Redemption
The prevailing theme of Groundhog Dog is the possibility of redemption. The purpose of Phil getting stuck in the time loop is that he’s a jerk. Worse than a jerk, really: he has almost no appreciation for the gift of life. He is mean-spirited, angry, and takes sarcasm to a whole new level. Clearly, this is a man in urgent need of expiation of his sins and the enticement of salvation. Are Phil’s sins really so bad that he must endure a form of torture in order to attain redemption? Well, that’s not really for any of us to decide, is it?
Is Purpose the Same as Meaning?
One of the bigger metaphysical questions that the film takes as a thematic inquiry is the meaning of life. More specifically: is having a purpose in life the same as it having a meaning? Over the course of thousands of February seconds that Phil lives through, he manages to find a veritable cornucopia of purposes to pursue that will make his seeming inescapable life of repetition bearable. None of these accomplished goals turn out to be the key to understanding the meaning of his entrapment. Everybody around the world acts out the same thing every day: attempting to find meaning through purpose, but how many of those pursuits of purpose are really nothing more than attempts to escape repetition. Phil discovers he must look inward to give his unique experience meaning and it is only then that he starts on the road to February 3.
Eternal Recurrence
Eternal recurrence is the ancient concept—though most frequently associated with Friedrich Nietzsche—that essentially postulates in a world where time is infinite but the number of events or actions that can possibly take place a finite, its stands to reason that eventually those events and actions will be to repeat. Given enough time—infinity is pretty long—every single person could literally wind up living their own Groundhog Day. This argument is specifically addressed in the movie: Phil manages to learn a lot of new things and find a substantial number of events to take part in. Even his unique singular participation, however, can no extend the possibility of how much he can actually do if he turns out to be trapped inside the time loop an infinite period. Eventually, he will being to repeat himself and, in essence, become just like everybody else in town. Debate rages as to whether one can make minor changes with each recurrence that will eventually result in some sort of perfect order to the universe, but the movie takes the positive approach that this is possible.
