Run Lola Run
Lola rennt (known in the English-speaking world as Run Lola Run) is a 1998 film by German screenwriter and director Tom Tykwer, starring Franka Potente as Lola.
Warning: Plot details follow.
The film centers around Lola's quest to come up with 100,000 marks in twenty minutes in order to save the life of her boyfriend Manni. She runs around Berlin to get to her father's bank, trying to get money from him. When her plan fails, she and Manni rob a grocery store, and Lola is accidentally shot by a police officer. As she dies, the film suddenly seems to start over; it jumps back to the end of her phone call from Manni, and again she tries to get the money from her father. However, a small event happens differently in the beginning, and so the outcome is wildly different: she ends up robbing her father at gunpoint. She brings the money to Manni, but as he crosses the street he is run down by an ambulance. The film starts a third time. She gets to her father's bank only to see him driving away. She then runs through the town, asking for divine help. She comes to a casino and bets on 20 twice in a row. She gets the money and goes to Manni. He, in turn, has this time around gotten the money from the homeless man who stole it from him, and the situation is taken care of. The movie ends with Manni asking Lola what's in her bag.
Throughout the film, Lola frequently bumps into people, talks to them, or passes them by entirely, and their lives are wildly changed as an apparent result (in one scenario, a woman wins the lottery and becomes rich; in a different scenario, the woman remains poor and her child is taken away by social workers). It is very much a film about consequences and interconnectivity, and seems to deny the existence of fate.
The script follows a spiral structure. Spirals are featured several times during the film.
Cast list