(Spoilers)
Run Lola Run
starts with Manni calling his girlfriend Lola from a payphone. He had done some sort of crime job and had
the money, and she was to pick him up so he could give the money to his boss. But someone stole her moped so she had to get
a cab, which got lost and she was late picking him up. So Manni got on the subway, but got off early
when he saw some cops, only he left the bag of money on the train where it was
picked up by a homeless guy. Manni has
twenty minutes until he meets his boss, and if he doesn’t have the $100,000 (in
the English version) his boss will kill him.
He says that if Lola isn’t there in twenty minutes, he’ll rob the
supermarket across the street from the payphone.
Lola decides to run to her father who manages a bank
to borrow some money. Along the way she
passes a few people and we get glimpses of their futures. At one point, she even runs past the homeless
guy with the money. At another point,
she causes an accident between her father’s friend and Manni’s boss. She gets to her father’s office and walks in
right after his mistress tells him she’s pregnant. Her father decides to leave Lola and her
mother, and even tells Lola that he isn’t her biological father.
Lola runs to the supermarket, passing an ambulance
at one point, and reaches it just as Manni goes in. She decides to help him, knocking out a guard
and taking his gun. The two escape with
the money, but are soon surrounded by police.
Manni throws the bag of money, which makes one cop flinch and he shoots
Lola and she dies in the street.
But then we go back to the original phone call,
and Lola starts her second run. This
time she’s delayed a bit and her father’s mistress gets to tell him that he
isn’t the father of her baby, which sets him off. This time he and Lola get into an argument,
and as she’s leaving, she grabs the gun of the bank guard and holds her father
hostage for the $100,000. After she gets
it, she reaches the supermarket before Manni goes in, but when he walks towards
her, he is run over by the ambulance and dies in the street.
We go back to the original phone call, and Lola
starts her third run. This time she
stops the accident with her father’s friend and Manni’s boss, which allows the
friend to reach her father first and drive off before Lola can see him. She then decides to run until God gives her
an answer, and she ends up at a casino.
She gets a $100 chip and bets it in roulette and wins. She lets it ride, and wins again, earning
over $100,000. She has the money in a
bag and runs towards the street corner.
She jumps in the ambulance, to find out that the bank guard had a heart
attack. She stays with him and he
survives.
The homeless guy buys a bike – from one of the
people Lola had passed – and Manni sees him riding by and chases him down and
gets the money back. Along the way he
causes a crash between Lola’s father and his friend, Manni’s boss, as well as –
I didn’t notice this until I read it on Wikipedia – the guy who stole her
moped. Lola’s father, his friend, and
the thief all die. After he has the
money, Manni’s boss picks him up and everything is cool with them. He then meets Lola, and asks what’s in the
bag she has.
#
I had heard about Run Lola Run years ago. It’s
one of those movies that will be referenced or parodied. And the reason I decided to finally watch it,
is that one of the movie reviewers I watch described a movie – I forget which
movie he was talking about – as having some Run
Lola Run elements.
I thought the movie was okay. Maybe if I didn’t know that there were
different takes on the events I’d have been more surprised, especially when the
main character dies about half-an-hour into the movie, but as it is, it’s just
okay.
There are a few … odd things about the movie. When Lola first runs out of her apartment,
there’s a scene that’s animated, for some reason. And then she can scream so loud it breaks
glass, for some reason. And part of the
point of the movie is how small changes can have big effects. But sometimes things just happen
differently. For example, in her first
run, Lola bumps into a woman with a pram and we see her future where her child
is taken away and she ends up kidnapping another baby. In her second run, Lola bumps into her –
maybe five feet away from the first time – and the woman then wins the
lottery. For some reason. Some of the changes make sense and are
connected, but others just happen. I
guess the script, in my opinion, just needed another draft, to clear up some
things and smooth other things over.
I’m glad I finally saw this, if for no other
reason than to get any references to it now.
Also, the soundtrack was pretty cool.
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