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Hello CineD I like time loop movies a lot and this is a thread about time loop movies. Some time last year (or maybe the year before I dunno) I saw When we First Met, which was fine, but also was a Time Loop movie so was elevated to 'very good actually' in my personal scoring system, and got me into a hunt for time loop movies. So anyway, here's a list of time loop movies in order of my personal ranking, with some comments about them or whatever. Also please recommend me a time loop movie(s) or talk about your favourite time loop movie(s) or whatever. 1. Palm Springs. This was really funny and also did a few more interesting things with the time loop movie than most did, with multiple people getting stuck in the loops. Also, this had a very clear sciencey mechanism to the time loop, which seems to be a thing that separates a lot of time loop movies. May be held in top spot partially by recency bias but whatever, I like it. 2. Edge of Tomorrow. Most people have probably seen this, except people who understandably avoid anything with Tom Cruise in it because he is awful. Anyway, it rules nonetheless, and you can just think of it as an Emily Blunt film instead. Goes the sci-fi mechanism again. Apparently we're getting a sequel at some point, which I'll definitely watch, especially if it contains more time loop shenanigans. Apparently it's based on a Manga which I didn't read but read the Wikipedia summary of and decided it sounded kinda dumb, and decided not to read. I saw it when it came out, but rewatched during my time loop hunt. 3. Groundhog Day. This seems to be what most people think of when they think of time loop movies, and it kind of rules. Apparently it's not quite the first time loop movie, but it's kind of up there in the list of ones I could find? This doesn't seem to have a sci-fi mechanism, it's basically some kind of fantasy thing where the character needs to fix his life to appease whichever supernatural power has stuck him in the loop or whatever. Those seem to be the two subgenres - actual sci-fi time machine kind of mechanism/phenomenon, or unexplained fantasy thing with a moral attached. This is one of the only ones I didn't watch in the last two years. 4. Russian Doll. This is technically a TV show not a movie but I'm including it anyway because it's my thread, and it's a good show. It started kind of slow for me but once it got going it was pretty amazing. Bit of dark humour, flawed but compelling characters. Apparently it's getting a sequel which, again, I'll definitely watch. This seems to be the fantasy/fix your life type. 5. ARQ. Apparently this got bad reviews, but whatever, I liked it. Some dude getting home invaded again and again on the same day. Sci-fi mechanism, which the protagonist quickly gains some degree of control over. Actiony/drama, set in the ambiguously dated future where the earth has been turned into some kind of wasteland. Liked how it revealed what kind of setting it was without heavy handed exposition. 6. When We First Met. I made this list a while ago. Maybe this one should be further down the list? Nah whatever I liked it. Was kinda funny. Had Adam Devine doing his Adam Devine thing. Interesting in that it repeated two separate days - one several years ago, then skip back to present day. Also, not so much a clear sci-fi element, as a fantasy one that was somewhat controlled by the protagonist. 7. Happy Death Day 2U. I haven't seen the first one because it was no longer available on any of the streaming services I had available, when I went on my quest to watch all the time loops. Still good even without seeing the first one. I get the impression the first one maybe seems like it's an unexplained fantasy thing, but the second one makes it clear that it's a sci-fi mechanism somewhat controlled by the protagonist. Was unsure about it because it was billed as horror, kinda, and I don't really like horror, but the horror elements were really understated and barely even there, and it was funny and fun. 8. Before I Fall. Some teenager who, it turns out, is awful, keeps dying in a car crash, or not dying but the day repeats anyway. Fantasy and she has to try to stop being such a terrible human being. No humour, which seems a bit rare in the time loop genre. 9. Boss Level. Fun and dumb action thing. Sometimes a little too cheesy. Like I get that's what it's going for but sometimes seems to overdo it? I dunno. Still a good film tho. (With the caveat of 'mostly because it's a time loop movie'.) Sci-fi mechanism and annoyingly ambiguous ending. Also contains Mel Gibson being evil. 10. 12:01. Apparently this is, like, the 'original' time loop movie. Kind of. It's based on a short story. Also, there's a short film based on that short story, which is better imo, and has the dad from That 70's Show in it. Also, apparently the guy who wrote the story, or made the film, I can't remember which, sued the guys who made Groundhog Day for ripping off their premise or something like that, but the only thing they had in common was the time loop, which shows how early they were in this whole 'time loop' game. The film tries to be comedic a bit but the main character is kinda obnoxious, the short film isn't really played for laughs, both are kinda sci-fi in nature, but the film has a time machine and the short film doesn't. Also, the time loop itself (and the name of the protagonist) are really the only things the two have in common, so the film is probs no more an adaptation of the short story than anything else on this list. 11. Naked. This is apparently a remake of a Swedish film called Naken which I assume means 'naked', which I haven't seen. In the remake, a dude repeatedly wakes up naked in an elevator and tries to get to his wedding on time. It's fine I guess. It's dumb. It's a bit funny. It's a fantasy premise of 'try to get properly married in time before the time loop resets'. 12. 12 Dates of Christmas. A very hallmark Christmas movie which is fine. Watchable I suppose. Woman goes on several dates with the one guy and (SPOILERS) eventually decides actually he is a good person that she should date instead of trying to skip that date, I can't really remember, I think she was trying to hook up with some other guy instead? Fantasy, not sci-fi mechanism. I think I also saw something called Christmas Every Day like 25 years ago, which would probs share last place but I barely remember it. Also saw a film called See You Yesterday which seems like it almost fits in the timeloop genre but I'm not really sure so I didn't include it. It was really good tho, probs put it above ARQ. The Wiki page I looked through for Time Loop movies also wanted to include things like Dr Strange based on that one scene at the end, but that's not really what I'm looking for, sorry Wikipedia.
