Legends Of Tomorrow Season 3, Episode 11: Here I Go Again

This week on Legends Of Tomorrow, the series finally does its obligatory Groundhog Day tribute, in which the crew relives the same day over and over, and only one of them is aware of it so they can attempt to break the cycle.

At this point virtually every sci-fi and fantasy show on TV has done a variation on this same theme, including Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Charmed, Eureka, Farscape, Fringe, Stargate SG-1, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries, Xena: Warrior Princess and The X-Files. And that's just off the top of my head! I'm sure there're many more I'm forgetting or just not aware of.

Despite the fact that it's hardly an original idea, I like the Groundhog Day Trope when it's done well. Unfortunately Legends Of Tomorrow drops the ball a bit with their attempt. First of all, they chose Zari— the least interesting character on the show— as the focus of the episode, and the one who's aware of the loop. 

As if that weren't bad enough, there's a big twist in the third act, in which we find out that the whole loop situation is a dream! Well, sort of. You'll see when you read the plot summary. So we have my least favorite character, combined with my all time most hated plot twist. Is it any wonder I'm not a fan of this episode?

Another problem with this "It Was All A Dream" reveal— it completely undermines Zari's big speech, in which at long last she learns to love her teammates and sacrifices her life for them. Why give us that scene in the first place if it's part of a simulation, and doesn't "count?"

Honestly I'd rather have seen the throwaway "offscreen adventure" instead— the one in which the Legends apparently impersonate ABBA or some similar group.

Also in this episode, Zari learns a valuable lesson about family, and how to work as a member of a team. Ugh... what is this, and Afterschool Special? I could swear they've already done this plotline with her character at least once before this season.

Man, with each passing week, I'm feeling Professor Stein's absence more and more. They need to bring in someone comparable to him, stat!

As I think I predicted a couple months ago, Wally West is joining the Legends. Good. Maybe the writers on this show will know what to do with him, and won't shamefully waste his character the way the creative team did over on The Flash.

Lastly, the past two episodes have felt really cheap, as the Legends have seemingly avoided using their powers as much as possible. This week's show was particularly low rent, as it was a bottle episode— one that takes place entirely inside the ship on standing sets.

I see why that is now. Next week's pirate adventure looks to be a big budget extravaganza, so the producers had to scrimp and save on Episodes 10 & 11! And they thought we wouldn't notice...

SPOILERS!

The Plot:
Onboard the Waverider, Zari tries to convince Gideon to let her run a dangerous simulation while the other Legends are off on a mission. Gideon's reluctant to run the sim, as it looks for "loopholes" in time that'll allow Zari to hack history— much like she did in Helen Hunt. She's hoping she can use one of these loopholes to save her brother in 2042.

Suddenly the Legends return early, surprising Zari. She hurriedly runs the simulation, which shorts out Gideon and shuts her down. The Legends enter the bridge, dressed like members of ABBA (it's a long story). White Canary asks why Gideon's offline, and Zari sheepishly admits she accidentally fried her while trying to hack time. Canary's furious that she'd pull something like this, and the two begin arguing. Canary tells Zari if she can't follow orders, then she needs to get off the ship. Atom tries to calm everyone down, but trips and falls on his platform heels (Plot Point!).

Zari goes to the engine room to fix the ship. She pulls a tube out of a console and is splashed with some kind of glowing blue "time goo." Just then there's a rumble, and the entire ship explodes!

Suddenly Zari's zapped back onto the bridge, arguing with Canary. Disoriented, she leaves to fix the ship again, and notes that Atom falls off his heels a second time. Zari walks past the library, and overhears Steel and Vixen discussing the fact that they just had sex during a mission (AGAIN). She asks them if they've noticed anything unusual, and of course they say no. She asks Heat Wave and Atom the same, but they've not noticed anything either. She returns to the engine room, and the ship explodes again.

She pops back to the bridge, and realizes she's stuck in a time loop. She tries to tell the others what's happening, but they don't believe her and think she's gone nutty. Heat Wave grabs her and takes her to the medbay, where Atom sedates her. This happens over and over for several cycles, until she builds up an immunity to the sedative.

Zari escapes the medbay and finds Steel. She explains what's happening, and is amazed when he believes her. He says it's just like the movie Groundhog Day, which of course she's never heard of. He tells her if the loop happens again, to just say the name of the film to him in order to save time. Just then the ship explodes. Zari locates Steel, mentions the movie, and the two of them try to work out what's happening. They come to the conclusion that one of the Legends is causing the explosion (?), and decide to investigate everyone.

They sneak into Heat Wave's quarters, and are killed several times by traps he's rigged to keep people from snooping (!). Eventually they manage to open a suspicious trunk, and find a typewriter and a manuscript inside. Apparently everyone's favorite pyromaniac is writing a sci-fi romance novel (!!!). After a couple more cycles, they clear Vixen and Atom as well.

Atom's afraid Canary may be possessed by Mallus again, and is the one blowing up the ship. He shrinks himself and Zari, and the two of them follow Canary to spy on her. They're suspicious when she enters the jumpship, but then discover she's secretly calling Agent Sharpe to vent. Sharpe asks her out, but Canary makes some feeble excuse about being busy. She then spots the tiny Atom & Zari and for some reason thinks they're flies (?). She stomps on them just before the ship explodes.

