The Map of Tiny Perfect Things
The movie adheres to a teenager contentedly living the same day in an endless loop that obtains his world turned upside-down when he meets a girl who's also stuck in the time warp.
It's a normal morning for everyone in town, but not for high school student and artist Mark, who is stuck in a time loop. He's been through this same day so many times that he has every detail memorized: every morning, he watches his mom go to work, then he has breakfast with his father Daniel and his sister Emma, guessing every little thing they're going to say, like an invitation toEmma's soccer match that he turns down and knowing all the answers to the crossword Daniel is doing.
Mark doesn't go to class anymore, but every day he makes sure to stop by a particular corner to give directions to a girl called Phoebe, who he has a crush on yet he still hasn't managed to find a way to keep a proper conversation going with her. In the afternoon, he goes to the local pool to prevent a ball from hitting Phoebe on the head or rescuing her before she falls, and sometimes he manages to walk her home after that, but she never accepts his invitation to hang out later.
When he's feeling frustrated with this situation, Mark visits his friend Henry, who is havingdifficulties finishing a videogame level. By pretending to talk about a hypothetical situation, Mark asks him what he would do if he got in a time loop, and Henry says he'd get the girl because having infinite tries means he's gotta do it right sooner or later. Henry also points out that you'd want to get out of the loop because the repetition and the isolation would take a toll on you, and Mark denies it, saying you'd be the king of the world. In reality though, he does have moments where he feels lonely, especially when he has to avoid having an important talk with his dad.
Mark keeps going trying with Phoebe at the pool every day until one afternoon, Margaret steps in and catches the ball before it hits Phoebe. Shocked by having something different happening, Mark follows her on her way out, but she gets in a car and drives away before he can talk to her.
In the subsequent loops, Mark begins looking for her, desperate to know if someone else is stuck with him. He waits by the pool but she doesn't return there, and he also tries the number on the missing dog flier she dropped before leaving, but it's not hers. After many failed tries, Mark happens to be visiting a restaurant when he notices a manga volume and a hundred dollar bill have carelessly been left on a table. Guessing it could've only been her, he rushes outside, and after believing for a second that he lost her in the bus, he actually finds Margaret resting against the wall. Awkwardly but determined, Mark asks about the time loop, and Margaret confirms she's also been stuck in it.
They chat awkwardly about their experience, agreeing that it feels like being the only people awake while everyone else is asleep, but Margaret wants to leave, not interested in befriending Mark. Not wanting to lose the only person that understands, Mark convinces her to stay a little longer by showing her some funny things he's discovered around town, like a dog stealing a man's phone. When Margaret gets an important call, she truly needs to leave now, but Mark gets her to share her number so they can find each other again later. Before the day resets at twelve a.m., Mark memorizes Margaret's number, which fortunately he still remembers after the loop kicks in.
He begins trying out different hairstyles and sending her pictures, but she doesn't reply until he actually asks her to meet up. Then they begin sharing a little more about each other: Mark is supposed to be in summer school but he's only gone twice. His dream is to go to art school, but his parents are obsessed with putting him in honors math, and he wishes the loop wasn't happening on the day Daniel wants to talk about his son's future.
Margaret, on the other hand, is in AP and dreams of becoming an astronaut. They also share what crazy things they've been doing during the loop. Mark has hopped a freight train and ridden his bicycle through school. Margaret has put her chess app on maximum difficulty, but she hasn't managed to beat it yet; she also stole her friend's car and has been teaching herself to drive.
Her favorite thing though, is something in the forest outside town, so she takes Mark there to show him. This special moment consists of a bird flying down the lake and easily catching a fish with its claws, which Mark agrees is amazing. After chatting for a while, Margaret drives Mark home and leaves when yet again, she receives an urgent call on her phone from a man called Jared.
On the next reset, Mark takes Margaret to watch the skate rats - although most of them suck at it, one particular skater manages to pull a trick nicely, which Mark finds as interesting as the bird. Afterward, the duo rides a steamroller through the streets while Mark tries to find out who this Jared guy is, but Margaret only tells him he's a med student. Later, while having an absurd amount of fast food and ice cream at a restaurant, Mark confesses that he thinks this is what living in the loop is about: most of life is junk, but like this, they can discover how amazing life can be if they wanted it to.
