Time loop

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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, in which the main character is the only one aware of the time loop, 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] Types of Time Loops

[edit] Physical Time Loop

In a physical time loop (rarely seen in the media), the spacetime loops around to form several closed timelike curves. Since the time in that region is looped, you could only escape it by leaving the affected area. Also, there would be an infinite number of copies of any matter in the area, unless an object left the loop. In that case, there would only be as many copies of that object as many times it completed the loop. This type of time loop cannot be ended or destroyed.

[edit] Conscious Time Loop

In a conscious time loop, everyone's consciousness loops through time. In such a time loop, causality could easily be violated.

[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.

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" ("Time and Again" in the Nelvana release)
Charmed "Deja Vu All Over Again"

"The Good, the Bad, and the Cursed"

"Show Ghouls"

 Breaking a time loop that others are stuck in is a major plot element in "The Good, the Bad, and the Cursed", but we and the sisters themselves only go through it once.
Code Lyoko "A Great Day"
"Temptation"		 Although the main characters have the ability to relive a day ("Return to the past" or "RTTP") and be the only ones who retain their memories, throughout the entire series these are the only two episodes in which the same day is repeated multiple times.
Crime Traveller "Final Episode"
D.Gray-man "The Rewinding Town"
Early Edition "Run, Gary, Run"
Eureka "I Do Over"
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"
Lost "'Flashes Before Your Eyes"
Medium "Be Kind, Rewind"
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya The "Endless Eight" arc Episodes where the characters relive the same two weeks of summer vacation, as the one behind it attempts to pack as much into these two weeks as possible, but is not satisfied, and thus the loop repeats
Monty Python's Flying Circus 'Déjà vu' (skit, a.k.a. "It's the Mind"), episode 16.
The Outer Limits "Deja Vu"
"The Refuge"
Painkiller Jane "Playback"
Pepper Ann "'T.G.I.F"
Pet Alien "The Day That Wouldn't End"
Phua Chu Kang "Toto Day"
"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"
Silver Surfer "The Forever War" Silver Surfer finds Adam Warlock trapped in a time loop where he defends his homeworld from the Kree. After leaving it they find that Warlock's true homeworld was destroyed long ago, so he returns to the time loop.
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"

 The episode "Cause and Effect" demonstrates a localized time loop where time only loops for the main characters and those involved directly in the loop. The loop is caused by the destruction of the Enterprise, which in turn resets the loop. Once the ship's destruction is averted, the loop breaks, and the characters discover that quite some time has passed while they were trapped in the localized loop.
Star Trek: Voyager "Coda"
The Suite Life on Deck "International Dateline" The time loop is caused by a lightning bolt that strikes while the boat passes the international dateline sending the S.S. Tipton back in a time loop that only Cody Martin Realizes, so he takes advantage to try and kiss Bailey Pickett, his crush. In the end, he doesn't manage to kiss her.
Supernatural "Mystery Spot (3.11)" The time loop is caused by a Trickster to teach the protagonist a lesson.
The Twilight Zone "Shadow Play"
The Twilight Zone (2002 TV series) "Rewind" Jonah is given a gift of a personal tape recorder that rewinds time and allows the holder to create a 5 minute Time Loop.
Weird Science "Universal Remote"
Wizards of Waverly Place "First Kiss" Alex Russo wants her brother, Justin, to get his first kiss. During the kiss, something wrong happens, so Alex set the time back so Justin could do it right.
The X-Files "Monday"
Xena: Warrior Princess "Been there, Done that"

[edit] Audio Drama

[edit] Music videos

[edit] Film

  • 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.
  • 1408 - A jaded writer is trapped in a hotel room that physically and psychologically torments him, unable to escape. Although the main storyline of the film is not a time loop, this device does appear as one of the many horrors inflicted by the room. At several points in the story, he thinks he has managed to leave the room, only to discover later he has been inside it all along.
  • 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 Every Day - A 13-year-old boy relives Christmas day again and again.
  • Groundhog Day - A jaded weather man relives the same day, groundhog day, over and over, whilst stuck in a small town due to the weather.
  • The Last Day of Summer - A boy relives his last day of summer after being repeatedly hit on head.
  • 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.
  • Pokémon: Giratina and the Sky Warrior - Dialga traps Giratina in a time loop, preventing it from leaving the Reverse World. The time loop is broken when Giratina is brought out of the Reverse World via artificial means.
  • 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".
  • Sex and The Teenage Mind (2002) main character Virgil (17) hits his head on a step and begins reliving the best afternoon of his life with the girl of his dreams.
  • 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.

[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 gains a time looping power named Another One Bites the Dust. The originality of it is that Yoshikage doesn't manipulate the power by himself (he knows that time loops can occur, but he doesn't know how many times it has happened and what has happened before).
  • Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja - At the end of the series, both John Doe the Nth Man and Alphie O'Meagan realise that they are trapped in a time loop because of Alphie's manipulation of the Time stream.

[edit] Video games

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  • 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.
  • Blazblue - The games story mode is in a time loop
  • 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, although some of the other characters begin to recall events from past time loops.
  • 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 are stronger and smarter, until finally hero and heroine fully regain their memories and are to 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 consciousness 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.
  • Xenosaga - One of the series villains, Wilhelm, makes use of Zarathustra to create what he calls an Eternal Recurrence to prevent the universe to collapse, effectively creating a time loop, which the heroes tries to prevent in the end of the third episode of the saga.

[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.
  • Galaxy Quest (Film) - The Omega 13 device allows the activator to jump back in time thirteen seconds. Everyone but the person who activated the device is unaware of the time jump.

[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

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_loop"