Zari tells Steel she's tired of living through the loop and being powerless to stop the explosion. He tells her she should take advantage of the situation and have a "fun montage." She takes his advice, and begins playing pranks on her crew mates, eating whatever she wants and learning to play a Stradivarius that's in the ship's storage area for some reason.

She finally tires of the hijinx, so the next time she pops onto the bridge she tries to shoot herself in the head. Amazingly the gun jams, and she laments that she can't even kill herself right. This act of desperation finally gets to Canary, and she says she wants to help. Zari tells her what's been happening, so Canary orders the crew to look for a bomb.

They check each room of the ship, and finally discover clumsy Time Bureau agent Gary Green trapped inside the trash compactor. Heat Wave sees him holding a futuristic device, assumes it's the bomb and destroys it. Gary screams, saying that was the "chrono-repeater" that's been causing the time loops.

He explains that he got an alert that the Waverider exploded, so he tried to teleport to the bridge to save everyone. He ended up in the compactor instead, and the repeater has kept them alive in a loop ever since. Now that it's been destroyed, this is their last time through the cycle. Canary tells everyone they have five minutes to find the bomb, or they're all toast.

Heat Wave suggests the bomb may be in an 8-track tape he brought on board from their previous mission. Amazingly, he's right. Zari grabs the bomb, but before it can be diffused, she enters the study and raises a forcefield to protect the others. She then tells them all everything she's learned about them through her many times through the loop, and says she finally feels like part of the team. The others beg her to let them diffuse the bomb, but she refuses, and activates her powers to contain the explosion. The bomb explodes.

Zari wakes up in the medbay. A beautiful woman enters— one who sounds just like Gideon. She says she IS Gideon, and explains that when Zari was sprayed with the highly toxic time goo, she lost consciousness and was taken to the medbay. Yep, that's right— it's a goddamned dream episode, as all the time loops happened only in Zari's head. 

Gideon says that Zari's powers are crucial to the Legends defeating Mallus, so she couldn't let her leave the team. In order to make sure she stayed, she placed Zari's mind in her matrix, to show her she needed to work WITH the team or some such hooey.

Zari wakes up in the real world, and tells the Legends what happened while she was out. Of course they don't believe her, until she tells them all intimate details about their lives. Canary says maybe they can figure out a way to save Zari's brother after all. 

Cut to China, where Wally West is meditating in an outdoor temple (?). A twitchy Rip Hunter approaches him, and says he needs his help.

Thoughts:
• There's no opening narration again this week. I guess that's no longer a thing on the show?

• As I said earlier, I think I'd much rather have seen the offscreen "Waterloo Mission" than the one we got in this episode. Every reference to it sounds like a lot of fun, and it's too bad we'll never get a chance to actually see it.

I've tried to piece the mission together as best I can from the clues, but I'm still not entirely sure what happened. As near as I can tell, Napoleon Bonaparte was somehow brought to 1975, either by Damien Darhk or simply by accident. This caused history to be changed, as he wan't around to surrender at the Battle Of Waterloo. At some point Napoleon also got ahold of an 8-track tape of ABBA's Waterloo album. Fitting!

The Legends then went to 1975 to clean up this mess. This involved them wearing 70's era fashions and putting on some kind of elaborate song and dance number, in an effort to distract Napoleon long enough to get the tape away from him. After the big finish, they likely took Napoleon back to 1815, and history was restored. Heat Wave brought the 8-track back with him and smashed it.

As I said, that all sounds much more fun and interesting than the adventure we got!

There's an additional subplot in which we find out the Waterloo 8-track contained a powerful bomb. That part didn't actually happen though, as it was part of Zari's dream or simulation or whatever it was.

• Loved the Legends' amazing ABBA-esque costumes this week! Especially Vixen's.

Atom looked suitably goofy, and yet right at home in his stylish 1970s ensemble.

Canary definitely won the night though with her look. That feathered Farrah Fawcett hair, blue eye shadow and pink lipstick are all absolutely PERFECT to the period! Kudos to whoever came up with this look for her!

Heat Wave's the odd man out, as I guess he must have posed as the actual Napoleon at some point during their mission?

• And we have a title! As the ship explodes for the third or fourth time, Zari sighs and says, "Mama mia. Here I go again."

• So how many times did Zari live through the time loop? Eh, it's impossible to know for sure. I counted, and we see her go through twenty five loops during the course of the episode. But it's obvious she experienced many, many loops that we didn't get to see. 

For example, she learned to expertly play the violin by practicing an hour at a time. That had to take a ton of loops. She also read all of Heat Wave's book, which was a thousand pages long. That no doubt too a lot of hours as well.

Factoring in all those clues, it's likely she went through hundreds, if not thousands of loops!

• There's one thing about the time loop that doesn't make any sense. Well, there's actually tons of things, but there's one major one. OK, because of Gary's chrono-repeater, the Waverider experiences the same hour over and over. Due to being exposed to "time goo," Zari is the only member of the crew to realize she's stuck in a loop, and remember all her times through it. Fair enough.

