Time loop movies are fun—very fun. Not only do they make you think about what’s going on, but the possibilities are exciting to watch. It feels kind of like a choose-your-own-adventure game, but one where you get to cheat. The movie Triangle was suggested out of nowhere by a Reddit user who claimed it to be one of the more cerebral movies they had watched. I had to check it out. Sure, some comments spoiled it for me as soon as they mentioned the movie Coherence, but nonetheless, it was worth checking out, and I’m glad I did.

Very quickly, we learn that Jess goes on a sailing trip with some of her friends. She seems agitated and anxious for some reason. Soon enough, bad weather wrecks their boat. Luckily, a huge liner sails by, and they climb onboard. Things then get weird—quickly. No one appears to be on the liner, and before long, a killer is hunting them down. At first, everything seems calm, but then we discover the big twist: Jess and her friends are trapped in a time loop onboard the ship. The killer turns out to be another, past version of Jess, warning her that the only way to escape and go back home to her son is to kill everyone else. Oh, hell yeah. Triangle provides a tense and claustrophobic atmosphere and and with Jess constantly running around the ship, this can be easily felt throughout the movie. The movie doesn’t let you out of its grip and forces you to continue watching to see how things unfold next. It’s obviously not a movie to watch while distracted for fear of missing out on any single clue that could be given on the character’s predicament.

Here’s what I think after watching this. In the end, we learn that Jess is still stuck in the time loop, even after escaping the ship, trying to save her son, and accidentally killing him in a car crash. This signifies that Jess isn’t going to somehow become a better or more patient mother to her autistic son. Current Jess would like to believe that saving her son once again requires her to go through the same motions and events as in the beginning—to relive the time loop and everything that happened on that ship. However, it’s never going to work out, because the events will likely play out the same way as before. It’s like watching this movie over and over again—literally.

So here are my questions. Just how did Jess survive the car crash in the end? This wasn’t apparent because we just see her standing on the road, looking at the accident before the taxi driver talks to her and she decides to go back to the harbor. What about her previous self’s dead body in the trunk? That would clearly mess everything up because it’s clear that the physical evidence in the time loop don’t just get “erased” upon each reset. We see multiple versions of her friend’s body piled up on the ship (which was extremely freaky btw) and multiple versions of the dead birds she drops on the beach. The police would likely have found her dead body in the trunk, take it to the morgue (never mind that there is no driver present for the crash) only to have to do it again for the next version of Jess in the next loop and again and again.

Finally, if Jess is able to “retain” her knowledge after each reset, then why would she still be stuck in the loop at the end of the movie? Wouldn’t she be able to try something new to escape the loop since she knows what will happen? Or at the very least hint to the viewers that she has a different plan this time around? In addition, there are multiple versions of Jess on the same boat, at the same time. Our current Jess, once she realizes she’s in a loop, can physically see everything unfolding exactly has she herself has experienced it previously. Yet she makes no real effort to try and deviate from the path. I was expecting her to jump out in front of the group at one point and make them see two versions of Jess. That would have been hilarious. However, this is where the movie gets interesting because we get to see “current” Jess slowly turn and become into “killer” Jess hunting a “future” Jess, completing the loop! My theory is that Jess’s “memories” get reset while she was sleeping in the cruise boat, prior to the storm. We see in one scene that Jess wakes up startled and says that she had a nightmare but couldn’t remember what it was about. I think it is here that she transforms into the “new” version of Jess and therefore has no idea what will happen later. She obviously can’t say anything to her friends prior to this because they’ll likely think she’s bananas. That could explain why she will continue to be surprised each and every time when she boards the liner and learns about the time loop. It will have been her “first time” experiencing it and everything following it will happen the exact same way, including to her boarding the cruise boat once again at the end and not wanting to say anything to her friends. Loop complete!

Triangle is a great time loop movie and a highly enjoyable watch. It’s not too complicated as other similar movies such as Donnie Darko or even Coherence, for new viewers. It’s definitely a trippy watch. I’m positive there are likely a bunch of hints and symbolism that I failed to catch as usual but nonetheless, I’m very happy with this movie.

Thank you to u/crazyhomlesswerido for bringing this movie up on Reddit:

The most cerebral horror movie I've ever seen
byu/crazyhomlesswerido inhorror