ARQ 2016

Renton, played by Robbie Amell, finds himself waking up beside his former lover, Hannah, portrayed by Rachael Taylor. However, their morning quickly turns chaotic when three armed men breach his bedroom and take him hostage. In a desperate attempt to escape, Renton suffers a fatal injury, but he awakens again, only to face the intruders once more. Both he and Hannah are tied to chairs as the leader, a man named Father (played by Gray Powell), introduces the crew: Sonny (Shaun Benson) and Brother (Jacob Neayem). They mention that their accomplice, Cuz (Adam Butcher), met a grim fate due to an accident involving a mysterious device called the ARQ (Arqing Recursive Quine).

Father represents a rebel faction known as the Bloc and demands that Renton hand over money, or “scrips”, from their enemies, the Torus Corporation. He gives them a brief window to comply before leaving for food with his crew. Renton, anxious about the situation, divulges to Hannah that he was the mastermind behind the ARQ, a perpetual motion machine he developed when he was still with Torus. After having his project shut down, he took the machine with him, suspecting that the Bloc is after it more than the scrips itself. Despite Hannah’s insistence on compliance, Renton decides to act. He manages to escape, but in the chaos, he is killed once more.

Every time Renton revives, he experiences the same harrowing scenario, continually searching for a way out of this loop. After an unsuccessful attempt to involve Hannah in a plan to poison their captors, Renton discovers she has aligned herself with the attackers. Tensions rise as Renton surrenders the scrips only to find himself shot dead once again. The cycle continues, with each iteration revealing more about Renton’s past choices and his fraught relationship with Hannah, who reveals feelings of resentment after being abandoned by him in the hands of Torus.

The two come to a fragile alliance, planning to use the cyanide gas to force Father and his team to relent. However, betrayal lurks around every corner as Hannah unintentionally shoots Renton during a struggle. In a significant shift, they wake up in bed again but this time, both retain the memories of past events. The realization dawns on Renton that the ARQ is trapping them in a time loop that resets to the moment Cuz met his untimely end. As the chaos escalates with betrayals and gunfire, Sonny’s true colors are revealed as he aligns with the Torus, leading to a series of tragic events.

The stakes grow higher as Renton devises a plan with Hannah to keep the ARQ from falling into the hands of the Torus. The duo attempts to secure Father’s assistance, only to see him fall victim to Sonny’s ruthlessness. The tension escalates with each subsequent loop, resulting in shocking deaths and startling discoveries about the nature of the ARQ itself. Renton realizes the ARQ’s energy reserves are not infinite but rather limited, providing a mere illusion of perpetual motion.

As Renton grapples with sacrifice, he witnesses the gruesome fate of those around him unfold until the loops reveal deeper traps and betrayals, leading him to a pivotal moment where he must make a choice: to keep the ARQ functional or destroy it altogether. Ultimately, after his confrontations with Sonny and the revelation of their cyclical existence, Renton and Hannah leave a message to their future selves, desperate for a way to grasp control over their fate before the inevitable happens again. As they find themselves in another life-or-death situation, Hannah awakens with a gasp, signaling yet another chance to break free from this relentless loop.