I assumed this meant that Zari's body was caught in the loop, but her mind wasn't. Apparently her body is independent of the loop as well. Why? Because when the crew thinks she's crazy, they confine her to the medbay and Atom sedates her. After several trips through the loop, her body builds up an immunity to the drug!

The only way that could happen is if her body is somehow "out of the loop," like her mind. Which of course makes no sense, but there you go.

• Part of the appeal of a Groundhog Day episode is seeing the characters live through the same events multiple times, as the audience hopes, "Maybe THIS time they'll figure out how to get out of the loop." Usually such episodes take place over the course of an entire day, giving us tons of situations to repeat.

Unfortunately Here I Go Again's loop is only an hour long. That's not nearly enough time to work with, or to establish a set of repeatable actions. The only events we get to see play over and over are Canary bitching at Zari, Atom falling off his heels and Steel & Vixen arguing in the library. Yawn!

• Back in the Season 2 episode Turncoat, I complained about the fact that Steel and Vixen ignored their mission because it was more important to have sex in a tent instead. How heroic and inspiring.

Welp, they're at it again. This week the two of them were supposed to take part in the big Waterloo song & dance number during the offscreen mission, but missed their cues because they were backstage screwing. 

Jesus Christ! These two are ostensibly supposed to be heroes, but they consistently ignore their responsibilities just so they can have a roll in the hay. I honestly hope Canary finds out and throws them off the ship. Preferably in the Jurassic Period.

Don't get me wrong here, I have nothing against them fraternizing— as long as it's on their own time. Doing it during a mission is downright intolerable. It was wrong of them to do it the first time, but to repeat it... I'm actually starting to hate these two characters, and I'm glad Vixen's likely going to leave the show at the end of the season.

All that said, I did laugh when the horrified Zari stands outside the library as Steel & Vixen go at it. If you listen closely, you can hear the sound of Steel, er, "steeling up," as well as Vixen summoning the power of a tiger!

• When Zari finally convinces Steel that the Waverider's caught in a time loop, he suggests they use the jumpship to escape. She vetoes that idea, saying, "Yeah, while you guys were out, I was running my own little side mission, which crashed Gideon, and with her down, the jumpship's locked into the docking bay."

Wow. That seems like some really, really bad engineering. The jumpship's completely independent of the Waverider! Part of its job is to serve as an escape pod. And it can't be launched when the main ship's computer is down? 

• When Canary's Skyping with Agent Sharpe, she thinks she hears a fly buzzing around in the jumpship. Sharpe looks concerned and says, "Did you say a fly? You have to kill it. You have no idea what year it's from. You could reintroduce the plague and have a whole other crisis on your hands!"

That actually makes a lot of sense! In fact, forget flies, the Legends probably place themselves at risk every week by traveling to eras filled with diseases to which they have no natural immunity. And vice-versa— they could easily infect the past with modern bacteria.

Maybe they regularly go through some kind of decontamination process whenever they travel to another time, and we just don't see them doing so.

• It's hard to tell, but I'm betting Steel just lost his foot here when he tripped Heat Wave's booby trap! Yikes!

• So Heat Wave regularly washes his own undies. Surprising! He seems like the type who'd go commando. Or wear 'em till they rotted off!

• It was also surprising to find out Heat Wave is actually capable of writing a novel! He needs to up his "hunt & peck" typing game though.

• Zari reads an excerpt from Heat Wave's sci-fi romance novel, which says, "As the twin suns of Dartayus set on the horizon, her heaving bosom undulated like the soothing waves of the bay. Buck swept her into his musky embrace."

Apparently over in the Marvel Comic Universe, "Dartayus" is the name of a planet in the Negative Zone. Shoutout or just a coincidence?

• At one point Steel tells Zari that since there are no permanent consequences inside the time loop, she should indulge her fantasies in a "fun montage." Here're all the things we see her do:

- Pigging out on whipped creme with Steel.
- Dressing up in Roman centurion armor and playing around.
- Throwing snowballs at Heat Wave (don't ask where she got 'em).
- Putting on Heat Wave's gear, trying out his flame gun and almost burning up the ship.
- Finding a Stradivarius in storage and sawing out a few scratchy notes on it.
- Putting on Steel's costume and prancing around.
- Reading Heat Wave's novel.
- Putting on Hawkgirl's mask and camping it up.
- Practicing the violin.
- Catching Atom when he falls off his platform heels for the umpteenth time.
- Practicing the violin some more, and actually getting good.
- Finishing Heat Wave's book.
- Doing a Love Actually tribute with cue cards as she stands behind Atom and Heat Wave.

• When the Legends find Gary in the trash compactor, he tries to explain himself by saying, "I took matters into my own hands, but because of my little portal mishap, I couldn't warn you about the bomb! But I could operate the chrono-repeater, which is programmed to start a one hour loop prior to the explosion, and I had hoped that would give you enough time to diffuse the bomb yourselves."

So I guess for reasons he couldn't use a Time Bureau portal to appear on the ship and warn them. Fine. But why couldn't he just call them up on the comm and warn them? Better yet, tell Agent Sharpe that the ship her girlfriend's on is about to blow up. She was just talking to Canary!

