Just saw the Bill Murray flick again, and wondered how many times Bill had to relive the same day in order to learn all he had to learn about the PA town Punk-something? Every detail of those people’s lives, keyboard playing, ice sculpture, grand larceny… the list goes on.
It would seem to me that ten or twenty years worth of subjective time for Bill would not be an unreasonable for all that. If it were me, once I tumbled across ripping off the armored car for a big bag of cash, I could spend five years just figuring cool ways to blow the money for the rest of the day.
I and my brother watched it once on videotape while he kept count of the days that were specifically shown. There’s only something like 35 days in the movie itself. However, to do all the things that he’s practiced at, it would clearly have to be hundreds of days. Twenty years, let alone thousands of years, is clearly an overestimate.
I think “hundreds of days” is severely low. He had to know the way things happened in multiple parts of the town to the exact second, as well as becoming an accomplished pianist and ice sculptor. And going through the bouts of insanity and suicide and samaritanism, et cetera. And the months of practice he spent with the playing cards and the hat…not to mention the amount of time spent to get bored enough to even start with the cards and the hat. Years and years and years.
The context seemed to be left on the cutting room floor, but there is a reference to his being a doctor also. That would add quite a few years right there.
January 29 will see the released of a Special Edition DVD, complete with a documentary and, I believe, commentary. Perhaps the question will be answered then.
I think most of you are overestimating by a long way. Sure, it takes a lot of practice to learn piano or ice sculpting, but once he figured out how it worked, he could spend day after day practicing at those things. I would say it had to be at least a couple hundred days, but no more than about 2 years. And that is at the very most.
Imagine if you quit your job today and took up studying piano, ice sculpting and learning the happenings of one day in a relatively small town. Would you take 20 years to figure it out? I doubt it.
Wow. I strongly disagree; rewatch the movie to see the number of things with which he ends up having intimate, preternatural knowledge at one point or another. For fear of turning this into GD, though, I’ll just express my opposite opinion this one additional time and leave it at that.
I figured about 10 years. Why? I have no idea. But I don’t know too many people who can learn to play the piano like that in a short period of time, regardless of how long they practice. Learning french would take a while too. Sculpting could be relatively short, if he was full of natural talent, but I tend to think that probably took a while too. It took him six months alone just to learn how to toss cards into a hat like that. Plus all the other mentioned activities, such as knowing every single person, and having the complete activities of the day timed down to the second.
Five years is my absolute minimum guess. And I think he’d have to been busting with all sorts of talent for that.
Can’t wait for the DVD, though. I love that movie.
For the piano playing - didn’t he learn the basics and then focus on one song (jazzy arrangement of Rachmaninov)?
You might do that in a year with 2-3 hours of diligent practice a day. The problem is that he’s an adult and it takes a long time to get “fluid” in the fingers - you’re playing always sounds “stiff” even if you are hitting the right notes. I know, because I took up the piano as an adult.
His playing sounds like someone who has been with the instrument all their life. But, that’s movie magic for ya!
The piano thing always got me too- the sticking point being the teacher. I wonder how hard it would be to get a real piano lesson from someone who (in their world) just met you and can only give you one lesson.
That’s not to say it couldn’t be done, just that it would take quite a bit longer. There are certain things that must be repeated every day just to set the stage. If he’s reading a book or memorizing a passage or learning to carve ice or doing anything that requires more than one day, he has to first reaquire whatever he was using to study. He can’t take notes. Anything that requires the assistance of another human being must be preceded by a time-consuming courtship or an offer of cash (Which in turn must be acquired at a specific time).
I tend to agree more with the people who are saying quite a long time.
Years and years and years. There’s no telling how long he was stuck in the loop, but like most of the rest here and for all the reasons cited, I assumed it was many dozens of years, at least.
Definitely one of Hollywood’s best offerings in recent years. Great story, well written, well paced and well performed. Tight editing and great overall design. Notice especially, that every repeated scene is shot from a new perspective. Sometimes the shift is subtle, but it’s definitely different. The viewer, like Murray, knows that he’s been through this scene before, but at the same time it’s different, if for no other reason than Murray is different (another day’s experience under his belt).
I believe the “doctor” reference in the movie is because he saves that guy whilst choking, non? Not like he’s an actual doctor of medicine. Like when I was in Boy Scouts and the guy who taught first aid was “Doctor Bob”, or like when I was in college and the guy we bought drugs from was “Doctor Happy Pills”
Did you notice that there’s one scene which doesn’t seem to belong? Every other scene is from Bill’s perspective, but after one of his suicides, the other characters are shown gathered around his <i>body.</i> This, to me, indicates that each one of the universes continues its existence after midnight on 3 February.
Wonder what would happen if he guzzled coffee so as to force himself to stay awake until the next day?
If I’d been the Bill Murray character, I’d have tried jumping in the truck as soon as I woke up and just leaving, trying to get home – or at least anywhere except Punxsutawney.
(Perhaps that part ended up on the cutting room floor.)
I agree. You could spend 5 years just trying different ways to get out of town, or see how far you could go. Buy a snowmobile with that money bag and head out til you can buy a car and head for Vegas, the Concorde, whatever.
Of course, if his memory was good enough, he could focus on one ting at a time. But, ould he pactice the piano exclusively every day, and let the kid fall out of the tree and the guy at the wedding choke? Or, once he saw something/one he could fix/save, would he feel obligated to fix/save them EVERY day? Remember how he kept trying to save the homeless guy.
If he does that, then I’d have to up my estimate to 50-100 years easy.
He did stay awake several times until morning. It lasted until 5:59 am, then the day started all over again at 6 am.
He does try to get home. There is a scene of him trying to leave in the truck and getting stopped by road closures. He can’t beat the snow storm that keeps him locked in the town.
Thinking about it today, I recalled two other references, besides saving the mayor from choking. During the big party scene at the end, one of the characters (possibly the mayor’s wife) calls him “Dr. Connors” and earlier, when Phil is told the old man had died, he pushes his way past the nurse and looks at the old guy’s medical chart. He was looking at it - reading it - the way a doctor would, not a layperson trying to make sense of the scribbles and notations.
We’ll see if it’s mentioned on the new DVD. I can’t wait for the commentary!
(Now, if they’d only release Quick Change on DVD!)
