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What are your favourite time-loop based books, movies and video games?
I absolutely love the premise of a time-loop. I find them fascinating, and there are so many variations to explore. Inevitably, I find myself fantasizing about waking up in my own younger body and the shenanigans I would get up to with so much future knowledge (before existential dread of meeting the same people and creating the same family kick in).
- Short time-loops where someone relives the same day, or an even shorter period.
- Medium time-loops where someone can live days, weeks, months or even years before resetting - often when they die.
- Longer time-loops where someone effectively relives an entire human lifespan on repeat.
- Shared time-loops where other people are independently looping - a great source of conflict.
And plenty more besides.
I'll share some of my favourite examples in a comment, but please share your favourites and tell us why you love them.
Outer Wilds of course.
How is a time loop defined in this case vs just going back in time once under certain circumstances?
Outer Wilds is one of my all-time favorites, for sure.
Another good time-loop game is The Forgotten City, which started life as a Skyrim mod and was rebuilt into a (quite good) standalone game.
I was not prepared for how... creepy this game was going to turn out.
Major spoilers
Finding the dead bodies floating around in the Bramble and learning what happened was pretty chilling, then learning a whole race of people was just wiped out in the blink of an eye thousands of years before was devastating.
The distorted reversed music there hits like a truck
There are some incredibly gut-punching moments in the game. The one that got me was on Brittle Hollow.
KOUSA:
We can hear the other escape pods' distress signals, which gives me hope. Foli, are you there? I am unsure how to survive in this place without you.
KOUSA:
(I am unsure how to be me without you.)
To offset that, some wisdom from my favourite Aunt, Pye (much to Idaea's dismay):
PYE:
Mission: Science compels us to explode the sun!
Primer is one of the movies I appreciate most period. I love that it tries to take a grounded look at time travel; just dudes in a garage that mistake into it and using it to ultimately be cool at a party. And to the groundedness of the direction of the film, eg how characters talk over each other
(I dunno if this counts as a “time loop” since they aren’t stuck, but the movie itself is specifically about a time period of looping back in)
I absolutely adore Primer.
I cannot stand rewatching movies, often times, since I know the ending, rewatches don't bring me much joy, so I tend to avoid them unless I haven't watched the movie in a looong time or I rewatch for specific scenes (like Inglourious Basterds or Mean Girls).
Primer is the kind of movie where you actually have more questions the more you rewatch it, yet you still get some answers to your questions. Two times in my life I watched Primer two times in a week, just because it's that good. I love how amateur it is, I never get the sense that it's a movie, it feels so real. The dialogue is just amazing and the acting is great. I had the pleasure of discovering that movie the same year I watched Clerks 1 and it opened my eyes that "amateur" movies can absolutely be more entertaining than Hollywood stuff.
Relevant xkcd
Great movie. Nothing handed to the audience in terms of how to understand the movie or where to look. I really had to pay attention.
I appreciate it for being a hell of a mindfuck but as a movie, as a piece of fiction, it is the absolute worst movie I have ever seen - when you need to watch something more than once to even come close to understanding it.. then it is a shit movie.
Subjective of course, and I get why people like it, I just somehow feel really strongly about how much I don't haha
I know what you mean. I liked Primer and Upstream Color, but I still find Shane Carruth's insistence on not telling the audience anything at all about what's going on utterly infuriating. It's a movie telling a story. Maybe consider using some of the narrative conventions that have been developed over the past 3000 years?
I think that points to the difference, as I do not view it as a movie telling a story. The story is definitely not anything to write home about, it's the experience of the movie that I enjoy. It's what actually got me into movies when I was younger, indie films that weren't just "telling a story"; eg Clerks instead being a movie built on dialogue, or Short Bus being a movie built on characters, or Pi being a movie built on the editing (both from a visual and audio aspect).
For me, it's the groundness of interactions within Primer that I really loved. It actually felt like real people and real discussions, instead of watching characters within "a movie telling a story."
I don't doubt though that there are people who like the movie simply because of being incomprehensible, but it's definitely not the only subset; Randomise put it better than I can with "I love how amateur it is, I never get the sense that it's a movie, it feels so real."
I rewatched it for the experience of it all, not to "understand" it better personally. To me I think a lot of things like that are better left just not understood, and don't take the movie as trying to be "understood". That said, I haven't seen Upsteam Color and I know Shane Carruth is supposed to be insufferable so it could be the "point"...but art's not always about the artist's intention, I only care about my point in taking art in
Which, to all that, is also why I can understand why someone wouldn't like the movie and I want to be clear this isn't me trying to "sell" any of you on changing your dislike for the movie; rather, just explaining why someone would like the film for reasons that have nothing to do with "this is incomprehensible"; to me, the incomprehensibleness would be a given simply by the groundedness; cause (groundedness) and effect (it's going to not be entirely comprehendible).
You're braver than I for saying it first, haha! I see nothing but praise for Primer and I never want to be the person that says I just found it a confusing mess. I'm sure there's a brilliant underpinning to the whole thing, but I don't feel that investment to dig further into it after the initial viewing. I just felt like I wasted a couple of hours watching nonsense.