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Apr 26, 2021 05:34
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Here's some good ones you didn't mention. Los Cronocrímenes, or TIMECRIMES  Extremely effectively made, it's a miniscule budget but the storytelling is done so well you completely forget. All the most effective things are done with just some costume changes and good acting. A story about where your morality goes when consequences are now a maze instead of a line. I may have watched this for the first time just because of the title. Triangle  If you were disappointed that Happy Death Day was PG-13 then here's what you're looking for. Buckets of blood here, but also a surprisingly hopeful story. Like how Timecrimes is about how easily one loses their morality when it becomes more complex than just direct consequence and action, Triangle is kind of a story about choosing to do good even in the face of futility. The Fare  I don't dislike Palm Springs but I feel like this one explores the concept of romance in a time loop even better.
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Apr 26, 2021 05:45
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Chairchucker posted:
What the
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Apr 26, 2021 07:46
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Crespolini posted:What the A lot of people take issue with him being the public face of Scientology. Not suggesting he is an awful actor at all!
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Apr 26, 2021 07:55
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Real excited to post about Predestination, but this is cool too. Happy Death Day (1) was a slasher movie where the victim goes through time loops. The sequel does its own thing but gets hit with the horror tag anyway. Sort of wish the sequel was actually about the villain of the first movie getting dragged through a time loop. Edit:spelling habituallyred fucked around with this message at 05:20 on May 4, 2021 |
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Apr 26, 2021 08:28
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Is The Endless a time loop movie or does it have so many loops it becomes more of a spirograph movie?
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Apr 26, 2021 14:27
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Primer is a "voluntary" timeloop movie
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Apr 26, 2021 20:03
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Blair Witch (2016) is a time loop movie but I can never decide if it's good or bad.
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Apr 26, 2021 21:27
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Run Lola Run probably fits as well although its more of a video game like movie with multiple tries.
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Apr 26, 2021 23:39
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I feel that Source Code should qualify even though it's not technically a time loop movie.
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Apr 27, 2021 11:51
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At work they showed us a training video about hydrogen sulfide protection on oil rigs where this guy keeps waking up and going to the rig and dying from H2S inhalation until he finally uses all the correct PPE, establishes rally points upwind of the leak, etc.
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Apr 27, 2021 16:17
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The Monkees movie Head is a time loop movie in the sense that the whole film is based on the Buddhist idea of death and reincarnation being an endless cycle of suffering, with enlightenment the key to breaking the cycle.
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Apr 28, 2021 19:44
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I'm writing (well, set to write at the end of this year) a time loop sci fi horror thriller so this thread is relevant to my interests. Logline. A close nit group of space miners answer a distress call near a black hole and find both a badly damaged ship from their own company and an ancient alien space station near it. Hijinks ensue.