• When the Legends find the bomb, they try to figure out the best way to diffuse it. Heat Wave suggests burning it, which seemed like a really bad idea.

The writers missed the most obvious solution— have Atom shrink the bomb! Then when it went off, it'd make a tiny poof like a firecracker.

Of course in the end it didn't matter, since the whole thing was a dream or matrix construct or some such hooey.

By the way, I loved the fact that Heat Wave stuck his fingers in his ears right before the bomb counter reached zero. As if that would make any possible difference!

• Eventually we discover there is no time loop, and Gideon appears in physical form to explain that the whole thing happened in Zari's mind or inside a matrix or something equally dumb. 

This isn't the first time we've seen Gideon "in the flesh." Back in the Season 2 episode Land Of The Lost, a physical manifestation of Gideon appeared inside Rip Hunter's mind.

In both cases, Gideon's played by actress Amy Pemberton, who regularly voices the character. It sounds odd to hear her normal, unprocessed voice though!

• Last week in Daddy Darhkest, we were introduced to the concept of The Six— a group of mystical totem-bearers who are obviously being set up to defeat Mallus. So far we have Zari (Air), Kuasa (Water) and Vixen (um... Animals?). Vixen herself says they know of two others, Fire and Earth, but I have no idea who she's talking about here. That leaves one more elemental we've not heard of yet.

This week Zari comes up with a plan to hack time and prevent her brother's death. Amazingly, Canary says that's a good idea. 

I'm calling it right now— the Legends will save Zari's brother Behrad, and he'll turn out to be the sixth totem-bearer.

• This is some heavy duty nitpicking, but whatever. Late in the episode, Zari knocks on Heat Wave's door, encourages him to keep writing, and even gives him some constructive criticism on the end of his story.

The thing is though, when she knocks, a full half a second passes before it slides open and he sticks his head out. Was he really standing just on the other side of the door, waiting for someone to knock? What is he, a trapdoor spider?

Told you it was heavy duty!

• At the end of the episode, we see Zari pick up the Stradivarius and begin playing. Apparently all that practicing inside the time loop paid off, as she's pretty darned good! 

Of course this makes no sense, since the time loop wasn't real and she didn't actually relive the same hour over and over. Is it possible to practice an instrument in your mind? I don't think so.

Anyway, it looked like she was actually playing, to my eyes at least. I wondered if actress Tala Ashe really knows how to play the violin or not, so I did a little digging, and... turns out she does! Apparently she's been playing a long time, as she posted this photo of herself practicing on Twitter! Cool!

• We need to talk about Gideon's actions in this episode. She came to the conclusion that the Legends couldn't defeat Mallus without Zari on the team. When Zari was injured, Gideon took it upon herself to place her consciousness inside an elaborately constructed dreamworld, designed to traumatize her into staying on the team. In other words, this artificial intelligence decided she knows what's best and mentally tortured a member of the crew in order to influence their actions!

Naturally this is all glossed over by the plot and treated as comedy, but it's pretty darned scary when you sit down and think about what she did.

• This Week's Best Lines:
Canary: "I said 'please.' And even if I didn't, bossing you around is part of my job as captain."

Zari: "Yeah, and it's really easy to take you seriously in that outfit."

Canary: "You know this whole apathetic cool girl thing? It's not as cute as you think."

Zari: (as the ship begins exploding again) "Mama mia. Here I go again."

(There are a TON of meta lines like this in the episode)

Heat Wave: (indicating Zari) "What's up with her?"

Atom: "Working theory? Cabin fever."

(TIME LOOP)

Atom: "Working theory? Space madness"

(Wow! A Ren & Stimpy reference!)

(TIME LOOP)

Atom: "Acute entropic dementia."

(TIME LOOP)

Atom: "Too many donuts."

(TIME LOOP)

Atom: "I mean, it could be anything."

Zari: "I have no idea why I'm stuck in this time loop."

Steel: "Time loop, you mean like Groundhog Day? You don't know Groundhog... All right, it's a movie about this guy who lives the same day over and over and over again until he learns to be a better person. I know it sounds totally hacky. However, it's very well executed!"

(Hey now! There's nothing "hacky" about Groundhog Day!)

Zari: "I have something to tell you. Hedgehog Day!"

(Steel stares at her blankly) 

Zari: "Damn it, you told me if I said Hedgehog Day you would know what I was talking about."

Steel: "Do you mean Groundhog Day? Why would I tell you to tell me about a Bill Murray movie?"

Zari: "I don't know, all I know is I'm stuck in this time loop."

Steel: "Like Groundhog Day! Okay, got it, okay."

Zari: "You do?"

Steel: (after finding out he's in a time loop episode) "It was only a matter of time before we did one of these!"
Heat Wave: "I gotta get my undies in the dryer before Haircut does!"

Atom: "Happy Captain..."

Zari: "Happy ship."

Atom: "Happy ship! Yeah! Well, I guess I guess my catchphrase is catching on in the future!"

Zari: (patronizingly) "Yeah, yeah, um, everyone is saying it where I'm from."

Atom: "Huh. That's cool."

Steel: "Why would Mick rig all these traps for a damn typewriter?"

