‘Run, Lola, run’ (1998) review: the explosive cult film that preceded the multiverse

The concept of multiverse It no longer catches (almost) anyone by surprise, and there have been quite a few audiovisual projects that have used this idea in recent years. Before Marvel and company thought about it, a little movie like ‘Run, Lola, run’ He already gave us his refreshing vision of all possible scenarios that can have the same situation.

Run, Lola!

Since the box office success of ‘Avengers: Endgame’, At Marvel they have continued trying to exploit the idea of ​​the multiverse (not always in the most interesting way, it must be said) in titles like ‘Spider-Man: No way home’, ‘Spider-Man: Crossing the Multiverse’, ‘Loki’ or ‘Doctor Strange and the multiverse of madness ‘.

In parallel, we got ‘Everything at once everywhere’, which he gave himself with open arms to the most delirious part of the conceptshowing us the wide range of possibilities (from the most absurd to the most emotional) that the premise that there are many versions of ourselves can offer.

However, long before the Daniels film and the MCU multiverse, it already reached us a small German film that was ahead of its time and he dared to propose in a very playful way the existence of the multiverse. Exactly, we mean ‘Run Lola Run’.

Tom Tykwer (whose promising career in the end only left us with a couple of notable titles, such as ‘Sense8’, ‘Cloud Atlas’ and ‘Perfume’) released this cult gem of just 75 minutes in length in 1998.written and directed by himself and starring the unbeatable Franka Potente.

The story was simple and concise: Lola received a call from her boyfriend Manni, who had gotten into trouble for losing a bag of money belonging to the mafia. Deprived of her motorcycle, Lola will have to run and get the money back in 20 minutes if you want to save Manni from disaster.

The peculiarity of the story was that we do not see a single version of the matter, but rather the situation repeats itself and shows us three different scenarioswhich vary depending on the decisions made by the protagonist.

The tape works like a shot because gets to the point and does not give the viewer a breakwhich is seen caught up in the urgency of the situation even without having had a prior introduction to the character. You empathize with her because you have no other option: you have to do it now, solve it now, you can’t stop to think and, at the same time, a small miscalculation can be fatal for the outcome of events.

Furthermore, the script succeeds in taking the essentials of its starting point and Do not get discursive with the topic of the multiverse. If at some point someone or something stopped to explain why we see different versions of the same action, it would not only be anticlimactic but would lose all the force of its approach.

Although you can scratch out some more than interesting ideas, the story does not become transcendental at any time, but rather exploits its premise from entertainment and funand gives its protagonists clear and primary objectives: saving life, money and love.

For all this, ‘Run, Lola, run’ It’s still just as refreshing to watch now, 26 years after its premiere.. An honest proposal, which overflows with strength and adrenaline and is not afraid to be faithful to its starting point until the end. It has rightly been claimed over the years as a cult classic (and even had an Indian remake called ‘Loop Lapeta’).

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