This list of films featuring time loops in which characters experience the same period of time which is repeatedly resetting: when a certain condition is met, such as a death of a character or a clock reaches a certain time, the loop starts again, with one or more characters retaining the memories from the previous loop.[1]: 207 The list provides the names and brief synopses of films in which time loops are a prominent plot device.
For a list of films that include any kind of time travel (including time loops) see
time travel in films.
Films with time loops
Film
Year
Description
Le 15 Mai
1969
A couple wakes up one sunny morning on the 15th of May. Apparently, they had the same nightmare and the day unfolds strangely. The next day, we are still on the 15th of May. Claire Denis's graduation work from La Fémis.[2]
Based on Yasutaka Tsutsui's 1965 novel of the same name. The story is about a Japanese schoolgirl who accidentally gains the ability to time travel, which she experiments with and attempts to alter past events, leading her on a journey through multiple time loops.[3][4]
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.[8][9]
Self-centered television weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is forced to relive the same day over and over.[12] This movie is generally seen as the quintessential time-loop movie by many with its name being synonymous with the genre as a whole.[13][14][15]
The story follows a woman named Lola (Franka Potente) who needs to obtain 100,000 Deutschmarks in twenty minutes to save the life of her boyfriend by resetting time multiple times by 20 minutes.[18]
On the day of his wedding, Anders wakes up naked in an elevator. As he attempts to piece together the reason for his predicament, the day repeats itself, and he becomes stuck in a time loop.[20]
Stork Day (AKA È già ieri)
2004
Italian remake of Groundhog Day. A TV star goes to Tenerife for a nature documentary and gets stuck in a repetition of the same day.[21]
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.[22]
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.[23]
A group of friends go on a boat trip and become stranded due to a storm. They discover a cruise ship which causes them to experience a series of repeating events.[26]
A newly married couple drives through the desert from Las Vegas when they encounter a person who was just in an accident. They take him and try to find some help, but are now part of a time loop.[27]
U.S. Army Aviation pilot Captain Colter Stevens repeatedly experiences the last eight minutes of another person's life to identify the bomber in a terrorist attack in order to prevent a second, nuclear attack on Chicago.[29]
Kate finds herself reliving Christmas Eve (including a blind date with a man named Miles) over and over. She must discover how to break the cycle – should she attempt to win back her ex-boyfriend Jack, should she pursue Miles, or something else?[31]
Homura Akemi has the ability to travel 30 days back in time, and has done so countless times. Each month, Homura fails in her attempts to save Madoka Kaname from destruction, and is forced to relive the tragedy of losing Madoka.[32]
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.[35]
El Ascensor
2014
On their fifth wedding anniversary, Sitio and Ana start arguing inside an elevator that keeps opening in their same floor. Emotionally and physically trapped, the two will have to work together to find a way out.[36]
One-Minute Time Machine
2014
This 6-minute comedic short film directed by Devon Avery and featuring Brian Dietzen and Erinn Hayes, parodies the time loop genre (and itself) when repeated applications of the device are used to redo a botched romantic approach.[37]
A group of friends find themselves in a time loop with 3 different time slots for the same incident and the result will vary due to the time and the result of people mood.[38]
Two stories of groups trapped in infinite time and space loops. One, an endless staircase, the other, an endless road, both looping back on themselves. While time resets in their surroundings each day, the trapped characters continue to age within the loops.[40]
After a romantic weekend break with his girlfriend goes awry, a scientist invents time travel in order to create for her the perfect getaway, but inadvertently traps her in a recurring temporal loop.[41]
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.[42]
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.[45]
Aided by the powers of The Eye of Agamotto, Stephen Strange traps himself and Dormammu in a time loop in order to bargain against him consuming the Earth.[46]
A Japanese young man travels back in time to prevent the murder of his mother and others, looping through different versions of reality as his actions change the past.[47][48] (The same basic story exists in manga, anime, live action movie, and live action TV series versions.)
Groundhog Day for a Black Man
2016
Short film about a black man who keeps reliving the same day in which he ends up being shot by a police officer.[49] The director of this film accused Netflix's Two Distant Strangers of plagiarism.[50]
Teenager Jake visits the ruins of an orphanage that was destroyed by a bombing raid during World War II and discovers that the original inhabitants survived by creating a time loop set to repeat the day of September 3, 1943.[51]
Rob is caught in a time loop as he keeps waking up naked in a hotel elevator on the day of his wedding.[20] This is a remake of the 2000 Swedish film Naken.
A college student is murdered on her birthday, Monday the 18th. She wakes up the morning of the 18th, alive, facing the same day over and over, while also getting weaker. She must figure out who her killer is in order to escape the loop.[52]
Swapna, a wheelchair user, is defending her home from a mysterious intruder. Every time she is killed by the intruder, she awakens to the start of the day. However, the concept is more along the lines of how a video game works.[60]
Immediately after the events of the first film (Happy Death Day), Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) unexpectedly re-enters the time loop except this time in an alternate reality.[62][63]
An ambitious science prodigy uses her prowess and capabilities to create time machines, in order to save her brother who has been killed by a police officer. As she tries to alter the events of the past, she will eventually face the perilous consequences of time travel.[64]
An American short science-fiction film that examines the deaths of black Americans during encounters with police through the eyes of a character trapped in a time loop that keeps ending in his death.[66]
When carefree Nyles and reluctant maid of honor Sarah have a chance encounter at a Palm Springs wedding, things get complicated the next morning when they find themselves unable to escape the venue, themselves, or each other.[67]
Two undercover police officers who go in search of a wanted criminal named Mayiladumparambil Joy. However, they get stuck in the village of Churuli as eerie mysteries unfold.[70][71]
A man who is stuck in a time loop tries to stop a political rally from taking place in order to save the state's chief minister and prevent religious violence.[73]
A bank teller who discovers he is actually a background player in an open-world video game, decides to become the hero of his own story... one he rewrites himself.[75]
A nightclub manager is trapped on a train in which the next carriage takes him forward in time by 10 years, and the previous carriage takes him back a decade. He must change history to avoid a recurring bad outcome.[76]
A group of incompetent criminals tries to rob a bingo hall, only to get trapped in a time loop in which they repeatedly stage the heist but fail in a different way each time.[79]
Zanox
2022
Misi, a high school student, relives his graduation day after he discovers his experimental medication has a weird side effect.[80]
^French, Todd (July 1996). "Reviews". Cinefantastique. 27 (11/12): 123. Retrieved April 28, 2017. The student body of Tomobiki High experiences a major cause of deja vu when they find themselves endlessly repeating "the day before the School Festival."
^"Oshii says dissatisfaction behind 'eternal youth'". Yomiuri Shimbun. August 1, 2008. p. 18. The sequel, 1984's Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer, meanwhile, included a gut-wrenching philosophical aspect in the storyline. In the movie, the characters relive the night before a school festival over and over, eventually blurring the line between reality and fantasy. The concept and execution took that film beyond mere anime geared toward kids.
