Talk:Time loop

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Pufferfish101 (talk | contribs) at 05:46, 24 January 2013 (→‎List Bloat). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Works that are not time loops

Here are works that have been added, some of them repeatedly, and an explanation of why they aren't good examples of time loops. It's worth keeping this list around, since they're likely to be added again and again over time (hm, just like a time loop!). To be a time loop, time has to reset (typically to the same beginning point) more than once.

  • Astro Boy: Omega Factor - The first time Astro experiences this video 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. This is just one-time time travel.
  • The Butterfly Effect (and sequel)
  • The Dead Zone - Several episodes have a virtual time loop by virtue of Johnny Smith living out several versions of the same future scenario through his psychic foresight. In particular, the episode "Deja Voodoo" has Johnny repeating the same events to stop a woman from being murdered. Psychic foresight is not a time loop.
  • Déjà-Vu - limited time travel
  • Donnie Darko - The fictional book at the centre of the story (The Philosophy of Time Travel) clearly states the Tangent Universe will collapse into a black hole if the Artifact is not sent through the wormhole, destroying the Primary Universe with it. There is no second (or third or thirteenth) chance.
  • Final Fantasy VIII refers to something resembling both the predestination paradox and the ontological paradox, but isn't a time loop.
  • Galaxy Quest - simply traveling back in time thirteen seconds
  • "Monkey Wrench" [1] - no indication at all that they are time traveling
  • Planet of the Apes - In the first film the main character travels 2,000 years ahead in time to a world ruled by apes. Two of the apes he meets end up going back in time 2,000 years and changing the time line in a way that forms the future he visits. A classic time travel story type, but not a time loop. [editing what someone else wrote as i moved this to the Talk page.] --John_Abbe 23:41, 6 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • "Popscene" - Blur music video with a lot of repeated clips, but no indication it's a time loop.
  • Run Lola Run - a German film depicting three versions of the same twenty minutes in Lola's life, if she makes different decisions.
  • Sliding Doors - a British film showing the main character's life having two outcomes from missing and barely making a train.
  • Sphere just references time travel in finding a long ago crashed space ship from the future
  • Superman - not a time loop, just one-time time travel
  • Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut - time was repeated only once, and even more importantly, it was repeated exactly as in the first run - there was no possibility to change it (in the words of Vonnegut, there was no free will)
  • TimeSplitters 3 doesn't have repetition, but uses the predestination paradox (help yourself, then later be the person who helped you)
  • Witchblade - just a single reset at the end of the first season
  • Yesterday's_Enterprise - time travel, but not a loop

Death Ship

What about (the original) Twilight Zone episode "Death Ship"? 71.199.114.36 18:15, 16 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

First time in mainstream television or film

Was "Cause and Effect" the first time this concept was employed in mainstream television or film? --Acegikmo1 22:59, 22 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Depends what/where you mean by mainstream - Przypadek (Blind Chance) came out in 1980 in Poland, and has over 800 votes at IMDB [2]. There were others between 1980 and "Cause and Effect", though apparently all less popular. --John_Abbe 23:39, 6 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Final Fantasy I

Another question on Video Games -> Final Fantasy I: "This was a poorly thought out plot as it says nothing about the Fiends of the Elements themselves, and it doesn't make sense for the loop to ever close given the linear nature of time as it seems to be set in the Type 0 universe of Final Fantasy." I've been searching my butt off and I can't find any evidence as to what a "Type 0" universe is. The sentence needs an internal link, or to be re-written.

Hermione in Harry Potter

What about the time turner Hermione uses in the harry potter books? I know it may be considered multiple one-time time travel events, but it is implied that she uses it to repeatedly access the same segment of time.82.24.155.138 00:34, 19 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Dead Zone

The TV show Dead Zone should probably be mentioned as at least two episodes involve the repetition of the same sequence of events numerous times, until the hero manages to 'fix' them. Several other episodes involve repetitions of the same event, but it's not really a timeloop, just the same event from another angle. MrPhelps 18:23, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Recent Edits

Heya, I just tweaked several things. Could someone just compare the page history to see if you agree with it all.

  • I wasn't sure about category: "Time Travel" vs. cat. "Time Travel in fiction". If we'd discussed "practical"/theoretical applications of time loops, rather than use as a literary device, I guess I'd prefer the former. However, as the article begins "A time loop is a fictional situation...", I guess the latter is more appropriate.
  • I'm also not sure if I added in too many internal links. I doubt it, but ya never know.
  • Oh yah, does anyone know how to do an internal link to a category? I ended up doing an external link to Time travel television series.

Thanks, samwaltz 14:24, 16 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

  • Just fixed what looks like a joke: namely, there was a show listed under the examples as "Charizard Shiny Gold" and the episode was "Go Jesus Go Part 2". Your welcome Wikipedians.

