[Toast and Kent love time loop stories. With this "Loopty Loo" series, T&K explore just what's happening in that film's loop, and maybe over time, they will deconstruct what it is that makes for a good time loop]
1990, d. Jonathan Heap - youtube
Based on a short story by Richard A. Lupoff. Aired as part of Showtime's 30-Minute Movie anthology. Was nominated for an "Best Live Action Short Film" Academy Award in 1991.
Things to Think About During a Time Loop
How did the Loop Begin?
[Kent] According to a physicist, as reported upon by the newspaper, the matter and anti-matter universes have collided causing time to become a loop.
[Toast] "Saw him on the news this morning; what a weirdo..." How exactly does one come up with a theory like that? Imagine if Myron decided to take the time to absorb the weirdo scientist's (Dr. Rosenblut) knowledge, to better understand the matter-anti-matter connection.
What was the main character's first reaction to the Loop?
[Kent] We begin the short with Kurtwood Smith's Myron Castleman standing on a median in the center of a very busy street. Knowing it's a time loop story going into it, it's clear from Smith's expression "not this again". He mentions a little later that he's been looped 30 or 40 times already.
[Toast] Cool, it's the dad from That Seventies Show. Yeah, mid-loop as they say, but only about a day and a half has passed. So, not yet into that "bound to go mad" stage and yet... I get, it's a short, so the story telling needs to be condensed, but boy does Myron go through all the feelings during the half dozen or so loops we get to join him for.
WHY did the main character get put into the Loop? Can someone else be brought into the Loop?
[Kent] No answers are presented as to why Myron is the only consciousness to maintain awareness in the loop. The story isn't long enough to learn if there are others or if anyone else can be brought into the loop.
[Toast] I don't know, there is something there, something about the dog? The sunset? The couple sitting on the porch laughing? Is this just Myron pondering what he will never get to experience, or did he Do Something or Not Do Something? Also, Myron admits pretty early on that he has been stuck in a rut for 23 years, same job, same desk, no friends, no family, no connections. He is so very lonely. So, there might be a metaphysical connection to him being the one in the loop. Also, being stuck in a rut -- triggered !! And 2020 has not helped me out, but more embedded me into it. *cough*
[Kent] totally on point... actually digging into the metaphor if it all, it is all about being stuck in a rut, with the message being that ruts are inescapable. How bleak.
How long is this time Loop? What resets it? Can you force the reset?
[Kent] The loop is 1 hour, pretty exactly. When the clock ticks over to 1:00 PM it resets Myron to that median in the street at 12:01. The big climax of the short is that Myron shoots himself in the head, unsure of whether it will end things, but hopeful that it will. It does not. He comes back to consciousness standing on that median in the middle of traffic.
[Toast] Myron also seems so hyper-aware of the single hour allotted to him that he gets lost in the minutes, constantly just dribbling the minutes away in thousand yard stares. If one thing other loop movies have taught us, is that eventually you learn to play the loop efficiently. Hopefully one day Myron will get there.
[Kent] Good catch on his vacantly staring minutes away... At a certain point there seems to be a hopelessness or futility in even trying. It sort of speaks to Myron's character...his passivity, especially that he gets the office receptionist to make his calls for him and he just sits there and waits.
How long does the main character stay in the Loop? Does it have any affect on them, their personality, their outlook?
[Kent] Myron having only lived through the time loop for less than
two days is already going a little nutty as a result. He certainly isn't
taking advantage of the opportunity a time loop presents to better
himself or really learn anything valuable... but then again, as this
short effectively demonstrates, an hour isn't a very long time.
Myron starts to break out of his meekness, approaches the woman he's drawn to on the bench which is totally unlike him. In another loop he stands up for the homeless guy getting berated by douchebage business guy types... "Don't you know what it's like to be alone?!" he screams. He later becomes a complete a-hole to the secretary, calling her a "stuck up, pretentious bitch" for no reason, and then trashing her desk. In another loop he declares himself a god, then shoots himself in the head. So yeah, he's kind of affected by it. Just a little.
[Toast] I think the sub-text is that Myron has finally realized what he has let himself get into, and it's too late. So, Toast, it's not yet too late. It's only 2021. Here's hoping that shot to the head, and probably quite a few after, are temporary, and eventually he will learn to become the unstuck man he should have always been, when he had the chance.
What about the other people in the Loop? Are they aware? Can they become aware? Does anything happen if they become aware?
[Kent] Myron makes two people aware of the loop but their awareness resets at 1:00. They seem to have compassion for his plight if they believe him, but Myron seems cautious about revealing his...affliction.
[Toast] He still has time.
*cough*
He can ask Dolores something only she knows about herself, he can present that detail to her, her can start learning details from Dr. Rosenblut, and he can have friends.
What does the main character think about the other people in the Loop? Are they real? Do they matter?
[Kent] I think he wants them to, but kind of comes to the realization that they don't really matter. Well, he's fully aware that since he's the only one aware of the loop, he's the only one who can affect reality, in essence making him a god. A puny, puny god.
[Toast] I think part of Myron's issue was that his rut was self-imposed, that he was in a place of condensed space & time already because he didn't really care about people. How many times are you going to let a stranger get pooped on by an overhead bird? How many times are you going to let a homeless man get abused? How many times are you going to let someone lose their groceries before you understand that you can be the effect in their lives? We are all connected? Are we?
[Kent] You're right, I'm taking the short at face value, but it's clear this is a Twilight Zone-esque nightmare scenario. Otherwise I think Myron would have looked more resolved in the final shot rather than even more deflated. It's not hopeful, just depressing. Extending this narrative in my mind, Myron blows up the world somehow...only I don't tjink it can be done in an hour.
Most memorable event in a Loop? Most surprising event during a Loop?
[Kent] Nothing terribly memorable sticks out. I guess shooting himself in the head, or going from meek to raving misogynist? I think more surprising is how primitive 1990 feels.
[Toast] Well, for a moment there, I thought brief changes were happening to the loop. It was probably bad editing, but in one loop the bag doesn't rip, the guy doesn't lose his groceries, and yet Myron didn't obviously interact with them.
[Kent] I think the bag not ripping was due to timing, Myron moved through the paces faster, so he moved past the scene before the bag ripped.
How does this stack up in the subgenre?
[Kent] Is this the earliest time loop story? I mean, it certainly predates Groundhog Day by a few years and the original short story it's based on was published in 1973, so it's surprising how many of the tropes of the genre are already here. But unlike other time loop stories which seem to have an out for the looper, here it ends with defeat, that there is no end for poor Myron. There's no sense of mysticism or greater forces at play, but it doesn't have a lot of time to explore either Myron or the reality he's found himself in.
As for the production, it's pretty cheap looking, it's not well acted (it's pretty hammy, though Smith does deliver a couple of little nuances that I liked), and for experienced time loop viewers, it's very rudimentary in what it thinks is going to shock us.
[Toast] I liked how much it was a part of the assumed tropes, making me wonder if the early representations of the subgenre come from a single source. Sure, Cause and Effect from ST:tNG was a year before Groundhog Day but there were a few other examples before this short, and the subsequent feature based on it, came out.
This being a condensed story, it really can only go so far so I rather like what they did with what they had.
[Kent] Thinking a bit more about it (after watching the TV movie "remake") it's interesting to me that the standard for a time loop is a full 24 hours, and you can do a lot in 24 hours. A one hour time loop is a nightmare, always emerging hungry even though mentally you know you just ate, never getting any real sleep, hard limits on how far you can go and what you can do. It's genuinely horrifying and I'd like to see someone remake this one hour loop into a longer, horror narrative.
