The movie "Run Lola Run" was written and directed by Tom Tykwer and stars Franka Potente as Lola, who needs to acquire 100,000 marks in 20 minutes to save her boyfriend's life. The German production company "X Filme" made this movie in 1998 and was released in America by Sony Pictures Classics. In the movie, Lola finds out about the situation that her boyfriend, Manni, has gotten into by a call he makes to her to explain how he lost 100,000 marks that belong to a mobster named Ronnie, who will kill him if the money isn"t there when he arrives. Lola tells Manni to wait for her to get there and he tells her that if she isn"t there in twenty minutes that he is going to rob the grocery store to obtain the money and then he gets disconnected. Lola decides to beg her father, Papa, for the money to save Manni's life and from here the story diverges into three potential futures. In all of the possible futures, we see Lola running and passing by the same people and places and each time something different happens to Lola and to the people around her. The twenty-minute deadline and the alternate futures are the plot devices used by the movie to show the affect that one person and one moment can have on somebody's life, no matter how insignificant the moment seems. .
Early in the film, Manni say to Lola, "Love can do anything." While this is clearly the explicit meaning of the movie, I believe that there is also an implicit meaning to the film, which is that the slightest moment can change the rest of your life, for better or for worse. There is ample evidence to support both meanings of "Run Lola Run.".
The support for the explicit meaning of the movie lies in Lola's intense love for Manni and the way she is willing to attempt to obtain the money to save his life. It is Manni's mistake of leaving the money on the train that causes him to become a causal agent in this film, but it is Lola's love for Manni that causes her to become a casual agent.