Edit: Typo.
I watched Primer years ago and I was confused. I looked for an explanation online, and I found a diagram of the timelines with twenty zig-zagging lines, and I said to myself yeah.. no thanks..
Similar to Tenet, at one point I wanted to figure it all out, I was ready for multiple rewatches and taking notes and reading forums, and then I just let it all go and moved on. No regrets.
I don't think a movie needs to spoon feed everything, but I also think some movies go a bit overboard on the confuse-o-meter.
Two movies have made me actively angry at the creators, Tenant and Primer. Primer felt like the creators belonged on /r/iamverysmart. I don't think I understood more than 5 words in Tenant, the sound mix was so bad.
Christopher Nolan knows his sound mixing is terrible for dialogue, does it on purpose, and doesn't plan to change. I don't think I care enough to watch another Nolan film again, no matter how unmissable people say it is. When I watched Interstellar at home, I kept turning up the volume until my TV was maxed out and I still couldn't understand what people were saying. I had to give in and turn on subtitles, which ruins the impact of dialogue for me.
I do love the movie, but it still bothers the hell out of me that they hyper fixate on that party. I know there are people who are like that, and it obviously fit the budget better, but I do feel the cross section of "people who are smart enough to carefully game the stock market" and "people who will use nearly godlike tech to obsess over one outcome".....well yeah it's admittedly large, but this felt like the less interesting group to focus on.
Movies
Groundhog Day with Bill Murray is, of course, a classic and one of my all-time favourite films. A wonderful premise, excellently cast and executed. Despite not being a Christmas movie, it's one I find myself rewatching annually around that time.
Palm Springs is a movie I discovered far too late. Really quite a different Andy Samberg to anything else I've seen him in. A fantastic blend of comedy with dark and serious undertones.
Edge of Tomorrow. Unlike the previous two, this is not a cosy tale of learning about oneself over a period of life iterations. This is a bloody action thriller with superstar casting and a brilliant premise. The plot is often criticized, but make no mistake, this is a phenomenally executed high-octane take on the theme.
Books
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Clare North. This is a regular re-read for me. Very much a "longer time-loop", and conflict inducing "shared time-loop" plot. It's very well thought out and we get plenty of loops to discover different aspects of many characters.
Replay by Ken Grimwood. This is a regular re-read for me. Very much a "fixed period" time-loop, and an emotionally charged "shared time-loop" plot. It's very well thought out and we get plenty of replays to discover different approaches to life, from wealth-seeking paths to deep emotional journeys. The start of this book, in particular, evokes in me that strong sense of fantasy about reliving youth with future knowledge.
I made a guess that the first comment would contain Groundhog Day and Edge of Tomorrow. I was happy to see them both there and those are absolutely phenomenal entries in time loops. In Edge of Tomorrow I appreciate the character development through the battle.
One thing that strikes me is how long those loops last. Theories on Groundhog day is that it's hundreds of years which is scary to think about being stuck in that.
I'll have to check out Palm Springs, I hadn't heard of it.
My favorite thing about Groundhog Day is that the loop is never explained. It's just presented as a weird thing happening to the guy. A lesser movie would try to shoehorn in a dumb sci-fi or supernatural cause that must be resolved, but Groundhog Day isn't about that, and it doesn't need to be.
I always thought it fantastic that they had the courage not to even attempt to justify it, especially since it basically invites the viewer to fill in their own explanation. In my quote collection, I have the last lines of the The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins by Dr. Seuss, which I like to think of for unexplained stories like that:
Turns out Groundhog Day wasn’t a time loop, it was just Phil stuck in an endless Jedi trial because his midichlorian count was too low. The Force was like, “Try again, you definitely saw your shadow.”
I'll hop in to note for those unaware, Edge of Tomorrow is based on a Japanese light novel titled All You Need Is Kill. I haven't read the novel but I did read the manga adaptation, which is illustrated by Takeshi Obata, the artist for Death Note. The story is very different, and worth checking out! Just be warned, it's a bit more bleak. I skipped the movie because I knew they'd make massive changes to give it more mass appeal. If you want to read it Wikipedia says the novel got re-released in English under "Edge of Tomorrow" to tie-in with the movie, but the manga uses the original title.
I think this is a huge mistake. It's an incredible movie - you are missing out
I read the LN and the manga, and watched the movie. The movie was a bit lackluster in that way action blockbuster adaptations often tend to be - a sort of overly-glossy surfacing that makes it tough to sink emotional hooks into it. The LN is worth looping back for, IMO, if you liked the manga.
+1 for The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Clare North.
I really enjoyed reading the book, time for a reread!
One of my favourite time loop movies is very cheesy - About Time by Richard Curtis. Even though it claims to be about time, I think it's really about romance, about love, about growing up, about family. It has a phenomenal cast - I'll watch anything with Bill Nighy in it but it also has Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Lindsay Duncan, Tom Hollander, Margot Robbie and more. The main premise is that the men in a particular family can travel back in time and make adjustments to their lives, but there are often unintended consequences.