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Apr 28, 2021 21:39
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LionArcher posted:I'm writing (well, set to write at the end of this year) a time loop sci fi horror thriller so this thread is relevant to my interests. There's actually a Twilight Zone episode with a vaguely similar premise called Death Ship, and it is a timeloop episode from a certain point of view. It's been 20 years since I saw it but IIRC the crew gets a distress signal and follows it down to a planet where they find their own ship with their own dead bodies in it. Very disturbing. Megaman's Jockstrap fucked around with this message at 04:46 on Apr 30, 2021 |
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Apr 28, 2021 21:43
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So long as we're bringing up Twilight Zone, I guess the "Judgement Night" episode would count (although the main character is actually in hell, not in a time loop)
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Apr 30, 2021 01:39
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Not a movie but the TV series Day Break is a time loop criminal conspiracy solver kind of thing. I liked it when i saw it a long time ago.
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Apr 30, 2021 14:48
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Killstick posted:Not a movie but the TV series Day Break is a time loop criminal conspiracy solver kind of thing. I liked it when i saw it a long time ago. There was also Seven Days.
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May 1, 2021 00:16
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A recent time loop movie is The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, on Amazon Prime. It's a sweet teen romantic comedy, starring Kathryn Newton (from the hilarious Blockers, and now Ant-Man's daughter in the next Ant-Man movie, which means she has big things ahead). It's similar to Palm Springs in that it's about two people trapped in the same time loop, and there is some attraction between them, but that's where the similarities end. It wasn't as great as Palm Springs, but it was cute and worth seeing, at least for anyone in this thread. Palm Springs was my favorite movie of 2020, and I loved Russian Doll, Triangle, and of course Groundhog Day. I got about halfway through Boss Level and need to finish it. I love a good time loop, so I'm going to look through the recommendations here. Also, here's a theme song for this thread, from Sherman's Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG_cD10vH5w
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May 1, 2021 03:16
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Killstick posted:Not a movie but the TV series Day Break is a time loop criminal conspiracy solver kind of thing. I liked it when i saw it a long time ago. OK that sounds pretty cool. Big Bad Voodoo Lou posted:A recent time loop movie is The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, on Amazon Prime. Adding this to my mental list of things I should watch. Pirate Jet posted:Here's some good ones you didn't mention. I think Triangle is available on one of the streaming services I have access to so I'll probs check that out. I'm not super into buckets of blood, but I'll cope with it since there's a loop involved.
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May 1, 2021 05:48
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The german tv show Dark is excellent and should fit your timeloop/time travel needs It’s on Netflix
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May 1, 2021 20:47
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There's an extremely lovely time loop movie from last year called Assassin 33 A.D. that's not just a time loop movie but a CHRISTIAN movie also and let me tell you, God must have blazed out of his mind with how convoluted a route the characters go through in this movie just to get one person to believe in Jesus again. Highly recommended.Pimpcasso posted:The german tv show Dark is excellent and should fit your timeloop/time travel needs Just want to second that Dark owns.
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May 1, 2021 22:57
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An obscure Jeff Daniels movie that I haven't seen mentioned here but fits the bill by a hair is Timescape, otherwise known as Disaster In Time or Grand Tour: Disaster in Time. Do yourself a favor, don't look up a plot summary, it's pretty decent. It was directed by David Twohy who went on to direct Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick. I can't find it on streaming but you never know...
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May 2, 2021 02:57
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Best timeloop movie is of course the timeloop episode of Stargate SG1. Closely followed by the timeloop episode of Agents of SHIELD. Star Trek: Discovery had a pretty meh timeloop episode, but it gets bonus points for following the characters who aren't actually aware of the loop, which is a fun twist. And it includes the phrase "well the tardigrade is an extra-dimensional creature" which is just delightful. Chairchucker posted:3. Groundhog Day. This seems to be what most people think of when they think of time loop movies, and it kind of rules. Apparently it's not quite the first time loop movie, but it's kind of up there in the list of ones I could find? This doesn't seem to have a sci-fi mechanism, it's basically some kind of fantasy thing where the character needs to fix his life to appease whichever supernatural power has stuck him in the loop or whatever. Those seem to be the two subgenres - actual sci-fi time machine kind of mechanism/phenomenon, or unexplained fantasy thing with a moral attached. This is one of the only ones I didn't watch in the last two years. Groundhog Day was actually the last timeloop movie I've seen. It was really weird going back to the original (as in, the one