List of films featuring time loops

This list of films featuring time loops where characters experience the same period of time repeatedly. The list provides the names and brief synopses of films in which time loops are a prominent plot device.

Film	Year	Description
12 Dates of Christmas	2011	Kate finds herself reliving Christmas Eve (including a blind date with a man named Miles) over and over again. She must discover how to break the cycle – should she attempt to win back her ex-boyfriend Jack, or should she pursue Miles, or something else?[1]
12:01	1993	Office worker Barry Thomas is forced to relive the worst day of his life.[2]
12:01 PM	1990	This is the first film adaptation of the short story "12:01 PM" by Richard A. Lupoff, which was published in 1973 in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. It originally aired on cable television as part of the Showtime 30-Minute Movie anthology series. It was nominated for an Academy Award.[3]
About Time	2013	Romantic comedy-drama film about a young man with the special ability to time travel who tries to change his past in order to improve his future.[4]
ARQ	2016	An engineer, whose invention causes time to loop during a home invasion, attempts to save his former lover, while learning who has targeted him and why.[5]
Camp Slaughter (also known as Camp Daze)	2005	A slasher film in which a group of present-day teenagers are sent back to 1981, and discover a summer camp which is stuck reliving the day a demented killer went on a rampage.[6]
Christmas Do-Over	2006	A remake of Christmas Every Day, a father has to repeat Christmas Day over and over until he realizes how selfish he has become and changes his ways.[7]
Christmas Every Day	1996	An American television movie based on William Dean Howells's 1892 short story "Christmas Every Day". A selfish teenager is forced to relive the same Christmas every day.[8][9]
Dead End	2003	A horror comedy starring Ray Wise and Lin Shaye in which a family seems to relive an eerie night-time drive along a forest road.[10]
Déjà Vu	2006	ATF agent Douglas Carlin, who travels back in time in attempts to prevent a domestic terrorist attack that takes place in New Orleans and to save a woman with whom he falls in love, Claire Kuchever.
Edge of Tomorrow	2014	Maj. William "Bill" Cage (Tom Cruise) and Special Forces soldier Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) team up to fight a hostile alien race known as Mimics, with Cage continually returning to a repeating battle through a time loop.[11]
Stork Day	2004	An Italian television star who is filming a documentary in Tenerife relives August 13 over and over. Based on Groundhog Day.[12][13]
Groundhog Day	1993	Self-centered television weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is forced to relive the same day over and over again.[14]
Haunter	2013	The ghost of a teenager, Lisa Johnson (Abigail Breslin) who, along with her family, keeps reliving the same day (although she is the only one aware of it) tries to protect a young girl, Olivia (Eleanor Zichy) and her family from a dead serial killer, the Pale Man (Stephen McHattie) who can possess the living.[15]
The Last Day of Summer	2007	In this Nickelodeon TV movie, 11-year-old Luke gets his wish that every day could be the last day of summer.[16][17]
Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas	1999	Huey, Dewey, and Louie must repeat Christmas Day until they come to learn the true meaning of Christmas.[18]
Mine Games	2012	A group of friends vacationing in the woods discover their own corpses and realize they are trapped in a time loop which they attempt to break.[19]
Mirror for a Hero	1987	Zerkalo dlya geroya a Soviet Union film by Vladimir Khotinenko. Two heroes circle multiple times in 1949, adapting to the harsh post-war life, meeting the parents of one of them, finally returning to the present time, having reassessed their attitude towards elders.[20][21]
Premature	2014	Rob, a high school senior, keeps waking up in the morning of one of the most important days of his life every time he ejaculates during this day.[22]
Project Almanac	2015	In 2014, 17-year-old high school senior and aspiring inventor David is admitted into MIT, but is unable to afford tuition. Upon learning his mother is planning to sell the house, David enlists his sister Christina and his friends Adam and Quinn to sift through the belongings of his father, Ben an inventor who died in a car crash on David's seventh birthday, in the hope of finding something that David can use to get a scholarship. David ends up finding an old camera with a video recording in which he briefly spots his 17-year-old self in a reflection. The group find the blueprints of a temporal relocation device that Ben was developing for the United States military named "Project Almanac", and use the available resources to build a functional time machine.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Movie	2012	Homura Akemi has an ability to travel 30 days back in time, and has done so countless of times before the film began. Each month, Homura fails in her attempts to save Madoka Kaname from destruction, and is forced to relive the tragedy of losing Madoka.[23]
Repeat Performance	1947	Film noir meets science fiction when a woman shoots her husband on New Year's Eve, 1946, then wishes that she could live the year all over again. Will she make the same choice a second time?[24][25]
Repeaters	2010	A group of inmates at a rehabilitation facility are forced to repeat the same day over and over again.[26]
Retroactive	1997	A psychiatrist makes multiple trips through time to save a woman who was murdered by her husband.[27]
Run Lola Run	1998	A woman needs to obtain 100,000 Deutsche Mark in twenty minutes to save her boyfriend's life—and she gets more than one try.[28]
Salvage	2006	Claire encounters horror and murder after finishing a day working at a convenience store, not once but many times. An official selection of the 2006 Sundance Festival.[29]
Source Code	2011	U.S. Army Aviation pilot Captain Colter Stevens is repeatedly sent back in time to identify the bomber in a terrorist attack in order to prevent a second, nuclear attack on Chicago.[30]
Timecrimes	2007	Hector, a middle-aged man, is chased by an unidentified bandaged man. He meets a scientist with a time machine, and travels a short period back in time to briefly escape the unknown assailant.[31]
Triangle	2009	A group of friends go on boat trip and become stranded due to a storm. They discover a cruise ship which causes them to experience a series of repeating events.[32]
Turn Back the Clock	1933	Only a single time loop is needed for Joe to wish that he could relive his life and marry the wealthy woman. When he has the chance to go through his life again, he has interesting discoveries and decisions.[33][34]

