MovieChat Forums > Palm Springs (2020) Discussion > Credits Scene Logical Inconsistency

Credits Scene Logical Inconsistency

posted 5 years ago by NVF (851)
18 replies | jump to latest

If memory serves, the credits scene has Roy going to the wedding where he realizes Sarah's phone call about escaping the loop must be true since Nyles doesn't recognize him. How is this consistent with the final scene of Nyles and Sarah in the pool where they obviously know each other and their history with the loop? Are we to think dying together allows their memory of each other to remain intact?

The movie is a romcom so the inconsistency (if I'm interpreting things correctly) doesn't really matter (some people won't even see it, turning it off before the scene comes up) but I was wondering if anyone felt the same.

Thanks

[–] Daggerboard (581) 5 years ago

Yeah, I came here to see if I missed something because that didn't make any sense. I was hoping they'd let Roy know, but it would've been more fun if they were consistent.

[–] NVF (851) 5 years ago

Not sure what you mean here.

Before Sarah and Nyles kill themselves, Sarah calls Roy to tell him about her theory and that they're going to try to end their loops. (There's a scene where she makes a call, but only until Roy comes to the wedding again in the credits scene do we realize she was calling him.) Roy realizes her theory was right when he goes to the wedding again (while he's still caught in the loop of course) and Nyles genuinely doesn't recognize him. But if Nyles doesn't remember Roy, why does he remember Sarah?

[–] Daggerboard (581) 5 years ago

I missed Sarah calling Roy. I don't know why Nyles doesn't remember him.

[–] Rich_UK (26) 5 years ago

I came here straight after the movie looking for the answer to this, when I didn’t find the answer here I searched google, and found it :)

https://www.thecinemaholic.com/palm-springs-mid-post-credits-scene-explained/

[–] NVF (851) 5 years ago

So the loop universe replaces the escaped Nyles with another Nyles. Um, okay, that is an answer.

Thanks for reply and link.

[–] Rich_UK (26) 5 years ago

I think it’s because we’re seeing it from Roy’s point of view after Sarah and Nyles have already moved forward, and because he beats the loop he’s replaced with Nyles who never went into the cave.

[–] NVF (851) 5 years ago

Yes, the internal logic appears to be that the looped Nyles and Sarah of the looped universe are replaced with non-looped versions when they escape because every universe needs a Nyles and Sarah. The Nyles Roy meets is the non-looped/non-caved replacement so he doesn't recognize him.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

But the goat?

Sarah said that the goat DIDN'T reappear in the looping day, not even with a new non-looping goat. For her that was the proof that the goat escaped the loop, i.e. the goat was now moving forward only and didn't return to the past.

In the post-credits scene, replace new non-looping Nyles with the new non-looping goat. Replace looping Roy with looping Sarah.

See what I mean? There's an inconsistency, even though the two situations are identical.

(Separately, I though it was stupid to use the goat anyway. Even if a new non-looping goat did appear in looping Sarah's day, how would she know? How can she ask a goat to tell her what it is experiencing?)

[–] NVF (851) 4 years ago

Yeah, the goat is a problem. Some think Sarah lies to Nyles about it:

Nyles: So was the whole goat disappearing thing for real or was that bullshit?
Sarah: It's too late, you've already committed.

From a Vulture interview with the screenwriter and director:

When the goat goes through and gets blown up, Sarah says it disappears in the loop. But Nyles doesn’t; he’s still there [when Simmons’s character returns to the wedding], just his mind is wiped. So was she lying about the goat disappearing?

MB: I think that’s kind of what we’re referring to about the end, and if they’re actually out or not.

AS: I’d say everything is there for a reason, from our costume design and wardrobe choice, and production design and props, the choice of drinks and things on the tables in the background. And then there are specific lines of dialogue … If you want to crack it, maybe the clues are there. But maybe not though, too.

https://www.vulture.com/2020/07/palm-springs-movie-ending-explained-by-the-filmmakers.html

"But maybe not though, too" sounds like a cop-out but you'd think they wouldn't leave such a plot hole, especially when they apparently thought long and hard about their looping universe/s.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

"So was she lying about the goat disappearing?"

The goat shouldn't disappear. That would imply that it NEVER existed at all from the time that it was born.

Instead the repeating day would start with the goat being there as it always is. The four of them -- Nyles, Sarah, Roy and the goat -- would keep going round and round.

Separately "somewhere" another goat would appear on Nov 10 -- along with the newly freed Niles and Sarah -- and live out the rest of its life day after day in a normal timeline.

All that's happening is that each new day creates a new timeline that simply ends after 24 hours and they all return to a common point in history... the morning of Nov 9. So anything UP to that point in history will always be there, including the goat.

[–] NVF (851) 4 years ago

Don't remember the film that well, but if Sarah's being honest about the goat it must've been in the same location everyday until it wasn't. If it's the case the location of things not looped can change then that could be an answer to the apparent plot hole. (Don't remember if they can but memory seems to tell me they don't.) However, the writer and director never give this simple answer; rather, they respond cryptically.

[–] NVF (851) 5 years ago

Was going to add originally but will here: "Um, okay" was due to the internal logic, that it isn't so much they were caught in another universe among the multi-universes but rather stuck in a time loop. And being replaced in an alt-universe is something I've never heard of in any multi theory and just seems off, far-flung.

Thanks again for the link.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

What are you talking about? We're constantly being replaced, cell by cell.

[–] NVF (851) 5 years ago

You should probably alert the prosthetics industry.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

They're in on it!

[–] MavKilledGoose (876) 4 years ago

"because he beats the loop he’s replaced with Nyles who never went into the cave."

He's replaced with the Nyles who has not yet gone into the cave. Sarah and Roy only went into the cave because of Nyles, but Nyles (presumably) goes into the cave without the interference of looped forces.

Of course, if we're talking eternities here, just about everyone in that area will eventually enter the loop cave. And you would inevitably get some malevolent characters who, upon looping, would deliberately lure others into looping, and eventually every human being and pet will be looped.

[–] asom (6893) 4 years ago

Actually it makes 100% sense.

They don't go back in time, they relive the same day over and over. So we don't have hundreds of Nyles running around but the same Nyles with the memories of the days before. When the cycle was broken then nyles didn't wake up in his body so ... everything reverted to "normal".

[–] Banes (30) 4 years ago

just watched this movie last night and loved it - I took it to mean that November 9th (the looped day) returned to the original version of that day, and that Nyles and Sarah are now just the versions that existed on that first day.

But after escaping, on November 10 and forward, Nyles and Sarah have all their memories from their looped experiences. After Roy causes an explosion in the cave and is escapes the loop, he'd be able to meet with a Nyles who remembers him (though Roy probably wouldn't want to see Nyles ever again, haha).

But this thread raises the question of the goat - I didn't understand the goat experiment, and how the goat would have disappeared. Must be a mistake in the plot, I guess? That kind of ruins the whole thing. The right way to prove it would be to get a dog or parakeet, bring it through the loop, then keep it for as long as needed, through many loops, training it and getting it to know you, and then run the experiment and see what happens in the next loop. By the logic of the ending, the animal would not remember you and you could reach the same conclusion Roy does at the end.

Of course, that would mean blowing up a dog, and people wouldn't like to see that, even if it worked out, and it would also spoil Roy's final scene. Explaining too much beforehand would have given it less impact at the end.

So I don't think the goat thing adds up - it's a mistake. Unless Sarah is lying about it (but why would she?). Great movie though.