66.82.162.11 (talk) 20:48, 14 November 2008 (UTC) A random good Sameritan.[reply]

Doesn't Sonic Next Generation deserve to be in this section? The entire thing was based on time travel (Silver comes to the present from the 23rd century, Mephiles sends Shadow and Rouge to Crisis City, Sonic and Silver create a Chaos Control to go back 1 day to save Princess Elise, Shadow and Silver go 10 years in the past to see what happened in the Solaris Project's "Accident", ect.), time travel consequences (Shadow persued the early Mephiles to seal him within the The Scepter of Darkness; Since Sonic went back in time one day, he manages to save Princess Elise from the crashing air-ship), some things that NO ONE can explain (Time Paradox)-The Scepter of Darkness broke and released Mephiles on Day 1, and on Day 2 (or possibly 3) Shadow and Silver went back in time (10 years) to the Solaris Project. While Silver persues the origanal Flame of Iblis, Shadow goes after Mephiles, and eventually finds him and seals him within the origanal Scepter of Darkness (It should also be noted that when the smoke-like cloud of Mephiles asks what was going on and who was doing this to him, Shadow tells him his name, and, before being sealed in the Scepter to stay for the next decade, he says, "Shadow... your face, your form... I will remember. You WILL die.. This is proven because when Mephiles is released, he goes for the nearest shade, which just happens to be Shadow's shadow. Smoke-form Mephiles disapears into the ground, and Shadow backs away, but Mephiles has already caught hold of his shade, and it disapears into the smoke, and a gray/blue version of Shadow appears, which would be Mephiles for the game until Shadow's battle with him near Crisis City in Shadow's Story; there, Mephiles produces a bright flash of light, and turns into a crystillian version of his Shadow-copy-version). But, when Mephiles was released on Day 1 in Kingdom Vally, he recognises Shadow, immediately calling him by his name before Shadow regains his senses. But, Shadow said, quote, "Who are you? How do you know my name?", showing that he doesn't know/remember Mephiles. But, one could conclude that after the Time Loop, Shadow would reconize Mephiles, thus slightly altering the events of Day 1 in Kingdom Vally. But it remains the same. The most notable one is after Sonic and Elise are thrown out of the Time Rift after the level Solaris, Phase 2; They end up a little more than ten years earlier (before the accident where The Flames of Disaster known as Iblis and Mephiles The Dark are formed from Solaris splitting into two: the raw power, and the actual embodiment and mind) Elise saddly {See Below} blows out the origanal, 4-inch flame that would become Solaris, and the entire events of the game are dismissed- Elise doesn't have Iblis sealed within her, Silver's world is no longer post-apocolypetic, Shadow was never put back into suspended animation after the Flames of Disaster by E-123 Omega. Also, the thing that made Elise teary for blowing out the flame, was that she and Sonic never met. It was hinted that they remembered parts, because when Sonic runs by the Festival of The Sun, Elise comments that it feels ". . .somehow familier." and Sonic was smiling at Elise from the top of a building (Which, before the time paradox, was where Siver first commented on finally finding "the Iblis Trigger.", though Elise can't see him up there. This is shown to not have been true, though. In Sonic Rivals, Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow, and everyone else of this time first "Officially" meet Silver The Hedgehog, showing that Sonic truely doesn't know of the almost-events (he could possibly just be remembering being at Soleanna before, just not the details. It is said that after a time paradox (or someone forgetting an event), all or parts of the events can be remembered by being told something, seeing something related to the events, or being somewhere where the events happened, the latter being the case with Sonic in Soleanna). Plus, Blaze is now from the Sol Dimension (named for it's power source, the Sol Emeralds) instead of the future of Mobius with Silver. This can be explained by the fact that at the end of Silver's Story, Silver almost has an emotional breakdown, because 'The Flames' wouldn't accept him as a vessal, so Blaze took the two emeralds he was using (white and sea-foam) and sealed the flames in herself. She told Silver to "use [Silver's] Chaos Control to send [Blaze and the flames of disaster] to another dimension." Blaze eventually does it herself, because Silver says he couldn't imagine his life without her. Also, in Sonic Rush, Sonic Rush Adventure, Sonic Rivals, Sonic Rivals 2, and Sonic and the Secret Rings, neither of them mentions the other. Many fans hope for them to realize their past, becuase before Blaze disapears into another dimension (most likely the Sol Dimension), she hears Silver say he can't live without her, and admits, You're still so naive. But I- I've always liked that about you. . . . Good luck Silver., showing that they truely have feelings for one another. -Mace D. Kiwi —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.27.231.237 (talk) 17:26, 25 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

What spam. No. Loops not travel. Jok2000 (talk) 20:12, 25 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Reference "12:01" story at top?

The top section references "Groundhog Day" as the best known example, but I think the original short story "12:01" should also be referenced as the prime inspiration for this concept in other works of later fiction (film, TV and print). Though I don't know of a reference to the writers of Groundhog Day being so influenced, I would find it hard to think that they had not been. I'm not going to make this edit, but I do recommend that someone working on this article should give the "original" inspiration a bigger role. GGG65 05:03, 10 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

J. G. Ballard's 1956 "Escapement" predates the Lupoff story by 17 years, and i'd bet that a determined serach would find other SF stories in between. Without sources, we don't know what was independently conceived, or inspired by what earlier works. For that matter, we don't have a source for Groundhog Day being the best known example, but it seems pretty likely to me, and although one might be tempted to remove it as original research, i think it's too valuable as an explanatory example that's likely to help many people quickly get what the article is about. Separately, i'd be in favor of mentioning "Escapement" (or whatever earliest story is found that features time loops), even if it didn't inspire all/any later time loop stories. I'd also love to see some interviews/sources regarding the Groundhog Day creators' inspirations :-). --John_Abbe 17:17, 10 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Seven Days

