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Lonely Island’s Palm Springs (2020) stars Andy Samberg as Nyles, another directionless skeptic in a single day of eternal recurrence. After the last dozen time-loop reiterations, especially the surge in 2017, it might be difficult to give another one a try. However, Palm Springs did surprisingly well, receiving 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and gaining universal acclaim.
There are undoubtedly many similarities to the 1993 film Groundhog Day; such as the protagonist indulging in crime, addiction, suicide, and his eventual strive for meaning. Bill Murray’s character, Phil, after experiencing a lifetime of Groundhog Days, works through his demons and breaks the cycle by choosing a life of service to others. The omnipresent observer torturing Phil until he learns his lesson–whether it’s a man in the sky or simply some cosmic energy–finally ends the loop.
This is where Palm Springs differs. Not only are there multiple characters experiencing the loop and interacting with one another, but they are left completely unobserved. The main characters aware of the loop are left to their own devices to define their life’s meaning in their eternal recurrence. Just as the German philosopher Nietzsche said, “God is dead.” Therefore, the three main characters must brave life’s suffering and discern meaning for themselves. Luckily, the tools at their disposal are science and philosophy.
Nietzsche’s Greatest Burden
In order to understand the philosophy of eternal recurrence, you must first accept that both space and time are infinite by nature. By doing so, you inevitably acknowledge the possibility that all of existence is doomed to repeat itself. During his own research, Nietzsche stumbled upon this passage which lead him to his paralyzing concept of eternal recurrence:
[T]ime is infinite, but the things in time, the concrete bodies, are finite. They may indeed disperse into the smallest particles; but these particles, the atoms, have their determinate numbers, and the numbers of the configurations which, all of themselves, are formed out of them is also determinate. Now, however long a time may pass, according to the eternal laws governing the combinations of this eternal play of repetition, all configurations which have previously existed on this earth must yet meet, attract, repulse, kiss, and corrupt each other again…– Walter Kaufman (( Kaufmann, W., & Nietzsche, F. (1959). Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist. Page 376. ))
In conclusion, everything that ever was and will be will recur for all of eternity. Many interpret Nietzsche’s concept of eternal recurrence to mean that the inescapable general circumstances of existence will repeat themselves, not specific events. (( Wicks, R. (2017, May 08). Nietzsche’s Life and Works. )) That is to say, while we may relive our entire existence and experience many of the same decisions, we are capable of making alternative choices–as known as freewill. Keeping this in mind, how might you live your life differently?
Eternal recurrence is an entirely different philosophy than the more common, “live every day as if it’s your last.” The latter encourages pleasure and excitement; either leading a life worth being remembered for or living a life doing everything you’ve ever wanted. The former draws attention to the consequences of everyday life and learning to live with yourself, for that is the only consistent company you’ll have for eternity. More often than not, life’s responsibilities keep us distracted from who we truly are. Only when we are faced with the consequences of our actions are we faced with the truth about ourselves.
Although there are people that make efforts to change themselves for the better, it is far easier to bury these truths and distract ourselves with either work, addictions, or even other people. Palm Springs draws attention to lies we tell ourselves to make life easier: “if I’m good, I’ll be rewarded;” “every day could be my last;” “nothing matters.” When, instead, we should focus on living a life we can stomach reliving, again, and again, and again…
Three Perspectives In The Palm Springs Loop
The characters trapped in the loop are all forced to take a long hard look in the mirror. Without life barreling them towards an undetermined death, they are faced with getting to know who they really are. Every day they must ask themselves what they want to do, how they want to spend eternity. However, after a few decades, running away from your responsibilities can grow tiresome and purposeless. At the end of the day, as Nyles states,
“we have to deal with the things that we do.”
Nyles The Nihilist
We’ve already met Nyles deep in the time-loop at the start of Palm Springs. Unlike Phil from Groundhog Day, whom we watch get dropped into a time-loop and experience all reasonable reactions, we meet Nyles as the indifferent, nihilistic wedding attendee. As we’ve come to learn, he’s already been through binges, innumerable suicide attempts, and the civil service phase. After an indefinite number of days, Nyles has completely given up on finding any purpose in his situation or a way out.
“Today, tomorrow, yesterday, it’s all the same.”
– Nyles in Palm Springs
While nihilism can be a very broad spectrum, Nyles’s take is most similar to Nietzsche’s own theories. He believes that life is intrinsically meaningless, and “all values are baseless.” (( Pratt, Alan. “Nihilism.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. )) Having lived the same day for what seems like an eternity, he has reached a stage in his eternal recurrence that blinds him from the fact that things can still change. He lives his days as though he is emotionally dead, numb to everything that makes life worth living and vowing to live out the rest of his life “with as little effort as possible.”
