Putting together a history of time-loop plots.

[Jemini]

Does the movie Source Code (2011) count?

Synopsis: "Helicopter pilot Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) is part of a top-secret military operation that enables him to experience the last few minutes in the life of Sean Fentress, a man who died in a commuter-train explosion. The purpose of Colter's mission is to learn the identity of the bomber and prevent a similar catastrophe. As Colter lives Sean's final moments, he becomes more certain that he can prevent the first tragedy from occurring -- as long as he doesn't run out of time."

That synopsis is enough to raise eyebrows on the subject, but I would have to actually watch the movie to be certain.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Russian visual novel(date-sim) Everlasting Summer. In one of the endings, we meet with a different version of mc who tells us the truth. And the truth is we are in a time loop, but unlike him, we forget all the tries while he remembers everything.

Though it depends on the definition, Prince of Persia(the trilogy) has time loops.

Xena: Warrior Princess had an episode with a time loop.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

The Star Diaries by Stanislaw Lem. I think there was one short story about a time loop, or maybe two, but I'm not sure. I read it around ten years ago, so I might be wrong.

The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World by Harry Harrison. Same. I'm not 100% sure if this book is about the time loop, but I remember there was something about time travel.

Wikipedia says that Strange Life of Ivan Osokin by P. D. Ouspensky has a time loop, but I haven't read it. Though if it does, it was published in 1915!!! Damn.

 

[Jemini]

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

No, that one is quite solidly in time-travel territory, not time-loop. If you have the ability to meet your past self, it is automatically disqualified from the definition of time-loop.

Don't know anything about the rest of the items on your list. Care to self-evaluate them based on the info I just gave there? In order to qualify as a time-loop, the world has to completely re-set. Any past iterations of the time-looping person have to be fully erased and replaced with the version that remembers the past loop, thus completely removing any chance of meeting their own past self. (With exceptions like the "Cause and Effect" episode of Star Trek TNG potentially blurring the lines a little since it was sending generalized diffuse memories back through the loop that could be picked up on by random people in the form of a sense of deja-vu.)

Point is, time-travel and time-loop are two definitionally different mechanics. They both involve time, but the rules between the two are different and do need to be kept distinct.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

No, that one is quite solidly in time-travel territory, not time-loop. If you have the ability to meet your past self, it is automatically disqualified from the definition of time-loop.

Don't know anything about the rest of the items on your list. Care to self-evaluate them based on the info I just gave there? In order to qualify as a time-loop, the world has to completely re-set. Any past iterations of the time-looping person have to be fully erased and replaced with the version that remembers the past loop, thus completely removing any chance of meeting their own past self. (With exceptions like the "Cause and Effect" episode of Star Trek TNG potentially blurring the lines a little since it was sending generalized diffuse memories back through the loop that could be picked up on by random people in the form of a sense of deja-vu.)

Point is, time-travel and time-loop are two definitionally different mechanics. They both involve time, but the rules between the two are different and do need to be kept distinct.

I'll be honest I don't quite get what you mean here. I was looking at the Wikipedia definition. "The time loop or temporal loop is a plot device in fiction whereby characters re-experience a span of time which is repeated, sometimes more than once, with some hope of breaking out of the cycle of repetition." And TV Tropes definition. "A plot in which the character is caught in a time loop, doomed to repeat a period of time (often exactly one day) over and over, until something is corrected." As you can see, both have no mentions of past iterations.

But if you want to use your definition, I am not sure if anything counts as I can't remember. Maybe Xena's episode counts. She repeated one day a few times, and she didn't meet herself. You can probably say that Prince of Persia counts if you look at the whole trilogy. However, in the second game, he meets himself, which means Prince gets disqualified, right?

I don't remember if Stainless Steel Rat and Star Diaries count, as I've read them long ago. Strange Life didn't read, can't evaluate.

Everlasting Summer, don't know. You meet other iterations of MC to learn that you are actually in a time loop. The other iteration of MC states that you are in a time loop, BUT... According to your definitions, I guess it gets disqualified because you meet the other iteration.

