The Best ‘Groundhog Day’-Style Movies & Shows to Watch

Jordan Peele’s reboot of the classic science-fiction series features a time loop story that’ll stick with you for a long, long time (for better and for worse) in “Try, Try.” The Season 2 episode features a woman who finds the man of her dreams in a museum. He knows everything she likes, says all the right things, and seems exceptionally interested in her. Little does she know, though, he’s been living the same day over and over again, studying and memorizing her every move.

There are several Black Mirror episodes that have a time loop element to them. “The Entire History of You” revolves around an ocular device that lets the wearer rewatch moments from their life over and over again. “Bandersnatch” is a choose-your-own- adventure style interactive game that gets very repetitive after a few rounds. And “Hang the DJ” has a twist ending that puts it in league with the others. But it’s “White Bear” that really clings to the concept, following a woman who wakes up without memory of who she is and finds herself being hunted through a strange neighborhood by masked assailants while everyone around her simply watches and films her horror as it unfolds. It’s an experience she has relived again and again as punishment for a terrible crime, with her memory wiped each night so that the paying customers with phones can witness her torment anew each day.

This 2017 comedy-horror follows a college student who has to relive her 18th birthday over and over again to track down the person who will murder her (in increasingly creative ways) that night. The film is witty and sharp and has a decent enough follow up in Happy Death Day 2U.

It’s almost a shame to include Palm Springs on this list because it’s a film that’s best seen without any details. But omitting it from a time loop best-of list would be even more egregious, so here we are. The film follows a pair of strangers who find themselves re-living the same wild wedding day again and again, with only the two of them aware of the time loop they’re living in.

Natasha Lyonne is at the top of her game in this very adult comedy series about a woman who relives her birthday and death dozens of times, with eerie changes to the world around her setting in with each revolution. She soon finds that she’s not the only one stuck in a time loop when she meets a man in a similar plight, and together, they work to stop the madness.

Partly based on the 2004 Japanese manga All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, this 2014 actioner centers on a man with no combat experience who is thrust into the action to attack a group of aliens who’ve taken over. And when it doesn’t go well for him the first time (or the second, or the third, or the fourth), he has to keep trying until he finds a way to win.

Pulled from the infamous Black List of scripts, this 2011 sci-fi, directed by Duncan Jones, follows an Army pilot who has to relive the last eight minutes of a train explosion again and again in order to determine the terrorist responsible for the attack. The film is full of action and thrills and mind games.

Well, of course the O.G.D. (original Groundhog Day) was going to be number one on this list! The 1993 comedy, directed and co-written by Harold Ramis, centers on Phil, a weatherman who hates having to report on that squirrel cousin with the same name. He soon finds himself stuck reliving the same tedious day over and over again, with many, many hilarious pratfalls along the way.