Time loop

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article does not cite any references or sources. (February 2008)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.
This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.
Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (February 2008)

A time loop or temporal loop is a common plot device in science fiction (especially in universes where time travel is commonplace) in which time runs normally for a set period (usually a day or a few hours) but then skips back like a broken record. When the time loop "resets", the memories of most characters are reset (i.e. they forget all that happened). This situation resembles the mythological punishment of Sisyphus, condemned to repeatedly push a stone uphill only to have it roll back down once he reached the top, and Prometheus, condemned to have his liver torn out and eaten by an eagle each morning. The plot is advanced, however, by having one or more central characters retain their memory or become aware of the loop through déjà vu.

One well-known example of this is in the 1993 film Groundhog Day, although time loops had appeared in many fictional works prior to that. Stories with time loops commonly center on correcting past mistakes or on getting a character to recognize some key truth; escape from the loop may then follow.

Contents

[edit] References

[edit] Television

The following series featured time loops as a main theme or at least fairly frequently:

  • Day Break - A police officer relives the same day over and over, and has to figure out how to save himself and those close to him from a host of threats.
  • Doctor Who is all about time travel. A number of episodes involve or make mention of a time loop (referred to as a "chronic hysteresis"): "Image of the Fendahl", "Carnival of Monsters", "The Invasion of Time", "The Armageddon Factor", "The Claws of Axos", "Meglos" and "Father's Day" (a car is stuck in a time loop). The Master's use of the term "time loop" in "The Claws of Axos" may be the first instance of its use to describe the phenomenon. Beyond the original TV series, the term also appears in the radio play "No More Lies", starring the eighth doctor, Paul McGann. In the spinoff series Torchwood, in the first episode of the second series, another time loop is mentioned, extending 2 weeks to 5 years.
  • Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - The story is shown in chapters, each one a variation of the same time period. Each chapter unravels part of an overarching mystery. The chapters typically end with the death of some or all of the main characters. The conclusion of the story comes when the mystery is solved and death is prevented. The reason for these time loops becomes part of the mystery as characters begin to remember scenes from previous time loops.
  • Tru Calling - Similar to "Day Break" above, med student Tru Davies gets asked by a recently deceased person to save him or her; at that moment she relives the same day until she figures out how to change the future so the person doesn't die.
  • Several episodes of The Dead Zone have a virtual time loop by virtue of Johnny Smith living out several versions of the same future scenario through his psychic foresight.
  • Supernatural in one episode Sam keeps repeating Dean's death.

Time loops have been featured in individual episodes of many TV series, including:

TV Show Episode Comments
Andromeda "When Goes Around..." It's also hinted that Trance Gemini has experienced the show's time-line several times.
Angel "Time Bomb"
The Angry Beavers "Same Time Last Week"
Blood Ties "5:55"
Buffy the Vampire Slayer "Life Serial"
Card Captor Sakura "Sakura's Never-Ending Day"
Charmed "Deja Vu All Over Again"

"The Good, the Bad, and the Cursed"

"Show Ghouls"
Code Lyoko "A Great Day"
Crime Traveller "Final Episode"
Early Edition "Run, Gary, Run"
Fairly Oddparents "Christmas Every Day!"
"Deja Vu"
Farscape "Back and Back and Back to the Future"
First Wave "Gulag"
Justice League Unlimited "The Once and Future Thing: Time Warped"
Lois and Clark "'Twas the Night Before Mxymas"
Medium "Be Kind, Rewind"
Monty Python's Flying Circus 'Déjà vu' (skit, a.k.a. "It's the Mind"), episode 16.
The Outer Limits "Deja Vu"
Painkiller Jane "Playback"
Pepper Ann "'T.G.I.F"
"Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue" "Yesterday Again"
"Power Rangers: Zeo" "A Brief Mystery of Time"
Totally Spies! "Deja Cruise"
Red Dwarf "White Hole"
Red vs. Blue "Have We Met?", "Same Old, Same Old"
Smallville "Reckoning"
South Park "Cancelled", "Go God Go XII" In "Go God Go XII" the time loop is inescapable only because the person remembering it is incapable of understanding the problem.
Stargate SG-1 "Window of Opportunity" The episodes "The Gamekeeper" and "Avatar" also feature time repeatedly "resetting" itself, but they both take place within virtual reality universes, whereas "Window of Opportunity" takes place in the real world and is the only instance of the term "time loop" being used in the series.
Star Trek: Enterprise "Future Tense"
Star Trek: The Next Generation "Cause and Effect"

"Time Squared"
Star Trek: Voyager "Coda"
Supernatural "Mystery Spot (3.11)" The time loop is caused by a Trickster to teach the protagonist a lesson.
The Twilight Zone "Shadow Play"
Weird Science "Universal Remote"
The X-Files "Monday"
Xena: Warrior Princess "Been there, Done that"

[edit] Audio Drama

  • In one episode of The Shadow; in The man who killed time the main antagonist creates a time loop.

