Hi, Movie Recaps here. Today I will show you an action, sci-fi, thriller film from 2016,
titled ARQ. Spoilers ahead! Watch out and take care.
The movie begins by throwing us right in the middle of things in a post-apocalyptic world.
Renton wakes up beside his ex Hannah right before three masked men burst into the room
and take him away. Renton tries to escape and when one of the men tries to grab him,
he is pushed down the stairs and killed. But he wakes up in bed again,
where the clock is showing the same time. In the same way as before, the men burst into the
bedroom and take him to the research room, where a fourth masked man is lying on the floor dead.
Renton and Hannah are tied to chairs before the men start talking to them while taking their
guns out as a threat. The leader explains that the dead man on the floor, their cousin nicknamed Cuz,
was electrocuted by Renton's weird machine before introducing the group - his partners are Brother
and Sonny while he can be called Father. The men are here for Renton's scrips, so Father
gives them five minutes to think about it while the trio leaves to have a snack in the kitchen.
Renton has apples, which are almost gone from the world. While dragging his chair to a nearby desk,
Renton tells Hannah that the men must've followed her when she came to visit the day before and he
should've known she's under surveillance. He grabs a pair of scissors with his teeth and drops them
on the floor so he can fall and retrieve them with his hand, then uses them to free himself
and Hannah. After closing the door, he checks the identity of the dead man and thinks it's one
of the guys that arrested him years ago. Hannah tries to touch Renton's machine but he stops her
just in time, explaining it's rigged with 20000 volts. He calls it ARQ, arcing recursive quine,
and thinks the men are here for it. Hannah disagrees, she thinks they're just hungry
like everybody else, but Renton insists his former employer, the Torus corporation,
has sent someone to take it back after he stole it. Except he doesn't want to call it stealing,
because he's the one that built it in the first place as an engineer for the company. After
putting on a taser-glove, he tells Hannah to stay in the room while he sneaks out to find the men.
The trio is eating in the kitchen and watching tv, the news talks about the Energy Wars and how the
Torus corporation is taking over everything while a rebel group called Bloc tries to stop them.
Hannah joins Renton while he's spying on them, and he throws something on the floor to make the
men come out of the kitchen. When they do, he effectively manages to knock Sonny out
with a punch, but when he does the same to Father, he gets stabbed in return and dies.
The same scenario repeats: Renton wakes up in bed next to Hannah at the exact same time. He tries
to warn her of the incoming men, but they're captured and taken to the research room again.
As he repeats the lines Father's told him, Renton realizes they're stuck in a time loop,
but he's the only one that can tell. He tries to explain this to Hannah as he goes through his
stunt with the scissors again to free them, but she thinks he's crazy. Renton checks his computer
and realizes the ARQ is the one causing the loop, he proves his theory to Hannah by guessing Cuz has
a scar before taking off his mask. They sneak out again but this time they go to the basement, where
Renton makes a plan to kill the men, something Hannah isn't very happy with. He takes out some
gas masks so they can be protected while releasing cyanide gas into the house through the furnace,
which surprises Hannah because it means Renton has a lot of electricity, which is rare. The
plan is for Renton to crank up the thermostat and when the furnace is on, Hannah should throw the
gas canister in its chute. Renton returns to the hallway outside the kitchen and rushes to connect
the thermostat as the men come out to chase him, he avoids them by hiding in his bedroom. When
he notices the furnace has been turned on, he comes out and goes to the research room,
where the men have Hannah, who says she wasn't capable of killing. After being tied up again,
Renton accepts to cooperate and opens the safe where he keeps his money and scrips. Now that they
have what they want, Father decides he should shoot Renton because he saw their faces, but
Hannah stops them because she doesn't want anyone to get hurt. It turns out Hannah is working with
them, they even call her Mother. She reminds them they're the Bloc and they don't kill civilians.
Renton tells Hannah that he would've given her the scrips if she had asked before Sonny shoots him.
He wakes up in bed again and rushes to block the door, but the rebels burst in anyway
and they end up tied up in the research room once more. Renton frees himself but not Hannah, and
he asks her to retell him the story of her past while he checks the computer. When Torus arrested
Renton years ago he got to escape, but Hannah was captured and interrogated for three days.
