pilomotor
48141
1269
16
Aug 31, 2024 4:43 PM
pilomotor
48141
1269
16
AlmostCertainlyNotPickles
Having one of these on your team greatly increases your chance for success. For them, it's not so great. They've got to re-live countless days. But for you? You only see the day that works. You wake up, head into the war room, they're frazzled, coffee and cigarette riddled, shouting back your words at you as you think them....but for you, this is the one that happens because you won't remember it otherwise.
sabaticalbob
But what if it’s just his team that keeps getting killed and he has to kill himself each time to reboot for them.
CedricDur
Too many people in the comments missing the point. Yes, Edge of Tomorrow, yes, dozens and dozens of webcomics and movies and episodes. All of those the looping is done from the protagonist's point of view. What made this premise interesting was seeing it as an outsider and the more you see the guy getting everything right the more you realise he has been repeating for a long time and hasn't figured a way out. Of course since it's a super-hero premise it implies the whole team is wiped out.
FoxPesdassi
Watch the lotto. Remember the numbers. Kill yourself. Play the lotto. Win the lotto.
Gelaticat
Oh yeah, “Boss Level” is another movie that shares the same idea. Super tropey and hypermasculine, but still a fun and mindless watch.
Stefnos
that one is fun xD... Mel Gibson does a good villain ^^
YOURFRIEND2010
One of the antagonists of "Worm" wakes up every day living two parallel lives. He does different stuff in each timeline and then kills himself in the other timeline, collapsing it. Next day wakes up with another parallel life. Nobody knows what his power is or how he always seems to know what to do. In that universe people are rightfully cagey about what their powers do or how they work, so he's never told anyone.
Gelaticat
Which character was that? I barely remember most of the characters from that
WilleyeRasmus
It was Coil. And I'm so pleased that I'm not the only person who thought of him.
shiviro
If you don't mind manga, check out UQ holder. One of the main cast (who all have different types of immortality) has a power like that.
memeseeks
Ever heard of a hero by the name of Mysterion?
angusd
The Perfect Run: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/36735/the-perfect-run
PresterJon
Ayy came here to recommend that too
Ankerz
That's just Kenny from South Park, no?
Stumpkiller
You beat me to it. Mysterion.
lalwaysupvotecatsandTHT
The MC of the manga "Saike Mata Shite mo" has that exact superpower. Which he use in that exact manner.
pixelatedsoul
Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain…
Gelaticat
Yeah I feel like that part of the movie gets misunderstood by so many. He spent how many years/decades/centuries trolling Dormammu while simultaneously practicing his magic and getting better and more skilled? But I hear a lot of people talk about it like he only did a few cycles before Dormammu cried uncle.
Frogapus
That and it's a good interpretation of heroic martyrdom that's less Jesus-y and more Buddha-y, which fits better with the aesthetics of the character.
pkfyre
Moira McTaggert
ClawsOfTheWolf
Gelaticat
Edge of Tomorrow / All You Need is Kill (also a Tom cruise movie), the X-men comics Powers of X / House of X, and the last season of Loki all very much pull this off to differing degrees/scope/effectiveness. Loki especially did an amazing job of it.
flyingmonkeystick
How could you forget Re:Zero?
Gelaticat
Can’t forget what I don’t know!
keyblader1985
That's pretty much Re:Zero, except he's forbidden from telling anyone about his power.
Fuyu159753
Summer Time Render had this time loop on death thing too, though not infinite.
uden10
What happens if he tells someone? Or is he magically incapable of doing so?
AliasPR
Anyone that finds out about it immediately dies. Which he actually uses to his advantage in some episodes
Cycocidal
Or his heart pops. Seems to vary based on who he is talking to. Or maybe how many? Been a while, plan to do a rewatch since season 3 is coming (finally)
uden10
Need to watch it for myself, that sounds pretty busted as far as abilities go.
IPoisonedDorcasMutton
It's balanced by Subaru (the main protag) being a total jobber for a good while lmao. He's a coward, a simp, and struggles with being selfish AF for the first few arcs. But he does eventually step the fuck up and grow a pair.
whitefoxkei
The witch who cursed him also threatens to crush his heart if he starts blabbing.
sellingmysoulforupvotes
Imagine if you died and that friend didn't kill himself to give you another chance. Dick.