As I said, I'm not sure if I understood your criteria correctly as I'm stupid. Sorry that I couldn't help. Maybe someone else will clarify and help you evaluate what I've mentioned.

 

[Jemini]

I'll be honest I don't quite get what you mean here. I was looking at the Wikipedia definition. "The time loop or temporal loop is a plot device in fiction whereby characters re-experience a span of time which is repeated, sometimes more than once, with some hope of breaking out of the cycle of repetition." And TV Tropes definition. "A plot in which the character is caught in a time loop, doomed to repeat a period of time (often exactly one day) over and over, until something is corrected." As you can see, both have no mentions of past iterations.

But if you want to use your definition, I am not sure if anything counts as I can't remember. Maybe Xena's episode counts. She repeated one day a few times, and she didn't meet herself. You can probably say that Prince of Persia counts if you look at the whole trilogy. However, in the second game, he meets himself, which means Prince gets disqualified, right?

I don't remember if Stainless Steel Rat and Star Diaries count, as I've read them long ago. Strange Life didn't read, can't evaluate.

Everlasting Summer, don't know. You meet other iterations of MC to learn that you are actually in a time loop. The other iteration of MC states that you are in a time loop, BUT... According to your definitions, I guess it gets disqualified because you meet the other iteration.

As I said, I'm not sure if I understood your criteria correctly as I'm stupid. Sorry that I couldn't help. Maybe someone else will clarify and help you evaluate what I've mentioned.

The time-looper meeting their past self is more of a general rule of thumb for an elimination test. What you just stated there in the Wikipedia definition is the rule. What I stated is a test. The definition of a time loop inherently precludes the ability for you to meet your past self, but the definition of time travel DOES allow for this possibility. Therefore, if that particular event ever happens, then that automatically places it in the time-travel category and eliminates it from the time-loop category.

I am not saying all time-travel plots involve the protagonist meeting their past selves. It is entirely possible to have a time-travel plot without that event. However, time-travel at least makes it possible, whereas time-loops do not allow for it as a possibility.

 

[Cipiteca396]

Everlasting Summer, don't know. You meet other iterations of MC to learn that you are actually in a time loop. The other iteration of MC states that you are in a time loop, BUT... According to your definitions, I guess it gets disqualified because you meet the other iteration.

This may still qualify. The time loop is being interrupted from outside, but that doesn't stop it from being a time loop.

The key for this trope is that the character is repeating the same events over and over. They wake up, experience their day, die, then wake up again on the exact same day. There's no chance to meet themselves because they are themselves.

As long as that happens, it's a time loop. However, the thing that makes it this trope is that the character(or player, for fourth wall breaking examples) can change what happens during the loop. The Prisoner of Azkaban example is a stable time loop, meaning the events that happen during the loop have to happen the exact same way every time it loops. That's where the 'loop' in the name comes from. The timeline ends up looking like this after you're done.

It is possible to travel back in time and then initiate the time loop, like in Prisoner, which means you could end up meeting your past self. But since you've only got one chance, it's not the same trope as Groundhog day. Unless, of course, you start to get deja-vu and realize you've been trapped in a stable time loop for a few years. That's the plot of Madoka and the X-Files episode I mentioned, with the protagonist starting to dream of their past lives despite not being the looper.

Doctor Who S18 E2

The one with an evil cactus and trypophobia. Plus the return of a former companion, but not in the way you'd expect. Written by John Flanagan and Andrew McCulloch. This four-episode serial first aired from September 27 to October 18, 1980. On the …

tvtropes.org

 

[Echimera]

The time-looper meeting their past self is more of a general rule of thumb for an elimination test. What you just stated there in the Wikipedia definition is the rule. What I stated is a test. The definition of a time loop inherently precludes the ability for you to meet your past self, but the definition of time travel DOES allow for this possibility. Therefore, if that particular event ever happens, then that automatically places it in the time-travel category and eliminates it from the time-loop category.

