Big fan of Groundhog Day. I also found that I really like many movies and series that were inspired by the same mechanic. That is: protagonist experiencing same day over and over, without being able to stop it. That is to distinguish it from time travel movies where the person is in full control of the loop. In a number of threads posters recommended other movies and series with the same mechanic, and I though we might try to compile a master list and have some fun discussion as well.
Groundhog Day. No introduction needed.
Happy Death Day: this was a fun movie. Even though I usually avoid horror, I didn’t mind the slight gore (not much worse than many police procedurals or action movies nowadays). A college student is killed on her birthday, again and again.
Edge of Tomorrow: Tom Cruise doesn’t get in the way of the plot. Emily Blunt does a great job as bad-ass soldier.
12 Dates of Christmas (2011 movie): this is really a Hallmark-type of movie, but the Groundhog plot device improves it a lot. About a woman repeating her date the day before Christmas.
Arq: this is more of a time travel movie, but does match the requirements. Somewhat bleak thriller in a post-apocalyptic setting (for budgetary reasons mainly in a small building with a few rooms). Good watch though. One of the main characters also played the TV presentator friend of Jessica Jones.
Russian Doll: very enjoyable Netflix original series about a female programmer in her thirties stuck in a loop, dying every day. Moody New York atmosphere.
I know there are TV-series that devoted a single episode to this trope. For example Xena, s3e2 (Been there, done that).
There is of course a Wiki page for this, although it’s not comprehensive.
I’ve also been getting ads for a new Amazon film called “The Map of Tiny Perfect Things”, which appears to be a romcom featuring two teens stuck in a timeloop.
Great list. It has all of the ones I was going to mention plus more that I’ll want to see. So I’ll go with the TV series example that came to mind: the “Endless Eight” arc of * The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya*.
Well, “Boss Level” with Mel Gibson supposedly has the time loop/life is a video game level plot, though I have not seen it yet so cannot say precisely. Dying over and over again, video-game style was basically already in Rogue Moon in 1960.
Doesn’t meet OP’s criteria, but the videogame “Outer Wilds” (one of my favorite games of the last decade) revolves around the main character stuck in a time loop, 22 minutes before the sun goes supernova.
It wasn’t clear to me if the OP did or didn’t want single episode examples from TV, but the Star Trek TNG episode “Cause and Effect” has the Enterprise caught in a time loop that resets after the destruction of the ship.
If you know about single episodes of TV shows, that’'s interesting as well. I was not really clear as I’m also not sure how often that is found. I’m less interested in cases where a time loop is only a small part of the plot, such as in the Buffy episode Life serial.
There was a sequel to Happy Death Day. Also a time loop.
There’s a Netflix comedy called “Naked” that’s a time loop on a guy’s wedding day.
“About Time” is a romantic comedy that’s not a person stuck in a time loop, but the main character is able to time travel, so there are a few “repeat this bit to get it right” sequences.
Stargate SG-1 did a Groundhog Day episode, “Window of Opportunity,” in their fourth season. O’Neill and Teal’c are the ones who are aware of (and have to keep reliving) the time loop; as Wikipedia notes:
Source Code is not a time loop movie but I think it fits in this category. Don’t want to say too much about it so as not to spoil but I thought it was a decent movie.
Let’s Make a Deal did this on a Groundhog Day episode, no less. After every commercial break, the opening spiels were repeated, and the exact same contestant was brought down to play the exact same deal. However, the deal went farther every time it was played.
Star Trek Discovery did it in " Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad" in the first season, probably the best episode that year.
Legends of Tomorrow had “Here I Go Again.”
In the “Meglos” episode of Doctor Who, the Doctor got caught in a chronic hysteresis (i.e., a time loop) but it only lasted for a few minutes before he figured it out and escaped.
Carnival of Monsters, the TARDIS lands on a ship, the Doctor and Jo are accused of being stowaways, then a sea monster attacks the ship. This happens over and over again, with the sailors and passengers not remembering the previous iterations.
The Armageddon Factor, A device is supposed to stop time in the Universe, but actually causes time to loop. The loop starts at a few seconds long, and gradually stretches to a few minutes long.
Also, a novel The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, somewhat similar to Replay above. A man relives his entire life from birth to death over and over again.