Unless we ’re caught in some sort of retell worldly loop that I ’m unaware of , time travel is having a moment . This fall , three clock time - travel play ( NBC’sTimeless , ABC’sTime After Time , and the CW’sFrequency ) will debut on meshing television , whileMaking account , a comedy starringHappy end ' Adam Pally as a regular bozo with a duffel - old bag time machine , will premier on FOX in the winter . But like a streamingKyle Chandler who mother tomorrow ’s raging television receiver trends in his inbox today , Netflix got there first withARQ , a new clip - travel thriller that materialise on the serving September 16th .
Unlike the show that will be twisting up your mentality this fall , ARQisn’t a series . Instead , it ’s another original motion picture from the stream giant , like the late EDM ensemble pieceXOXO , the Ellen Page dramaTallulah , or the many Adam Sandler comedy populate your queue . Here ’s the honest word for officious sci - fi fans : ARQis less than 90 minutes long . ( That ’s shorter than the fender forThe Get Down . ) But unlike the trapped - in - a - time - cringle fictional character in this pic written and directed by a former penman for BBC America ’s cult faveOrphan Black , you only have so many minute in a day .
So , is this curiously named thriller deserving your prison term ? We processed some data with our eyeball to come up with the following questions that will help oneself you settle .
Mike Gibson/Netflix
Do you love time loops?
Here ’s the lift pitch for this movie : Groundhog DaymeetsSource CodemeetsEdge of Tomorrow . We ’re in !
The film unfold with our very buff - looking hero Renton ( Robbie Amell , from the CW ’s short - live metre - travel seriesThe Tomorrow People ) and his companion Hannah ( Rachael Taylor ofNetflix’sJessica Jones ) acquire a rough fire up - up call from a gang of gun - toting goons in petrol masque . While trying to escape , Renton falls down some stairs and … wakes up back in the same layer with Hannah . Then the same oaf interrupt our grinder ’s dawn again , onlythis timehe ’s fain and tries to kill the defective dudes . This stratagem ends with Renton start flash and … ignite up in the same bedagain , just before the goon team arrivesagain .
What ’s causing the loop ? It turns out that , besides getting in a workout every day , Renton is the inventor of the ARQ of the rubric , which Hannah helpfully draw as " an unlimited free energy machine that also produces unlimited time . " The automobile look like the world ’s most expensive metal rolling peg . It seems that , according to Renton , the bad bozo " want the ARQ for their war machine , " but every time he re - spawns like a video - plot character at the same metre and in the same location , he con that people around him are not who they appear to be .
If you like your sci - fi movies pack with jargon ( e.g. , ARQ stands for " arcing recursive quine " ) , excited running , and a self-colored wind every 15 second , ARQ will be puff food for thought . It ’s thoroughgoing for your friend who possess the completeSarah Connor Chronicleson Blu - ray . Like the braggart motorcar the flick gets its statute title from , the game keeps spinning at maximum efficiency . survive . Die . Repeat .
How do you feel aboutEdge of Tomorrow?
If the wide outlines of the plot sound vaguely familiar , you in all probability saw Tom Cruise ’s excellent 2014 filmEdge of Tomorrow , which foundthe artist formerly known as Maverickgoing toe - to - toe with a steel - wielding Emily Blunt . It played with the well - worn sci - fi trope of the time loop in sly and inventive ways , plow a shoot - em - up natural process movie into a post - apocalyptical rom - com , a dry irony of first - somebody shooter gameplay , and a blink meditation on Cruise ’s refusal to age . It ’s bang-up .
Of course , ARQhas few big - budget action sequence and 100 % less Emily Blunt thanEdge of Tomorrow , but this motion picture still provides some thrills . Writer - music director Tony Elliott like an expert paces the story by introducing new ingredient in each grummet and planting small-scale details that give off after . The convoluted logistics and science - speak seem by design designed to inspire questioning Reddit threads , explainer - y YouTube television , and complicated diagrams picking it all asunder . If you ’re inclined to go down coney jam like this , ARQis here for you .
Are you tired of dystopian stories?
There was a period a couple years ago when it experience like every movie in dramaturgy was base on a YA novel where a clump of model - like worker ran around in tattered clothes you could get at the Gap . Though it ’s not based on a YA novel , and features too many swear intelligence , gunshots , and giant pools of blood to appeal to younger viewers , ARQis still working in the same stylistic register as recent dystopian fare likeThe 100,The Maze Runner , orDivergent . Renton is Mad Max break down normcore .
In the Earth of the movie , there ’s an on-going war between a very regretful corp call Torus and a group of earnest rebel know as the Block , and the specific details about the warfare - torn society are equally generic . An example : the villains are super - psyched about the fact that Renton has apples in his cellar scientific discipline lab . So if the thought of a world without apples terrifies you , stay by .
Do you like your sci-fi to bevery very serious?
To me , the appealingness of the time loop as a science - fiction conception in movies and record is that it allows writer to depend at dark experiential question while also laughing at the ridiculousness of life . consider of Bill Murray jumping off that building inGroundhog Day , Emily Blunt shot Cruise in the head inEdge of Tomorrow , or the irrupt depository financial institution in that prison term - loop instalment ofThe X - Files . Despite how disturbing those minute sound out of context of use , they work as bleak funniness .
Other than a brief import of joy where Renton pull off to slide a duet of scissors off a mesa without dropping them , ARQdoesn’t pause to notice the humor or poetic lulu that might occasionally come with living the same minute over and over . I found the unrelenting sincerity to be a minuscule exasperating . If you ’re caught in a clip loop , why not make the salutary of it once in a while ?
But the characters inARQcan’t allow themselves to live on a niggling , not with the Block and Torus still out there . They yell thing like , " There ’s a warfare on ! I do n’t have time for us ! " and answer with , " Then what are you fight down for ? " Serious !
Netflix/YouTube
How do you feel about confined spaces?
AsARQstretches on and Renton forge a plot to end the time loop topology , it becomes apparent you ’re watching a talky chamber drama set in a basement . It ’s not that a corking time - travel movie requires big plosion and special effects – seePrimerfor a consummate example of how to explore reckless conception on a tiny budget . But as a piece of visual storytelling , ARQfeels boxed in : the sets resemble the cut - out edifice from the Caprica sequences ofBattlestar Galacticaand the feeling of the movie is filled with gray , drab colour that would n’t seem out of spot in a Syfy original movie .
Pro lead for anyone who watch this : dust off your cover and pump up the brightness before you cluck play .
Sign up herefor our daily Thrillist electronic mail , and get your pickle of the best in solid food / swallow / fun .
Mike Gibson/Netflix
Mike Gibson/Netflix
Mike Gibson/Netflix
Mike Gibson/Netflix