CedricDur
I want this. Not from the point of view of the groundhogger since it has been done, double done ,triple done. I want it exactly as said here.
hairlessOrphan
Pretty sure the whole "well let's just redo it" angle means it won't be scary, it'll just be frustrating and tedious.
AliasPR
Re:zero would like to have a word with you. (It's actually a real good series that breaks down and depicts the true existential horror of respawning on death)
hairlessOrphan
No, I've read Re:zero. It is, as they say, one of the light novels of recent memory.
mifdsam
It'll only be frustrating and tedious for the person stuck in the loop. From the perspective of the other people, it'll be as if everything went perfectly once the loop breaks, and they won't have any recollection of the previous loops
Gelaticat
Congrats, you’ve pointed out one of the underlying and interesting psychological impacts of functional immortality. Tedium and boredom.
champagnetenor
Eh. You get used to it. Find joy in small things.
Gelaticat
Like Cham-paggin.
OscarFikes
Basically the power of Re:Zero's protagonist as well if you're down for an anime.
VinchVolt
Pretty sure the last leg of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable goes like this.
DanniLuxgarbe
Sort of?
PraiseAzathoth
They kinda did it in Red vs Blue. Wyoming kept looping time and Tucker was the only one fully aware of it. Near the end of every he kept calling shit out and telling people what to do cause he knew their plans wouldn't work and they would be knocked out and or killed.
MossyAbyss
"That's exactly what Jimmy kept screaming."
whitefoxkei
*Whack! Whack!*
"THIS DOESN'T SEEM PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE!"
exbenedict
*your
DrewThe3DPrinterGuy
I don't do comics but I asked a buddy who does if there any characters like this.
astromoondoggie
Rovdyr
There's an arc that Moira Mactaggert had a power that rewound time to her in utero, with all her memories intact
ChazzK
I thought it was jut back until her powers kicked in during childhood? Or was it theorized that if she died BEFORE that, she wouldn't reset?
Leucienweaver
Correct, she would die without it being reset.
YOURFRIEND2010
I miss Krakoa so much
ChazzK
Sadly, it died the death of all Marvel Mutant arcs: "they've been on the outs, lets make them ULTIMATE GODS, oh shit everyone thinks they're mary sues again, shit, scramble, ANOTHER MASACRE"
YOURFRIEND2010
It didn't have all the melodrama baggage from older x men comics. Krakoa made mutants interesting to me. It's a shame.
ChazzK
The fan outrage basically went "Okay, so everyone BUT SABERTOOTH is instantly forgive, all the mutants are good guys now including APOCALYPSE and SINISTER and are getting along, also they have near-perfect resurrection, and are living in paradise? Come on, stop jerking them off"
Honestly it FELT LIKE they were setting up a lot more 'under the surface' stuff that either got touched on and forgotten, or handled badly... like "Beast is suddenly super-extremist and insane"
abraxasfury
Wouldn't this eventually lead to an infinite time loop, when they get old and die of natural causes, or cancer or something like that?
maybeamonster
don't worry, the powers come from a 32 bit simulation. only a few billion tries to go. just don't accidentally struggle through the entire day or you're gonna reset the counter and have to do it all over again.
Gelaticat
You’ve just stumbled onto one of the underlying plots of the X-men comics House of X / Powers of X.
uden10
There was a similar ending in Returnal, though the actual loop starts at her crash landing regardless of how she dies.
PleasantPeasantPheasant
And that being when you find out you have this power to begin with.
Racavis
Eh, can handwave it away as "traumatic death" or "sudden death" causing the loop, not the slow entropic decline which comes for all of us
thropian
Slap on the usual super immunities (no sickness, recover from injuries that would debilitate for months/years in days/weeks.) and wrap the story up as a senile elder telling stories of things that never happened.
MithridateEupator
He has 1 day to cure old age. Hope he's good at biology.
alt86er
And then it's like when you saved too late in a computer game, the mistake was made a lot earlier. Everything is fucked up beyond repair already and the loop is eternal.
