Screenwriting : Writing a Time Loop by Tiffany Wade

Hi Tiffany,

I would suggest your watch or read the screenplay for "Groundhog Day (1993)". Bill Murry plays a guy who is a horrible person and gets caught in a time loop until he can correct all his mistakes and become a better person.

In a screenplay, you basically keep writing the same scene over and over again with small changes happening the main character.

As a sci-fi writer, I know that time loops are a tricky thing, usually the person who causes it is the only one who knows its even happening. Typically, the only way to break out of it, it to stop it at the point that it begins, again, after multiple failed attempts. See "Edge of Tomorrow (2014)".

Not knowing how much you know about sci-fi, time and time travel, I definitely advice doing your research BEFORE even attempting a very tricky theme like this.

Good luck.

Anthony M.

Writing time loops does get tricky!

Thanks, Anthony Moore!

The person stuck in the loop has some kind of transformative personal change that allows them to get out, such as in groundhog day. Theres a good star trek the next generation episode where they begin to have deja vu and figure out a way to send themself a very basic message that they can pick up on the next loop to escape.

https://www.stage32.com/sites/stage32.com/files/assets/screenplay/252405/screenplay_252405_175363_1411746745.pdf

how to break it? Well, that's solely up to you...

Great visual writing and dialogue, Kiril Maksimoski!

Having watched predestination - I discovered the attached timeline to help visualise and structure my own time loop.

That's pretty cool, David Joseph. Thanks for sharing.

Further to the comments, as long as how the audience will view and understand the time is made clear in your writing you can't go far wrong. Try it out and share it with some trusted friends to see if the way you convey it makes sense to someone reading it for the first time.

Interesting question. I am pondering a time loop for a character for a rough idea I have but I'm not approaching it as a time travel script as such. David mentioned 'Predestination' (which I saw a few weeks ago) which is probably comparable to 'Looper' insofar as a similar decision is made by a character in both films but the outcome is different. '12 Monkeys', which was inspired by 'La Jetee' was interesting too because there is a loop. 'Groundhog Day', as Anthony has stated already, is a good study of varying a repeated loop, I've always tended to view that film as someone in a cosmic purgatory rather than a time loop as technically every day is reset so time itself is not factor. Not that I have seen it (maybe I should), for a bit of levity, there is a Jean-Claude Van Damme film called 'Time Cop'.