MovieChat Forums > ARQ (2016) Discussion > [Spoilers] [Plot Hole] Calling In the ZM...

[Spoilers] [Plot Hole] Calling In the ZMP


Ok so it is revealed that Sonny is a Mercenary for Torus, sent to retrieve the ARQ. In A later loop we discover the ARQ is causing time to loop only in a small area surrounding the house. But Sonny is calling someone on the radio that is outside that circle. We later discover they have been doing this loop thousands of times. Why is the person outside the loop not suspicious as to why they have sent thousands of ZMP's but this guy keeps calling in for it using the same code-name and operation signifier every couple of hours!

BONUS PLOT Hole - If the loop occurs only within that circle every 3 hours, then why is it always daylight during their almost 30 hour experience (3 hours * 9 Loops) because the sun is outside that circle!


_d^^^^^^^^^b_ TORUS HQ
.d'' ``b.
.p' `q.
.d' The ARQ `b.
.d' Effects time `b.
:: inside this circle ::
:: ::
:: ::
`p. .q'
`p. .q'
`b. .d'
`q.. ..p' THE SUN
^q........p^

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Oh damn. Right on both accounts

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Oh daaayum. Ha good catches man for real. Still enjoyed it and falls under the never ruin a good story with the facts umbrella. Ok..Your next assignment..should you choose to accept it..is the movie primer. Good luck. (Muahaha)

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My guess is that as long as you stay inside the circle, you still see the old world outside. What happens if you pass the circle we don't know, maybe you are dissolved or you pass to modern time.

Maybe robots have taken over the planet since it was a robot they sent in. We know from recording that ZMP was more active in the past. ZMP dosen't appear to be that active anymore? Hard to say, since we don't see how the loop ends.

There are some holes here, and it could have been done diffrently I think. The movie could have ended with the outside looking in at the chaos, would have been fun, but maybe outside the movie budget.

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What happens to the robot who came into the circle?

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so the right answer is that the loop doesn't really end outside the circle
renton was just wrong

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Here's the thing... if they're truly inside a timesphere that repeats, what happens at the edge? Would you see the world outside, or would you see what things looked like the first time through the loop? If certain photons entered the sphere between 6:16 and 9:25, and time was repeating, wouldn't those same photons just repeat as well? You'd see the same external view in every loop, even if it were dark outside the sphere.

Likewise, they are always watching the same broadcast of the Pope, but we know the Pope hasn't been broadcasting for 1000s of loops. It's the same transmission also regenerated at the edge of the sphere. When Sonny calls in the ZMPs, the response is essentially an illusion. An echo from the first loop. He just thinks it's two-way because the timing makes it seem that way. In another loop, the radio should just emit the replies completely unprompted.

Same thing would apply to physical objects. The same wind would blow into the sphere, originating at the edge. A leaf falling into the sphere would fall into it every loop, even if the tree at fell from originally actually died centuries ago. And this explains the robot as well. It will always enter the sphere at the same time, recreated slice by slice as if it were entering from the outside.

So... it's somewhat unknowable what's going on outside the timesphere, without actually going there.

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Thank you, this is the most intelligent rebuttal to my observation that I have seen!

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That's a solid response against both points the OP raised. Well done.

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The way you explained the time loop existing within a sphere reminds me of the explanation of how a wormhole would look like in the movie Interstellar. Just a random thought.

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I love your answer by the way, however, if all things in the original loop were repeated, then the robot would never have been called in.

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Well, we don't know what happens in the first loop after Renton dies. We can assume Sonny still kills off the rest of the crew and still calls in the ZMP. His signal indicates that calling in a ZMP was pre-planned.

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You are right. When the robot entered the circle at first loop it turn part of the entire loop. So, at the right time it just materialize on the circle.

The movie has no end because the loop will never stop! Years have passed outside, maybe the world has ended.

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I think there's an addition to this also. Towards the end when he's realising that there have been far more loops than they thought, he specifically says "we looped 9 times, that's just this sequence...". They looped 9 times in that sequence. So what if it's actually essentially loops within a loop? I think this makes perfect sense.

They loop 9 times right, then they make that recording and the robot comes in and kills them. Now since the reset was hit, all of their memories are wiped and they don't remember anything. So then the sequence of events starts at exactly where we begin the movie at loop 0. Because they don't remember anything since it was "reset", then of course it would play out the exact same 9 loops again until they reset it again, realise what happened, try in vein to create the video recording and die in the same way again.

Essentially they've been playing the exact same 9 loops over and over again because in their 9th loop they always reset the ARQ. He realises what's happening but then decides they "have to try" and decides to allow the loop to occur again, even though all of their memories are completely wiped. It happens the exact same way over and over again!

It makes sense because if it really is a "reset", then there's no reason to think it would play out differently from the next loop after the reset because all of the variables are set back to the same thing as they were. Their behaviours and actions would be identical to loop 0, which leads into the same loop 1, same loop 2 etc all the way until loop 9.

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Essentially they've been playing the exact same 9 loops over and over again because in their 9th loop they always reset the ARQ. He realises what's happening but then decides they "have to try" and decides to allow the loop to occur again, even though all of their memories are completely wiped. It happens the exact same way over and over again!

Not quite. The main characters in the first sequence do not realize that the sequence resets every 9 loops.

The main characters in later sequences do figure it out via the logs, and eventually think to start sending video messages to the next group.

In this sense, the end of the sequence plays out slightly differently each time. At the end, the main characters believe they will eventually find the right message such that they can figure out a way to break the sequence.

"So it goes" -Slaughterhouse Five

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But Sonny doesn't call in the zmps at the same time each time, and the robot doesn't enter during every loop, sometimes time just peaceably ends and restarts. The way you described it is the way it should be, but not the way it is in the movie.


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Sonny calls in the ZMP in Timelines 5 (T5) and 7 (T7). It's not clear if these are at different times. In T7, Ren does notice his clock zooming along, past 7:33am, so by the time Sonny makes the call it could be close to 8.. So it could certainly have been around the same he makes the same call in T5.

T8 does appear to end without a ZMP showing up. Could be a plot hole. :)

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Sonny may be calling robots.

Robots may be the only thing left of Torus if they've been looping enough times. So maybe Sonny has been calling A.I.

As for the Sun, you got me there...


- Editor of many movies you've probably noticed on Netflix but never actually watched.

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That's my thought. He could be calling some sort of Skynet type of AI. One would think that the AI would question why he keeps calling but maybe the transmit and receive signals are trapped in the time loop (possible) and it's the standard response each time.

Opinions are like orgasms. Mine is more important and I don't care if you have one.

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How come they all didn't know it was a time loop as they all died at some point. Seriously, you could go potty trying to analyse a film about time loops.

How come they all didn't know it was a time loop as they all died at some point. Seriously, you could go potty trying to analyse a film about time loops.

How come they all didn't know it was a time loop as they all died at some point. Seriously, you could go potty trying to analyse a film about time loops.............


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