everybody knows and is inspired by, even if it wasn't the actual first) timeloop and seeing how different it is. Nearly every modern timeloop I've seen has been about people focusing on a very specific goal who eventually snap and start doing crazy poo poo, while Groundhog Day pretty much jumps straight into the dude goofing off and enjoying life. ARQ is fun because of the slow unravelling of the plot - half the characters are secretly betraying the other half, and its fun seeing their allegiences constantly shifting as more of them become aware of the loop. And the reveal that the protagonist should have looked in the Parent Directory is a valuable lesson for us all. Happy Death Day 2U was a bit of a dissapointment to me - the original is a really fun light-hearted slasher, and the sequel loses the conceit of "what if the rear end in a top hat girl who gets killed off at the start of the movie, and the kind-hearted final-girl who survives were the same person?". The early scenes of the room-mate running into his time-clone promised us much more convoluted shenanigans than we actually got, most of the rest of the movie is just a re-tread of the first one. Best moment for me was when the protag first finds herself reliving the events of the first movie and just stomps around screaming angrily. There's one sort-of-timeloop movie I really like, but the fact that it has timeloops isn't revealed until about halfway through - The Endless, which features two depressed brothers returning to the doomsday cult they were raised in, only to discover that things are eerily similar to when they left. Very slow and understated, it's more about creeping dread than time-travel shenanigans. Like a more character focused version of Primer. There's also Coherence, a semi-improvised movie that features exactly zero time-travel, but is absolutely the kind of movie that comes to mind when I think "time-fuckery"
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May 2, 2021 12:01
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This thread seems to have covered all the time loop movies and episodes I can think of. I guess there's the Legends of Tomorrow episode as well. Some books that might interest are The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North and Replay by Ken Grimwood. These are both long-term time loops, as in the main character lives their entire life over and over again. The former is legit good and I'd recommend it whether or not someone was explicitly looking for a time loop. The latter is a decent read for people who are already in the market for the genre. For those willing to read web novels, there's Mother of Learning, about a young wizard who gets stuck in a month-long time loop and must stop an invasion of his home nation. Of the mentioned stuff, I liked Happy Death Day 1 and 2, the first one more than the second, but I'm still excited for the potential third film. Day Break was a great series that didn't outstay its welcome, though I wish it had gotten more. Palm Springs was fun and The Map of Tiny Perfect Things was sweet. The Agents of SHIELD episode mentioned above had a particularly clever take on the time loop, and I'd love to see it explored more in a full length movie--there are two of them trapped in a loop, BUT if one of them dies, that person's memories reset to pre-loop. This effectively creates a fail condition of "if you both die in the same loop, you're trapped forever", but the story wasn't too interested in exploring that part; it was more about two characters not knowing how long they've been looping and having asymmetrical information. A whole movie with this concept would be pretty cool. This is less important, but to add to the complexity of the situation in that episode, one character starts the loop in hibernation, and he's only woken up when the other character catches on, and wakes them up for advice, which means that if the first character dies, a whole cycle gets wasted with her just rediscovering the loop--a huge penalty because there's only a finite number of cycles before they all die for real. Argue fucked around with this message at 12:39 on May 2, 2021 |
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May 2, 2021 12:35
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Travellers is a time-travel show that rarely includes any actual time travel (characters from the future arrive in the present by overwriting people's minds, so the narrative stays almost entirely linear and in the present) but it does have one episode in which a steady stream of Travellers keep going back in time over and over again trying to change how events play out. They're essentially going on suicide missions and the episode does not shy away from how supremely hosed up the whole situation is.
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May 2, 2021 14:31
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A few weeks ago I watched Boss Level, Groundhog Day, Palm Springs, and Edge Of Tomorrow in the span of about 30 hours. Kind of felt like my own little time loop
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May 2, 2021 19:33
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And now I’m playing Returnal on PS5
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May 2, 2021 19:33
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omg chael crash posted:And now I’m playing Returnal on PS5 Now I know what you’re thinking: aren’t all Roguelikes/roguelites a time loop in a way? You should really be thinking “isn’t practicing a skill the original time loop?” TimeSitters FP has a good time loop section where multiple versions of your character interact at once, including different versions complaining why do they have to do the boring interation of the loop first.
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May 3, 2021 03:42
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Fish & Cat is a cool little Iranian film about a bunch of students camping for a kite festival where time subtly starts to repeat.
