One iconic ‘90s thriller is streaming for free, and the innovative movie is a must-watch for fans of the genre. There is no shortage of great thrillers available on streaming. Whether viewers want an old-fashioned murder mystery, a police procedural, or something that leans into psychological unease, like Netflix’s six-part thriller That Night, streaming services have the right show for every thriller viewer. However, sometimes, the multi-episode duration of a miniseries is just too much of a time commitment.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Often, viewers just want a great thriller movie instead of a miniseries. Fortunately, one of the genre’s best ‘90s outings is currently available to stream for free on Tubi. Director Tom Twyker’s 1998 indie hit Run Lola Run is the seemingly straightforward story of Franka Potente’s titular heroine, Lola, who must get 100,000 German marks in only 20 minutes to save the life of her petty criminal boyfriend. As the movie’s plot progresses, what seems like a predictable crime thriller becomes something trippier and more existential.
Run Lola Run Is One of the Most Innovative ‘90s Thriller Movies
Playing out like a Tarantino movie crossed with a platform adventure game, Run Lola Run tells its story over and over again with the same series of events playing out differently every time. Depending on the movie’s version of events, Lola might end up successful, broke, or even dead, as the movie’s story changes based on her actions. This premise might sound familiar in an era when time loop movies are commonplace, but Twyker’s playful time-bending storytelling was innovative in 1997.
Impressively enough, Run Lola Run manages to still feel just as fresh and original on a re-watch almost 20 years later. Like 1999’s Doug Liman crime thriller Go and 2003’s grittier 11:14, this blackly comedic blend of character drama and crime movie is heavily indebted to the early, time-twisting movies of Quentin Tarantino. Twyker also borrows liberally from French New Wave filmmakers like Truffaut and Godard in Run Lola Run’s playful flourishes, and this blend influences only make the movie’s sense of fun and urgency all the more compelling.
Run Lola Run Went On To Influence Countless Great Movies and TV Shows Alike
Like so many thrillers that pivot around a central narrative gimmick, Run Lola Run has withstood the test of time because there’s a great, compelling story underneath its clever premise. Like 2006’s Crank or 2010’s Buried, Run Lola Run initially impressed reviewers because of its ingenuity, but re-watching the movie proves that Twyker’s story has the humanity and originality to back up its ingenious plot. As such, it is hardly a surprise that Run Lola Run went on to influence dozens of major movies in the years since its release.
Obviously, the many, many movies that explore time loops almost all owe a debt to this indie thriller, as do a lot of multiverse stories. However, the shows The Simpsons, Phineas and Ferb, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Animaniacs directly parodied the movie, while Community’s iconic season 3, episode 4, “Remedial Chaos Theory,” is also indebted to Run Lola Run. More recently, Edge of Tomorrow, Happy Death Day, Free Guy, and Until Dawn all borrowed from Run Lola Run’s propulsive, ingenious narrative hack in their stories.