If you are quite serious about the mechanics of time travel, this isn't the movie for you. There are a bunch of things that I think are fairly problematic from a "mechanics of time travel" point of view - rules that when broken have dire consequences, but if you're really careful they don't, and other things that seem to work one way one time and another way another time. But it's only problematic if you treat the time travel as the important detail of the movie. Instead, the time travel is the magical lens through which we view the other important themes in the movie.
It's a very sweet movie, and it generally is a feel good watch.
An absolutely beautiful film that I have to re-watch every few years.
Bill Nighy perhaps in his best form.
Came here to mention this movie since Domhnall Gleeson is a treasure. The movie hits especially hard if you're a parent.
Movies:
Primer - This came up recently in another thread, I think. This is probably my favorite of all time time-traveling movie. This is super low budget, but because of that they actually make the story really well thought out. It is the only movie I can think of that I watched literally back to back just because I was so blown away.
Looper - Also a well done time-travel movie. Basically a time-travel murder for hire story? Good acting too. Joseph Gordon Levitt and Bruce Willis.
Time Lapse - This one probably doesn't quite fit your topic, as it's about a camera that takes pictures that show the near future, so not a time loop really but still cool.
Books:
Just one here, Rant by Chuck Palahniuk. I don't want to spoil too much about this book, but it's written as an oral history of a kind of outlaw/folk hero by those who knew him. I know that doesn't sound like it includes time looping, but it does.
TV:
One here as well, Dark on Netflix. Kids find cave that lets them move forwards and backwards in time. Lots of weird stuff in their town going on. Also meticulously plotted like Primer.
Dark is a really solid show from beginning to end.
Argh! Giving up a major premise of Dark makes me sad. It's not obvious for much of the first episode what is happening.
I really need to re-read Rant. Palahniuk‘s novels were basically my first real foray in adult literature as a teenager (so have a close bound with his first few books), but I didn’t care for his change in direction at the time with stuff like Haunted - had actually decided to stop following him with Haunted, but mom got me Rant for Christmas so decided to read it anyway
And now it’s nearly two decades later and I have to admit, Rant has stayed with me for longer than most of his other books. I really don’t remember much about it, just small attributes (eg the crashes, the loop), but I’ll say no other book has made me feel like it. Choke is also one I want to go back on, now not being a teenager lol
I’ve seen Dark mentioned a few times (and those mentions being praise) but haven’t looked much into it. Seeing you liken it to Primer really shoots it up my list
Choke was the first not-fightclub book I read by him, its such a wild ride. I think about that ending scene often, him walking down the street and finding his friend lmao
Lullaby is the one that probably stuck with me the most. Rant and Fight Club are also up there. I'm an on again off again Palahniuk reader. Some of his stuff is ... not as good? I don't know, maybe more "disposable" than others, but I haven't read anything of his since Operation Mayhem (which was good/bad lol)
This is easily one of my favorites because it doesn't try too hard to stick to "how would time travel work" and instead explores using it for an interesting story. There's maybe some plot holes, but I love that you get that scene with Willis just lampshading "we'll be here all day with straws, just stfu and enjoy the ride".
It ALSO has one of my favorite "villains" and a concept that I've only seen well explored in I believe an old twilight zone episode (i'm being vague because it's impossible to talk about and not spoil what I feel is a very fun movie).
My problem with Looper is that scene where a guy is getting his limbs hacked off in the past, and it cuts to the future where he's in the middle of climbing a chain link fence when his hand suddenly disappears and he falls down.
I know we have to accept a lot of nonsense for a time travel story to even work, but this was just too far over the line for me.
My take is that’s the point. Time travel isn’t possible so why not have a more dramatic causality than some “well if it can exist it’ll be like this” thing when you’re not trying to make primer
Outer Wilds is my favorite, for sure. For anyone who hasn't played it yet, don't look up anything else about it, just play it.
Another favorite is In Stars and Time. It's a different take than a lot of others I've seen, and the developer really uses the premise to its fullest imo. It made me cry loads.
Steins;Gate: An anime where the characters accidentally discover time travel, and the protagonist has to repeatedly attempt to correct the course of history. I can't say too much about it without ruining the shock of the second half of the dozen or so episode run. However, it deservedly has sat alongside Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood at the top of the MyAnimeList rankings for a solid decade.
It was also a visual novel, so it fits the Video Game and/or book bill as well, depending on your definitions.
I love Steins;Gate. It was my first intro to Mages Inc and I've generally enjoyed their works since, though Steins;Gate is still the best IMO
Yep, I haven't yet played the VN though, so I can't emphatically recommend it like the show lol. There's also Steins;Gate 0, the sort-of-sequel in the middle of it, which was also good. I know that's an anime, VN, and also a manga.
I've been hearing for a few years that a sequel is in the works, so that's exciting. That may be incentive for me to try the visual novel, depending on how long it takes for an anime adaptation...
Mother of Learning - Fantastic web serial that was eventually edited and published (with an audiobook too). Also one of the key works that inspired the "progression fantasy" subgenre. Without spoiling too much, its a medium length loop in a fantasy school setting.
i also loved this series. here's the goodreads link:
https://www.goodreads.com/series/336405-mother-of-learning
The Forgotten City is a quality time-loop video game. You have to look past a bit of jank with it (it started life as a Skyrim mod), but if you can push past that, it’s got a very compelling narrative with lots of interesting stuff to discover.
