Palm Springs (2020) | Sci-Fi Saturdays

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Keep all my love forever, P.S. I love you.

Palm Springs is a hilarious time loop film that provides all the hallmarks of the genre, but also creates a new benchmark for the philosophical angles that these films can achieve. It features some great characters and became a much-needed breath of fresh air during the pandemic when it was released to audiences who were starved for something to break them out of the monotony of lockdown.

First Impressions

In this trailer, a woman awakens at a resort wedding and meets a man who seems a bit goofy. One thing leads to another, and they start some heavy petting in the desert when the man is suddenly struck by an arrow. He is chased by a second man into a cave, warning the woman to stay back. Unfortunately, she doesn’t listen and is sucked into the cave. She awakens back at the same morning as the first time. The man tells her they are caught in an infinite time loop, and there’s nothing to do but embrace it. And they do. They go through a lot of fun things together before she admits she has to get out of this. When one day is like the next, it’s Palm Springs all over again.

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

The Fiction of The Film

The film opens on November 9th, with a goat in the desert, just as an earthquake hits, revealing a light from underground. Nyles (Andy Samberg) awakens, depressed, at a desert resort hosting the wedding of Tala (Camila Mendes) and Abe (Tyler Hoechlin). He seems bored with his vapid girlfriend, Misty (Meredith Hagner), as they try to make love. At the reception, Tala’s sister, Sarah (Cristin Milioti), is too drunk to make her speech, so Nyles swoops in wearing a Hawaiian shirt to make a crazy toast. He appears to know all the dance moves for everyone at the party, and then hits on Sarah. Nyles shows Sarah that Misty is cheating on him with the officiant, Trevor (Chris Pang), before they head into the desert for sex. As Nyles strips off his clothes, an arrow strikes him in the back, and he is chased into a cave by Roy (JK Simmons). Nyles shouts for Sarah not to follow him.

It’s the next morning, but it’s also the same morning. Nyles is floating in the pool when Sarah emerges, yelling at him about what has happened. She has realized that she is experiencing the same events as she had on the previous day and wants to know what Nyles did to her. He explains they are stuck in an infinite time loop situation, and there’s nothing they can do but accept the inevitable. He shows her the place where the cave appears following an earthquake later that day. Sarah runs into the cave, resetting her day. She attempts to solve her problem by driving home to Austin, but even though she falls asleep in Texas, she reawakens back in Palm Springs. Talking with Nyles, he explains that every time they fall asleep or die, they reawaken on the morning of November 9th. They have no choice but to live and suffer their existence.

Sarah asks about the man who shot Nyles on that first night. He explains that Roy is a guest at the wedding who he accidentally trapped in the time loop after a night of partying too hard. Roy lives in Irvine, so he comes around infrequently, but usually does so to hunt and kill Nyles. Nyles also shares some of his exploits in the loop with her, which include sleeping with a lot of different people (even though it takes a lot of effort), but says that he and Sarah have never done it as far as he can remember–and his brain is now like Swiss cheese. Sarah admits her cynicism about love and feels like a selfless act could get them out of the loop. At the wedding ceremony, she stands up and whispers something into her sister’s ear, thinking that it will work. It does not.

As the days (day?) wear on, Nyles and Sarah grow closer, dancing at the local bar, relaxing in the pool, and experimenting with killing themselves (via car or plane). Sarah celebrates with a millionth birthday party for Nyles. One night, they camp out in the desert, where Nyles explains his metaphor about life as a partially eaten candy bar. What has come before holds no weight, he believes. Sarah disagrees and talks about her failed marriage and how everyone thinks she’s a screw-up. They watch as a herd of brontosauruses walks through the desert. They decide to make love in the tent and drift off to sleep in each other’s arms. The next day, Sarah is aloof. The intimate encounter with Nyles highlights her personal hell in the loop, as it’s revealed that she awakens every morning in Abe’s room, having spent the night with her sister’s husband to be.

Sarah is pulled over by a cop, who is revealed to be Roy hunting Nyles again. She grievously injures Roy, which shocks Nyles. Sarah believes that nothing matters, but Nyles points out that the pain in this time loop is real, and what they do matters, as they have to live with the consequences. Sarah steps in front of an oncoming semi-truck and is not seen by Nyles for many, many cycles. He mopes about his days, feeling more depressed for not having Sarah in his life. One night in Abe’s room, while hanging out with the wedding party, he recognizes Sarah’s hair mist on the pillow, Orchid Explosion by Fournier. At this point, he realizes he loves Sarah and also has to make amends to Roy. At Roy’s Irvine house, Nyles apologizes to Roy, who is in a much better place now. He has spent the same day with his wife and young kids, realizing what really matters. They agree not to see each other anymore, having come to terms with the situation.

