# Yet another "ID this story" thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 2, 2003, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-id-this-story-thread/172717 "2003-05-02T20:33:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-id-this-story-thread/172717/1 "2003-05-02T20:33:25Z")
I’ve never read this story. I only know it from my sister’s description when she told me about it several years ago. She doesn’t remember it at all now. It’s a sci-fi / Groundhog Day type story, where the main character keeps living the same day over and over again, and is the only one to realize it. As the day repeats over and over, he gradually comes to realize that the cause is an experiment that is started that afternoon in a nearby lab, and that he has to stop the switch from being thrown in order to escape. Unfortunately, there’s not quite enough time to reach the lab in time. Day by day, he gets closer and closer, gradually overcoming one obstacle after another, but never quite makes it. Then, finally, everything goes exactly perfectly. He doesn’t make a single mistake. And he still shows up just a split second too late. Realizing that there’s nothing he can do, so that he’s trapped forever, he kills himself, but then wakes up yet again to start the same day all over again. Does this ring a bell with anyone? I’d really like to read it. ---
**Author:** ![brianmelendez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@brianmelendez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianmelendez)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-id-this-story-thread/172717/2 "2003-05-02T20:47:14Z")
**Smeghead** , I remember seeing this story on television. I think that it was an episode of an anthology series, but I am not sure (and can’t remember which one). But I am pretty sure that the title was “12:01 A.M.” ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-id-this-story-thread/172717/3 "2003-05-02T21:11:07Z")
IMDB lists two movies with 12:01 in the title: [12:01 (1993) TV)](http://uk.imdb.com/Plot?0106188) and [12:01 PM (1990)](http://uk.imdb.com/Title?0098962). The summaries don’t quite match your explanation, though. And I seem to remember having seen a movie like you describe, but I’m not sure whether it is one of those two. ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-id-this-story-thread/172717/4 "2003-05-02T21:14:04Z")
For ‘explanation’, read ‘description’; for 'remember, read ‘recall’. My english is going to the dogs; I’m getting tired. Good luck on finding the story. ---
**Author:** ![brianmelendez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@brianmelendez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianmelendez)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-id-this-story-thread/172717/5 "2003-05-02T21:25:06Z")
Oops, my mistake–the title is [_12:01 P.M._](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0098962): > [@](#): > > **Plot Summary for > 12:01 PM** (1990) > > A short similar in plot to “Groundhog Day”, but more serious. A man is stuck living his life in the same 59 minute time frame. He tries various methods of finding out why, eventually consulting a physicist. The 25-minute version that I watched in 1990 was also made into a made-for-TV movie, titled just [_12:01_](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0106188), two years later: > [@](#): > > **Plot Summary for > 12:01** (1993) (TV) > > Barry Thomas is the average office worker. He becomes attracted to Lisa Fredericks who works in the same company. After work, Barry witnesses the murder of Lisa and goes to a bar to get drunk. Later that night, there is a storm and Barry gets a shock from a lamp’s faulty power wire at exactly 12:01 am. The next morning, he realizes that everything is happening exactly as it did the previous day. The next morning the day is repeated again. It is now Barry’s job–being the only person alive who is aware of this time loop–to stop the murder of Lisa, and stop the time loop or be caught in time forever. Both movies were based on a short story, “12:01 P.M.,” by Richard Lupoff. The story originally appeared in the December 1973 issue of _Fantasy & Science Fiction_. It was anthologized in Lupoff’s collection [_Before … 12:01 … and After_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1878252232/qid=1051910699/sr=1-15/ref=sr_1_15/002-7101021-6413649?v=glance&s=books) (1996). ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-id-this-story-thread/172717/6 "2003-05-02T21:26:53Z")
This sounds very much like the new “Outer Limits” episode “Deja Vu.” [http://www.theouterlimits.com/episodes/season5/515.htm](http://www.theouterlimits.com/episodes/season5/515.htm) ---
**Author:** ![brianmelendez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@brianmelendez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianmelendez)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-id-this-story-thread/172717/7 "2003-05-02T21:44:25Z")
Nice work, **TTT**! **Earl Snake-Hips Tucker** , that episode does sound a lot like the synopsis in the OP. But I am thinking that **Smeghead** is asking about the 1990 film, or at least the story on which the film was based, because of the ending: “Realizing that there’s nothing he can do, so that he’s trapped forever, he kills himself, but then wakes up yet again to start the same day all over again.” I remember, in the film, a particular audiovisual effect that accompanied each recycle. The ending was very dramatic when the constant repetition drives the protagonist to such despair that he contemplates, then resolves upon, suicide–then[spoiler]Loud gunshot Long pause . . . Audiovisual effect[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2003, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-id-this-story-thread/172717/8 "2003-05-03T01:54:56Z")
I know there have been dozens of TV shows and movies and whatnot based on this or similar plotlines - I remembered it when I was watching the X-Files version - but I’m thinking specifically of a written story. My sister told me about it when we were teenagers, which would have been in the 80s. _Maybe_ early 90s. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2003, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-id-this-story-thread/172717/9 "2003-05-03T03:25:47Z")
Smeghead, did you see the end of brianmelendez’s post? Story by Richard Lupoff which originally appeared in the December 1973 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2003, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-id-this-story-thread/172717/10 "2003-05-03T06:21:10Z")
Ah, yes. Missed that. I’ll have to try and find a copy. Gracias.