Leucienweaver
There's a TV show called the Lazarus Protocol, or something like that, where the world is 'saved' every 180 days, and whenever a group of clandestine soldiers fail a mission, they reset the world back to the reset day. I -think- it's a plot point that there's a counter team that has their resets desynced, so it becomes a cat and mouse game of which team wins.
NotSomoneElse68
I'm thinking, what is it's unavoidable? And they're stuck living the same day watching everyone die 1000s of times.
uden10
Just like those regenerating villains thrown into the Sun, it's a fate worse than death. On par with a villain from Bleach forced to endure his death in insanely slow motion, centuries from his perspective.
Blud4BludGod
*Thinks about some of those times I quicksaved in Fallout right as a grenade was landing next to me*
alt86er
Yep. Just like that. Forget that save, it won't help you. =)
CedricDur
That Nicolas Cage movie where he can see five minutes into the future. At the very end there's a nuclear explosion and five minutes is neither enough time to find and stop it nor get away from it.
MaverickTitan
“NEXT”.
Good movie.
NationalistCanadianMooseWarrior
.. come to think of it that would be inevitable eventually.
Legrooveth
Even just old age, what a bad day to relive forever
eeeewyucky
Yeah still haven’t found that OP power armour 🥲
bladderinfection
Futurama: Fry can go back in time to the point he starts falling.
worm61
If Fry was smart (lol), he would’ve used his tie and/or shoelaces as a rope to try to catch himself on the gargoyle right above where the time loop starts.
breadedfishstrip
Rick and Morty also with a quicksave device. Accidentally quickloads, then quicksaves at the wrong point and everythings fucked.
alcamar
Old age would be hell. In that case, would time ever be able to move on without them?
totallynotagoat
This is explored in a Korean comic 'hero has returned ' one of the main characters is trying to raise up a villain that can kill him permanently, though it could destroy the world after. Because if he doesn't die in a specific way, the world (and the universe) resets to when he was a teen.
Wasnbo
Most comic book superpowers have semantic safeguards for that kind of eventuality. The Human Torch is immune to fire, people with super strength have super resilience to endure their own power, and so on. The "Groundhog Day" power would probably only apply to violent external death. Old age and most terminal illnesses still lead to permanent unaliving.
alcamar
Yeah, a way to not delve into potentially darker consequences of such evolution.
That would suck to effectively live each life like you have another, just to find out you have cancer and nothing you can do will stop it. Would be a great story for unexpected cancer diagnosis, from the less naive stance of "that'll never happen to me".
paynoattentiontousernames
In Marvel comics, Moira Taggert is born again when she dies. She retains all knowledge she gains from previous lives. Some how she learns there's a limit to how many times she can be born again.
paynoattentiontousernames
This leads to the nation Krakoa and lots of shenanigans, including Mr.Sinister cloning her and using her clones to try out shit, reset the timeline and change shit up. And then it gets weird.
imperfectregulator
Not only is she born again, but she basically takes the entire universe with her when she does so, creating a new prime timeline/universe
artrald
I, too, have played Life is Strange
JimmyWalkerTexasRanger
apneax3n0n
Which episode was ? I never Remember
JimmyWalkerTexasRanger
If you are referring to the time loop episode, it is S4 E6 Window of Opportunity.
apneax3n0n
Ty
YeroctheBarbarian
Joker: Well there’s the loophole then. All I have to do is not kill you. Let’s see if you can live without your arms and legs.
nobletrex
“What about their legs? They don’t need their legs.”
Relicanth
I feel like you tell other people you can predict the future fairly accurately instead. They don't need to know how it works, just to listen to you if you start acting really weird.
Neurisko
You could always Million Dollar Baby yourself and chew off your own tongue and bleed to death.
apneax3n0n
Joker would cut It to avoid this
Leucienweaver
So, this is actually a plot for a character with a very similar Groundhog power in Marvel; Moira McTaggart. For the LONGEST time, she didn't have a mutant superpower (Like... 50 years+ of storytelling) and then in the last six years, it came out that she had universe ending Groundhog powers. When she dies, the universe resets to the time she's born, and she can do different decisions. One solution was to figure out ways to restrain her without killing her.
luckybreak91
I mean, that's worse than pointless because she'll still die eventually, she'll just really hate you specifically next time. Brainwashing her or making her immortal seem like better solutions.
