Time loop films have been a staple of sci-fi, and Groundhog Day is one of the most popular takes on the concept in cinema. Many films and shows have tackled the time loop in similar fashions, from Edge of Tomorrow, to Russian Doll, to Palm SpringsAs fun as the concept is, most of the films follow the typical structure laid out by Groundhog Day, with the loop starting and resetting by the end of the day or at the event of the character's death, so the loop itself is not tested to its limits. While this is usually the case, there was a film released in 2009 -- Triangle -- that successfully reinvigorated the time loop by introducing loops within loops, raising an interesting question regarding the leftover debris from a never ending loop.

The mystery with Triangle begins with a group of shipwrecked passengers who enter a mysterious boat and find themselves in danger. The dark, empty ship gives a familiar sense of a supernatural dread, but the true catalyst of this film is unexpected. The protagonists split up only to reunite after being gravely injured by a mysterious shooter who arrived and took out everyone except Jess, the main protagonist. In a fight between Jess and the shooter, it's revealed the shooter is Jess, who warns herself that she must kill everyone in order to get home.

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The intrigue in most time related properties is the character journey that takes the "present" character into the mentality of their future self, but Triangle takes artistic liberties with this concept by playing with time even more so. While the origin of the loop is never discovered, audiences learn there are multiple loops occurring over each other as the loop resets whenever each protagonist, except Jess, meets an untimely end. This means at all points of the film, Jess is out of sync with time as it loops and piles up around her, leaving several Jesses at the same time and place.

Another interesting aspect about Triangle is how the loop does not end, nor does it reset. The events of the film take place within the same couple of hours jumbled over each other. For instance, there is a scene where Sally, another protagonist, crawls for her safety and ends up in a part of the ship surrounded by corpses, all of them hers. With time unable to reset, Triangle introduces the concept of temporal residue, as seen with her dead bodies piling up as a new loop is created again and again.

Films like Groundhog Day don't worry about such things since no matter what happens the world resets. That's why Phil could kill himself multiple times and wake up without a scratch as reality began anew entirely. Triangle decides to do something else, with the consequences of one loop lingering in the next one.

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The character journey Jess takes is haunting as she keeps running into versions of herself from the past and future. As she reaches the end, having become the shooter and understanding why she must kill the others, she wakes up at home and finds herself back at the start, where she boards the ship; however, now the ship's loops affect the whole day, not just the events on the boat, creating a inescapable situation. Unlike other characters in time loop films, no matter what the protagonist learns, there is no way to stop the cycle.

It is unfortunate that Triangle underperformed at the box office, but it has been proven time and time again that hidden gems from the past can resurface and be appreciated later on. Time loop media truly has the potential to try any and all angles available to them. While Groundhog Day's approach to this concept is captivating, it'd be great if other films took after Triangle and experimented with this concept even more.

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