Essay: Run Lola Run

Run Lola Run is a 1998 German movie written and directed by Tom Tykwer. The story follows a woman (Lola) who needs to obtain 100,000 marks in 20 minutes to save Manni’s life, which is her boyfriend. The film shows three versions of the development of the situation and the end of this, but these three versions are interconnected at the end, even when the result of the story is different.

One of the things that never change in the three versions of the story is Lola’s task to save her boyfriend. She MUST get 100,000 marks in a very few time in order to save him. Even when the task is the same, the three versions had different development and end, in the first one Manni and Lola steal money from a store and then she die, in the second one Lola steal money from her father’s bank but at the end Manni dies, and in the third one Lola wins the money in the Casino, but Manni recover the money he lost so both live and had another 100,000 marks just for them.

Another thing that never changes in the versions is the people she met during the adventure. She saw the same people in all the three versions, sometimes a little bit late –like in the second version- but she saw all of them. And some of them –like the homeless guy and the guy with the bike- change part of the story and the result is that the end change with success –in the third version-. These secondary characters are important in the three parts of Lola’s task.

Other thing that doesn’t change is the fact that Lola runs to her father’s bank trying to obtain the marks easier, she always ran to the bank, but even when that doesn’t change, the story into the bank changes. In the first version her father denies her the money and he kick her out. In the second version Lola steals the money from the bank and she gets out of there without problems. And in the third version she ran to the bank but when she finally arrives his father has gone, so the story changes again.

Even when some things of the three versions change and other not, the three of them are well connected, the time change but the circumstances are the same, she changes her destiny in the three versions because of her actions that she made. She finally wins the task, she always obtains the money in time even when in some versions her boyfriend dies or she dies. All the three versions has the same characters, the same circumstances and some things that doesn’t change, but Lola’s time changes, and that changes the result of the story.