A sci-fi film that came to Netflix 7 years ago, but has since been unjustly forgotten, reimagines the time loop concept in an extremely exciting way.
Ever since Groundhog Day, we have known how time loops work in fantasy or sci-fi films: Someone has to relive a day over and over again, finding the reason for the involuntary time travels. This is the only way to break the cycle. Netflix’s science fiction thriller ARQ also took up this concept in 2016. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should definitely do so.
Netflix’s twisty sci-fi thriller ARQ takes us as time hostages
Engineer Renton (Robbie Amell) wakes up at 6:16am next to his ex-girlfriend Hannah (Rachael Taylor). Shortly after, three men storm his bedroom and he breaks his neck trying to escape when he falls down a flight of stairs. But Renton awakens again to find that he is stuck in a time loop.
Because Renton remembers his previous failure, he tries to escape his time prison by reacting to impending danger. He soon realises that not only are his captors here because of one of his inventions, but also that his morning reboots are tied to the so-called ARQ machine in his house. This futuristic device was supposed to serve as a self-sustaining energy source to save humanity, but apparently has other talents.
Netflix’s ARQ takes place almost the entire time only in the building in which Renton and his mysterious machine are at home. Nevertheless, it doesn’t get boring, because with every further time loop, new twists open up in the sci-fi action film that put the events in a different light. Because the plot throws so many hooks, the limited space becomes an anchor within one’s own brain node.
As in the time-loop film Happy Deathday (currently streaming on Amazon Prime *), Renton’s awakenings in ARQ usually end fatally before the reset begins. The fact that Netflix chose the age recommendation of 16 is justified, because in the fight against blackmailers and hostage-takers, things can sometimes get bloody.
But anyone who thinks they’re seeing the time-loop theme interpreted many times by Source Code, Edge of Tomorrow and co. played out just one more time under the direction of Tony Elliott (Trickster) can look forward to a clever variation on time travel. For just when we think we have the principle of ARQ figured out in the 9th run-through, the sci-fi film pulls out its last amazing twist.
And then you’ll actually have to watch the Netflix film all over again to gleefully retrace the tracks laid early on.