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May 3, 2021 03:56
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Been literally doing this exact watchlist, op. It's a great gimmick when done well. Always loved Groundhog Day and Edge of Tomorrow, but didn't realize there's so many more, especially recently! I really liked The Map of Tiny Perfect Things which is a sweet and funny teen romcom. The leads have great chemistry and the camera loves everything Kathryn Newton does. The gimmick is done well too - no agonizingly endless 'first day where we already know the drop' just bam right into the loop. Boss Level and Palm Springs were also great, the gimmick really lends itself to comedy and existential horror in equal amounts and both of these have lots. Another one you should check out is Blood Punch - it's a schlocky gorefest with pretty C-tier acting but the premise is fantastic and the plot twists just don't stop coming. All 3 mains are trapped in the loop but when they die their memories reset and they forget they're in a loop, leading to ridiculous info war shenanigans e: I remember the Agents of Shield time loop episode cuz it was in the last season, but which episode is SG-1's? Also, surely there's gotta be some Trek time loopers but I'm drawing a blank atm. emTme3 fucked around with this message at 08:41 on May 3, 2021 |
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May 3, 2021 08:27
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There was a good time loop episode in Star Trek: Discovery season 1, but I'm phone-posting, so I don't remember which one it was. I believe it involved Harry Mudd (Rainn Wilson).
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May 3, 2021 15:05
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Pirate Jet posted:Here's some good ones you didn't mention. The Endless is also pretty awesome.
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May 3, 2021 19:49
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My friends know that I love time loop movies. Timecrimes, Primer, and Triangle are the three I recommend to someone who hasn't seen those. Palm Springs is a new addition to the must-sees. It is so smart and well done. You can tell that they anticipated the nerds. They knew that any inconsistencies or lingering questions about the loop rules would be a distraction to a certain ahem crowd, so they thoroughly answered everything upfront, like they didn't want to even hear it. I did not expect to enjoy an Andy Samberg romcom so much. I agree that Coherence spiritually belongs in this genre. Another loose fit is Time Lapse (2014), which is about a machine that takes photos that show twenty-four hours into the future (so the story has to constantly reconcile the photo we saw from the day before).
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May 3, 2021 23:26
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Predestination is a great little movie with ethan hawke, not sure how it hasn't been mentioned yet but to be fair it did fly under the radar a bit a few years back. not sure why though, it's one of the best in this class imo. edit: don't read about this movie or watch a trailer. go in blind. a joke answer would be Looper with joseph gordon levitt and bruce willis. you're only seeing the current iteration of the loop however and it completely disobeys all its own rules, almost as a principle. like the organized crime elements at the center of its plot have somehow seeped into and corrupted the very fabric of time itself for a quick buck and now the rules are breaking down. i think both movies do an awesome job of completely debasing the grandfather paradox, though I'm not sure if they count considering the subjects aren't actually conscious of the eternity aspect. God Hole fucked around with this message at 02:26 on May 4, 2021 |
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May 4, 2021 02:24
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God Hole posted:a joke answer would be Looper with joseph gordon levitt and bruce willis. you're only seeing the current iteration of the loop however and it completely disobeys all its own rules Here are a few examples of this internal logic as shown to us by the movie: Old looper climbing a fence during his escape and one of his fingers disappears cuz his young self had it severed at that moment. Diner scene when young looper carves a message in to his arm and it appears on old looper's arm at the same. ...and, of course, the finale which I'll keep at least a little vague for the sake of this post.
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May 4, 2021 19:20
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Looper and Back to the Future both operate on the same logic; the difference is that Back to the Future is nice enough to give you a grace period before it deletes you. If you're not bothered by the rules of BttF (and nobody is) then you're not bothered by the rules of Looper. In fact to have free will + time travel you would have to embrace something like the Looper model.
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May 4, 2021 20:18
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Big Bad Voodoo Lou posted:There was a good time loop episode in Star Trek: Discovery season 1, but I'm phone-posting, so I don't remember which one it was. I believe it involved Harry Mudd (Rainn Wilson). Oh yeah! That was one of its better episodes too. I meant like, Actual, Real Trek tho. The good kind, like you want. e: I forgot to mention Repeaters, which is fairly meh production, acting, and script-wise, but then has a twist ending that makes it almost probably worth it. It's short too. emTme3 fucked around with this message at 07:03 on May 5, 2021 |
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May 5, 2021 06:57
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Double posting to say I consulted the gugle and it answered all my questions. https://m.imdb.com/list/ls031062792/
There's a Dark Matter ep and some other poo poo too. AoS really knocked theirs out of the park. emTme3 fucked around with this message at 07:21 on May 5, 2021 |
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May 5, 2021 07:18
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Tom cruise owns, what the gently caress op
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May 5, 2021 09:37
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Terror Sweat posted:Tom cruise owns, what the gently caress op He's a very good actor, but also he's the public face of known criminal organisation Scientology, so
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May 5, 2021 12:23
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