Thus, the concept of determinism that this film raises is that Phil is completely helpless in escaping his least favorite day and his environment remains more or less definite throughout the repeating day, to the point where he has approximately everything people say and do memorized. In the following twenty-four hours he knows he is condemned to begin the entire day once more as soon as that day has run its course. In this regard, he does not seem to have any free will. The decision of regardless of whether he is permitted to move onto the following day lies with a higher power since determinism maintains that humans have no influence on the future and its …show more content…
He is not obligated to do or say precisely what he did or said the day before; his actions are not determined. In one scene, Phil is outside a bowling alley with two locals and he asked them, “What if there were no tomorrow?” One guy answers, “That would mean there will be no consequences, there will be no hangovers, we could do whatever we wanted.” With the mindset that he can live without consequences, Phil punches his former classmate in the face, impersonate Nancy’s former classmate in order to entice her, commits burglary, attempts suicide various times, and kidnaps Punxsutawney Phil. In other words, he finds himself with the advantage of acting distinctively toward everyone every time. In this way, the film deals with the nature of free will. Free will, the idea that we are able to have some choice in how we act and assume that we are free to choose our behavior. However, even Phil overlooks that he is not by any means the only one equipped of changing from day to day. While making a snowman with Rita for the countless time, he assumes the series of events to go generally as it had before: children toss snowballs at them, they reciprocate jokingly and in a way which reveals Phil 's playful side, and they wind up growing closer. However, after encountering this scene various times, Phil 's reaction is no longer genuine, and Rita takes notice,