Leucienweaver
Oh, that's the thing. She -is- functionally immortal, as a part of her mutation. I ran out of room on the original comment. She can't get naturally sick or suffer from natural diseases, and has a MINOR healing factor to prevent little damage from taking her out. In one of her lives, she is one of two last living humans in a robot 'utopia' at a sanctuary for humans. The other is wolverine. A hundred years into the future.
gailforcewinds
MstrES
The hero is prepared for this, cyanide pills which no one knows about, because why would he tell someone in the first place? Gotta have a fail safe somewhere.
secretdpp
Remember the tooth my lord
MadCat221
Cyanide capsules hidden in molars. (sharp inhale)... Primitive. Ocular nerve flashbangs harder to disarm.
YeroctheBarbarian
*one seemingly random day* “What’s wrong with groundhog man he seems so down today?” “Oh apparently on of his cyanide teeth was defective and broke halfway through the day yesterday killing him. Said it took him 100 tries before he could figure out what actually killed him.”
nobletrex
I totally read this in Jeffrey Coombs voice from his stint in JLU as the Question.
Trisar
Question? No, no, no. No more questions. All the questions have been asked that need asking. All that's left is to act. And... has to be me. Someone else might get it wrong.
IconicM
Or just learn when they wake up and kill them the instant they wake up. They'd reset to that exact momemt and never have time to react so they'd be stuck in the loop.
Stefnos
everyone would be stuck in the loop thoe... so nothing would ever happen again
IconicM
I guess it depends which version of time travel you're using. For instance in Star Trek when the ship is caught in a loop everything else in the universe keeps going. That's basically what I was picturing...
TacTheScribbler
"Dormammu, I've come to bargain!"
LupusLilium
Urgh, I forgot what it was in. But there was someone with a sort of 'flashback' skill, their death sends them 6hrs back in time in order to adjust things so they don't end up in a situation they die in. When the main characters figured it out they put a plan in motion that'd KO the skill user for longer than their trip back in time and then murder them, leaving them in an endless death loop.
JustBoone
Check out the light novel "All you need is Kill" and the movie adaptation Edge of Tommorow for this exact setup. Protagonist dies and loops back to the same day over and over till he gets good enough to win. Also powered armor and giant battle axes used to smash the alien menace cause fuck yeah that's awesome!
Nykidemus
There's a novelization of All You Need Is Kill and it's *great*
JustBoone
Yeah I have the light novel, the Manga, the comic book and the movie! You could say I'm a fan lol.
xmaneds
came here for the comment of Edge of Tomorrow, +1 to JustBoone
xizar
I thought to myself "oh is that the Tom Selleck" movie, realized it was the wrong tom, and was sad.
TypicallyVigo
Yeah, the mid point where it's just an uncounted number of resets montage with the MC getting slowly more and more lifeless and sunken was pretty soul crushing to read. i definitely recommend , good read.
HerrBisch
I really enjoyed Edge of Tomorrow because of the fact that it did away with the trope of main character plot armour ... until the third act where he lost his ability to restart the day and was suddenly magically bullet proof.
JustBoone
Yeah the book is different, no happy ending there.
CarlBassett
The thing is, what if it doesn't reset the day but creates an alternative timeline every time? If so there are a few hundred timelines where Emily Blunt's soldier is court martialled for shooting Tom Cruise in the head for no reason. There's actually a hint that this happens, as one time he's crushed when rolling under the truck in camp we see the sergeant and the squad react to his death.
Markuspsyches
Or it means he didn't die instantly. I don't recall if they showed much of the body after crushing or just their reaction to it.
MichaelLC
I'm sorry, I think you mean the movie, Live. Die. Repeat
tschallacka
The perfect run
DreamingOfDistantShores
On the nerdy side of things, the anime Re:Zero plays with the idea of this as well, plus 'save points' that sometimes screw the protagonist over right after something happens. Fair warning: It's a common not-really-joke that the show is "Protag suffering: The anime" for a reason. But it does have some clever moments as well.