This gives him an idea: maybe they should find all the tiny perfect things in town and collect them. Margaret is skeptical because she doesn't want to seize the day as Mark does, she only wants to go through it, but she gives in when he points out they only have each other and the loop should be meaningful. Their first deed is to leave random dollar bills around the store for people to find while they discuss some theories about the fourth dimension, which Margaret doesn't think it's time - she thinks they're the shadows of the fourth dimensionpeople. She also shows Mark what a 4D cube would look like by drawing it on the store's window.
Afterward, their loops are spent looking for cool stuff around town. They accept any moment they find unique, like an elderly woman dancing after winning a card game, a man gaining wings when a van stops behind him, and a janitor pausing his work to play the piano.
Every now and then, Margaret also drags Mark to the library to teach him math. No matter what they do though, Margaret always leaves when she gets that call from Jared, even when she admits she doesn't want the day to end and would rather have time broken forever. After an evening spent freaking out his dad with joke answers regarding his future and showing him a tattoo, Mark wakes up to a new day determined to find out who this Jared guy is. The internet shows him a picture of a staff member at the local hospital, which makes Mark feel insignificant. He decides to visit Henry for advice on how to tackle these feelings he's developing for Margaret, so Henry gives him some ideas. This should be done through a stealth date - begin with the usual hanging out and increasingly make it more romantic by the second until the perfect moment for a kiss comes up. And this stealth date should be something that shows Mark truly understands her.
Lots of planning and bribing the kids in the art department later, Mark takes Margaret to his school gym, where he has put up a mock-up of Tranquility Base for her. They spend the afternoon playing around, pretending to be in space and eating astronaut food, they also ride a bicycle through the school corridors together.
Afterward, they stop by Mark's house, where he tells Margaret a little more abouthis family. His mother works all day, so the downside of the loop is that he hasn't seen her in forever because she leaves when he's waking up, and his dad recently quit his job to write a book about the Civil War. However, Margaret dodges the subject of her own parents, so the duo ends up watching a movie instead. Margaret takes the chance to look around his desk to admire his art, and that's how she finds a map he's drawn marking all the perfect moments they've found around town.
She's quite impressed, especially when he admits he makes it every morning while hoping to find some sort of pattern, but so far he hasn't noticed anything. Now that the two of the m are sitting closely and having a cute moment over the map, Mark tries to kiss Margaret, but she pulls back and says she can't. Mark tries to understand why, thinking it may be Jared and there's something Margaret isn't telling him, which makes her snap. She explains that since they're stuck together, they shouldn't do anything to mess it up, so the perfect thing collection should be enough.
After a devastated Mark agrees to just be friends, Margaret leaves to take her usual phone call. The following reset, Mark is in a bad mood, so he doesn't do his usual predictions through breakfast. He does however ask his dad how his mom is doing, getting "fine" as an answer. Afterward, he walks normally to Henry's so he can share all his feelings with a friendly ear, but since Henry doesn't understand what's going on, it only frustrates Mark more.
When he returns home later, Mark is cornered by Daniel trying to have the talk about his future. Not being able to take it anymore, Mark finally snaps and yells at his dad, telling him he has no future because time is broken, and that it isn't fair that he isn't allowed to go to art school when Daniel quit his job to write a midlife crisis book. Then, Mark tries to go to his room, but he's bothered by Emma's violin practice, so he goes to her room instead to ask her to stop. After putting the violing away, Emma takes the chance to ask him how the talk went, not believing what she hears when Mark replies that he hates that his dad quit to follow his dreams but he can't do the same.
Emma explains that Daniel didn't quit, he was fired - not because he messed up, they just didn't need him anymore, so he won't admit it because he's ashamed.
Their mother is mad at Daniel for losing the job but she won't say anything either because it's too mean, and Daniel doesn't mind the idea of Mark going to art school, it's just that they can't afford it right now. In Emma's opinion, Mark would know all this stuff if he would think about someone else besides himself for a change. Feeling bad for not paying more attention, Mark asks her about her soccer game, in which they lost three to nothing.
On the next reset, Mark goes to see his Algebra teacher Mr. Pepper, who doesn't remember him because he only went to class twice. Mark asks him what could possibly cause a time loop and shares a bunch of theories he found on the internet, going from wormholes to magical curses. Mr. Pepper rejects them all except for the theory of singularity, which he admits could be reasonably possible. Now Mark thinks that the only thing he needs to do to get out of the loop is to get in a plane and fly out of it.
