Exactly How Long Was Bill Murray Stuck in Groundhog Day's Time Loop? (original) (raw)
Published Jan 21, 2024, 12:00 PM EST
Aled Owen is a writer and filmmaker born in Carmarthen, Wales. He acted onstage from a young age and even won third place in 2012's Britain's Got Talent as part of Only Boys Aloud, a traditional Welsh male voice choir. Since then, Aled studied at the Carmarthen School of Art and later at the Northern Film School, Leeds Beckett University. There, he graduated with a BA and First Class Honors in Filmmaking, having specialized in Screenwriting.
Summary
- Director Harold Ramis believed Phil Connors was trapped for 10-40 years, adding weight to his loathing of the curse.
- Initially, the script envisioned a 10,000 year time-loop, but was reduced to make it more digestible for audiences.
- By analyzing on-screen clues, the character's time-loop is estimated to be around 12-34 years, aligning with Ramis' earlier suggestions.
Bill Murray's role as Phil Connors in 1993's Groundhog Day is one for the ages, especially considering he hated his experience behind-the-scenes just as much as his character did onscreen! Despite its commercial and critical success, the actor famously loathed his time collaborating with fellow-Ghostbuster Harold Ramis who directed the project, even refusing to speak to him for twenty years afterward. Thankfully for Murray, his time on the set of Groundhog Day was much shorter than the time his character spent trapped in the movie's time-loop.
Groundhog Day follows TV meteorologist Connors, who's caught in a time-loop until he eventually becomes a better man. Not only that, but he's physically trapped in the quaint-but-detested town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania due to freak weather and road closures. As each repeated day of his life begins to feel less meaningful, Connors naturally begins to take advantage of his knowledge of each day by stealing cash and living in gluttony. Eventually, he learns that, regardless of the meaningless nature of life, true purpose comes from being a decent person and bringing joy to others. But given the clear size of Phil Connor's ego, how long was he actually trapped in his own personal "Groundhog Day"?
Release Date
February 11, 1993
Runtime
101 minutes
Director
Harold Ramis
Writers
Harold Ramis, Danny Rubin
Producers
Harold Ramis, Trevor Albert
A narcissistic, self-centered weather forecaster finds himself in a time loop on Groundhog Day.
Harold Ramis Believed Phil Connors Was Trapped for Between 10 and 40 Years
One of the easiest ways to know an answer to this question would be to look into the director's own thoughts on the matter. On the DVD commentary for Groundhog Day, director Harold Ramis claims, "We figure the day had been repeating for about 10 years." While that may not seem a terrible length of time, ten years is still a weighty number, so it's no wonder Phil Connors loathes the curse so much by the end of it. On the other hand, such a nice round number feels too good to logically be accurate. Ramis felt the same way as a mere two years later, he even went back on his own words.
In 2009, the director emailed Brian Abrams at Heeb Magazine to add, "I think the 10-year estimate is too short. It takes at least 10 years to get good at anything, and, alloting for the down time and misguided years he spent, it had to be more like 30 or 40 years... People have way too much time on their hands. They could be learning to play the piano or speak French or sculpt ice." The logic is sound enough given the human process. However, if even the film's writer-director can't definitively decide how long the duration of the film's events last, who can we turn to? Maybe we can check with the writer who created the story.
Danny Rubin's Original 'Groundhog Day' Script Featured a 10,000 Year Time-Loop
The screenplay for Groundhog Day was originally written on spec by Danny Rubin and was not intended to be produced, but rather, to earn the writer meetings with Hollywood producers for other projects. When the script caught the attention of Ramis though, the two collaborated to lighten Rubin's bleak tone and enhance the comedy. Murray, however, preferred Rubin's focus on the philosophical elements, leading to his first clash with Ramis on the project. "He just didn’t want to do [comedy] anymore," said Ramis of Murray, "and started exploring this more adult, serious side of himself." This is something Murray did indeed go on to do soon after the production of Groundhog Day.
On the DVD commentary, Ramis explained that, "In Danny's original script, believe it or not, Danny had him living the same day over and over again for 10,000 years, which is actually kind of a convenient Buddhist catchphrase. Everything seems to take 10,000 years in Buddhism." In fact, many religious scholars consider Groundhog Day an "underground Buddhist classic" for its depiction of the cycle of death and rebirth. Much like Ramis and Murray's collaboration, the film gives weight to both its philosophical exploration and its outlandish humor, making its larger-than-life ideas digestable for mass audiences. So 10,000 years is the answer? Well, not quite. Ramis added, "But we thought we should reduce the scope of it for the audience. It's hard for people to get their minds around the idea that this could go on that long."
Bill Murray Was Actually Trapped in 'Groundhog Day' for Around 12 to 34 Years
Bill Murray as Phil Connors in Groundhog Day
Image via Columbia Pictures
Many have been trying to calculate the exact number of days the character experienced in the time-loopby using the clues given to us in the movie. The answer actually falls somewhere in between Ramis' 10 years and Rubin's 10,000 (though, fortunately for Connors, it's much closer to Ramis' 10!), but let's take the necessary steps to get there before spoiling anything. Firstly, one must count the days shown on screen, which add up to 33 according to Mosh and 38 according to WhatCulture. They disagree over whether specific scene cuts necessarily dictate a whole new day, but we're getting where we need to go either way.
Then there is the maximum number of days that could possibly be shown. This helps narrow the number as it takes each cut, slap, and new independent scene at face value as a new day, and results in the story lasting around 91 days. Add to this the days mentioned by Connors, who claims to have seen a new movie over a hundred times, saying that it took him six months to achieve his level of card-throwing, and of course, that he's been "stabbed, shot, poisoned, frozen, hung, electrocuted and burned" in between doing so. This would reach a figure around the 1-year mark.
Connors also spends days performing acts that could only have happened so smoothly with plenty of research and practice. This not only refers to moments like his ice-sculpting or piano-playing skills, but also his ability to save a falling child and provide a broken-down car with the tools needed. As WhatCulture puts it: "A day to hear about the accident, and find out where it happens, a couple more days to investigate, and maybe two more to get the timing perfectly off to a tee." This also may not sound like many steps, but it'd require a bit of finesse to get down pat. This settles on a final count of 12,395 days, or in other words, 33 years and 350 days. Mosh, on the other hand, suggests the figure is closer to 4,576 days (or 12 and a half years).
While the answers may clash, both these calculations fit with Harold Ramis' earlier suggestions that Connors' story takes place over 10–40 years. The work to get there may have also been complicated, but don't feel too bad. When you've lived the same day over and over again, after a while, even Phil Connors himself would have no idea how long it's actually been!
Groundhog Day is available to stream on AMC+ in the U.S.