Meanwhile, Sarah has been spending each day waking up in Abe’s room and telling him what a horrible thing they’ve done. She visits the local diner and learns quantum physics in the hopes of discovering a way out of this time loop. Her studies provide her with a theory which she tests on a local goat, whom she loads with dynamite and leads into the cave. Nyles is surprised to see Sarah again one day. She explains that they are stuck in a box of energy, and the way out includes blowing themselves up during the momentary gap between loops. Nyles admits his love for Sarah and asks her to stay in the loop with him. They go through the wedding and reception, living the best version of the events they can. Sarah gives an inspirational speech to her sister and warns Abe to be faithful to Tala. In the desert, she straps explosives on herself as Nyles appears. He professes his desire to be with her and does not want to continue his existence without her. They walk into the cave, kiss, and detonate the explosive. The next day, they are floating in a nearby pool when the neighbors return, indicating it’s now November 10th. In a mid-credits scene, Roy returns to the reception, having received a voicemail from Sarah about how to exit the time loop. He speaks with Nyles, who doesn’t recognize him and realizes that Sarah’s plan will work.

“Today, tomorrow, yesterday, it’s all the same.” – Nyles

History in the Making

Palm Springs may be one of the most perfect films for the time when it was released. Through a series of amazing happenstance, this philosophical time travel comedy transcended its indie roots to become something greater than expected. Conceived by director Max Barbakow (Brothers) and screenwriter Andy Siara (The Resort), Palm Springs takes on the time loop genre in a way that is fresh and well thought out, balancing the absurd comedy with heavier philosophical tones. The movie was filmed in April of 2019, which is an important element to remember. That’s because the film wasn’t released publicly until July of the following year, 2020, during the lockdown for the COVID-19 pandemic. The film couldn’t have debuted at a better time, as the mind-numbing ennui that Nyles feels mimicked what audiences were going through at the time, elevating the film to an even greater level. The filmmakers could not have known what the world would be like when the film was eventually released, so the serendipity of the characters experiencing much of what the audience was going through is a phenomenal stroke of luck. The resulting intersection between fiction and reality made for a memorable event for anyone who experienced it at the time.

Barbakow and Siara had devised the film as an absurdist comedy using the elements of mumblecore. That’s a genre style that emphasizes dialogue and relationships made with a small budget. Films like Slacker (1991) or Clerks (1994) are said to have been influential movies towards this genre, which cites Funny Ha Ha (2002) as the first entry in the mumblecore genre proper. Palm Springs featured many actors best known for their work on television, including Cristin Milioti (How I Met Your Mother, Fargo), Meredith Hagner (Search Party), Camila Mendes (Riverdale), and Tyler Hoechlin (Supergirl, Teen Wolf). Andy Samberg has done many films but may still be more well known for his television work, including Brooklyn-99 and the SNL Digital Shorts with the Lonely Island. J.K. Simmons, an actor who vacillates between larger productions and independent films, rounds out the cast as outrageous yet likeable Roy. Together, the cast grounds this film in a way that never makes it feel too outrageous. While the situation might be preposterous, the emotions and feelings are all grounded in the reality of this hellish nightmare of a day.

Genre-fication

Palm Springs is a film about characters stuck in a time loop, but it’s nothing like previous time loop films. It is best compared to Groundhog Day, which is not the first time loop film, but arguably the most well-known. In that film, curmudgeonly weatherman Phil Connors becomes stuck in a time loop, living out the same day over and over again until he can learn to be a better person and put others first. While not directly referenced in Palm Springs, Sarah does insinuate Phil’s predicament, believing that a truly selfless act might get her the free pass out of the loop. Palm Springs also falls into the science-fiction category of film, while Groundhog Day is more of a fantasy parable. In fact, many recent time loop films do lean towards a sci-fi premise, either partially or wholeheartedly, including Happy Death Day (which has an out-of-control science experiment leading to the loop), ARQ (which also uses a piece of cutting-edge science), and Edge of Tomorrow (which relies on alien technology/physiology to create a closed time loop). Some people may not feel this film deserves to be called science-fiction due to the metaphysical nature of most of the film. However, the solution to exit the time loop comes from a solid science background in particle physics and wormholes, which Sarah must learn if she’s ever going to escape.

The film is set apart from any other film like this by its existential philosophical backbone. Who would have thought that a film which discusses the fundamental components of existence would be so much fun? Characters argue the meaninglessness of their life within the time loop, while experimenting with all the crazy, nihilistic ways one might live their life if there were no consequences and no tomorrow. Not many films go this deep into philosophy, choosing to give a more cursory look at the human condition. Palm Springs may be more like The Seventh Seal than The Matrix, though it shares elements with both. It also chooses to approach the subject matter differently from every other time loop film by beginning with the protagonist, Nyles, already deep within the loop, even if the audience may not realize it. Sarah then becomes the audience surrogate as she learns the ropes from somebody on the inside. Someone who’s already succumbed to the futility of daily life and forgotten things about anything that has come before.