Admittedly, this is a life many people live outside of a time-loop, and probably the life Nyles lived before entering. One could argue that the reason he says he can hardly remember his life before the loop is that he never did anything worth remembering. By living this passively, he further traps himself in his very own loop of habits. He lives through a rerun of his most stress-free days, predicting each moment and fearing the unpredictable. Essentially becoming accustomed to his eternal recurrence; something Nietzsche could hardly stomach.
The Inevitable Possibility Of The Multiverse
However, there is one aspect of the time-loop that matters to Nyles in Palm Springs. After first introducing a new character, Sarah, to the reality of the time loop, he admits to considering the multiverse. He later references the multiverse when arguing that some of the things that happen in the time-loop matter:
“What we do to other people matters!”
The multiverse stems from the concept that all these alternative decisions diverge into alternate branches of existence and that every possibility that doesn’t occur in one universe is happening in another. This is ultimately Nyles’ paralyzing thought, the fear of hurting other people, and getting hurt himself. He already suffers erratic torture from Roy, another character he brought into the time-loop. Not only is he frequently physically tortured by Roy, but he is emotionally distraught, having brought another person into endless despair of eternal recurrence. Arguably, Nyles lives in the loop making as few ripples in the water as possible in order to suffer as few consequences as possible.
Sarah The Absurdist
When we first meet Sarah, she has a pretty bleak take on life, despite her attitude. Her belief that everyone is defined by their past weighs especially heavy on her. She’s not proud of the decisions she has made in the past and, therefore, has invented the idea that love does not exist. Rather than feeling love and acceptance from her family, she only feels shame and embarrassment. In her defense, she tells herself that love is a farce that makes people feel less alone. What she is really doing is projecting her feelings of being unlovable due to her past. This includes sleeping with her sister’s fiance the night before their wedding.
So, it’s no surprise that once she finds herself stuck in a time-loop she thinks it’s karma; thereby, taking the absurdist route, desperately looking for meaning in an irrational and purposeless existence. Although she tries to do what she thinks is best for others, she continues to value herself based on her past. She says people are awful and incapable of love, when in reality she believes that she’s awful and incapable of being loved.
After days of living recklessly with Nyles in Palm Springs, she asks him how anyone can really know someone without knowing their past. Nyles eventually comes to know Sarah better than she knows herself. He loves her despite knowing about the biggest mistake of her life and her self-hatred. However, she still finds this unbelievable; asking him how he can love her over anyone else in the world.
“Sarah’s a good person, but for some reason, she’s never been good enough for any of you–.”
– Nyles in Palm Springs
Learning To Love Your Fate In Palm Springs
Sarah’s principal drive to escape the loop comes from waking up to the biggest mistake of her life every morning. If she had stayed outside of the loop and life had simply moved on after her sister’s wedding, Sarah would have been plagued by that night along with all her other mistakes for the rest of her life, if not simply to punish herself.
Sarah spends innumerable days living recklessly in the loop with Nyles, waking up every morning and running away from her mistake. Eventually, she gives in to her feelings for Nyles and sleeps with him for the first time — to her knowledge — only to wake up to her mistake once again. The happiness she feels after spending time with Nyles is poisoned every morning she reawakens in her brother-in-law’s bed. In order to cope with the morning after, she pushes her feelings for Nyles — and her feelings in general–away in an effort to dissociate from her conundrum. She doesn’t feel worthy of love and happiness, and she never will until she leaves her past behind.
Nietzsche was similarly plagued by his life’s regrets. After years of debasements and disappointments, Nietzsche eventually arrived at the concept of “amor fati” or love of fate. (( “NIETZSCHE ON: Amor Fati” The School of Life, 11 January 2018. )) Essentially, if you can’t beat it, join it. Nietzsche realized if he was doomed to relive his life for eternity it would be far better to love all the small moments of bliss and happiness than sulk over all the regrets and hardships for eternity. For how could he have ever experienced his best moments if it hadn’t been for the bad ones. Likewise, Sarah can never accept and return love until she accepts her mistakes and forgives herself.
Roy The Existentialist
When Nyles first meets Roy, he’s a cynical man in a marriage he describes as “a bottomless pit of sorrow that makes you forget who you are.” After ingesting an undisclosed amount of drugs and liquor with Nyles, it becomes clear that the person he claims to have forgotten is someone who lives recklessly without any concern for responsibilities or consequences. As a family man, nights like the one spent with Nyles are few and far between in Palm Springs. By his definition, settling down and raising children is a dark bottom, most likely referring to the constant reminder of your mortality and your children being your only legacy.