I knew Outer Wilds would be high on this post, so I planned to come in with The Forgotten City. Seems I got beaten to that too.
I'd played the Skyrim mod a couple of times before the standalone game, so I knew the story and ending. It was interesting to see how they adapted the story into something new, taking cues from human history instead of Skyrim's lore.
Spoilers for the game
In particular I liked the sequence where you go down under the city to find the Greek city, then the Egyptian one, then the Sumerian one. There's a very human story told through that part.
The spooky zone™ was spooky enough. When I played it in Skyrim for the first time it definitely gave me a scare, but this time knowing what was coming it was just creepy. Creepy and gruesome. Good execution.
Also I love the Karen/Charon reveal. I have since used it in a D&D one-shot to great effect.
As you said the game is a bit rough around the edges, but once you look past that it's a wonderful little game so clearly made with love, and anyone who likes time loops (i.e. everyone in this thread) should play it.
Deathloop is a fairly enjoyable game, where you repeat the same day over and over.
At each time of day (morning/midday/evening/night) you have to choose one of several areas to travel to, and traveling to one moves the day forward. Each area have different events and locations unlocked based on the time of day, and based on what you have done earlier in the day.
The goal of the game is to cobble together the correct sequence of events in order to break out and free yourself from the loop. Very much a story driven game, and unless you are going for optional content it outlines what you need to do next fairly clearly (I believe you get a prompt asking if you want hints enabled or not).
I love this game, I thought it was a very interesting take on "immersive sim" game design. It has a few rough spots and isn't 100% successful at delivering a fully cohesive experience, but I think more people should try it out just to see how unique it is.
If you've ever played a game like Dishonored and felt yourself torn between wanting to play as a ghost and slip through levels undetected, or play more loose, lethal, and improvised, this game lets you have your cake and eat it too.
One thing I wish it did was require you to do the quest to make items permanent each time. Once you do what quest and need to spend some arbitrary currency to keep any weapon permanently, the game got significantly less interesting. If you had to redo the quest each time, some weapons would always be temporary, making excursions to gather weapons almost always worth doing. Also, if it was balanced around it, you would be able to see progression of struggling to do that quest at first, and it becoming simple after you save some good weapons. I also like the idea of a weapon that is less powerful than another one, but accessible at a different time or place, being more valuable because it can be made permanent and the more powerful one cannot.
It was one of the first games I played on my PS5, and I enjoyed it despite that issue. I kinda want to buy it again for my Steam deck and play it again.
Russian Doll was quite enjoyable, though everyone I've talked to about it couldn't get over it being mostly an alternate version of Groundhog Day.
The Perfect Run is one I've read recently and very much enjoyed. The apocalypse happened and it was super-powers. The main character's super-power (curse) is creating a "save point." If he dies, history will rewind to that point and he lives it again. Dark humor, nerdy references, and silly super-powers abound.
It has been a while since I read it, but I also do remember it as a fun read.
Side note, RoyalRoad does have a decent search option. Here is a search query for any story tagged
Time Loop, only showing completed serials, sorted by popularity. There are bound to be a few more good stories in there. Though I have found that with web serials popularity isn't everything, some highly popular stories are fairly poorly written. So it is still a bit of trial and error to find the actual good stories.Star Trek: The Next Generation S02E12 - The Royale.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Royale
Another Star Trek TNG episode with a great time loop is Cause and Effect. Season 5 episode 18.
"There is the theory of the moebius where time becomes a loop."
(Also used in an Orbital song)
That one has some cool snappy dialog in addition to being one of the best episodes of all Star Trek.
...
When I saw TNG mentioned I assumed it was this one. Really great episode and super memorable. Don't think I recall the other so I'll have to give it a watch.
Ugh. One of the poorer episodes. 😬😬😬
Resolution, The Endless (the sequel-ish) - if you are ok with low budget these are great! I found the acting excellent and the stories compelling.
The Infinite Man - a low-budget Palm Springs. Funny and cute, I loved it.
These are slightly more loop-adjacent, but Predestination and Coherence are both worth watching as well.
Oooh. Coherence is just disturbing. Another film, though, where mentioning the time travel aspect is spoiler-ish.
Came here to recommend the same, better to go in blind but the way it unfolds is worthwhile even if you're spoiled.
I love time loop novels!!
I've heard a lot of recs for Replay and it's on my TBR but I haven't gotten to it yet
/r/fantasy also has threads semi frequently on this, here's the most recent one
Here’s a movie that I don’t even remember how it was recommended but it’s one of the best time loop movies: Timecrimes
It is Spanish language.
EXTREME SPOILERS FOR THE FILM
No really
So timecrimes falls in my pile of "THAT" time travel movie, where the first one you see is great, but then you know the twist instantly for all the others. I can't think of too many examples at the moment but there's a ton.Quite simply put if you're dealing with a time travel movie, and for ANY reason you can't see someone's face...it's them from the future/past and we're going to see all this again from their perspective.
