[3] Robbie Amell plays an engineer whose invention causes a time loop during a home invasion.

Their leader, 'Father', says he represents a rebel group known as the Bloc and demands Renton surrender money or "scrips" that he had stolen from their rival organization, the Torus Corporation.

Father and the two other men, Sonny and Brother, leave to eat in another room and Renton is able to cut himself and Hannah loose.

In the next iteration, Sonny saves Cuz, another mercenary who was fatally electrocuted by the ARQ at the start of every previous loop, then kills Father and Brother.

Before dying, Sonny sets a trap that kills Hannah, prompting Renton to allow the next iteration to begin.

After Sonny forces Renton to disable the machine, Father and Brother die in the confusion of a blackout.

Realizing they are on their ninth loop, Renton and Hannah leave a desperate message to themselves, hoping future iterations can get the ARQ to the Bloc before Torus's reinforcements arrive.

The concept dates back to 2008, prior to writer-director Tony Elliot's work on the television series Orphan Black; the show's creators hired him based on his unproduced script.

[9] John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter called it a "tricky little time twister that makes the most of its limited resources", comparing it to Groundhog Day and Edge of Tomorrow in its concept.

DeFore wrote that the film throws many new wrinkles into its looping plot, causing viewers to eventually stop trying to predict characters' actions.

Of the film's climax, DeFore said, "Amazingly, given how many time-travel pix collapse in a tangle of logic around this point, ARQ knows how to wrap its paradoxes up in a way we can hardly criticize.