FILM

"Groundhog Day" and the Strange Phenomenon of Time Loop Movies

Since Bill Murray's 1993 classic, time loop narratives have somehow become a genre unto themselves.

Groundhog Day, Bill Murray

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Andy Samberg's record-breaking Sundance hit Palm Springs is the latest entry in the storied genre of time loop movies.

These now-familiar stories involve one or more characters becoming trapped by mysterious forces that cause them to relive the same stretch of time (usually a single day) over and over and over again. The phenomenon was made iconic by the 1993 film Groundhog Day, in which Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is a jaded TV weatherman who becomes trapped in the small town of Punxsatawney, Pennsylvania for an endless recurrence of the titular holiday.

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