Removed Seven Days, then changed my mind - it's in the same category as Tru Calling. Was there an episode of Seven Days that had an actual time loop? If so, please add that to the episodes listing. --John_Abbe 17:27, 10 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Code Lyoko

Removed Code Lyoko because the returns to the past aren't time loops because the day does not closely repeat itself (e.g. anyone who died in the original time line remains dead after the return to the past) Furthermore, the return trips always result in the past being altered so that the return to the past won't be activated at the same time again. The only episode that could possibly be said to involve a time loop is "A Great Day". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.162.139.144 (talk) 09:35, 5 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Conscious Time Loop

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

Why everyone's? In most fictions dealing with time loops there is only a limited number of people going through a conscious time loop.

The most interesting and confusing question: Is the person going through such a conscious time loop the freak or is the surrounding freaky and the person was just not affected by the anomality which caused this phenomenon? In one episode of "Stargate" dealing with this subject the latter seems to be the case as the anomality later appeared to have been limited to a certain region of the universe and the person had been some kind of an "island".--80.141.222.95 (talk) 20:46, 20 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Fairly Oddparents Christmas Everyday!

That episode was not a time loop. He wasn't repeating the same Christmas over and over, every day became Christmas. This becomes apparent as you realize that the only thing tying each day together is Santa doing his Christmas thing. It was more like repeating the same date, but not the same day. Mixen Dixon (talk) 22:56, 26 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]


Mythology

This article states: "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." In the case of Sisyphus, wasn't his punishment to see the rock roll back down each time after he pushed it up and then have to start rolling it back up all over again - not really a time loop there as there isn't a skip back to some previous point in time. Prometheus, well it isn't so clear there, but there's no evidence in his story that he is traveling back in time after his liver gets eaten, only that it regenerates so it can be eagle food the next day - indeed the way the author here has written it, i.e., being "eaten by an eagle each morning," would seem to indicate that time isn't looping either as "each morning" isn't the "same morning over and over again." In any case, sounds like original research to this long suffering Wiki reader... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.158.61.140 (talk) 17:51, 5 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]


A reference

I'm not sure who created this article, but this fellow copied the entire bulk from The Free Dictionary without citing it at all. Anyone feel free to cite it, I'm not good at Wiki codes. --155.198.14.153 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 08:12, 11 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

The bottom of the page you linked actually states that the free dictionary has copied it from Wikipedia and not vice versa. Eldar (talk) 23:59, 11 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Dark Country

isn't the film Dark Country also a good example ? almost dead man is found by couple, is killed by them. they argue who he was, the man of the couple realises that he is the man, when he gets in to an accident and is picked up by two strangers that are the couple... blah. -- 89.247.95.45 (talk) 19:58, 13 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

"Open graves"

The movie "open graves" seems to fit in as well. -- 89.247.95.45 (talk) 20:51, 13 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Isaac Asimov's Eternity

this novel is a time loop, where a time traveling Earth based society trains this person to teach 20 cen humans how to travel in time, — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.210.116.200 (talk) 06:16, 20 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

  • This is the progenitor's paradox rather than a time loop Eldar (talk) 22:18, 20 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Nick Cage's "Next"

How about the Nick Cage character in Next (2007 film), who can see what's going to happen in the near future, but then choose to do something different so something else happens? The viewer of the movie gets to see both alternatives. And his ability to project into the future increases with concentration and motivation. --Uncle Ed (talk) 15:42, 11 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Where's the loop? It doesn't sound like any time travel actually occurs. Doniago (talk) 14:16, 12 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, maybe this is an exception. It only looks like he's gone back in time, because we (the audience) see him living 8 minutes of the future; but then he, knowing what would occur if he made choice A, makes choice B instead. Although the character does not "really" experience those 8 minutes, it sure looks like it to the audience. --Uncle Ed (talk) 04:37, 14 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

List Bloat

There doesn't appear to be any criteria for inclusion attached to this article despite it including rather lengthy lists. I'll plan to remove items that don't have any third-party sourcing establishing that they are considered significant examples of time loops per WP:WEIGHT unless we can establish other criteria or a consensus of a different nature. Doniago (talk) 20:10, 3 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

  • You do realize that WP:WEIGHT is completely irrelevant to the situation, right? There's no viewpoint being argued here. What are you going to look to for a source; some newspaper making a list of "Top Five Works of Fiction Involving Time Loops?" Your version of the article doesn't even have sources for Groundhog Day or the individual television shows (which are already covered in List of television series that include time travel anyway), so I'm not sure how you can call what you're doing non-arbitrary. Not that I think discretion is a bad thing, but you're pushing this as by-the-rule policy. The best version would probably be somewhere in the middle of these two versions, actually. Unless you want to move all the entries to a list-type article and make this article barebones? Pufferfish1☢1 05:46, 24 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
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