Introduction
Run Lola Run was a 1998 film directed by Tom Tykwer (Smith 94). The film stars Franka Potente (Lola) and Moritz Bleibtreu (Manni) as the main characters. The film basically represents a life-threatening scenario that has three sets of endings. The main elements evident in the film are turning points, circumstances, chances, and choices (Whalen 34). These are the factors that determine the fates of the characters and indeed a manifestation of the real-life situation (what determines our fate). From this analogy, we will then comprehend what governs our actions, and probe whether the decisions we make control our lives, or not. To some people, the film has been delightfully intriguing, annoying, and sometimes frustrating to a section of the audience. However, as we try to make sense of it all, this study will provide a comprehensive framework of what the film series concerns.
Briefly, the film starts when Lola receives a phone call from her boyfriend (Manni) who was a drug runner trainer. Lola’s boyfriend goes hysterical and throws a tantrum because Lola showed up late. He later explains to her that after being paid for some drugs, he had to walk with the money through the subway. He later becomes unnerved by the presence of law enforcement officers and leaves a subway without the bag of money. A homeless person retrieves it. In the meantime, he was supposed to meet with his colleagues and does not know what to do because he doesn’t have the money, Lola promises that she will find a solution to the problem and that’s where the author provides three solutions to Lola’s dilemma (Kosta). For every solution, Lola encounters Manni’s colleagues but because their timing varies, the destinies of all parties involved are dramatically different. This will be the bedrock of this study because with reference to the film; it is not a difference in the day but a difference in time that determines someone’s fate.
Timing
The producer of the film shows that time is always a strong determinant of the fate of an individual (Wilson). Timing, therefore, affects the choices, decisions, and the will to act before an individual pursues a given course of action. However, many other elements complement time, like the element of chance which always manifests in every person’s life (like being the winner in a lottery game), or unforeseen elements of malevolent evil because are beyond human influence. Some unforeseen elements also surpass the sequence of time; like anger and strong emotions which manifests in the second scenario where Lola’s father refused to help her get money; forcing her to point a gun at him after snatching it from a security guard. The element of unexpected events like shows of kindness also compliments timing as can be evidenced when a Casino attendant gives Lola 100 Deutschmarks after she ran short. This unprecedented timing of events made Lola proceed with the game. It therefore obviously implies that Tykwer tries to make the audience understand that human free will affects timing in one way or the other.
The choices we make, the circumstances in which we make them, and the timing that we carry out our actions are bound to affect other people and essentially our actions. A fast forward in the film attests to this fact; in that, the timing of our actions are in connection to the actions of other people we meet in life (Wilson). That said, the timing of our actions are bound to affect others and those that they make are equally bound to affect us.
Lola expressly exemplifies this scenario. The decisions she makes in the first scenario; or a few seconds later (as depicted in the second scenario); or a couple of seconds earlier (as depicted in the third scenario) all have different impacts on the actions of the people in her primary surrounding (Wilson). However, the destiny of every person she encounters is remarkably different because of the time difference in which she bases her actions. The woman pushing the baby on a carriage, the boy riding the bike, the tramp, and the lady at the bank’s hallway come out as evidence of this fact.
The handling of these flash-forwards is done in a fleeting manner because, in the first scenario, the woman who was pushing her baby on the carriage ends up childless as her baby disappears and she later ends up stealing another person’s child. Interestingly, in the third scenario, she develops a strong sense of faith and even becomes a follower of Jehovah’s Witness (Wilson). These incidences are all differentiated by time differences that Lola takes advantages of (because she gets a chance to redeem herself in each scenario) as depicted in the three different scenarios
Indeed, even Lola’s life becomes strongly impacted by the different timing of her actions; her boyfriend’s, and also her father’s. In attestation, in one scenario she dies; in the second scenario, her boyfriend dies and in two scenarios her father dies. The film, therefore, shows that the difference in the timing of events has a profound impact on the outcome of the events
Lola goes in circles over and over, making her realize that she needs to change the way she was doing stuff; thereby changing her fate because she understood her situation better after a lapse of time. Lola animatedly runs in credit sequence and punches the clocks in the first and second scenes but clock three gets swallowed up. Her self-awareness manifests when she shutters the first and second clock and later discovers that she continuously repeats her twenty-minute runs subconsciously (Wilson). Up to this point, a lapse of time makes Lola come of age. In fact, she gains independence from her parents; transitioning from a point of ignorance to a point of knowledge (with regard to her player status in the universe game). Circling back to her initial problems makes Lola understand her situation better and change her destiny by being aware of her situation.
Another example of how a difference in time affected the destiny, fate, and the outcome of some scenes manifests when Lola runs parallel and then past an ambulance which skids and halts in front of a sheet of glass which was being carried across the street (first scenario). In the second scenario, Lola runs alongside the ambulance and requests the ambulance driver to give her a lift but the driver gets distracted and crashes through the glass which in the first scene was being transported across the street. Shortly after, the ambulance driver runs over Lola’s boyfriend, Manni. In the third scenario, Lola becomes wiser and waits till the ambulance halts in front of the sheet of glass being transported across the street and hops in the back to hold the hand of a heart attack victim being transported. She brings him to life. These are all manifestations that Lola grows much wiser through learning from time differences. In other words, she takes advantage of the different timings in all three scenes to change the outcome of events.
Another scenario depicting how Lola uses the time to change the outcome of events is manifested when she walks past a child and a dog hanging out in the landing (in the first scene) and when she passes by the dog and the child in the second scene. In the second scene, the dog growls and the child trips her. In the third scene, Lola leaps over the dog and the astonished child. She later growls at the dog and it whimpers in fright (Wilson). These three scenarios show how time differences can make a difference to the fate of individuals. In the first scene, neither the dog nor the child does anything to her and she walks past without any disturbances. However, in the second scene, the dog growls at her, distracting her attention. The child later trips her and she falls. In conclusion, our actions are normally affected by time differences.
Time is one plausible way of analyzing Run Lola Run with a focus on its impact on our lives and the lives of others. Essentially, timing has a direct influence on the fate of individuals through an interchange of various factors such as personal choices, circumstances, and chance. We all, therefore, have unpredictable futures depending on how we handle different time setups. Through the above examples, circumstances define our timing; our timing affects our choices and our choices definitely affect the consequence we have to live with. We, therefore, face different turning points in our lives, depending on the circumstances in which we live in. Life is therefore quite unpredictable and the different timing of events indeed affects our own destiny.
Conclusion
This study identifies one possible “lens” of interpretation that identifies timing as the variable in one’s lifetime that determines the outcome of our lives. Expressly, we can also identify that the different timing of our actions and indeed the actions of others affect our destiny. This manifests from Lola’s actions with regard to her interactions with other characters in the course of the film. Lola’s actions, characterized by time differences and changes in approach determine the overall outcome of the scenes. This therefore shows that time affects different turning points, choices, circumstances, and chances that determine the course our lives take.
Works Cited
Kosta, Barbara. Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run and the Usual Suspects: The Avante Garde, Popular Culture and History. 2009. Web.
Smith, William. Socrates and Subtitles: A Philosopher’s Guide to 95 Thought-Provoking Movies from Around the World. New York: McFarland, 2010.
Whalen, Tom. “Run Lola Run”. Film Quarterly 53.3 (2000): 33-40.
Wilson, Barrie. What’s It About? Reflections on Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run. 2009. Web.