Premise: The Enterprise collides with another ship near a distorted time-space continuum, creating a tear that sends them back to the start of the journey.
Onscreen loops: 5
The Escape: The crewmembers experience déjà vu—or “nIb-poH,” as Worf (Michael Dorn) calls it—prompting Data (Brent Spiner) to send a message to his next iteration, helping them avoid the initial collision.
Lesson Learned: Got a bad feeling about something? Always play some poker ask for help.
Where to Watch: CBS.com
Groundhog Day (1993)
Premise: Disgruntled weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) heads to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to cover Groundhog Day—again, and again, and again…
Onscreen loops: 36
The Escape: Phil’s extrication is straight out of Kubler-Ross—denial, bargaining, grief, acceptance, seduction, saving people from puddles, and redemption. What, those aren’t the seven stages of grief?
Lesson Learned: Don’t play God, play Good Samaritan.
Where to Watch: Amazon, Google Play
Xena, Warrior Princess, “Been There, Done That” (1997)
Premise: A young couple, Hermia (Rebekah Davies) and Neron (Joseph Murray), hides their love because their families are feuding. After Hermia drinks a poison that will kill her the next day, Neron begs Cupid to never let the next day come, causing the loops. Xena (Lucy Lawless), naturally, comes to the rescue.
Onscreen loops: 14
The Escape: Xena finally discovers the lovers’ plot and uses her trusty chakram to knock the poison out of Hermia’s hand before dashing around town to end the hijinks from the feud. In other words, Romeo and Juliet would have a very different ending if only Xena were around.
Lesson Learned: There are limits to what you should do for love.
Where to Watch: Hulu Plus, Amazon
The X-Files, “Monday” (1999)
Premise: Mulder (David Duchovny) has a bad day that only gets worse when he and Scully (Gillian Anderson) get caught in a bank robbery with a robber who’s carrying a bomb. Even if neither of them faces the bomber, every time the bomb detonates, the day restarts.
Onscreen loops: 5
The Escape: Pam (Carrie Hamilton), the robber’s girlfriend and the only character with memory of each loop, gets shot trying to save Mulder. This prevents the bomber from detonating his device, and time from resetting the day.
Lesson Learned: Confronting the problem is often the only solution.
Where to Watch: Hulu Plus, Amazon
Stargate SG-1, “Window of Opportunity” (2000)
Premise: Alien archaeologist Malikai (Robin Mossley) tampers with a time machine after his wife dies. Instead of seeing her again, he accidentally causes a loop throughout several universes and zaps Teal’c (Christopher Judge) and O’Neill (Richard Dean Anderson), leaving them the only ones aware of the looping.
Onscreen loops: 22
The Escape: Because the time machine simultaneous activates 14 Stargates and cuts off the ionization of subspace therefore disrupting the normal flow of time—oh, forget it. Simply put, O’Neill convinces Malikai to stop fiddling with the time machine, and Malikai complies.
Lesson Learned: Nothing good comes from dwelling on the past.
Where to Watch: Amazon
Day Break (2006-2007)
Premise: Detective Brett Hopper (Taye Diggs) is framed for the murder of an assistant DA. He’s guilty until proven innocent by time looping the same 24 hours and tracking down new clues. But that’s not all: His girlfriend Rita (Moon Bloodgood) is the ex-wife of his former partner Chad (Adam Baldwin), his current partner Andrea (Victoria Battle) may have ties to the mob, and the Shadow Man (Jonathan Banks, a.k.a. Mike from Breaking Bad) is tracking his every move.
Onscreen loops: 48
The Escape: Hopper discovers everyone’s secrets and solves the case—sort of. This short-lived series just didn’t have enough time to tie up all loose ends. Maybe with one more loop…
Lesson Learned: The Shadow Man put it best: “For every decision, there’s a consequence.” So choose wisely.
Where to Watch: Hulu
Supernatural, “Mystery Spot” (2008)
Premise: “The Trickster,” a demigod that feeds off of mischief, returns to torment Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) by creating a loop that always ends in Dean’s gruesome death.
Onscreen loops: 11
The Escape: Sam tracks down and threatens the Trickster, who ends his temporal mayhem. (But the Winchester brothers are never out of danger—when Dean later dies anyway, Sam begs the Trickster to create one last loop.)
Lesson Learned: Fighting fate is easier than accepting it.
Where to Watch: Amazon
Triangle (2009)
Premise: In this mind-boggling horror-thriller, Jess (Melissa George) repeatedly causes the deaths of her friends—including one played by pre-Hunger Games Liam Hemsworth—when they reach a time-looping ghost ship in the Bermuda Triangle.
Onscreen Loops: 3
The Escape: There is none. Even after abandoning ship, Jess, who’s later revealed to be an abusive mother to her autistic son, ends up heading back on board. Karma wins this round.
Lesson Learned: Prepare for—and accept—the worst.
Where to Watch: YouTube, Google Play
Source Code (2011)
Premise: The U.S. military sends the consciousness of Capt. Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) into a parallel reality through the shadowy government-run Source Code program. There, he repeats the final eight minutes of a doomed passenger train until he finds the bomber.
Onscreen loops: 9
The Escape: Stevens sacrifices himself, thereby permanently entering the alternate timeline and finding a way to save every passenger. Mission accomplished!
Lesson Learned: If you’re going to martyr yourself, fine—but do it for the greater good.
Where to Watch: YouTube, Google Play
Haven, “Audrey Parker’s Day Off” (2011)
Premise: A man’s “Trouble”—an ability that manifests under emotional stress—causes him to restart the day every time it doesn’t end the way he planned. Audrey (Emily Rose), immune to Troubles, is the only one who notices the looping.
Onscreen loops: 5
The Escape: Audrey stabilizes the man by helping him reconnect with his daughter, but he sacrifices himself after realizing his loops always end in someone’s death.
Lesson Learned: Don’t obsess over fixing your mistakes.
Where to Watch: YouTube, Amazon
Looper (2012)
Premise: Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) kills criminals sent from the future, but hesitates when his older self (Bruce Willis) appears as his next target. Old Joe tries to change their past, and ends up leading both to Sara (Emily Blunt, in her first time-looping film), a rifle-toting protective mother, and her mysterious child.
Onscreen loops: 1
The Escape: When he realizes Old Joe will cause the events he wanted to prevent, Joe kills himself, erasing his future. Call it the Inverted Grandfather Paradox.
Lesson Learned: You can’t change your fate, but you can change the fate of others.
Where to Watch: Amazon, Google Play
No comments:
Post a Comment