (and that the machine is working, sort of), and by that point Roy's shot him a whole bunch of times already.
[Toast] Not sure why but I enjoyed when Roy repeatedly emptied bullets into Melly.
What does the main character think about the other people in the Loop? Are they real? Do they matter?
[Toast] Well, considering he kills just about everyone in the movie and leads many a merry murderous chase through the city AND doesn't even warn his friends in the diner that a bunch of gun toting clichés are about to empty their mags into him, I don't think he has much concern for others in the loop. Then again, I am not sure he has much concern for anyone else, other than his family, any way. He probably wouldn't lose any sleep over other's deaths. So, no people don't matter so much, but its not because of the Loopty.
[Kent] Roy seems very comfortable with both death and detachment... even losing Stylish Scientist, he seemed kind of resigned to until he learns there's still the possibility of saving her. It's really only his son's mortality that gets any visceral response out of him.
[Toast] His son is played by Rio Grillo, his real son.
Most memorable event in a Loop? Most surprising event during a Loop?
[Toast] I do love the slow mo actions scenes where he knows each and every move Mr. Good Morning will make and just counters it or avoids it entirely, sipping his coffee with little care, before tossing the hot liquid into his face.
[Kent] The big climactic moment with the Big Bad Melly Gibsons happens sort of at the end of act two, so when he gets to the end game, it's more about him saving Stylish Scientist than fighting bad guys. He really just shoots Sasso and Gibson without any compunction, and it's more about the two reuniting and figuring out how to stop the Osiris Spindle from destroying reality.
Also, Sasso, earlier, stumbling around with the sword sticking out the top of his head. "I smell muffins, do you smell muffins?" It's both kind of horrifying but also very broadly comedic. It may be too over-the-top for some, or too goofy for others, but I thought it was great, and kind of was the payoff for Sasso being the #1 henchman.
[Toast] Muffins was worth a snort from me.
How does this stack up in the subgenre?
[Toast] To be honest, I found it a rather good romp that plays with the subgenre. It doesn't do anything particularly novel but does enjoy itself. But again, I do wish it had just committed to the whole video game schtick.
[Kent] I'll be honest too, it surprised me. I was expecting a gratuitously violent B-movie and instead, somewhere along the way, it found a real beating heart within it. Roy wanted to be a bigger part of his son's life, but the wound of him choosing his military career over family was still too fresh for Stylish Scientist. The loop afforded him the opportunity to connect and bond with his kid in a way that he likely never would have been able to in real life, and as much as he seemed to enjoy killing all the assassins, he really seemed to love spending time with his son far, far more (also to note his son in the film was played by Grillo's real-life son so there was a palpable connection between them).
I didn't think much of Grillo as a leading man to start with, but he did win me over.
This was unexpectedly charming. But I also agree with Toasty, the video game framework and lack of commitment to it didn't help it at all.
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