[edit] Music videos

[edit] Film

  • 12 Days of Christmas Eve - a mix of time loop and A Christmas Carol. A cold-hearted executive is given the chance to replay a Christmas Eve twelve times, with a horrible fate in store if he does not change things for the better by the twelfth replay.
  • 12:01 PM and 12:01 - two films (a 1990 short and a 1993 full-length), based upon Richard A. Lupoff's short story of the same name.
  • Bless the Child, a 2003 Hong Kong film
  • Blind Chance - Krzystof Kieslowski's 1987 film following three different possibilities, all spouting from chance. Precursor to Tykwer's Run Lola Run.
  • Christmas Do-Over - a bitter divorced man finds himself reliving the same Christmas Day and trying to use it to reconcile with his ex-wife and son.
  • Christmas Every Day - A 13-year-old boy relives Christmas day again and again.
  • E' già ieri - Italian remake of Groundhog Day set in the Canary Islands, on August 13. Instead of groundhogs, the protagonist is there to cover the migration of storks.
  • Groundhog Day
  • The Last Day of Summer
  • Naken - Swedish comedy about a guy waking up naked in an elevator on the day of his wedding and his troubles trying to get to the wedding. He keeps on waking up in the same elevator until he gets everything right.
  • Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas - retells Christmas Every Day with Huey, Dewey and Louie.
  • Nirvana - time loop happens to a fictional person in a virtual reality game.
  • Primer - Film deals with a time loop that is described as being like a cul-de-sac with an "A end" and a "B end".
  • Retroactive - A psychiatrist returns repeatedly to the same point in time to prevent a murder.
  • The Lake House - this film has time-loop like features: Two characters exist in different time frames, and affect each other's lives. The ending of the film is a causality paradox, which if followed through would cause the timeloop to repeat.
  • Taan ("Turn" in English) - Japanese romance film; a character continually relives one day.
  • Zerkalo dlya Geroya ("Mirror for a hero") - Russian perestroika-era film where the character from 1987 falls 40 years back in time to Stalin era and lives there the same day over and over.

[edit] Literature

[edit] Comic books

  • Kid Gravity - Kid Gravity changes the clock to suit himself, but it causes a time loop. He ends up fixing it. As always, he gets in trouble for his wrongdoing.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - At the end of the fourth part of the manga, Kira Yoshikage gain a time looping power named Another One Bites the Dust. The originality of it is that Yoshikage don't manipulate the power by himself (he know that time loops can occur, but he don't know how many times it had happened and what had happened before).

[edit] Video games

  • Astro Boy: Omega Factor - The first time Astro experiences the game's story, at the end of the seventh stage, his story ends in a scene where all robots are destroyed by the mysterious entity known as Death Mask. After the end credits are shown, Astro is given another chance to experience the same events, and must solve the mystery behind the Death Mask in order to access the game's true final level and ending.
  • Breakdown - In one section of the game the main character experiences an illusion that causes him to repeat the last few seconds of what just happened.
  • Dragon Warrior VII - One town in this game is placed under a curse so that the same day is repeated, with only the heroes, not native to the town being cursed, knowing that there is a time loop.
  • Ephemeral Fantasia - The game centers around a five-day time loop, about which only the hero is aware.
  • Fate/hollow ataraxia - The main characters Shiro and Bazett are trapped in a four-day time loop.
  • Final Fantasy - Garland, once loyal knight of the Kingdom Coneria(Cornelia), is sent back 2000 years into the past. There he became Chaos, the Master of Evil, and sent the Four Fiends of the Elements ahead 2000 years into the future, where they would send him back in time. Garland/Chaos theorized that in 2000 years the time loop would close and he would cease to exist, which he thought would make him immortal.
  • GrimGrimoire - The main character is stuck in a time loop and has 5 days to try to stop a disaster.
  • Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni - Each chapter is a different iteration of the same month, with only one character being aware that she is living in a time loop.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - The entire game is set around a three-day time loop, which the main character and protagonist, Link, can reset at any time he needs to.
  • Little Busters! - The entire visual novel takes place within an artificial world--set at high school--that loops on itself every few months. The protagonists are unaware of the loop, but each time they return, they become stronger and smarter, until finally hero and heroine full regain their memories and return ready to face the challenges of the real world.
  • Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - The player is given the "Dagger of Time", allowing them to continuously relive the previous ten seconds of game-play for a set amount of times, or until the player is satisfied with the way he or she played those ten seconds.
  • Shadow of Memories aka Shadow of Destiny - The game begins with the death of the player, which the player then needs to prevent.
  • Timesplitters: Future Perfect includes many scenarios where the player works with past and future versions of himself that he meets through time loops.
  • Escape from Monkey Island (2000) - In one portion of the game, the player has to repeat the actions of the second Guybrush encountered earlier. If not performed identically (because at this point in time, the player is now the earlier second Guybrush), the player is returned to the start of the swamp.
  • Wild Arms: The Vth Vanguard (2006) - One of the characters, Avril Vent Fleur is obligated to relieve a 12,000 year old time loop in order to save Filgaia, the planet where the game takes place. Although she is unaware of the loop at first, she gains back her memories near the end and decides to return to the past to prepare for the future events. Otherwise, breaking the loop will result in a time paradox. This is one instance where only the character's conciousness travels through time, not the body.
  • Flower, Sun, and Rain - In this game, "searcher" Sumio Mondo is assigned the task of defusing a bomb on an airplane. When he tries to make it to the airport, he is blocked by outside forces, and the plane explodes. Upon waking in the morning, he discovers that he is back in the previous day, with the bomb still waiting on the airplane.

[edit] Repeated single loops

These are not time loops, but the repeated going-back results in many of the same story qualities emerging:

  • Seven Days (TV show) - Alien technology allows one person to go back in time seven days, typically to prevent a catastrophe shown in the opening scene.
  • Tru Calling (TV show) - A woman named Tru Davies works at a morgue, where dead bodies make requests for help. This sends her back to the beginning of the day so that she can attempt to save the person's life.

[edit] Probability loops

 This section may contain original research or unverified claims.
Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (April 2008)

A probability loop is a variation of a time loop in which a situation is told over and over, or concurrently, but with variations in the story, based on a random event or a choice.

Examples include:

[edit] See also