They let her go after she swore she had nothing to do with his stealing their scrips. While Renton
watches a video of the two of them that he doesn't remember recording, Hannah tells him Torus took
her citizenship and their home, she was also sent to a refugee camp. She asks Renton to cooperate
with the men, he replies he's already tried that before taking her to the basement. He pretends his
back is hurt to distract her and electrocute her before telling her his own story. His supervisors
had called him a fraud when he said the ARQ could generate limitless energy, but then they
tried to take it from him because they did know it worked and wanted it for their war machine.
Renton confesses he knows Hannah is Mother and wonders if she truly is Bloc or Torus turned her,
Hannah shows him the torture scars Torus left on her as she admits being a freedom fighter for
Bloc. Renton tells her he never stopped looking for her, but Hannah says she still hates him.
They put on the masks and go to the kitchen, where Hannah electrocutes Sonny with the glove
and Renton threatens them with the gas canister. They take the men to the research room and tie
them to chairs, here we learn that Father -whose real name is Grimm- is Hannah's boyfriend. Renton
asks Hannah to get away with him before sending her to the kitchen to grab something to eat,
then he kicks Sonny and punches Brother for what they did to him. When he tells Grimm Hannah will
leave with him, Grimm jumps on him and Renton responds by powering his glove to punch him,
but Hannah shows up to stop him. Renton tells her he'll give Bloc the scrips if she accepts to come
with him, Hannah refuses and threatens him with a gun. Since Renton doesn't believe she'd shoot him,
she shoots the ARQ instead, making Renton accept to cooperate. He's bluffing, though, and when
tries to take the gun from her hands, he's accidentally shot and killed. When he wakes up
again, he discovers Hannah also remembers the loop now. The events happen as usual and once they're
alone in the research room, Renton frees them with the scissors before checking the computer. All
the loops have been logged, there are five of them and they always start and finish at the same time.
The ARQ is causing all this, and when Hannah asks him how it works, he explains that it's
got fuel cells that power the ARQ, and the ARQ charges them in turn, but he doesn't know how
this affects time. Hannah wants to use the ARQ to help the cause and asks Renton to shut it down,
but he refuses to do so until they make sure they won't die first. He wants to kill them, but Hannah
says they're her subordinates and they wouldn't hurt anyone, which Renton doesn't believe. So they
ideate a plan instead. After loosely tying Renton up on the chair again, Hannah also ties herself
up and calls the guys over. She tells them she knows where the scrips are so after they free her,
she grabs half of them from the safe. Sonny wants to do something about Renton because he
saw their faces, but Hannah promises he won't say anything. When she decides they'll be taking the
ARQ with them, Sonny takes out his gun and kills everyone, revealing himself as a Torus mercenary.
He takes a walkie-talkie from Cuz's pocket and calls Torus to tell them to come to pick up
the ARQ while Renton frees himself and tries to reach a gun, but Sonny stops him and shoots him.
As soon as they wake up in bed, Renton tells Hannah that Sonny is a Torus merc and asks her
to play along. The men burst in and take him away while Grimm approaches Hannah,
who promises him she didn't sleep with Renton and asks him to give her five minutes alone with him.
After the scene in the research room happens as usual, Hannah says they should tell Grimm about
Sonny, even if Renton doesn't trust him or Hannah right now, because they're going to need all the
help they can get. The men hear some noises and go to check on the prisoners, they find Renton
gone and Hannah with tape over her mouth. After they free her, she orders Sonny and Brother to
check the main floor while she stays with Grimm to tell him about Sonny and the ARQ. Upstairs,
Renton is sneaking around and finds Brother's body on the floor, who was hit by Sonny just a moment
earlier. Sonny goes back to the research room and tells Hannah and Grimm that Renton killed Brother,
Hannah doesn't believe him so Sonny shoots Grimm before demanding answers from her. Renton arrives
then and knocks him out by electrocuting his face. After noticing the ARQ is spinning faster, he logs
in to the computer, revealing his password is September 19, the last day he and Hannah saw each
other. Suddenly, Grimms wakes up, and while Renton searches for a first-aid kit to help him, Brother
shows up and shoots him. When they wake up this time, Renton is ready to break a window and leave
a house, which Hannah is hesitant to do because they don't have air masks. A noise distracts them,
though, and they go investigate. They find Grimm and Brother dead in the research room, which means
Sonny is now aware of the time loops too. The ARQ emits electromagnetic frequencies that can
affect memory; the effect just wore off Renton and Hannah first. Renton realizes that the ARQ isn't
producing unlimited energy, it's just reusing the same energy over and over. After retrieving the
masks and gas from the basement, Renton comes back to Hannah telling him he should give the
ARQ to the Bloc to win the war. Renton doesn't trust the Bloc, so Hannah asks him to trust her.