BlueDsc
I like how in Isekai Quartet, Ainz of all people wonders just how much suffering Subaru has endured to be the way he is.
vegivamp
I do love how he starts off thinking he's just GOT to be overpowered now that he's been isekaied...
shitheadtookmyname
It's also similar to a superpower in miraculous ladybug called Second Chance, except it's at will but you can only back up five minutes not a whole day. One character used it 26,000 times trying to save one girl, meaning he spent months awake reliving variations of the same five minutes, her dying thousands of times. Fanfiction has had a field day exploring this idea from a show meant for kids.
WibblyWobblyTimeyWimeyFox
Boss Level was kinda this, and pretty great.
shammael
+1 for Boss Level. Went in without expecting much and loved it.
Archaon6044
fknbastard
Perfect loop?
Elwendryll
I recently started a webtoon with the same general concept, "The knight only lives today".
BabyWitchErika
or, even better. Mother of learning on golden road. You'll thank me later.
MajorasTerribleFate
.
78927x4No1
.
SillySnowFox
Also the Netflix series Russian Doll.
GiddyKipper
Loved the book
TheEleventhHand
Oblivion is another Tom Cruise vehicle that as far as I know didn't get a lot of love, but it's just so oddly touching and good, and the story is pretty unique. Bonus Morgan Freeman as well.
vegivamp
Nothing whatsoever to do with groundhog Day mechanics, though, which was the whole point.
RadioactiveNerfDart
His entire life was kind of a groundhogs day, tho.
TheEleventhHand
I replied to the wrong comment, sorry to be off topic.
RadioactiveNerfDart
That art direction in that movie is so good. The place where they live, the thing he flies around in, the crazy murder balls with the sick audio design….it is all pretty great.
uden10
Also has a manga adaptation, if you prefer
blisfulloblivion
For web comic, try SSS Class Suicide Hunter. Korean web comic based on a novel that has an English translation.
78927x4No1
.
Eddafred
I was going to suggest this. One of the few comics that has made me ugly cry in the best way possible.
blisfulloblivion
It gets really intense in the best ways. The main character has an amazing amount of character growth. It's wild remembering when early him was a hero obsessed creeper and comparing early him to the amazing person he develops into. He goes through some rough and traumatizing events to get there but he does it through an impressive amount of will power.
Vloudimestre
I'd like to recommend The first fifteen lives of Harry August. When Harry dies, he always returns to where he began, as a baby, with memory of previous loops slowly emerging around 6 years old. Great to avoid errors, find old friends you can trust and avoid enemies with the same gift.
williamfny
They did this in The Magicians and was a really good episode.
IDropTheBombs
One of the best book series with this premise is Mother of Learning. It starts off a little slow, but the world building and the storytelling are just great.
illmakemyownbenderwithblackjackandhookers
.
EroticZombiePants
That was a better movie than I expected it to be going in.
RoyalWithChz
Weren’t they more like giant cleaver/choppers? Reminds of the swords used in Gears of War
JustBoone
In the movie Rita had a chopper/sword thing but the light novel and Manga it was an actual giant battle axe made from armor plating of an aircraft carrier iirc. And when I say big ass axe I mean it was 480 pounds of tungsten carbide that required power armor to lift and could literally twist you in half if you swung it and had the inertia compensator in the armor kick in and try to correct your movement. Which it did, hence why Rita and Keiji took them out in their armor.
RoyalWithChz
Fucking rad. Thanks for the lesson.
whatspaulplayingtoday
See, I love this movie, but I like this spin on it. You're not the person in the loop. You're an outside observer. That'd be crazy.
ChikaChickaBowWow
But wouldn't it also mean that you yourself repeat the days on which you die but just without the memory of having lived the day previously?
whatspaulplayingtoday
Yup. That's the crux of the frame: The main character starts to realize what's going on, even with the memory wipe.
EternallyIgnorant
Im imagining a show a bit like Seinfeld where everyone are pretty normal people, although it could be focused around a group of superheroes, but then there is a "Kramer" type insane person doing weird random shit. Sometimes just super stressed out, or jumps out a window, or whatever random shit.
tentacularfleshscape
Russian Doll
EternallyIgnorant
Yeah but that is following the person doing the time warp, like groundhogs day. Been awhile since Ive seen it but i think Im remembering correctly. Good show though lol.
tentacularfleshscape
Season 1 was amazing
Tumescentpie
I think this post helps solve the issue of an outside observer being mind wiped between loops. Imagine groundhog day from Ned's perspective.