However, Roy is nothing short of enraged to find out he’ll never live past a single day. He spends an endless amount of time unexpectedly torturing Nyles for cursing him with his eternal recurrence. In Nyles’ defense, though, endlessly living the same party day for eternity sounds like the perfect solution to Roy’s sorrowful existence.
“What might have been and what has been all point to one end, which is always present.”
– T.S. Elliot
Peace in Saṃsāra
After Roy encounters Sarah, resulting in a slow and painful death in the ICU, he is shaken from his torturous tendencies. He realizes, like Nyles, that regardless of their eternal recurrence and immortality, pain is real; and torturing is more than simple catharses, it’s malicious. Nyles visits Roy at his house in Irvine and meets the wife and children Roy had previously referred to as his bottomless pit. There he finds Roy in a picture-perfect suburban neighborhood cooking an intricate meal for his family, completely at peace.
All the rage he projected unto Nyles for taking his future away from him appears to be misplaced rage for having wished his family away. For, here he is, watching his children at the start of their life drawing and water dog poop for eternity, daydreaming of the beautiful futures that await them. Had he actually run away from his suburban life, he would have never been able to watch them grow up. Now, he knows exactly how meaningful that experience is.
Buddhists would associate this change in attitude to his acceptance of Saṃsāra: the beginningless cycle of repeated birth, mundane existence, and dying again. They say the cycle only ends if a person achieves peace, exhausting any desires and obtaining true insight into the impermanence of all things. (( Trainor, K. (2004). Buddhism: The illustrated guide. (p. 58). London: Duncan Baird. ))
In order to achieve peace in Saṃsāra, Buddhists incorporate a unique practice in their training temples. They wake up at the same time, go to the same place, wear the same clothes, and follow the same routine. Yet, every moment is different. By removing all the distracting changes that every day may bring — what clothes to wear, where to get lunch — you are able to focus on the beauty that every individual moment brings. (( Wenger, D. M., Sensei. (2004). Seeing The Shadow. ))
“Beautiful wife, beautiful kids. Little Joey is watering dog sh*t. It’s weird. But. . . it’s beautiful.”
– Roy in Palm Springs
Leaving Nirvana In Palm Springs
Nyles, in Palm Springs, makes an excellent point when he is asked why he doesn’t want to leave the loop. The reality awaiting them is full of “death, poverty, and debilitating emotional distress.” Whereas the eternal recurrence they inhabit is free of ailments, rent, bills, work, politics–the list goes on. Unfortunately for Sarah, the loop contains its own debilitating emotional distress. She asks Nyles to leave what is essentially his nirvana after having spent an eternity getting used to the idea of living infinitely.
Nyles eventually comes to realize that living in the loop isn’t living at all. As previously mentioned, Nyles was living out eternity emotionally dead, cycling through a simple routine, perpetually looking over his shoulder for impending danger caused by his biggest mistake. He had become accustomed to torture, either physically, from Roy, or emotionally, from the loop itself slowly numbing him. The thought of suffering through existence with the one you love would make all the suffering worth the effort.
Sarah’s determination to move past her sister’s wedding is both figurative and literal. Outside the loop, she would have added her mistake to her list of reasons to hate herself and her life. By waking up to it for an endless amount of time and facing her mistake, rather than burying it inside, Sarah eventually forgave herself enough to move past it. She acknowledged and accepted what she did, told herself and Abe what she thought, and accepted that it would never happen again.
What all three of these characters have in common is their struggle to find meaning in their suffering. While Nyles finds little to no value in living outside the loop, let alone in general, both Sarah and Roy struggle with letting go of their past and embracing the future. All three wanted to believe that life itself was the issue; that reality is fraught with misery and despair, that having children equated the death of your individuality, or that love is a tool used to not feel alone. What their eternal recurrence eventually taught them was that they are the only ones that can define their lives.
Life is what you make it, so make it good. Appreciate the change you bring upon the world, whether it’s your children or your craft. Appreciate the changes that every day brings, despite the bad and the ugly in between; and finally, appreciate yourself for all that you do and all the mistakes you learn from that make you a better person.
“To live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering.”
– Nietzsche (( Popova, Maria. “Friedrich Nietzsche on Why a Fulfilling Life Requires Embracing Rather than Running from Difficulty,” February 6, 2018. ))