It's obviously such a cool concept, but it's soo hard to do in novel and interesting way that isn't also extremely easy to spot once you know it's a thing.
SPOILERS FOR A Heinlein book-
—All You Zombies— is probably one of the more....unique...invocations of this concept that i'm aware of (I haven't personally read it but someone I know liked it and talked to me about it at length).
I think predestination actually did this quite well. Even knowing the twists that could happen they did navigate that trope well.
Oh yes! Time loops are amazing and I've been watching and reading them for a long a time.
Some great suggestions already, but here are some additions to the list:
Movies
The Map of Tiny Perfect Things - cute, romantic story with two people stuck together
Happy Death Day - the main character gets murdered on her birthday, again and again...
Source Code - Jake Gyllenhall has to stop a bomb on a train from going off
Run Lola Run - how to get a lot of money
Day Break (TV-series) - a police tries to solve a murder
The X-Files, "Monday" (s6e14) - Mulder and Scully and a bank robbery
In this one the time loop is a spoiler
Triangle - Five friends end up on a mysterious ship after a storm
Books
All You Need is Kill - The source material for Edge of Tomorrow
On the Calculation of Volume - Very low key and slow burning, but it has some interesting take on the concept
A Prince Out of Time - Fantasy progression where an irresponsible heir to a despot king has to avoid his own murder
Stay away from these:
Re/member
Love Wedding Repeat
Dear Spellbook (book)
Run Lola Run is fantastic and I'm surprised you're the only one who's mentioned it so far! Granted it's been a long time since I've seen it; I should really track it down and watch it again. From what I remember, I feel a bit like it's not strictly a time loop, more of an alternate version of events... over and over again. I think it satisfies the same sort of tropes, though.
True, but as you say, it uses the same concept, albeit in a different way. I should rewatch it too!
Interesting to see this in the "stay away" section. I read it and thought it wasn't great, but wasn't terrible either. What makes it a "stay away" option?
Well, to each their own of course, and I should admit that I only read the first book in the series so it might have picked up later on. But to me, it did not match my expectations at all. A lot of times the protagonists actions didn't make sense to me and side stories fizzled out with no payout. I felt like the whole time loop premise was squandered with so much of the book consisting of flashbacks to before the loop and I didn't care much for the diary style either.
I saw that you recommended Mother of Learning, and I agree — that is a great time loop book!
I'm about halfway through the first volume of On the Calculation of Volume. I like it, but after about 25% the Scandinavian ponderings about existence gets pretty weighty.
Yeah, the Scandinavian ponderings about existence will not get any lighter. But I like
Spoilers for later parts of the book
how some of her actions affect the world through the loops and make her feel like a parasite on reality. Usually everything resets with each loop. Here there are consequences making a Groundhog Day approach impossible.I have another book for you:
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
It is a classic murder mystery time loop, but the protagonist actually switches bodies between each loop. It creates a very interesting world, and I thought was a great time. Obviously can't go into too much detail without spoiling it, but if you are a fan of time loops I think this is a fresh take on it that you will enjoy.
I was sick yesterday and a couple weeks ago, so I used that time in bed to watch both seasons of Foundation, which is based on the Isaac Asimov stories. You should check this show out. It’s not exactly a time-loop story, but it touches on things like predicting the future and historical cycles through psychohistory. If you're into stories about fate, cause-and-effect, and epic sci-fi world-building, it’s definitely worth your time.
Not sure how no one has mentioned Deathloop yet.
You're stuck in a time loop on an island with a bunch of scientists who initiated the time loop. However something happened with the experiment and none of them realize they're in a time loop. Only you and one other person. You are trying to break the loop and free everyone and the other person is trying to stop you.
I won't spoil too much but you learn the way to break the loop is to kill all the lead scientists in one day. They are all tied to the mechanism that keeps the loop going. So you have to figure out where they, the optimal time and location to find them, and kill them all in one run in order to break the loop.
It's so much fun. I don't know why it isn't talked about more.
I didn't watch Groundhog Day yet this year, maybe I should get around to it.
A couple of people have mentioned time loop episodes of longer shows and my favorite example of that is Stargate SG-1's Window of Opportunity (season 4 episode 6). It's a short loop so they can't get much done each time, but also it's the non-scientists that are looping so they need to convince the others what's going on and get them up to speed which results in some good comedy if you know the characters.
There are a few I like over on the anime side (including a couple where the fact that there's time manipulation is a spoiler) but one of my favorites is The Executioner and Her Way of Life where it's from the point of view of a fantasy world resident whose job it is to take out people from Earth before they cause mass destruction via use of powers they get when moving between worlds.
The premise established early on:
The main character Menou's objective for most of the series is to eliminate a Japanese girl Akari who has control over the concept of time, but as soon as Akari dies time automatically rewinds for her and it's as if nothing happened. So they go on a journey (unknowingly on Akari's part) to find a weapon that will work.
