The film opens on the morning of May 9th in the apartment of former Delta Force Captain
Roy Pulver.
He wakes up in bed next to a woman named Alice, who screams and flees as a man with a machete
enters and swings at Roy’s head.
Roy acts everything out in a rehearsed fashion, dodging the hitman’s exact movements to
defend himself and complaining that it’s gotten annoying.
Outside, a chopper flies up with another assassin who fires a machine gun, killing the first
assassin when he is mistaken for Roy.
As the second one fires wildly into the apartment, Roy just slumps against the couch and looks
at a picture of his ex, Jemma Wells.
After the chopper crashes through the window, Roy jumps out onto a truck of sand (which
he notes that he missed 22 times before getting it right) before carjacking a guy and evading
two more assassins, both of whom he refers to as “Pam” and “Esmeralda.”
Roy drives recklessly and realizes he forgot about an oncoming truck, which he crashes
into and then died after flying through the window.
Roy then explains through narration that he has died 140 times thus far, as he must relive
the exact same day over and over.
The problem is, no matter how many assassins he evades, more keeps showing up.
In addition to the first four, there is a swordswoman named Guan Yin, who always declares
her name and admission after she beheads Roy (“I am Guan Yin, and Guan Yin has done this!”).
There is a dwarf nicknamed “Kaboom” due to his use of explosives when going after
Roy.
There is even a man he refers to as “Roy 2”, as well as a guy named Smiley who impales
him with a harpoon and drags him through the streets with his truck.
During Attempt 48, Roy had attempted to contact Jemma at her company, but the phone was answered
by her boss, Colonel Clive Ventor.
He tells Roy that Jemma died in an accident, but Roy knows she was killed.
He is then shot at and blown up by two men he calls “The German Twins.”
After one attempt where he kills Pam and Esmeralda in a warehouse by blowing them up, he goes
to a diner where he orders two large bottles of baijiu from his bartender friend Jake.
He also constantly listens to another patron, Dave, drone on about tedious anecdotes, leading
Roy to drunkenly say something stupid because he’s stopped caring.
He also notices a woman, Dai Feng, who always comes in at the same time.
Roy notes that he has never lived past 12:47 PM because somehow, the assassins always manage
to find him.
Flashback to May 8th, which feels like months ago to Roy.
He visits Jemma at her job, Dynow, where she mentions him not being in the picture for
their son Joe, who doesn’t even know Roy is his father and just thinks of him as a
friend of Jemma’s.
She is working on a large machine that controls time and space but could destroy the world
if used improperly.
Ventor’s henchman Brett comes out after the two are watching Roy and Jemma through
surveillance.
Brett takes Roy’s resume, and Ventor notes that someone like Roy could figure out what
they are planning.
Before Roy leaves, Jemma tells him to remember “Osiris.”
Roy later goes to the bar where he meets Alice while talking to his other bartender friend,
Gabrielle.
When Alice goes to the bathroom, he gets a call from Jemma, who tells him that she may
have to do something drastic.
Roy remembers Osiris when he looks at a gift Jemma sent days before the 9th: a book called
“The Mythology of Iset and Osiris.”
In it is a message from Jemma to Roy about living life forward and that “time waits
for no man.”
Attempt 143: Roy goes to an underground arcade where he finds Joe after following him when
he saw him get something from another kid earlier.
Roy approaches him, and Joe says he ditched school for a video game tournament, and that
he was just exchanging trading cards with the other kid.
Roy spends time with Joe but is dismayed to have to tell him that Jemma is dead.
When they get out of the arcade, Roy notes that it is now 12:50, which means he’s lived
longer than before.
Unfortunately, the other assassins arrive to kill him, but he shields Joe from their
bullets.
As he dies, he tells Joe that he is his father, and he notes that he wished that was the final
death.
Roy realizes that he is being tracked since they previously could not detect him underground.
At the restaurant, he tries to extract the tracker from his anus until Dave tells him
that the tracker might be in one of his teeth.
Roy pulls two out before finding the right one, just moments before he is killed.
Now knowing which tooth to pull, he evades the first few hitmen before losing the tracker.
When he is revived, he questions Alice, as he remembered her being there when he was
drugged at the bar.
She tells him it was Brett who placed the tracker.
He removes the tooth and uses it to lure Pam to an isolated area to kill her with her own
gun.
He also lures Smiley and kills him with his own harpoon and truck.
Roy starts to go after the other assassins like Roy 2 and the Twins, but he sets his
sights on Ventor and Brett.
The first few times, he is killed by Dynow security and Brett himself, but he manages
to get closer until he reaches Guan Yin, who dodges bullets with ease and always decapitates
him.
When she has him down at one point, Ventor tells him that Jemma’s machine is called
the Osiris Spindle, and that he plans to rewrite history with it, by undoing terrible events.
In history, while eventually making himself a global dictator.
After Roy resets, he seeks help from Dai Feng, who teaches him swordplay.
It helps him improve, and he manages to kill Guan Yin during a duel.
He kills Brett and then goes after Ventor, but Ventor asks him who is there to protect
Joe.
Roy rushes to the arcade, only to find that Joe has already been killed.
Roy tries to rush to the scene, only for the Osiris Spindle to go off and destroy the world.
Roy resets again but spends the next 15 attempts allowing the machete man to kill him since
he feels that it is hopeless and that everyone will die no matter what.
After a while, he breaks out of his depression and decides to spend his final moments with
Joe.
He goes to the arcade and bonds with him over many subjects and activities, getting to spend
time as father and son like they never did.
Joe always falls asleep just before the world ends.
Attempt 249: Roy and Joe are talking, and Joe mentions getting a voicemail from his
mom earlier that day.
This means that Jemma is alive when Roy wakes up.
He gets to Dynow and sees that he has at least 14 minutes from when he wakes up to when Jemma
is killed.
He now knows what to do.
On his next attempt, Roy kills the machete man and jumps onto the helicopter, throws
the gunman out, and forces the pilot to fly to Dynow.
He eliminates security, and, when he knows that the whole band of assassins will be at
the door, he gets a machine gun and mows them down all at once.
He makes his way to the main room and kills Brett and Ventor.
Jemma realizes the Osiris Spindle works as she had imagined.
Roy tells her about all the times he has died and has been using his days to spend time
with Joe.
He is ready to step through the machine, even though Jemma doesn’t know what will happen.
He looks at her reassuringly one more time before setting foot in there.
Roy wakes up again on May 9th, now having the time loop broken.
He smirks, knowing what he must do, but also making sure not to die in the process.