Zari: "Maybe it's his criminal manifesto."

Steel: "Let me see this. This says "bosom" far too many times to be a manifesto."

Steel: "Zari's caught in a time loop and the ship explodes every hour."

Atom: "Oh, like Cause and Effect."

Steel: "What?"

Atom: "Star Trek: Next generation."

Steel: "It's Groundhog Day!"

Atom: "Fair enough."

(I'm with Atom here— I much prefer Cause And Effect)

Atom: (as they prepare to be miniaturized) "You ready?"

Zari: "Yeah, let's shrink, Ray."

(har har!)

Zari: (after being shrunk) "You sure she can't see us?"

Atom: "No, not when we're in stealth mode. Which really just means library voices and no sudden movements."

Atom: "If you wash your clothes inside out, it keeps them looking newer longer. Try it. Oh, I never see you wear this."

Heat Wave: "Stop touching my clothes!"

Atom: "I'm just saying it's a nice color."

Zari: "I can't do this anymore. I'm losing my mind."

Steel: "Wait, did you do the, uh..."

Zari: "Fun montage?"

Steel: "Yeah."

Zari: "Yeah, thanks for that."

Gary: "Well, uh, actually, I got an alert that the Waverider exploded at precisely 4:20 temporal standard time."

Canary: "What?"

Gary: (chuckling) "4:20!"

Canary: "Get to the point, Gary."

(Hmm. I would not have pegged Gary as a pothead!)

Heat Wave: (after discovering the bomb) "Burn it!"

Zari: "That'll make it explode. You know, for a guy who loves fire, you really have no idea how it works."

Zari: (to Steel and Vixen) "What you guys have is so special. I mean, the way you look at each other honestly makes me want to puke, but don't fight it. You're crazy about each other. Just don't have sex on missions."

Zari: (to Atom) "You know, when I first came on board, you were so nice and polite to me that I wanted to punch you."

Zari: (to Gideon) "What's happening? If you tell me I've been dreaming this whole time, I'm gonna kill you, real or not."

(I'm with Zari on this one. I HATE "It Was All A Dream" episodes!)

Zari: "One last question. Gary? Why even have him in the time loop, if he was just gonna be stuck in the trash compacter the whole time?"

Gideon: "Thought it'd be funny."

Zari: "I am terrified and in awe of you, Gideon. Who knew you were such an evil genius? And a bit of a perv."

It Came From The Cineplex: Happy Death Day

I'm woefully behind on my movie reviews lately, so I'm gonna do my best to catch up!

Happy Death Day was written by Scott Lobdell and directed by Christopher B. Landon.

Lobdell is primarily a comic book writer, who worked on many Marvel series such as X-Men, Generation X, Daredevil and Alpha Flight, along with Teen Titans for DC. He's written comics for various other companies as well. This appears to be his first theatrical writing credit.

Landon is a writer and director, as well as the son of TV legend Michael Landon. He previously wrote Another Day In Paradise, Blood & Chocolate, Disturbia, Paranormal Activity 2, 3 and 4 and Viral. He wrote and directed Burning Palms, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones and Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse.

I honestly wasn't expecting much from this film, but I ended up liking it quite a bit. Happy Death Day is a fun and tightly constructed film that's actually smart, which is a rarity these days at the box office. Best of all, It establishes a logical set of rules and then sticks to them. Eh, for the most part. Unfortunately the plot train flies off the track late in the third act, but if you can overlook that it's not a bad little movie.

Most critics are calling Happy Death Day a mix between Scream and Groundhog Day, and that's actually a pretty apt description. It takes the self-aware, deconstructionist attitude and murder mystery of Scream and combines it seamlessly with the time-looping shenanigans of Groundhog Day.

Director Christopher Landon even admitted in an interview that the film shamelessly copies Groundhog Day's concept and structure. Eh, I don't see that as a problem. Although Groundhog Day is undoubtedly the most popular and well known instance of the Time Loop Story, it didn't invent the concept by any means. As near as I can tell the idea's been around for decades, first appearing in the short story Doubled And Redoubled in the February, 1941 issue of Unknown magazine (it's possible there are even earlier instances of the concept). 

There's nothing wrong with using an existing plotline or concept as a starting off point, as long as you bring something new to the table. Fortunately Happy Death Day does this, by grafting the slasher movie angle onto the Loop, and giving main character Tree a deadline for solving her own murder.

Oddly enough, there's very little gore to be found in Happy Death Day. In fact, for a horror film it's strangely... polite, for lack of a better word. For example, Tree's supposedly a typical Mean Girl student, but not really, as she never seems anywhere near as bad as her snooty sorority sisters. This applies to most of the other characters as well— they're all designed to be college stereotypes, but none of them ever quite seem to fit into their predetermined roles.

The film's been in Development Hell for an entire decade, as it was first announced way back in 2007, when it was inexplicably titled Half To Death. At that time Michael Bay (!) was set to produce, with Megan Fox (of course) starring. Let's all thank the Movie Gods that that awful, explosion-filled version of the movie never got made!

Many years later, the script surfaced again, and was optioned by Blumhouse Productions in 2016. Blumhouse is on fire lately, as they've put out a series of low budget, high grossing little films that have absolutely cleaned up at the box office. They're responsible for the Paranormal Activity and The Purge franchises, as well as the recent Split and Get Out.

