‘Run Lola Run’ at 25: How the movie ran a multiverse ahead of its time

Listen up, Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Twenty-five years ago, a small, low-budget German film by the name of “Run Lola Run” took the world by storm. Looking back, its director sees parallels between his visionary movie and the multiverse films that have become tentpole blockbusters today.

Starring a magenta-haired Franka Potente, “Lola” follows the titular heroine as she must race across Berlin to help her lackey mobster boyfriend (Moritz Bleibtreu) out of a life-threatening bind… and somehow find 100,000 Deutsche Marks along the way.

One of the principal aspects of the film that makes it so special is how it’s divided into three parts, vignettes that re-imagine Lola’s predicament and follow her along a slightly different chain of events, each leading to a drastically different outcome.

“The whole idea that you start from the same moment again, and you create a parallel universe” was at the core of his film, “Lola” director Tom Tykwer said in a recent interview with CNN.

And while he made the distinction that “Run Lola Run” is a film in which each vignette ends and “resets” the story – instead of coexisting with the alternative stories that follow – when asked if he thought the whole multiverse trend began around the time of his film, Tykwer replied, “Conceptually, yes.”

Just like in more recent multiverse movies like “Into the Spider-Verse” or “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” each universe or vignette shares certain similarities. In “Lola’s” case, the most significant similarity is an animated sequence toward the beginning of each vignette – or “route,” as Tykwer refers to them – when she runs down the stairwell of her building and encounters a neighbor in a doorway with a vicious-looking dog. It is the subtle differences of that early interaction that set each version of Lola’s story in new directions Tykwer said he always envisioned that particular sequence as being animated.

“It was always amusing and fun to imagine that the first detour that each route takes is coming from animation, because animation is the closest to – in film – the closest to directly translated imagination,” he said.

Another parallel “Lola” shares with some of the bigger movies of today is the exceptional physical demands it put on its star, Potente.

While most actors might train for a role to optimize their physique and appearance for the benefit of the camera – think Hugh Jackman for his portrayal of the muscly mutant Wolverine, or Henry Cavill for “The Witcher” – and actually lose their progress and stamina while shooting the film itself, Potente is seen running at a fast clip for an astounding amount of screen time in “Run Lola Run” (hence the title).

Surprisingly though, the actress – who has gone on to appear in the “Bourne” film franchise opposite Matt Damon and as the Season 2 villain in “Claws,” among many other credits – does not consider that shoot from early in her career as one of the most grueling.

“No, I wasn’t in any shape. I probably, to be very honest with you, (am in) way better shape right now than I was then,” Potente said, adding that she was a smoker at the time.

“I mean, Jesus. But I was young.”

She also mentioned how in early talks with Tykwer, the director told her he “did not want somebody who looked like a like an ultra runner.”

“That would have turned a lot of things upside down about the film. I think it was about this person that in that very moment, wearing Dr. Martens, just decides to be self-reliant and go,” Potente continued. “And that was really important to come across. So there was no training involved.”

“Run Lola Run” races back into movie theaters nationwide on Friday, June 7 with a restored 4K print, in honor of the 25th anniversary of its release.

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