Then the fun later on in the anime:
It's revealed that it's not the first time they've gone on this journey together — and Akari knows full well what's going on but seals her memories away at the start of each loop before they first meet. She does this because she's become attached to Menou and every time Menou dies for one reason or another, so Akari continually rewinds the entire world to save her.
The novel series it's based on isn't done yet but I'm looking forward to the next volume coming out in English in a few months.
Late to the party so a lot of my favorites have already been mentioned, but for anyone looking for more recommendations/material
(I have now realized not all of these are exactly time loops so i'll mark them with an L if they're heavily loopy):
Movies:
L Back to the future - It's still fun. Far from perfect, but I think it's aged ok (pacing wise. It was ALWAYS weird content wise)
L The Terminator - My wife thinks this is one of the best time travel movies out there and I agree. Clean and simple plot, decent use of the concept, and actually a good thriller/horror.
L Donnie Darko - Personally, this is in my pile with Da Vinci Code in that I don't think it's that good, it was just popular enough that people who normally don't watch these kinds of things did, and found out they might like. Still my friends say i'm dumb so it's probably worth mentioning.
L 12 Monkeys - Still a classic. Holds up well, does a decent job of keeping the premise interesting even if you know what's going on.
L Arrival - I hated it, lots of people think it's the best thing ever...so i guess it gets to go on here.
L Tenet - I really liked it. You have to kinda turn your brain to the right setting of "just go with it", but the concept it was toying with was great and done in a way I haven't seen anywhere else.
Honorable mention:
In Time: Not exactly time travel, but a really cool idea and world that explores almost none of the interesting parts to tell you a story you've seen before!
Shows :
L Dr Who - When it's good it's really good when it's not it's campy at best. Still there's some excellent plots/storytelling actually using time travel creatively. Heaven sent is probably worth watching even as a standalone and a realllly good use of the concept.
Loki - I've only seen S1 but it was fun to see time travel through bureaucracy. Also looking this list over also nice to see something having fun with the comedic aspects of it.
Books:
L This is how you Lose the Time War - This is 80% romance and 20% time travel sci fi. Wasn't really for me, but it was short, and some people love it so deserves a mention.
L Eversion - Good start, middling ending/reveal. Still glad I read it but could have been so much more interesting.
The Time Machine - A classic and a good one. I think it's still worth the read.
Slaughterhouse Five - I found it boring/eh, but it is certainly unique and a classic for a reason.
The Hyperion Cantos - Overall a really interesting Scifi that I think is at least worth trying. The first book being "what if Canterbury tales but future" is really quite excellent. It gets....weird...in some ways and there's at least one or two scenes I recall as "why the hell are we doing this" but still has some really unique ideas, especially with time.
Edit -
Forgot Games:
L Undertale - I like the story of undertale, especially the larger points, but personally did not enjoy the game and dropped it early. It however has led to the creation of this great video on how to kill a time traveler which is technically an undertale theory but you can watch if you've never played undertale if you don't mind spoiling the hell out of it.
L The Journeyman Project series - I only played 1 and 3, but they were really fun myst like puzzle games with more failure states and characters.
Timesplitters 2 - Ok time travel basically doesn't actually matter but it's a classic FPS and one of the few to realize it's really fun to have bots in skirmish mode that react to hits so you can do "combo's" of a sort as opposed to behaving like players who can move no matter what you hit them with.
Prince of Persia games - I barely played these and in many ways it's more about the combat and platforming with a redo option, but still fun.
L Majora's Mask - Honestly such an ambitious game for a mainline Zelda title of all things. Great example of making time loops part of the gameplay.
L The Sexy Brutale - Majora's mask but less interesting.
Braid - Another time manipulation puzzler, but probably one of the best (and more respectful of player time than The Witness.....)
Titanfall 2 - It's one level, but it's a really really good level.
Day of the Tentacle - Classic point and click adventure style game that's more comedy than anything.
Dishonored series - Not reallllly a major feature of the game and you can totally ignore it, but some of the most fun you can have with it if you're creative.
Chrono Trigger - To this date one of the best JRPG's because it's actually fun to just play with a nice heroes journey story. The time travel is really well used.
12 Monkeys! Great suggestion. I also wanted to mention Time Bandits but it’s too far out for the topic suggested.
Always happy to find another Day of the Tentacles fan in the wild. The remake is really good.
I don't want to argue the point, but I will just say it in case you are at all open to recontextualizing your experience: The Witness is just as respectful of your time as Braid, if not more. It simply depends on the mindset you bring to the game.
So first, I'm aware of the thing in The Witness, and I like it.
That said, the utterly horrific speed with which various platforms move in the The Witness led to me dropping it. I already don't love the puzzles, which is just more of a me thing, but dear god missing something on an elevator and having to wait a full minute+ for it to return is not respecting my limited time as an adult, and where I just gave up.
Braid could be disrespectful with the secret content, and The Witness certainly rivals/surpasses it there as well, but nothing in the world was more frustrating to me than knowing where I needed to go, what I needed to do, and watching the worlds slowest elevator/swamp platform/whatever move for the basic gameplay.
