I watched Run Lola Run recently, and I thought it would be fun to write about aspects of the story that it’s telling that I found interesting.
The main thing that stands out to me is a literal version of the Chekhov’s Gun trope (basically the idea that if you show something that looks important, you should always reuse it later in the same film or in sequels). But first, I should probably explain what happened up until that point in the movie.
Basically, Lola, our main protagonist, gets a call from her boyfriend, Manni, when he gets into trouble with some German criminals. Manni needs 10,000 Marks (basically a currency that was used in Germany before they stopped using it in 2002) so that he can pay them off and not die. There’s a bank near the phone booth that he’s in, and he wants to rob it so that he can get his money quickly. Lola tells him to wait for her to come to him with her own money, and proceeds to run to her dad’s office to get it, stumbling upon him getting into an affair with another woman in the process. Unfortunately, she takes too long, so Manni decides to rob the bank anyway. Lola makes her way there as the robbery is underway and gets some advice on how to deactivate a pistol’s safety settings. They both try to get away with their money, but Lola gets shot by the cops. Then, something weird happens. Lola must have a Stand that works like Yoshikage Kira’s Killer Queen in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure or something, because she’s able to reset the universe back to the beginning of the movie and try to save Manni again. This time, she steals her dad’s money, and during that robbery, she actually takes advantage of her knowledge from Timeline 1 to turn off the safety settings on the gun that she uses in that robbery.
Now that I’m done explaining that extremely cool use of Chekhov’s Gun, I’m going to try to look at some things in the movie that feel like hints or “breadcrumbs” for later plot points. I don’t remember if I caught this immediately, but the mini “Flashforwards” in Timeline 1 feel like they’re meant to hint at the way history is being slightly altered each loop. Like, after the first loop, I started to realize that they were gonna look different in each timeline. Now that I think about it, I don’t exactly know if Lola dying in the first 20 minutes counts as a proper breadcrumb so much as a big plot twist, but either way, I remember seeing her die and thinking “Oh my Gods, they’re totally doing some Multiversial travel shenanigans. Writing about this movie is gonna be so much fun! *excited MCU fangirl noises*”. Anyway, that part with Lola’s dad cheating on his wife with another woman was unexpected. Also, I don’t know if it’s a good idea to mention this because it’s kind of a big spoiler for the end of the movie, but yeah, that ending with Manni managing to get the money that he needs on his own was kinda funny. Like, Lola’s out there breaking reality to keep him out of jail and the afterlife, and the one timeline where they both survive is one where she technically didn’t even have to do anything. Is it kinda disappointing? Yeah. Is it really funny and something that feels like it probably would actually happen? Also yes.
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