The next time he meets with Margaret, they realize they've found every perfect moment in town yet time hasn't restarted. Mark is frustrated but she doesn't understand why, considering they're truly free in a world of zombies, but this isn't working for Mark anymore. He wants the things he makes to last longer than a day and experience having a career, so to distract him from those thoughts, Margaret takes him to a show house. The duo then proceeds to destroy everything inside the house, which is lots of fun but Mark still brings up the subject of leaving the loop after they're done.
Margaret points out that adulthood is just getting stuck in a boring routine so it isn't worth it when they can have all the time in the world, but Mark responds they actually don't have time because time is the stuff that when you spend it, you don't get it back. Hearing those words makes Margaret accept to try out Mark's plan, so the next morning, they get on a plane to Tokyo.
However Margaret is nervous, and when Mark starts fooling around with a sleep mask, she takes the chance to escape. When Mark realizes she's gone it's too late, the plane is already taking off, although he receives a text from her with an apology. He decides to spend the flight making some art, and when the time comes to cross the International Date Line, he braces himself to see what happens. Sadly, it doesn't work, and he wakes up once again on the same day.
When he goes downstairs to have breakfast, he's behaving in a much calmer way, and that gets him a nicer reaction from his sister, which is new. Noticing how being more polite gives him better results, he asks Daniel about his book, which gets a friendly chat going. Afterward, Mark goes with his dad to watch Emma's soccer match, and this time, they do manage to score.
This inspires Mark to go through the loop in a different, more altruistic way. He gifts the winning lottery ticket to a random woman, uses the excavator to rescue a cat from a tree, dances with the elderly woman, claps for the music the janitor plays, and actually goes to Algebra class.
This time he manages to impress Mr. Pepper thanks to all the tutoring he got from Margaret. He also spends better time with Henry and Emma, and even joins the skaters to try to pull off a stair trick, but he ends up falling and breaking his wrist. While in the hospital, after getting his wrist cast, Mark is surprised by seeing Margaret around.
He decides to follow her and finally finds out what truly has kept Margaret back all this time: her mother Greta is dying of cancer. The next time the day resets, Mark wakes up with tears in his eyes, and he runs outside to stop the car and hug his mom before she leaves for work.
Afterward, he visits Henry and while they play videogames together, he tells him all about Margaret. Mark used to think this was a love story and he was the hero, but actually, this story has always been Margaret's, who only wants time to stay frozen so her mom doesn't die.
Speaking of Margaret, she's visiting Greta right now. She admits she keeps thinking about a boy and that she messed that up, so Greta reminds her that it's never too late to make things right.
Later, she's losing at chess again while sitting on the spot that gives her the angel wings from the perfect moment, and that's when she sees it: the missing dog just walking around the neighborhood.Margaret rescues him but doesn't take him to his owner because he'll be lost again the next day. She realizes Mark was right: everything they fix gets broken again.
Using string, she creates a three-dimensional model of the times and places of the perfect moments, the shadow of which forms a 4D cube. It's missing a vertex though, so she makes some calculationsand finds out the final moment will be at seven p.m. at the pool. During the next loop, Margaret visits Greta to express her fears of losing her, but Greta promises her she'll be fine and that she can do this if she allows herself to enjoy all of life's perfect moments.
Afterward, Margaret goes to the pool a few minutes before seven and finds Mark there. She tells him about the pattern, butMark confesses he knows about Greta so he doesn't want to leave the loop anymore because he can't dothat to her. Moved by his words, Margaret shares a little secret: the night before the loop began,she was told Greta didn't have much time left, so she just wished for time to stop.
Apparently, something or someone out there listened to her and granted her the wish. Then Mark showed up, and she didn't understand why, but now she knows: this way, when it's time to go, she doesn't have to go alone. Margaret admits she was wrong and they were the ones sleeping while everyone else lived, so it's time to wake up. After declaring this is the last perfect moment, Margaret kisses Mark. Afterward, Margaret goes to the hospital to say her final goodbye to Greta.
She leaves the building holding hands with Mark, and together they wait for the clock to hit twelve a.m. When it suddenly starts raining, they confirm they've finally gotten out of the loop. The next morning, they find the missing dog and return him to his owner.
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