It bugs me on an extra level because Blow has a quote about "respecting the player" and ignoring all the other political stuff about him (because I mostly have as I just can't begin to care about him or what he thinks even if I love or hate his games), really got under my skin when he has the audacity to put the equivalent of the worlds slowest loading screens all over his world.
Man, it sounds like you weren't able to experience all that the game had to offer (there's sooooooooooooooooo much more to this game than just the thing)... that's a shame. I wish I knew the right thing to tell you that would help you shift your perspective!
I will say, the pace of the platforms, elevators, and everything else is deliberate and does match with Blow's statement of respecting the player's time. The best analogy I can give is that it's intended to serve a similar purpose to negative space in photography/cinematography. It's easy to think, "that space is empty, it's a waste to include it," but the emptiness is what frames and focuses your attention. It's needed context, and the shot isn't effective without it.
I understand if you're skeptical given your experience with the game, but... maybe we just need to slow down sometimes? Otherwise we miss the forest for the trees.
The Witness is one of the worst games I've ever played. It doesn't respect anyone.
While these are pretty much all great suggestions, quite a lot of them are just time travel stories, not time loop stories.
The Time Traveler's Wife will gut you (very bittersweet), but it's a great loop story. Do not watch the movie.
The Black Tongue Thief is an unlikely addition to this list. I can't tell you anything else without spoiling it, but the payoff is good and the story is great anyway.
If you don't have enough musclebound men doing splits (possibly nsfw link) in your life, Timecop is a (cheesy) classic.
I only watched the movie but it follows the book pretty closely apparently. It's been a long time since I watched it but I remember it as being pretty creepy, and not in a bittersweet way at all, just bitter and gross. And I am reading just now that the books is even worse in this aspect. Basically grooming.
I've seen that kind of commentary before, and I don't agree with the assessment. I'm curious if you're reading the book or just reading reviews?
mild plot spoilers, discussion of themes, I think you could read this and still enjoy the book
The circularity of the time loop means that Henry in his 30s and 40s is very much a father figure to Claire as a child and a teenager, and that aspect of their relationship is not lurid or sexualized. But then Claire grows up to find the younger Henry, who doesn't even know her yet, so her romantic adult relationship is not even with the man she grew up with in any meaningful way. In fact, she really raises him in important ways. To call it grooming is, I think, a very superficial reading of the story.
In no particular order, the things I love about the book are:
I’m so sad I’m so late to this party and none you younglings mentioned OG All You Zombies by Heinlein. Earliest example i am aware of.
I didn't expect to enjoy this movie as much as I did -- it came across initially as sort of low-brow/b-movie fare, but Boss Level is a really fun watch, with good performances, solid script and tight direction and editing.
A few people have mentioned Outer Wilds, that one is my absolute favorite.
I've been reading two time loop novels on Royal Road that I highly enjoy, though both are still being written:
The Years of Apocalypse is fantastic. It is set in a magical academy where it spends a good deal of time, though the story does branch out to other locations eventually.
The protagonist is clever and well written and the character development is good.
Chapters are posted regularly and there is a good bit of content to read.
3001 Paths to Death is strange but still highly enjoyable. It starts of fairly confusing, I found the beginning of the book very engaging although other people on Royal Road seem to disagree. The world is a strange mix of western magic and xianxia cultivation stuff. Chapter releases have gotten pretty slow, which is a shame since the story was starting to pick up a good pace.
The best ever time loop story I've seen in a game was in Quantum Break. I don't want to spoil it.
As for books, Dark Matter had an interesting, even if a bit pulpy take.
I really enjoyed 11/22/63, by Stephen King (it’s not his normal fare) and Time and Again, by Jack Finney. The King book is more time loop than the Finney book, which is time travel, but they’re both excellent reads.
Incidentally, Finney wrote The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which is a great short take on paranoia inspired by fascism.
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. Ursula, the main character, is born into a well-to-do English family in the early 20th century. She dies in childbirth, strangled by her own umbilical cord. And then she's born again, and again, and again. Every time she dies, she goes back to her birth, remembering each of the lives she's lived before, and able to use that knowledge to inform her actions in the next life and the next and the next. It's really good and well-plotted. It's also quite dark and gets pretty deep into sexual abuse and the Second World War.
I have another entry for movies: ARQ.
It's a very self-contained movie, effectively taking place within three or so rooms. It's a sci-fi, but arguable the sci isn't so important as it's highly character driven.
Just watched this on your recommendation! Thanks for that, really good!
I'm glad you enjoyed it. Funnily enough, I watched it on a whim after having recalled someone recommending it in a forum thread somewhere.
I just want to mention two movies which were staples of my relatively strict childhood that have time loop themes while not having loops explicitly:
There was a game called Lemnis Gate that combined an arena FPS with turn-based strategy. You play 25 seconds of gameplay, then loop back and do it again. In later rounds, you can counter the enemy's prior rounds - but they can counter yours too.
Very cool concept, but unfortunately shut down due to low player count. Here's a great video of the gameplay.
There was a very similar in concept game called Quantum League but the price tag kept most people away and it didn't survive for long
Several of my favorites have already been mentioned here.
