Follow TV Tropes

Following

Film / Repeaters

Go To

Repeaters is a 2010 movie about three young residents of a rehabilitation facility. One day when they are supposed to be out making amends for past mistakes, they all fail. That evening they are all hit by a shock of electricity and find themselves in a "Groundhog Day" Loop. The movie explores how three addicts would react given total freedom from their actions.

Tropes in this film include

  • Applied Phlebotinum: A spark of electricity affecting the three of them seperately but simultaneously causes the time loop. This is never revisited, never explained.
  • Broken Record: "Kyle! 7:30!"
  • Bungled Suicide: Michael, in the Stinger.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: Kyle spends more time saying he just wants to talk and arguing about the need to talk than actually talking.
  • Cardboard Prison: Given it's rehab, not jail, but what FREEDOM this rehab gives! Keep your truck in the parking lot! Go out for a smoke whenever, with no guards! Doors aren't locked. Go to the boiler room whenever you want! It's okay, no one ever checks it for people sneaking drugs - let alone men left there all day tied to chairs!
  • Comedic Sociopathy: The liquor store robbing scene.
  • CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Averted. Usually the recipients of failed CPR don't end up remembering it the next day.
  • Cursed with Awesome/Blessed with Suck: Sonia and Kyle have bouts of this. Matthew, not so much.
  • Driven to Suicide: Michael, in the end.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: Resolving your issues breaks the loop. Even for the people who have no intention of doing so.
  • Epiphanic Prison: The time loop can be thought of as this.
  • Foreshadowing: When Kyle finally goes and speaks to his sister, he notices the news is reporting there are two police dead in town. when the day doesn't loop - those deaths still stand.
  • A God Am I: The three go through some of this. Michael never quite gets over it.
  • "Groundhog Day" Loop: for three people at the same time.
  • Jerkass: Michael develops into this over the movie.
  • Killed Off for Real: The two police officers reported dead on the news - probably by Weeks - the day before the loop doesn't repeat.
  • Magic Realism: Everything just goes on as normal, except for the looping of the three.
  • Mood Whiplash: Everyone's having fun until things stop being fun.
  • Nobody Poops: Averted. "I'm sitting in a puddle of my own piss."
  • Not So Above It All: Bob is seen carrying a Bible and works for a rehabilitation facility, but at his house he has booze and porn.
  • Nothing Left to Do but Die: Once they've robbed a store, broken the law, tried dangerous drugs...
  • Oddly Small Organization: Bob is the only known authority figure in charge of the whole rehab facility with over fifty residents.
  • Oh, Crap!: It starts to snow.
  • Plot Twist: See Oh, Crap!. As opposed to most "Groundhog Day" Loop stories, in this one no one realizes the loop has stopped until it's too late!
  • Porn Stash: Bob has one.
  • Sanity Slippage: Michael. It's debatable if he's really lost it when he's in the loop - he's certainly not nice, but he could just be continuing to exploit it - but when he realizes the loop has ended and he's still been killing people, hooooo boy.
  • The Stinger: Michael woke up again.
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The three just have to do what they were supposed to do in the first place - make peace with their families.
  • Time-Traveling Jerkass: Michael. Once he realizes he's trapped in a time loop, he more or less goes berserk, indulging in armed robbery, murder, rape, and several other crimes before committing suicide once the loop ends. Too bad he's still trapped in another one.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Each time the trio repeats, there's an image of children playing on a beach. This is never explained.
  • Wham Line: "It didn't snow today..."
  • When the Clock Strikes Twelve: The first few repeats the repeat happens at the same time they were all electrocuted the first time. After that those rules seem to go out the window as they seem to be out late a lot.

Top