I think palm springs did a pretty great job with this, especially because it is possible that the main characters aren't the only one in the loop.
uden10
Something like this happened in a The Batman episode called Seconds. Granted, unlike Groundhog Day the guy could control when he wants a reset and can only rewind a certain amount of minutes/seconds instead of a full day.
whatspaulplayingtoday
I'm not familiar with Palm Springs, I'll have to check it out.
MajorasTerribleFate
Do
Sageypie
Palm Springs goes surprisingly hard on the psychology and morality of a groundhog day style time loop. Mobie presents itself as this romcom with the twist being the time loop, and ends up diving into things like what that kind of thing actually does to a person mentally.
Someshithead241
Does the light novel have the power come from the aliens too? Cos.. if the aliens had the ability to do time line that and it's their blood in him activitating the instinct in the omega... why don't the aliens also remember and adapt like he is also doing?
He shouldn't be able to remember what they are going to do because they should be remembering too.
JustBoone
Yes the time loop power comes from the mimics (which are an alien biomechanical terraforming engine) specifically it comes from being in direct contact with an "antenna" mimic when it dies dragging you into the network that controls them. This essentially turns you into a new antenna unit but independent of the hive mind thus allowing an inexperienced soldier like Keiji and Rita to loop and get years of experience in seemingly a single battle.
Gelaticat
They do. IIRC they end up using it against him and it’s something like aliens made an error, protagonist starts playing 4d chess against the aliens, but they’ve been playing much longer than him and he blunders into some of their gambits? Pretty sure the movie showed something similar, too. But it’s been a really long time since I’ve read or watched either.
Someshithead241
The movie has it sending him visions to mislead him one place but that's really the only instance of them tricking him in any way.
Gelaticat
I thought the aliens were deliberately blocking him every step of the way because they were keyed in to his loops (ie, there was no way he was ever going to succeed because they’d inevitably know what he was doing next), and the main reason he finally succeeded on the final attempt was because he was out of the loops and tried something completely different that the aliens didn’t expect? Or maybe I’m conflating some different stories. Either way I guess it’s time for a rewatch/reread!
Someshithead241
As far as I remember, they were just hard to get passed. But he took hundreds of loops to learn their patterns, which is something that wouldn't happen if they were changing to thwart him
gotohe11carolina
Even though it’s got, nuttier than a Stuckey’s pecan log, Tom Cruise being even more extra than normal, I do really like that movie.
Heisanevilgenius
It might be my favourite Tom Cruise movie and it's definitely my favourite movie I've seen him in since I realized how much I can't stand Tom Cruise
JustBoone
I love all the ways he dies in the movie, the squeak as he gets run over by the truck when trying to escape drills is hilarious.
PrecogFrogOnALog
When i saw that movie in the theater, a random guy came over and asked me what made me want to watch it. I told him I'll watch just about anything with Emily Blunt in it. He said he just wanted to watch Tom Cruise die a lot.
Wasnbo
It's funny watching him get the shit kicked outta him, but, he's got an amazing 1000-yard stare that sells the soul-crushing weight of all those resets. And that's the nicest thing I'll ever say about Cruise.
Isthe4thtimethecharm
I hate Tom cruise but he does make good movies.
laserfork
One of Bill Paxton's last roles too I guess. Emily Blunt was also good in that. And Locke.
tzen003
I was going to mention the late great Bill Paxton in it. "Sergeant, you're an American--" "No, Sir! I'm from Kentucky!"
Talligan
Tom Cruise is fucking insane but one of the most entertaining actors to watch on screen. He does a great job with this movie.
Qualtagh
Tom Cruise is weird, but he's good at what he does.
Delathi
See also: Gwynneth Paltrow
vegivamp
Yeah, he's quite good at being weird.
MeowWoof
It's all the times you get to watch Cruise die in wild and creative ways, right? That's what did it for me.
vegivamp
Well, I'm about to light up and you've convinced me to watch it again 😁
StarscreamAndHutch
Agreed. Very satisfying.
MeowWoof
They went through so many different titles on that film that I'm surprised "Tom Cruise gets shot in the face a lot" didn't get a turn.