_edited.png)
Examining Time Loops Through "Palm Springs"
- myra dodd
- Oct 25
- 6 min read
I've been pretty stressed lately so I thought I would throw on Palm Springs (2020) and steer more of my thoughts toward time loop shenanigans.
I've always loved thinking through time loop scenarios. There is something so freeing about the ability to see how any action would play out without having to deal with the long term consequences. It almost trumps the existential dread, devastating loneliness, and how stagnant your life would become. Almost. Palm Springs has my all-time favorite depiction of time loops, and it also happens to be one of my all-time favorite movies.
What subverts Palm Springs from other Groundhog Day-type formulas is the fact that we get to view how multiple characters fare under the circumstances. Nyles, Sarah, and Roy were all brought into the time loop at different times. Sarah, who we follow from loop one through the typical stages of disbelief and recklessness. Nyles, who has been in the loop for an indiscriminately long amount of time and has adopted the mindset of living as peacefully as he can. And Roy, who has reached a blissful acceptance with an occasional habit of enacting vengeful but therapeutic violence against Nyles.
It's hard to separate time loops from a metaphor for depression. You're trapped alone in a cycle where every day you live feels the same, and it feels like there is nothing you can do to change it. I believe a big reason that Palm Springs resonated with so many people was its 2020 release date. Watching Nyles and Sarah find themselves and each other within the loop makes for an emotionally satisfying journey at a time when we were all thrown into a new monotonous hell alone.
Nyles is a fascinating character because his entire identity has become so intertwined with the time loop. He doesn't care to look back; he can't even remember the job he had before. He sees no point in dwelling on the past when this day is all he has. We see Sarah struggle to relate to this mindset as she believes you can only truly know someone after learning where they came from. Nyles's mindset becomes detached from his life outside of the loop because in his world, it truly doesn't matter. What is there to improve about a day you've lived thousands of times? At first, we don't see Nyles find much excitement in anything. Any way that Sarah can think of to break the cycle, he has already tried. It isn't until Sarah is inserted into his routine that we see him begin to break from his fog and become visibly happier. He now has something to look forward to, something to challenge his view, and someone to motivate him with the fact that things could get better. Sarah redefines what Nyle's life could be and gives it a whole new meaning, but for Sarah, it's a tragedy that she cannot stand to wake up in it anymore.
Sarah starts every morning in bed with her sister's fiancé. Every loop that resets, she is stuck with one of her greatest mistakes; she lives in them, unable to move on, in a cycle of self-loathing. One of Sarah's first attempts to break from the loop was morally. Sarah figured that if she confronted her sister's fiancé that the cycle would end. Sarah focused on her one action instead of the attitude of the underlying cause, which was never as easy to fix. So instead of breaking free, she is stuck forever with the mindset of being a failure and the family that led her there in the first place. Without the ability to distance herself, she is quite literally stuck within the confines of her mistakes.
Throughout the final act, Sarah and Nyles are almost working against each other. Without Sarah, we watch Nyles fall back into the cycle of miserable monotony, but without Nyles, we watch Sarah settle on a goal once again. (My interpretation falls apart a bit when Sarah learns quantum physics and sciences her way out, but hey, another fun concept from the time loop and it is a comedy after all. ) In fact, even when Sarah presents him with a tangible way out, Nyles doesn't want to leave. He becomes so comfortable in his routine that the idea of breaking it is frightening, even if he doesn't want to admit it.
Time loops pose the question of what you would do if no one were watching. Would you uphold the standards of society that you've lived with your whole life? Would you break the mold and indulge yourself in your greatest inhibitions? What even are your greatest inhibitions? Most of the time, the harm that time loop characters cause doesn't extend past themselves. Even if it is not spoken, we understand that there is a clear line between harming yourself and inflicting that harm on others. But what if now you can? Is that something you would even want to do? Why would you? But why not? If nothing around you can truly change, is there any harm in it at all?
Palm Springs explores this in a few different ways. Nyles tells Sarah that "pain is real." Even if nothing else is, you and others can still feel it. In the moment, this is to dissuade her from experimenting with dying and enacting revenge on Roy. Although this is taken literally, I do think that Nyles means it just as much internally as physically. Nyles tends to spend his days this far into the loop as uneventfully as possible. Anything else is too much work, and he has already done that. Anything risky or out of the ordinary could come with unintended consequences. "Pain is real," and you have to live with it. In a time loop, you are all you have. There is an understanding that, despite the monotony, the perceived meaninglessness, and the inherent nihilism, that your actions will still change you. Inflicting harm on others would change Sarah a a person, whether there is a consequence or not. Despite everything you do, it is still you. No matter if it is all undone the next day, you are the one who has to live with it. Time loops are about who you are when no one is watching, and that defines who you are more than anything else.
Weirdly enough, despite his lack of screen time, Roy presents both the most wholesome and sinister take on the loop. We are first introduced to Roy is when he unexpectedly shoots an arrow through Nyles's shoulder. We learn that he is constantly hunting down Nyles as an act of revenge for getting him stuck in the first place. It takes Sarah violently smashing her car into Roy for him to move past the violence and settle into something more mundane. A time loop or any overall familiar setting can make you miss what is remarkable about living day to day. Roy mentions being at a rough part of his marriage when the loop started, but over time, he chose to ignore it and work through it. Roy turns this on its head and embraces his life to the fullest. When Nyles stops by Roy's house to see why he's not around anymore, we learn that he doesn't bother to do much more than live through a serene day with his family. Roy has accepted that he will never watch his kids grow up, and instead, chooses to live every day that he can with them. Roy is an interesting character because he does take out his anger on someone besides himself and because he is able to move past it.
I've written before about how I am drawn to character stories. What are time loops if not the ultimate character stories. How could there be anything else when the only thing in the story that can change is the character within? Character dynamics feel fulfilling in Palm Springs. Never creepy or overstepping, like I've found many other instances of time loops. Nyles, Sarah, and Roy all exist in the loop despite one another. Sarah and Nyles's help to drive away the distinct loneliness for each other that defines the genre. Making the world twice as big allows for a much greater look into the unique lens that time loops can present its characters through to help show who they really are.
Time loops often capture the bad, but my favorite part of Palm Springs has always been how the time loop captures the good. The middle section of the movie is predominantly Sarah and Nyles having fun throughout different iterations of the same day. It's easy to understand why Nyles was hesitant to leave after he tells Sarah, “You're my favorite person I've ever met.” Nyles had to give up the opportunity to spend forever doing nothing but being with the person you love. As a viewer, it is hard not to envy this freedom and wonder through all the possible scenarios that you could possibly conjure up. Before the fear starts to creep back up and you wonder, who would you become?
Comments