I am not saying all time-travel plots involve the protagonist meeting their past selves. It is entirely possible to have a time-travel plot without that event. However, time-travel at least makes it possible, whereas time-loops do not allow for it as a possibility.

I think the confusion comes from the fact that one model used in time travel stories uses stable time loops, where everything the time traveler do already happened (either completely offscreen or from a perspective where it's not clear that it's time travel).

This is obviously different from the recurring time loops you are looking for, but the common terminology unfortunately doesn't distinguish between the two types of time loops.
Yesterday, I was about to suggest the Perry Rhodan series, which has a stable time loop of a paltry 18 Million years and multiple smaller ones nested within, but your examples made it clear that that's not the time loops you are looking for. (Still decided to flex on most other time travel stories.)

 

[Jemini]

I think the confusion comes from the fact that one model used in time travel stories uses stable time loops, where everything the time traveler do already happened (either completely offscreen or from a perspective where it's not clear that it's time travel).

This is obviously different from the recurring time loops you are looking for, but the common terminology unfortunately doesn't distinguish between the two types of time loops.
Yesterday, I was about to suggest the Perry Rhodan series, which has a stable time loop of a paltry 18 Million years and multiple smaller ones nested within, but your examples made it clear that that's not the time loops you are looking for. (Still decided to flex on most other time travel stories.)

That's called the boot-strapping model of time-travel. And, no, it's not actually considered a time-loop. Just about any time-travel officianado would call what you are talking about boot-strapping. It is a term that has existed since the early days of the trope's existence, and it is not until fairly recently that the far less precise term "stable time-loop" was even used in reference to this. And, as evidenced by the confusion created here, that's a term that truely should not be used in this instance due to the confusion it creates with time-loop stories.

A term is automatically bad if the same exact term could easily be talking about two completely different and unrelated things. So, since the term "boot-strapping" already exists, and the time-loops I'm talking about are ONLY referred to as time-loops and have no alternative name, and the wikipedia definition of time-loop literally and specifically refers to the exact plot model I'm discussing here, I believe it's fairly obvious which one should keep the title and which one should drop it.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

I hate time loops.
Okay, to go back, you remember everything.
Information is stored as energy. Therefore, every time you loop, you are either:

1. Slowly pushing out old memories, which means, sooner or later, you will develop Time Loop Senility where you are in an even GREATER meta-loop where your eventually start repeating actions you tried in the past because you forgot you tried them, and therefore believe you can still change the loop, when in reality, you are likely trapped in Time loop Hell.

2. Never forgetting anything, because, after all, your memories are being sent back in time, ergo, you should never forget anything as your old self is rewritten on each loop. Therefore, you are slowly gathering more and more energy inside your brain until you finally die from overheating, at which point you will loop, die, loop die, LoopDieLoopDieLoopDie... Eventually the loop will just be you spontaneously exploding at the start of the loop a near infinite number of times until the explosion is basically destroying the world, then growing bigger and bigger and bigger until it forms a kugelblitz, you collapse into a black hole which nothing can escape from and if we are lucky, you become a blackhole and vanish WITHOUT taking the entire planet with you.

 

[Echimera]

Oh, I just remembered Stargate SG1 had a time loop episode: 'Window of Opportunity'
Only two of the characters remember the loops and have to convince everyone else time and time again.
Also, both of them

• Surpass the local linguist in the alien language of the machine the causes the loop (which is then never used or brought up again)
• Go a little bit bonkers for a while from the repetotions (which si.ilarly has none of the ramifications it should have after the episode)

The most interesting thing for this list is that the loop was localized on a (still very big) section of space, while time went on normally for the rest of the galaxy (and presumably the universe as a whole), as indicated by the i formation that their allies have tried to and failed to contact earth for multiple months by this point.
Again, it doesn't really have the ramifications it should have on the wider plot, but that's somewhat normal for many one-off episodes.