Run Lola Run
The storyline follows a loop and uses spirals as a visual motif. Director Tom Tykwer says that he began his work on Lola rennt with the image of a woman running in his mind. “I always start with the image. I get an image in my head and I start wanting to get it moving, to build a story around it and then make a film out of it. In Run Lola Run it was a woman running,” says Tykwer. Lola runs and time warps or loops to help her achieve her goals, while exploring the various possibilities of how things might have turned out.
Lola (Franka Potente) is a beautiful red-haired punk girl in love with Manni (Moritz Bleibteu), a go-for boy for a tough gangster. The film begins with an accident of fate. Lola’s scooter gets stolen, when she’s on her way to pick up Manni. Manni, carrying 100,000 DM for his boss, then has to catch a bus and loses the money. He calls Lola in a frantic state. He needs 100,000 DM for his boss, in 20 minutes or his life is at stake. Lola runs.
Next, we are presented with three realities or the ways in which three parallel universes are formed, with the slightest incident significantly impacting the outcome of the story. In the first reality, Lola runs to her father for money. He tells her “no” and that he’s not her real father. Lola ends up running to Manni, who has a robbery in progress. They flee the scene together and Lola is shot by an edgy police officer. The second reality begins to play out when Lola is dying. This time, she’s tripped by a small boy on the way out of her apartment, which leaves enough time for her father to learn that his mistress has been unfaithful. Lola interrupts their argument and, angry at what she has learned, robs her father at gunpoint. Through a series of events, altered by Lola’s delay, Manni ends up getting hit by an ambulance at the end of the second reality.