Universal Studios really needs to take a look at Blumhouse's business model and copy it wholesale. Instead of inexplicably trying to turn their Universal Monsters characters into Marvel superheroes (I'm lookin' at you, The Mummy), they could feature them in a series of small, atmospheric and genuinely scary movies. Then they could sit back and watch the money roll in!

So far the Happy Death Day's a box office hit, grossing $88 million worldwide against its tiny $5 million budget! Impressive! You know what that means— look for Happy Death Day II: The Deathening sometime next year!

MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD, INCLUDING THE IDENTITY OF THE KILLER! YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!

The Plot:
It's Monday the 18th, which just happens to be Bayfield College student "Tree" Gelbman's (oy gevalt!) birthday. She wakes up from a drunken stupor in the dorm room of fellow student Carter Davis. Her phone rings, but when she sees it's her estranged father she ignores it. She asks for some aspirin, and as she heads out the door she runs into Carter's roommate Ryan, who asks if he slept with Tree. Awkward!

As Tree walks across the campus, she sees a series of events that'll become very important later on. She passes a Goth student who leers at her, a girl who tries to get her to sign a global warming petition, a smooching couple sitting on the grass who get soaked when the sprinklers come on, a car with a blaring alarm that no one pays any attention to and a frat pledge who passes out during his hazing. She also runs into Tim, a student she dated once, who's now obsessed with her (Suspect #1!).

She returns to her dorm room, where her roommate Lori Spengler, who's a nursing student, proudly presents her with a cupcake she baked from scratch. Tree blows out the candle and dumps the cupcake in the trash, dismissively stating "it's loaded with carbs." This visibly angers Lori, who folds her arms and glares at Tree as she leaves (Suspect #2!). 

Tree then meets with Professor Gregory Butler in his office. Tree's in one of his classes, and is secretly having an affair with him. Gregory's wife Stephanie unexpectedly shows up, and he nervously acts as if he and Tree were discussing classwork. Stephanie obviously doesn't buy it, and icily eyes Tree as she hurriedly leaves (Suspect #3!).

Tree then joins Danielle Bouseman and her fellow snotty sorority sisters for a meeting about the big Spring Dance. Carter walks by and accidentally spills his food on Tree. He apologizes and tries to return a bracelet she left in his dorm, but she hushes him up as she doesn't want her sisters knowing she spent the night with such a loser.

That night Tree walks alone through the dark, foreboding campus, on her way to a party. She passes a group of rowdy guys wearing "Bayfield Babies" merch. Yes, you read right, this school's mascot is a giant baby (!). As she walks under a bridge, she sees a music box sitting in the middle of the sidewalk, chiming away. She turns around to see a figure in a Bayfield Baby mask, staring ominously at her. Tree takes off running, and is chased by the Baby Killer. It catches her and stabs her to death (!). The End.

Tree then wakes up in Carter's room, thinking it was all a dream. She asks for aspirin and runs into Ryan again. Outside, she experiences the same events she saw the day before— Goth, global warming girl, soaked couple, car alarm, frat pledge. She's visibly confused by this, but passes it off as simple deja vu.

Tree enters her room, where Lori gives her another cupcake, but this time she sets it on a dresser instead of throwing it in the trash (this detail's important, as it shows us Tree can change the events of the day). She meets with her sisters at lunch and Carter dumps his food on her again.

That night Tree walks to the party once more, but this time avoids the bridge. She arrives and sees it's really a surprise party for her, organized by Danielle. Suddenly a figure in a Baby mask appears, and Tree's so flustered she punches him in the face. The figure turns out to be Nick, Danielle's boyfriend. Tree enjoys the party, and later gets a text from Danielle, accusing her of hooking up with Nick (Suspect #4). 

For some reason, Tree wanders up to Nick's room. He puts on the Baby mask and tries to scare her, which doesn't work. She's REALLY scared though when the Baby Killer appears and stabs Nick. He then grabs a bong, breaks it in half and stabs Tree with a shard of glass.

Tree wakes up in Carter's room again. She runs outside and sees the same five events, and finally realizes she's stuck in some sort of time loop and is reliving the same day over and over. Lori tells her to relax and get some sleep. Tree locks the room tight and even boards up the windows (!) so the Baby Killer can't get in. It doesn't work, as he crashes into the room and stabs her anyway.

Tree wakes up in Carter's room, and this time explains the situation to him. He doesn't believe her until they go outside and she perfectly predicts the five events. They go through a list of suspects, trying to figure out who keeps killing her. For some reason, Carter believes that if Tree figures out who the killer is, she'll be free of the time loop.

Tree then lives through her birthday several more times, investigating and eliminating various suspects. She rules out Tim after finding out he's secretly gay (not sure why that would prevent him from trying to kill her, but whatever). She tails Greg's wife Stephanie, but is drowned by the Baby Killer while doing so, ruling her out. She also accuses Danielle, but the two of them begin fighting and both are killed by a bus (!).