Societal Commentary

It’s unclear if Nyles was always as pessimistic as he is shown within the time loop or if the infinite number of days has damaged him, but he sums up his philosophy in a very simple candy bar metaphor. He shows Sarah a half-eaten candy bar and indicates that everything that came before, the past, i.e., the eaten part of the bar, is unimportant. The only thing that matters is the next bite, aka the future. How you got to be where you are doesn’t matter. All that matters is the now and the next bite. It’s a model that many people live by, either by choice or due to the way their brains are wired. Sarah disagrees with Nyles, saying that the past absolutely matters. She reveals that she was married for two years, and admits she thought that it would never work out, which it didn’t. Her argument is that if she ignores her past, she will be destined to repeat her mistake again; though it could also be argued that her belief in its failure caused the union to fail. It’s a basic argument between Nyles, a nihilist, and Sarah, an existentialist. He believes that life is meaningless and there’s nothing to be learned from our actions. Sarah believes that there’s an inherent structure to things, and our actions matter.

As the film goes on and more of Sarah’s backstory is revealed, the reason for her perspective changes. She is shown to awaken every day in Abe’s bed, being reminded of the horrible sister that she was for having slept with him the night before. For her, it’s probably the definition of hell. Each morning reinforces the poor choices of her past, pushing her to be better. Nyles’ existence becomes one of “if it feels good, do it,” as he drinks, parties, and enjoys goofing around the reception on a daily basis. Though he says he doesn’t care about the past, that is not entirely accurate. When the audience is first introduced to him, he is trying to attract Sarah’s attention at the reception by dancing amongst the guests, aping some of their dance moves, and generally knowing exactly what’s going to happen. He also talks about his attempts to bed different women within the time loop, even though it takes great effort. He learns from the past, but it’s not necessarily about making himself a better person; it’s about accomplishing a task.

Sarah eventually succumbs to Nyles’ level, believing that nothing matters. She embraces the daily hedonism and eventually attacks Roy when he comes for Nyles. But she doesn’t kill Roy; she grievously wounds him, which opens Nyles’ eyes to the horrors of the loop. He recognizes himself in Roy at that moment, reminded of all the times that Roy hurt him. Nyles tells Sarah that there is something real about their existence, and that’s the pain. She doubles down, spitting his philosophy back at him, that nothing matters. Nyles realizes his chronic error, and then tells her the crux of the film, which is “We remember. We have to deal with the things that we do.” While within the time loop, there are no consequences to the other people, Nyles, Roy, and Sarah face the fact that they must live with their own actions. For Sarah, that’s what she has been running from. For Nyles and Roy, it’s something that they come to realize after meeting Sarah within the loops. As a lesson for the audience, it’s a key idea in how to create a better world. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

The Science in The Fiction

Palm Springs is not a traditional science-fiction film, but it uses scientific concepts to explain the time loop and the characters’ escape from it. While it takes most of the film to get to, the nature of the time loop is discovered by Sarah, who spends her days learning quantum physics as a means to escape the loop, and escape the self-loathing she feels around Abe and Nyles. She discovers the loop is a “box of energy” that was somehow released by the earthquake that happened midday. Somehow, by entering the cave, Nyles, Roy, and Sarah have become trapped within that box, which forces them to repeat the same day over and over again. Ot at least repeat their conscious hours starting when they awaken on November 9th until whenever they fall asleep (since Sarah takes an overnight drive back to Austin and Nyles reveals making it all the way to Equatorial Guinea after smoking some crystal meth). The explanation that Sarah finds is never explicitly described (though she does mention the Cauchy horizon–a “light-like boundary of the domain of predictability in general relativity, beyond which the future cannot be uniquely determined from initial data on a specific spacelike hypersurface.”) But she realizes that there’s a small window (3.2 seconds) between the end of one loop and the start of the next. Using Spuds’ goat as a test subject, she believes that an explosion will propel them out of the “energy box” during the resetting of the time loop–or maybe it will kill them. But by the time they get to this decision, either option is preferable. As with many sci-fi films, the science is not the important part. Palm Springs real science is about the interactions between individuals and the joy and sorrow we can inflict upon others.

The Final Frontier

Perhaps the biggest question for viewers of the film, and something not yet touched on in this article, is the appearance of dinosaurs. Yup, big Jurassic era beasts. At the midpoint of the film, after Nyles and Sarah have grown closer together and set up their tent in the middle of the desert one night, they speak the truths of their philosophies (candy bars, and whatnot) and spy a pack of brontosauruses in the distance. Sarah asks if they’re real, but Nyles shrugs it off. Why? Because he’s seen so many other weirder things in this time loop, dinosaurs may be the least of his concerns. Maybe they are real, and they, too, have been stuck in a time loop with Nyles and Sarah. Perhaps they are a metaphor for all the weird things that can happen in Palm Springs. Neither Nyles nor Sarah is looking for a relationship. Within the time loop, Nyles is stuck in a relationship with a cheating woman. Sarah is also a cheater and is seen by her family as “a liability who fucks around and drinks too much.” Yet together they bond, heal, and eventually find love between them, even after doing and saying the wrong things. If these two characters can fix their broken psyches and find romance, how weird is it to see dinosaurs in the desert?

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