Omni Loop
Omni Loop is a 2024 American science fiction drama film written, directed, and edited by Bernardo Britto. It stars Mary-Louise Parker, Ayo Edebiri, Carlos Jacott, Harris Yulin, Hannah Pearl Utt, Chris Witaske, and Steven Maier.
Omni Loop had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 13, 2024. It was released in theaters by Magnolia Pictures on September 20, 2024.
Plot
Zoya Lowe is a quantum physics textbook author with only one week left to live. She is diagnosed with a black hole growing in her chest. To avoid her death, Zoya enters a time loop. She takes a time travel pill that allows her to travel back in time 5 days. She found these mysterious pills when she was 12 years old and had used them to improve her life, but stopped for many years before her diagnosis.Frustrated with repeating the same sad loop with her husband, adult daughter and son-in-law, she decides to take action and resume her past research on the pills. She meets Paula, a research assistant studying time at a local community college, and enlists her help. Zoya hopes to find a way to travel back to gain years and potentially alter her past.
Once Zoya begins working with Paula, she spends every cycle sneaking out of the hospital and hiding from her worried family. As the research continues unsuccessfully, Zoya is upset, but refuses to reach out to past colleague and ex Mark Harrison. When Zoya, in a last ditch effort, tracks him down, she finds that he died four months before. His son, now living in his dad's house, invites her in and says he wishes that his dad hadn't spent his last days working.
After this, Zoya listens to the voicemails her family have been leaving every cycle and breaks down in tears, resetting her week one final time. This time she is happy to be in the loop repeating things she's done with her family while still creating new memories. She also stops by Paula's to give her a copy of all the research they had done together and the time travel pills. Zoya says that maybe Paula is the one to figure it all out.
As the loop is coming to a close, Zoya's family bring her out a birthday cake, but unlike any loops in the past Zoya opens her gift. She is shocked to find a photo of her daughter's sonogram. Zoya is going to be a grandmother. She smiles and tells her family how much she loves them before the black hole consumes her.
Themes
The film explores Zoya’s reflection on her life, the missed opportunities, her family, her career, and what matters most. The time travel is a vehicle to consider alternative lives and the grief of knowing one’s end is near.Cast
- Mary-Louise Parker as Zoya Lowe
- Ayo Edebiri as Paula Campos
- Carlos Jacott as Donald Lowe
- Harris Yulin as Professor Dulseberg
- Eddie Cahill as Mark Harrison
- Hannah Pearl Utt as Jayne Lowe
- Chris Witaske as Morris
- Steven Maier as Chris
Production
Principal photography took place in Miami in September 2022.