He makes her swear that she'll destroy the ARQ if Sonny gets to it first and gives him the password
to activate the process, which is "sky", the codeword he gave her before they were separated.
Wearing a mask and his taser glove, Renton goes in search of Sonny with the gas canister ready in his
hands. In the bedroom, he discovers his clock is going faster and in a closet, he finds Cuz's body,
which means Sonny is pretending to be dead in the research room. By the time he goes back, it's too
late, Sonny is already holding Hannah at gunpoint. After calling Torus to tell them he has the ARQ,
he orders Renton to shut it down. Renton pretends to cooperate but when he comes closer, he touches
the ARQ and Sonny's gun, electrocuting them both. Hannah and Renton wake up, but the men don't come.
They go out to investigate and find out Sonny saved Cuz, who is working with him for Torus.
Sonny kills Grimm and Brother before closing the door of the research lab,
so Renton uses the chance to put a padlock on it before they leave to execute their original plan.
They crank up the thermostat, put on the masks, and throw the gas canister into the furnace.
When they hear a noise coming from the research room, they go in and find out Sonny has killed Cuz
and himself to slow them down because Torus is coming. They argue again over the possibility of
giving the ARQ to the Bloc and Hannah, furious, throws an object at the board, cracking it.
This makes Renton have a realization and goes to the computer to play that strange video again,
the board is cracked there too. Neither of them remembers making that video, which was recorded
right before a reset. The video also shows the robots sent by Torus, so Renton hurries to try to
shut the ARQ down. Hannah moves to grab the scrips from the safe but on the way, she realizes Grimm
has something in his mouth. She puts a plastic sheet on top of the blood to walk on it and come
closer to check, what she finds in Grimm's mouth is a little piece of paper that says "sky". As
she steps out of the plastic, her feet touch the blood, which acts as a conductor for the ARQ and
electrocutes her. Devastated by her death, Renton decides not to shut off the ARQ and wait for the
next loop reset. As soon as they wake up, Grimm and Brother enter the room and Hannah stops them
to tell them everything. It turns out they now remember the loops too, so they accept to help.
The four of them leave the room and sneak around the house, but Sonny had planned for this, so he
and Cuz capture them and take them to the research room. Since Renton won't tell him the password,
Cuz starts suffocating Hannah, forcing Renton to talk. Sonny disables the electrical rigging and
pushes Hannah against the ARQ to check it's safe now. After Cuz shoots Brother for trying to leave,
Sonny points out the ARQ is still spinning and asks Renton to disable it. Renton goes to a switch
on the wall and cuts the power in the whole house as he tells Hannah to run. In the now dark room,
a couple of bullets are shot, apparently killing Grimm, but Renton and Hannah manage to escape in
the confusion. They make it outside the house, wearing blankets around their heads and taking
turns with a small air mask to protect themselves from the polluted air. There's a black, petrified
line on the ground that makes them realize the time loop ends there. Renton tells Hannah to go to
a safehouse nearby while he destroys the ARQ, but Hannah refuses and is determined to go back with
him. Both of them return to the house and hide in a closet when they hear Cuz approaching them and
calling out Hanna's name. She realizes he's one of the men that tortured her, so she comes out and
jumps on him. Cuz pushes her off but Renton is on him next, punching him. Hannah retrieves a jar of
kerosene from the kitchen and empties it on Cuz before setting him on fire. The lights suddenly
come back, which means Sonny has turned the ARQ back on. They hurry back to the research room and
Renton fights Sonny until he overpowers him and kills him by smashing his face against the ARQ.
A message comes through Sonny's talkie saying Torus is about to arrive. Renton goes to the
computer to shut the ARQ down, telling Hannah she can take it to the Bloc. But then he discovers
something: there's an interruption every nine loops, which creates a sequence. They've already
gone through thousands of sequences, and after every sequence, their memories get reset as well,
which is why they don't remember recording that video. Torus is arriving now the same
way they arrived to interrupt the video, so they decide they must destroy the ARQ,
but Renton changes his mind and stops the process midway because he wants the loop to reset so they
can try again. Hannah points out they've already tried thousands of times, Renton says this time
they can leave a proper message. He records a warning for their future selves as the Torus
robots break in and kill them both. The movie ends with Hannah waking up before Renton this time.