Time loop

The time loop or temporal loop is a plot device in fiction whereby characters re-experience a span of time which is repeated, sometimes more than once, with some hope of breaking out of the cycle of repetition.^[1] Time loops are constantly resetting; when a certain condition is met, such as a death of a character or a certain point in time, the loop starts again, possibly with one or more characters retaining the memories from the previous loop.^[2]

A time loop is also sometimes used to describe a scenario involving time travel where events form a circular chain of causality. In this context, actions in the past lead to future events, which then trigger the original journey back in time, creating a self-contained loop without a clear starting point. This concept challenges the conventional linear view of time and is often explored in science fiction and theories of temporal physics, such as those involving closed timelike curves.^[1]