Just going to add Happy Death Day and it's sequel as some of my favorites since nobody's mentioned those yet. I like time loop movies and I like black comedy/horror mash ups so those movies scratch several itches at once for me.
The visual novel Steins;Gate. What a fantastic story. There is an anime adaption but I found it subpar, especially in the animation area. I'm in the minority of this, though.
The comments in this thread tell me I have to check out Outer Wilds....
I’m really conflicted about posting here because the first time reading the book I’m about to mention, I had no idea it was going to be a time loop until super close to the end.
So, I guess don’t open the spoiler if you’re currently or soon to be reading anything by sci-fi author Peter F Hamilton
Spoilers inside
Fallen Dragon
The story follows a guy from when he was a dumb teenager through to adulthood. This teenager has few friends on the newly settled planet his dad is working on, but one in particular gives him a small fragment of an incredibly powerful AI. There are a few moments across the guy’s life when this AI clearly saves him and his electronic implants from being hacked, and it’s clear that even as a fragment, this AI is so much further ahead of any other tech across dozens of worlds.
On a new world where he’s taking part in a military incursion, his AI comes up against another AI of equal match, which is concerning because that’s never happened before, but the two AIs seem to recognise each other as equals and neither one has a vulnerability that the other can exploit, so they disengage and part ways.
Later on, on this same world, the protagonist comes across the original source of the powerful AI his friend gave him, and gets access to the fully powered version and a damaged spaceship to boot. He repairs the spaceship over time and ends up flying among the stars with this clearly advanced alien tech spaceship, and discovers that with it, he can completely alter his physique with cellular regeneration. He finds another ancient race built a time machine of sorts, and uses it to go back in time just enough to become that friend who originally gave him that fragment
My memory is super hazy on the details so I might have got some details incorrect, but I guess that just tells me I really should re-read it, since it was good fun!
Possible content warning is that Peter F Hamilton loves putting sex scenes into his sci-fi, and with 2025 sensibilities it might be a little uncomfortable. One scene in particular, while it’s consensual between both parties, one person is lying about their identity. As far as warning-able content goes, it’s pretty tame, but I figured I might mention that much.
Somewhat related, but you might like this 4-minute video by Chris and Jack on Youtube called Groundhog Daying.
I'm in the middle of How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler, and it's an irreverent take on the "I'm the chosen one who will defeat the dark lord" trope with very graphic negative consequences for our main character who's come from earth and lived subjectively hundreds of years, died numerous painful ways and has decided she's fucking done.
The Holy Gosh Darn is a comedy video game where you are given time travel powers to save Heaven from blowing up. I played through it last year, and had a blast!
I enjoyed the book Recursion by Black Crouch. I'd also recommend another of his books, Dark Matter. While it isn't about time loops, I'd say it's in the neighborhood.
One of my favorite genres! All the heavy hitters have been mentioned, so I'll throw in some more obscure recs.
Books
Throwing in another vote for Mother of Learning.
This one is especially excellent if you enjoy seeing multiple clever ways to use (& abuse) time loop mechanics in order to maximize strength gain - however, this isn't a story with an OP protagonist. The threats in the story are such that the time loop shenanigans are needed just to keep him on par, and seeing the constant power struggle and methods to extract just a little more use of the time loops is the highlight of the book. Mother of Learning is probably my favorite time loop story (though its moderately cheating since it combines another one of my favorite genres, progression fantasy)
Honorable Mention:
FanFiction
Naruto
Time Braid is the story that made me fall in love with the concept of time loops.
Sakura repeats the Chunnin Exams, growing ever stronger (and ever more traumatized). The main appeal to this story are the meta-time loop mechanics. Other prominent characters are in their own separate time loops, and sometimes those loops merge with one another. Its a great dynamic where some characters have lost their sanity to the endless loops, some find ways to manipulate the meta-loops in order to stave off insanity, and generally everyone has demons scratched into their psyche. All the while, they don't know whether the person they're interacting with is the copy they've met thousands of times, or a fellow time looper/eldritch-being with thousands of years of life and experience. Its very melodramatic and sometimes can border on "trauma porn", so avoid if those are concerns, but the time loop mechanics themselves are my favorite in the genre by far.
The Naurto fandom really loves time loops, apparently, so honorable mentions to:
My Little Pony
Hard Reset and a fan-made sequel/alternate-timeline Hard Reset 2: Reset Harder.
The best way I can describe the story is that its like Outer Wilds but in text form. An invasion is coming to kill Twilight Sparkle and burn down everything she loves. Her only advantage is that she's trapped in a time loop mere hours before her demise. She needs to find the right chain of actions, events, knowledge, friends, and lore in order to save everything and everyone. For every obstacle she overcomes, 3 more pop up in its place. To save everyone seems impossible, unless she can take everything she knows and complete that One. Perfect. Run.
The main story itself is very well done, but the sequel/alternate-timeline absolutely shines by emphasizing optimal use and metagaming of the time loop mechanics. Without giving anything away, the concept of knowledge acquisition through time loops and how that affects conversations, relationships, and even enemies is front and center. If the main story was Outer Wilds, this side story is Primer - think formalized logic tries to stop an invasion, and you'd be pretty close.