Palm Springs

While stuck in a time loop, two wedding guests develop a budding romance as they re-live the same day over and over again.

The film begins with Nyles being woken up by his girlfriend Misty. They’re in a Palm Springs hotel for the wedding of Misty’s best friend, Tala, and it’s clear right away that Nyles isn’t feeling any of this. It might be because of his life in general, it might be because he is obviously less interested in his girlfriend than he used to be, or it might be because he is stuck at a resort wedding where everyone knows him only as "Misty’s boyfriend." Still, mildly depressed or not, he seems resigned to his fate, as he lazily goes about his day with a disinterested air as the wedding prep happens all around him.

And yet… he also seems to be weirdly in complete control of the entire affair. Nothing seems to surprise him. He’s ready for everything. He gives a killer speech at the reception. Still, he’s clearly bored with the whole event, almost as if he were moving by muscle memory, navigating the wedding’s drunken revelry with a self-serving and indulgent ease that suggests the guests are naught but his puppets, and that he is somehow their puppet master, nay… their god.

Sarah, meanwhile, is the bride's older sister and the Maid of Honor, and she too seems resigned to being there. She is also obviously depressed and feeling kinda shitty about her life in general. Mostly because, like Nyles, she is also stuck here, but for her, this means being stuck with her family, who all think of her as fuck-up who drinks too much, mostly because she’s a fuck-up who drinks too much.

As the festivities roll on, and she gets deeper and deeper into her cups, Sarah finds that she is intrigued by Nyles.

At this point, this is all feeling like the pretty typical opening of a pretty typical Rom-Com. Sure, maybe this one is a bit more zany than most Rom-Coms, a bit more edgy perhaps, but still…

It seems like a pretty typical rom-com.

But then… as the two outcasts bond over drinks and depression and gallows humor, finding a connection in their shared despondency, their drunken make-out session out amongst the desert rocks is suddenly interrupted when Nyles is shot in the shoulder by an arrow.

“I thought I smelled you, you piece of shit!” Nyles bellows in anger and pain as a camouflaged man, armed with a bow, comes out of the bushes. Nyles runs off. The man with the bow chases after him. 

Sarah is understandably terrified and confused.

The man with the bow is Roy, and he and Nyles obviously know each other in a way that implies the long bond of family members who see each other often, but don’t really like each other. Nyles manages to lose Roy in the desert scrublands, but before Roy gives up the chase, he yells into the night that Nyles can run all he wants, but Roy promises that he’ll always find him. And with that, Roy heads into a strangely glowing nearby cave. Nyles soon follows, groaning and crawling, because he’s been stuck with arrows. Sarah, who has been watching all of this while hiding in the bushes, rushes after Nyles to help, but he begs her not to follow him, right before the cave sucks him in, and he is woken up by Misty once again, in the exact same way that we have already seen.

Because Nyles is stuck in an infinite time loop, forced to relive an endless cycle of the same day, over and over, stuck at a Palm Springs resort wedding, every day the same as before, so… it’s basically hell.

Nyles has been stuck in this loop for hundreds of years, maybe even thousands, and at this point, he knows everyone in the surrounding area. Literally everyone. He’s partied with all of them. He knows their hopes and dreams and secret desires. He’s had sex with a lot of them. Once, long ago, he made the mistake of bringing Roy with him, but that didn't go well, and the two have been at murderous odds ever since. Now, he's just resigned. Resigned to living every day, again and again, over and over, dying and waking up, or falling asleep and waking up, and always on the same day. He's resigned to the fact that Palm Springs is just his world now, and he knows every nook and cranny of it. But it’s been a long time, and Nyles has grown bored and very tired, an ancient and wizened creature, impossibly old, who can barely remember what his life was like as a mortal man, before he became this disinterested god stuck in a temporal box, doomed to exist forever, but only right then, only in this moment, only this day, right now, forever…

Over and over.

But this time, as Niles‘s day begins in the exact same way it always does, as he resignedly gives in to the well-worn choreography of his morning, something new happens… A wild-eyed Sarah confronts him! She is now reliving the day too. And thus, Sarah begins her journey, trodding the same well-worn path that Nyles has walked many times, a path he long ago gave up on…

How do they break the cycle? How do they get home? How do they ever see tomorrow again? Sarah tries every option, considers all possibilities, vacillating between altruism, hedonism, and nihilism, giving into the darkness for awhile, and then leaning hard into embracing a life of death-defying daring-do with no consequences, or maybe spending days on end on absolute nonsense, like learning a choreographed dance number to perform, unasked for, in a bar of local desert trash. For a time, the duo lives a life together where anything is possible, and they are only limited by their imaginations (and by how long they can stay awake), because no matter what, nothing ever changes. It's a life of constant resets, an endless slog of clean slates, and all with the constant threat of all-consuming ennui looming just over the horizon. Sarah tries everything Nyles has ever done and thought, and she fails in all the same ways he has too. 

But then... maybe Sarah brings fresh eyes too, a different perspective. Maybe she has some new ideas, maybe she thought of a few things to try Nyles hasn’t...

Maybe.

Palm Springs came out a few years ago, another film in the "stuck in a time-loop" genre, and it measures up pretty well against some pretty impressive entries.

There’s Russian Doll Season 1 and 2, of course. I love Natasha Lyonne. There’s the surprisingly good Happy Deathday, and it’s pretty decent follow up, Happy Deathday 2U. There’s Source Code, which really is pretty great, even if it should have ended ten-ish minutes before it actually does. Then there’s the absolutely fantastic Edge of Tomorrow, a film that was so terribly titled, it’s now being called Live, Die, Repeat in some places. And finally, last but certainly not least, there’s the king of them all, Groundhog Day, an all time classic.

The key always lies in how the story is actually told, of course, but a "Stuck in a Time Loop" story usually centers on a character’s journey from mindlessness to mindfulness, from selfishness to selflessness, and it uses its main character as a way to illustrate how a person can become more aware of how they are living their lives, of the suffering of others, of how their actions can harm people, and how the decisions they make have consequences. Becoming more aware like this usually not only allows the characters to break free from the toxic rut their lives had fallen into before they actually fell into the time loop, but the sudden lack of choices that is imposed on them by the time loop (despite seemingly having infinite choices when they're in the loop) is what ultimately puts them on the path to consciously choosing to be a better, more selfless person, and this is usually the impetus that then frees them from the prison that is the time loop, allowing them a kind of rebirth into a new life.

It’s all about the cycle of samsara, where an enlightened being breaks free from the cycle of death and rebirth, achieving liberation from all karma and the suffering it causes, and then… I don’t know… ascend to Heaven, or whatever.

Palm Springs is no different in this regard, all while being a genuinely romantic, clever, touching, and funny film, one that is filled with unexpected moments, even for the time loop genre, as well as unexpected character development. It is absurd and yet tender, going for both broad laughs and moments of bittersweet humanity, as it illustrating the sorrow and helplessness and loneliness that so many can feel, all while being surrounded by a sea of humanity.

In a nutshell, Palm Springs is fun and sweet, a nice little comedy about finding your love and happiness, and about taking a chance on the unknown. I saw it when it came out a few years ago, and it always stuck with me, so I've meant to rewatch it, and now that I have, I’m glad I did, because it holds up really nicely.

If you haven’t seen it, you should check it out. Or if you’ve already seen it, maybe watch it again… and again… and again…