One might imagine the scariest aspect of life is not knowing what’s going to happen next, but as the weatherman Phil Connors in film Groundhog Day vividly reminds us, there is something even more horrible and that’s knowing exactly what’s going to happen next. This concept plays a pivotal role in Groundhog Day, one of the most beloved and esteemed films of all time. Not only a breathtakingly brilliant piece of comic filmmaking, more amazingly, the movie is, as James Parker observed in The Atlantic, “a profound work of contemporary metaphysics.” Simultaneously a complex example of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey as well as profound spiritual parable, Groundhog Day is a film rich with lessons on how to live a meaningful and fulfilling life.
Released in 1993, Groundhog Day is the brainchild of director Harold Ramis and Danny Rubin, the screenwriter who first conceived of the film and with whom Ramis co-wrote its script. While Rubin had never had a screenplay produced, Ramis was already renowned as the director of a series of wildly popular comedies including Ghostbusters and Caddyshack. Even though Rubin had unsuccessfully pitched the film to dozens of studio executives – many of whom told him, though they loved the script, they didn’t see an audience for it – both Rubin and Ramis knew instinctively that they were working on something far richer and deeper than a simple romantic comedy.
According to Rubin, the idea of the Hero’s Journey came up early in the development of the final script for Groundhog Day. As all Hero Journeys do, that of the benighted Pittsburgh weatherman at the center of the film, starts in what Campbell calls the “Ordinary World.” In this world, Phil is a thoroughly egotistical character completely lacking any interest in or concern for anyone but himself. That world soon becomes disrupted when Phil resentfully heads out with Rita, his producer, to cover the annual Groundhog Day celebration in the small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Unbeknownst to Phil, this humdrum assignment marks the beginning of Phil’s “Call to Adventure,” the first stage of the Hero’s Journey.
After delivering a thoroughly condescending report about the day’s events and describing the citizens of Punxsutawney as “morons,” Phil caps off this disastrous day by going to bed early in the hopes of a quick return to city. After waking up to a pair of local DJ’s playing “I Got You, Babe,” Phil soon finds himself facing what Campbell calls the “Threshold,” a boundary guarded by an implacable “Guardian.” In this case, the Threshold Guardian is a state policeman who is closing the road out of Punxsutawney because of a blizzard that began the night before. He says to Phil, “You can go back to Punxsutawney, or you can go ahead and freeze to death. It’s your choice.” Essentially Phil is being warned that he can go back to Punxsutawney and transform his life or continue into the storm and suffer the terrible fate of a man whose soul is permanently frozen.
Crossing the threshold by grudgingly returning to the small town, Phil faces his first crisis when he wakes up the following morning only to realize that he is reliving the identical Groundhog Day all over again. The same thing recurs the following morning, forcing a disbelieving Phil to finally admit that something is terribly wrong. From the obnoxious insurance salesman he can’t avoid to the deep slush puddle he can’t seem to side-step, Phil is confronted again and again with the same awful day. What makes his situation all the more frustrating is that he’s the only one who knows what’s happening, since all the other characters always seem to be experiencing the day for the first time.
One of the adaptations Ramis and Rubin made to the model of the Hero’s Journey in Groundhog Day is the fact that – unlike most hero stories — Phil continues trying to refuse the call even after he’s been thrust into the journey. For example, when Phil realizes that his actions seemingly have no consequences – each “new” day wiping the slate clean — Phil decides to use this freedom from responsibility for his actions to gratify his own desires. He eats whatever he wants, steals money from a bank, and coldly seduces a local woman, none of which bring him any lasting satisfaction.
When the pleasure of having complete freedom to do as he pleases wears off, Phil turns his attention to attempting the seduction of Rita, the producer he first reviles and then begins to fall in love with. Another interesting adaptation by Ramis and Rubin of the Hero’s Journey in Groundhog Day was the decision to make Rita Phil’s “Mentor.” The role of the Mentor in Campbell’s model is one of guiding and inspiring the hero’s transformation and Rita — kind, compassionate, and generous — is exactly the role model Phil needs. Still incapable of appreciating Rita’s true role in his journey, however, Phil devotes each day trying to worm his way into her affections, only to be rebuffed with a resounding slap in the face each night as he fails to consummate the seduction.
Ironically, each rejection endears Rita to him even more, leaving him in increasing despair that she might ever love him as he is growing to love her. As a result, Phil begins to listen to Rita as she catalogues the qualifications of her “ideal” man: “too humble to know he’s perfect…. intelligent, supportive, and funny…. romantic and courageous…. kind, sensitive, and gentle.” Yearning to fulfill Rita’s vision, yet still seemingly stuck in his egotism and selfishness, a now hopeless Phil makes a series of failed attempts to commit suicide, efforts which indicate that even now Phil continues to resist the call to transformation.
Now facing the ultimate challenge of the Hero’s Journey – the stage called the “Supreme Ordeal” and the “Belly of the Beast – Phil experiences a complete breakdown of his old self as a result of his relationship with a homeless old man. Having previously ignored this man countless times on the street, Phil sees him stumbling in an alley and helps him get to the hospital, where he learns that the man is dying. Unable to accept this old man’s death, Phil undertakes feeding and caring for him, determinedly yet futilely trying to save his life anew each day. Having thought he’d reached his lowest point — doomed to living his life in a constant loop for all eternity and unable to get Rita to love him – he finds ultimate despair in recognizing not only his inability to save the homeless man, but, even more, in the reality that he must endure the pain of this loss again and again.
After humbly accepting the old man’s death, Phil finally decides to adopt Rita’s urging to radically change his life. Awakening to the possibilities in his situation, Phil decides to actually become the sort of man Rita could love. Instead of falling into despair again, Phil devotes himself to personal development and the care of others. He learns to play the jazz piano, ice sculpt, and study Romantic poetry, but instead of developing these skills for personal gain, he uses them to make the people around him happy. By the end of each day, he has saved several people’s lives and helped many others in a variety of different ways.
Seeing the genuine goodness in Phil, Rita spends every cent she has to win him in a bachelor auction and the two of them leave the celebration to spend the rest of the evening together. As they fall asleep in each other’s arms, Rita says that she has had a perfect day and Phil answers that he feels the same way. Resigning himself to his fate so long as Rita is in his life and having become a man worthy of her love, Phil is finally able to break free the spell he has been under for so long. They wake up together facing a brand new day, making plans to settle and raise a family in Punxsutawney. Through his love for Rita, Phil has received the ultimate gifts of the Hero’s Journey – which Campbell rightly calls the “Elixir of Life” – precious gifts which in Phil’s case include deep and lasting love, abundant creativity, a truly compassionate heart, and the profound joy which comes of serving others.
Like all mythic stories, Groundhog Day can help us more deeply understand the essence of the human condition while also reminding us of the perennial possibility of both redemption and rebirth. This transformational potential in each of us is perhaps best summed up in comparing Phil’s reporting of the Groundhog Day festivities over the course of his evolution. While in the depths of his despair, Phil cynically tells us “It’s gonna be cold, it’s gonna be grey, and it’s gonna last you for the rest of your life,” near the end of his journey he offers us this sage observation:
When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here among the people of Punxsutawney and basking in the warmth of their hearths and hearts, I couldn’t imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter.
Even more hopefully, in the dazzling sunshine of the new day greeting Phil and Rita we find a powerful symbolic reminder of the bright, warm, and verdant springtime which inevitably follows even the harshest and longest of winters.