Love The Bill Murray Film? 5 Others To Watch On Groundhog Day

Are you a fan of the Bill Murray comedy groundhog day? A lot of people rank it as one of their favorite comedies from the 90s. If you haven’t seen it, the film’s plot is a little hard to explain. The movie is part twisted comedy and part romance.

Basically, the plot involves kind of a “time-loop” where Bill Murray’s character relives the same day over and over again. Every morning when he wakes up, it’s Groundhog Day all over again. Eventually, he realizes that he’s stuck in some sort of time loop and he’ll never escape Groundhog Day, so he decides to kill himself. This is when the comedy ventures into “dark” comedy.

No matter how many times he kills himself, he still wakes up in the morning and it’s February 2, Groundhog Day. I won’t spoil it for you if you haven’t seen it, but the outcome of the movie is that Bill’s character, Phil, becomes a better person while he’s falling in love and that ends up breaking the time loop.

It recently occurred to me that there are numerous other movies that use that very same “time-loop” concept for the basic plot. Movies from different genres, too. Everything from horror, action-adventure, and straight comedy. Here’s a look at five other movies that feature a character(or characters) that are stuck reliving a certain time frame over and over.

First, let’s look at a movie from the horror genre which is probably one of the more recent “time-loop” movies. And it was very popular, spawning a sequel with another sequel potentially in the works. I’m referring to 2017’s Happy Death Day. The central plot revolves around a college girl who’s savagely murdered on her birthday.

She then has to relive her birthday over and over again until she figures out that the only way to stop the time loop is to figure out who her killer is and put a stop to it. Although the movie definitely falls into the “horror” genre, there are some nice comedic elements scattered throughout for some genuine laughter.

Also, the main character matures quite nicely. As the film begins, she is a bratty “only cares about herself” type of personality, but as the film progresses, she develops into a person who cares about others and you end up rooting for her.

Another “horror” film but with plenty of comedic elements is 2015’s The Final Girls. A very convoluted plot involves the main characters being trapped in a twenty-year-old horror movie. Whenever the characters try to escape being killed, the scenes in the movie they’re trapped in begin again. I actually wasn’t too fond of this movie after my first viewing, but some friends told me to give it another chance, and I ended up being a fan.

The 2004 Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore romantic comedy 50 First Dates technically is not a “time-loop” movie, but it falls into the same mold of characters reliving the same day over and over again. Adam Sandler’s character meets Drew Barrymore’s character and they fall in love.

However, Drew’s character (Lucy) has amnesia, so when she wakes up the following morning, she has forgotten him already. Once he (Henry) figures this out of her he plans to make her fall in love with him again… and again… and again each day. The movie is funny, sweet, romantic, and has a happy ending.

For you action-adventure/sci-fi fans, 2014’s Edge of Tomorrow offers a thrill-a-minute. The plot of this one revolves around Tom Cruise’s character, a military man with limited fighting experience who finds himself forced into combat action fighting some weird alien race.

He finds himself stuck in a kind of time loop when he quickly realizes that every time he’s killed, the day starts all over again. The movie is filled with many familiar faces and great character actors. What makes the movie for me is the performance of actress Emily Blunt. She portrays a kick-ass, hard-as-nails battle Sergeant. Blunt truly gives an amazing performance, and Cruise doesn’t do too bad, either.

And finally, let’s look at what is definitely a little-known and underseen suspense movie from 2009 called Triangle. The movie stars actress Melissa George, probably best known for David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive and the Amityville Horror remake with Ryan Reynolds, as a mother of an autistic child who decides to go on a boating trip.

As time passes, the boating party ends up having to abandon the ship and climb aboard a passing ocean liner. The time loop aspect involves a promise made by George’s character from her and every time she breaks her promise, the time loop begins anew.

Needless to say, the plot is somewhat complicated. This movie is not something you can have on in the background just casually tuning it. You really need to follow along and pay attention. I really think that’s the reason the movie isn’t more well-known. Some people gave up trying to follow the plot and didn’t give it a chance. Trust me, the payoff is worth it.

Now those are just five movies with plot concepts that are similar to groundhog day, but there are many others that are out there. A few more you may want to check out include Palm Springs, SourceCodeand Before I Fall. Happy time looping!

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