Free-Will-Cycle in Time-Loop Narratives

This session explores the interplay between chance, fate and free will, through game-like structures in time-loop narratives in cinema. It will focus on films such as Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run (1998), Harold Ramis’s Groundhog Day (1993), and Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe’s Two Distant Strangers (2020), to examine how these works incorporate elements of ludology (the study of games) through a video-game-inspired structure. The discussion will also address the racial dynamics of time-loop storytelling, highlighting how white protagonists often break free from the loop (raising questions about agency and choice) while Black characters are frequently trapped in cycles of repeated trauma. This invites inquiry into whether the time-loop, as a narrative device, functions as a racially coded mechanism that reinforces systemic oppression. Fate and free will also be considered through other films that incorporate elements of gaming, including Miloš Forman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) which reaches a 50 year anniversary in 2025.