Tree wakes up in pain and goes to the hospital, where x-rays show her numerous deaths are somehow adding up, causing internal injuries and other traumas. The doctor says by all rights she should be dead, which means her investigation now has a countdown. While in the infirmary, she goes to Gregory's office (I guess he's a doctor as well as a professor?), suspecting him of being the Baby Killer. She roots through his office, finding a Baby mask in a drawer.

Gregory returns, but before she can accuse him, he's stabbed by the actual Baby Killer. She runs through the parking lot, steals a car and flies off. She thinks she's finally escaped the curse, until she's stopped by the police. She lies and says she's drunk so she'll be thrown in a cell, safe from the Killer.

The cop cuffs her and puts her in the back of his car. Suddenly he's mowed down as the Baby Killer crashes his car into the police cruiser, causing its gas tank to leak. The Baby Killer then drops a lit candle onto the stream of leaking gas (which is a big clue!) and Tree's blown up real good.

She wakes in Carter's room, and has to convince him all over again that she's reliving the same day. She notes that she's getting weaker each time through the loop, and worries she'll die for real before finding out who the Killer is and preventing her death. Just then Tree sees a news report on the capture of notorious serial killer Joseph Tombs, who targets young coeds. She's convinced Tombs must be the Baby Killer (which of course is way too obvious).

Tree and Carter enter the hospital, determined to stop Tombs, but see he's already escaped his restraints and killed the security guard posted outside his room. Tombs grabs Carter and snaps his neck, and Tree grabs a fire axe and runs. She hides in an empty room and when Tombs enters, she attacks him. She's about to deliver the killing blow, when she realizes if she eliminates Tombs, she's sentenced Carter to permanent death. She then climbs to the top of a bell tower, tells Tombs she'll see him soon and hangs herself (!).

She wakes up in Carter's room, and enjoys her last time through the loop. She signs the petition, warns the students before they're soaked and places a pillow under the fainting frat pledge. She tells Tim she knows his secret, and to be himself. She then breaks up with Gregory and drops his class. She even eats a tray full of junk food in front of her snotty sorority sisters, going so far as to pour chocolate milk over Danielle's head.

Tree then meets her dad for lunch and attempts to reconnect with him. She says it's been hard for her to see him since her mom died, but promises to try and be a better person.

That night Tree goes to the hospital, and instead of simply warning the guard that Tombs is about to escape, she pulls a knife on him, takes his gun, and tells him to go get backup. She then enters the room, sees Tombs asleep and pulls the trigger. Unfortunately it doesn't go off, as she's apparently never heard of a safety switch. Just then Tombs leaps out of bed and slams her against the wall. There's a momentary power outage (that happens at the same time every day), which takes Tombs off guard. Tree grabs the gun and shoots him dead.

With the danger seemingly passed, Tree returns to her dorm room. Really? So I guess the authorities has no questions for her after she threatened a guard and killed a prisoner in cold blood? Apparently not. She calls Carter and invites him to her room. Carter admits that the two of them have never had sex— she simply passed out in his room and he put her to bed. She decides to remedy that, and they sleep together. She sees the birthday cupcake Lori made for her and decides to eat it (MAJOR CLUE!).

Tree then wakes up again in Carter's room, and realizes she's still in the loop. Even though she killed Tombs, somehow she still died again. She returns to her room and Lori offers her a homemade cupcake again. Suddenly Tree realizes that she never ate the cupcake in any of the other previous loops. The cupcake was poisoned, and Lori's the Baby Killer! 

When Tree accuses her, Lori immediately starts monologuing and admits she's the killer. She says that as a nursing student it was easy to free Tombs and make him look like a suspect in Tree's murder. The only thing Tree can't figure out is why. Lori says it's because she was in love with Gregory, but Tree stole him from her. Really, that's it? Even Tree thinks this is a stupid and lame motive, and says so. Lori attacks her, and the two begin fighting. Tree grabs the poisoned cupcake and shoves it into Lori's mouth, then pushes her out the window for good measure. Lori falls to her death, and thankfully doesn't get back up. 

Later Tree and Carter watch a news report on the incident. Carter says the whole thing reminds him of the movie Groundhog Day, but Tree says she's never heard of it. Oh, meta humor, you're hilarious!

The next day Tree wakes up in Carter's dorm room, and for a horrified second thinks she's still stuck in the loop. Carter finally tells her it's Tuesday the 19th, and they laugh and laugh.

Thoughts:

• I don't have a lot to say about this film, so this'll be short.

• So... Tree's college team is called the "Bayfield Babies." Yep, that's right, the Babies. I can't find any images of it online yet, but their school mascot looks very much like that of the Big Boy restaurant chain. Wow, I bet a large, goofy-looking baby will really strike fear in the opposing team!

• Not a nitpick, just an observation: Even though its never stated onscreen, the movie takes place in New Orleans. About halfway through the film Tree's arrested by a police officer. If you look closely, he has a Louisiana-shaped patch on the arms of his jacket.

• For some reason, everyone at Tree's birthday party is drinking out of blue plastic cups. I honestly don't think I've ever seen blue ones before, as they're almost always red.

This makes me wonder if there was some kind of product placement issue? Like the Solo company wanted too much money to use their red cups in the film? Or maybe they didn't want their product associated with a slasher movie, and the prop department had to scramble and find a different color?

