Futile and never-ending tasks are often described as Sisyphean. Whether it’s job-hunting in this economy, trying to sell a product to uninterested people, or attempting to break out of a time loop, it can often feel that, despite your best efforts, you’re always stuck repeating the same things. This is the approach British filmmaker Christopher Smith takes in his 2009 psychological horror film Triangle.
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus broke a promise to Death and was therefore punished with the task of moving a boulder up a hill. However, as soon as he reached the top, the boulder would fall back down to the bottom and Sisyphus would have to repeat the labor, resulting in a never-ending loop. This myth made its way into modern cinema with the time loop narrative, where characters experience their own Sisyphean tasks by repeating the same day until they can break the loop. The most notable of these films is Groundhog Day; although it wasn’t the first film to feature a time loop, it’s arguably the most popular and paved regular use of the motif in many different genres.
For horror, we were treated to the Happy Death Day films and most recently, Until Dawn. However, Triangle takes that time loop approach, flips it on its head, and incorporates more of the Greek mythology approach, which makes it refreshing and quite head-scratching - but in a good way.
Fair warning, it’s almost impossible to discuss this film without getting into spoilers, so I highly recommend going into this movie blind. It’s a better experience that way. Go watch it and come back here when you’re done.
The British-Australian production, written and directed by Smith, stars Melissa George as Jess, a single mother who goes on a boating trip off the Florida coast with several friends. Upon arriving at the pier, Jess seems off, almost like she’s gone through an ordeal. But her friend Greg (Michael Dorman) thinks that a day at sea will help her relax. However, a severe storm rolls in and, after receiving a distorted radio distress signal from a woman pleading for help from an unknown killer, the ship capsizes and forces the group overboard.
Stranded at sea, they luckily spot an ocean liner heading toward them with a silhouette of someone on board watching them. After boarding the Aeolus – sharing the name of the father of Sisyphus in Greek mythology, which is directly referenced by the characters – the group discovers the ship is empty. Jess can’t shake the feeling that she’s been here before. Soon we see a number of clues that support Jess’ déjà vu theory, including a blood-stained message on a bathroom mirror in her handwriting and a pile of lockets identical to the one she wears.
After splitting up to explore (Because that always works out. Why do people think this is a good idea?), it becomes clear that someone else is on the ship hunting them. Accusations begin to fly when Victor (Liam Hemsworth) returns with a gaping head wound and attacks Jess, believing her to be the one responsible. Greg has also been shot and accuses Jess of doing the deed.
The confusion continues as Jess scrambles around the ship trying to figure out what is happening only to encounter a shooter in a burlap mask killing the remaining members and pursuing her relentlessly. Jess fights back and, after being disarmed, the masked figure tells Jess that “killing them is the only way to get home” before being knocked overboard. Looking over the side of the ship, Jess sees her capsized boat and its five survivors – including herself – who spot her as the unidentified figure on the ship from earlier in the film.
It’s here that Jess – and the viewer - realizes the group is in a time loop. Once everyone is killed, the loop starts again and brings another round of the five same stranded passengers to the ship. The only way Jess knows to break the loop and return home to her son is to prevent the next set of duplicate passengers from boarding the Aeolus once the loop repeats.
Confused yet? Buckle up, kids. It only gets crazier.
Triangle could be a simple-to-understand time loop with an additional set of identical characters boarding and connecting all the strings we’ve seen so far. But no, this film isn’t content with just one time loop. It wants to go bigger. Triangle’s time loop isn’t one where the day or preliminary event starts over and ignores what already happened. The sequence of events begins again concurrently with previous existing loops. By my count, there are at least five sets of characters’ plot points happening simultaneously with the other loops each time Jess tries to break the cycle.
Pieces begin to connect as we see the sequences from earlier plot threads now make more sense once we learn what came before. We learn, for example, that the radio distress call picked up during the storm earlier in the film in fact happened during this ordeal. It’s a very intriguing premise that may or may not require a flow chart to make sense of everything happening (I did find a nice explainer graphic online though).
It’s not until we finally reach the end of Jess’ loop as she escapes the ship that we learn that not everything is what we originally thought – and there may be more in store for her. Smith purposefully leaves some things unexplained, leaving the viewer to draw their own conclusions on the overall story and the final fate of the characters.
Sisyphus was often called “the craftiest of men” by Homer and other Greek scholars. He cheated the gods regularly and used his ingenuity to escape punishment, but it wasn’t until he thought he could do so with Death that he received his never-ending task. Much like Sisyphus, Jess is crafty and resourceful in her attempts to break free from the time loop, but the viewer sees that her persistent mission is also keeping her from seeing the bigger picture. Jess is determined to succeed, not realizing that, like Sisyphus, she may also be doomed to repeat the loop no matter how many times she tries.
As a whole, Triangle is a film that deserves multiple viewings to fully understand the complexities of its storyline. But even then, there will be another loop that needs explaining, requiring another watch, which then reveals something about another loop, requiring yet another watch. This film is itself a Sisyphean task, but one that’s worth repeating.