See also

• Time travel
• Time travel in fiction
• List of time travel works of fiction
• Alternate timeline films

References

1. Griffiths, John (December 6, 2011). "12 Dates of Christmas". Us Weekly. Retrieved May 7, 2014.
2. "It's like Groundhog Day, but different. What is it?". TV Guide. Retrieved 2014-03-27.
3. "1990 (63rd): Short Film (Live Action)". Academy Awards Database. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
4. White, James. "New Pic of About Time: Richard Curts' new time-warping comedy". Empire. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
5. Rachel Tsoumbakos (2016-09-01). "The Latest Netflix Original Movie 'ARQ' Is A Dystopian Time Loop Adventure". Inquisitr.com. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
6. Wheeler, Jeremy. "Camp Slaughter (2005)". The New York Times. AllRovi. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
7. "Christmas Do-Over (2006)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 6, 2014.
8. "Christmas Every Day (1996)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 6, 2014.
9. Caro, Jason. "Christmas Every Day". Radio Times. Retrieved May 6, 2014.
10. The Arrow (2003). "Dead End (2003)". Joblo. Retrieved September 28, 2016. Quick-lipped Frank (Wise) and his family are driving down an interstate on their way to a X-Mas family gathering. But when good old Frankie decides to take a 'shortcut', they find themselves on a never ending road that is plagued with mysterious happenings.
11. Gettell, Oliver (2014-03-25). "'Edge of Tomorrow' trailer: Tom Cruise fights an eternal battle". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2014-03-28.
12. "È già ieri (Stork Day) (It's Already Yesterday) (2004)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 6, 2014.
13. Marshall, Lee (January 21, 2004). "Stork Day (E Gia Ieri)". Screen Daily. Retrieved May 6, 2014.
14. Fischer, Russ (2011-02-02). "Groundhog Day: Just How Long Was Phil Connors Stuck in a Time Loop?". Slash Film. Retrieved 2014-03-27.
15. Rotten, Doc. "Film Review: Haunter (2013)". HorrorNews. Retrieved 23 May 2014.
16. Gutierrez, Reuben (2007). "The Last Day of Summer DVD Review". DVDizzy. Retrieved May 6, 2014.
17. "The Last Day of Summer (2007)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 6, 2014.
18. Rotoscopers (2015-12-24). "Rotoscopers' 12 Days Of Christmas: 'The Polar Express'". Rotoscopers.com. Retrieved 2016-03-13.
19. Kwenton Bellette (2012-08-17). "MIFF 2012 Review: MINE GAMES world premiere". TwitchFilm. Retrieved 2015-02-25.
20. "Alterum' Dance Troupe to Conquer Middle East)". The Moscow Times newspaper online. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
21. "A Movie Tribute for Stalin Generation". The New York Times newspaper online. April 23, 1988. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
22. Leydon, Joe (July 2, 2014). "Film Review: 'Premature'". Variety. Retrieved August 31, 2014.
23. Loveridge, Lynzee (2013-08-10). "8 Essential Time-Travelling Heroines". Anime News Network.
24. "Repeat Performance / He Walked By Night". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 6, 2014.
25. "Repeat Performance (1947)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 6, 2014.
26. Alex Billington (2010-08-31). "Watch: Carl Bessai's Time Loop Sci-Fi Film 'Repeaters' Trailer". First Showing. Retrieved 2014-03-28.
27. Bailey, Keith. "Retroactive". Radio Times. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
28. Michael Wedel (2009), "Time, Place, and Character Subjectivity in Run Lola Run", in Warren Buckland, Puzzle Films: Complex Storytelling in Contemporary Cinema, John Wiley & Sons, pp. 129–150, ISBN 9781444305715, retrieved September 4, 2016
29. Chang, Justin (January 31, 2006). "Review: 'Salvage'". Variety. Retrieved May 6, 2014.
30. Lawler, Kelly (June 6, 2014). "It's still 'Groundhog Day': The 4 best time-loop movies".
31. King, Kris (2014-01-30). "Best of: Time Loops (Time Loops [Time Loops])". Nitehawk Cinema. Retrieved 2014-03-28.
32. Li, Shirley (2014-06-04). "What Hollywood Can Teach Us About Escaping the Dreaded Time Loop". Wired.com. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
33. Erickson, Hal. "Turn Back the Clock (1933)". Rovi Corporation. Retrieved May 7, 2014. Lee Tracy is a middle-aged, middle-class man dissatisfied with his life. If he'd only married the girl he wanted to and had been a smarter businessman (he believes), things would have been better... Tracy comes to regret his "new" life and yearns for things to go back to normal--but will they?
34. Hall, Mordaunt (August 26, 1933). "Turn Back the Clock (1933): Lee Tracy as an Indignant Husband Who "Lives" Twenty Years of His Life Over Again". The New York Times. Retrieved May 7, 2014. ... there are moments that bring to mind Mark Twain's classic yarn, A Connecticut Yankee at the Court of King Arthur and also such plays as The Road to Yesterday, Captain Applejack, Berkeley Square and The Wisdom Tooth. The hero of the current work, who glories in the name of Joe Gimlet, is, however, a conservative dreamer who contents himself by living the last twenty years of his life over again.