• In Harold Ramis' classic film Groundhog Day, main character Phil Connors wakes up to find himself in a time loop, reliving the same day over and over and over again. When he discovers there's no way out of the loop, he goes through the Five Stages Of Grief.

Tree goes through a similar, if not quite as elaborate, scenario in Happy Death Day. 

Denial
At first Phil doesn't believe the same day's repeating itself, and he has to go through the loop several times before he finally realizes what's happening.

At first Tree Gelbman doesn't believe the same day's repeating itself, and she has to go through the loop several times before he finally realizes what's happening.

Anger
After a few times through the loop, Phil angrily smashes his alarm clock that plays the same song every morning.

After a few times through the loop, Tree angrily throws her cell phone across the room when it plays the same ringtone every morning. In addition, she's mighty pissed when she finds out she has to die every day until she can figure out who killed her.

Bargaining
Phil "bargains" when he visits a psychiatrist, who he believes can somehow fix him and get him out of the loop.

Tree sort of "bargains" when she confides in Carter and asks him for help. The two then try to figure out who the Baby Killer could be.

Depression
Phil eventually lapses into a deep depression, spending all day watching TV. He also tries killing himself multiple times in an effort to escape the loop (it doesn't work).

Tree sort of falls into a depression when she learns that each of her deaths is weakening her, and she has to find her killer before it's too late.

Acceptance

Phil eventually accepts his situation, and uses the time loop to better himself as a person. Once he becomes the best person he can be, he's released from the loop.

Tree eventually accepts her situation, and goes through one last "Perfect Day," righting various wrongs, helping those around her and ultimately becoming a better person. She finally finds her killer and kills them, which releases her from the loop.

• Here's a fun question to ponder in the shower: Just how does this Time Loop work? Is Tree stuck inside some sort of tiny bubble universe in which the same day plays over and over, and then once she prevents her death she returns to the our reality? Or is the entire world stuck in the Time Loop with her? Did you and I and everyone in the world have to relive the same day over and over again just so one snooty sorority girl could learn to be a better person?

• Happy Death Day manages to add an interesting new wrinkle to the Time Loop Story. See, every time Tree's killed in a new way each time through the loop, she wakes up again the next morning with a corresponding injury. The injuries aren't life threatening at first— for example, she wakes up with a stiff neck after being choked— but they're cumulative. She realizes that each time she's killed brings her a little closer to permanent death.

This gives her investigation a time limit and a new urgency, and is a clever addition to the concept.

• Very late in the film, the movie introduces us to serial killer Joseph Tombs, who Tree believes is the one killing her. Really? A killer called Tombs? Who named this character, Charles Dickens?

• Will Tombs still manage to escape and kill the hospital guard one last time?

Lori admits she loosened Tombs' restraints so he could escape. Since he's a known serial killer, the police would automatically suspect him of killing Tree instead of Lori. But just when did Lori free Tombs? 

If Tree killed Lori before she had a chance to loosen Tombs's straps, then everything's OK. Tomb's won't break free, won't kill the guard and won't escape into the night. But if Tree killed Lori after she freed him, then Tombs' is gonna kill the guard and escape one last time.

• As I said earlier, the film goes off the rails in the third act with the surprise reveal that Tree's roommate Lori is the Baby Killer. I was with the film all the way up to that point, but this particular revelation was a bit hard to accept. 

Why's that? Because all through the movie we see the Baby Killer exhibiting what could only be described as superstrength. On several occasions she grabs Tree and literally tosses her across the room. Heck, she even does much the same to Danielle's boyfriend Nick as she lifts him off the ground and stabs him before tossing him away like an old shirt. 

Call me an out-of-touch old dinosaur if you want, but it's a simple fact of human existence that women have less upper body strength than men. Especially a woman as thin and willowy as Lori. There's no way in hell she could have throw another human being around as easily as she did.

The only way this could have worked is if Lori— who's a medical student— raided the hospital's medical locker for steroids.

Lori's motivation is pretty dodgy as well. Once she's revealed as the Baby Killer, Tree asks her why she wants to kill her. Lori replies that she was secretly in love with Gregory, and Tree stole him away from her. Really? That's it? She becomes a goddamned slasher movie villain over a man? Jesus Christ! Puncture Tree's tires, key her car or post nude photos of her on Facebook, but don't MURDER her over a guy!

• Tree ends up shoving Lori out their dorm room window, killing her. Since Tree's not in prison at the end of the movie, I guess the police must have believed her story that her roommate was an insane murderer, and that she killed her in self defense.

• At the very end of the movie, Carter says the whole Time Loop incident reminds him of the movie Groundhog Day. Tree replies that she's never heard of the movie before. 

This is called "lampshading" in the script writing biz. The idea here is that by deliberately calling attention to a plot hole or other implausibility in the script, the writer diffuses the problem, which robs his critics of their ammunition. Nice try.

Happy Death Day is a fun little slasher film that's much better than it has any right to be. It borrows elements liberally from Groundhog Day, but actually manages to put a new and interesting spin on them. It falls apart a bit late in the third act, but it's still worth a look. I give it a good solid B.