Theories in Run Lola Run

THEORIES IN RUN LOLA RUN

Lola is a Kantian - Kant’s moral theory is that actions are morally right in virtue of their motives. - These motives derive more from duty than from inclination. - An example of morally right action is when an individual’s determination to act in accordance with duty overcomes her evident self-interest. - Lola experiences guilt from having let Manni down. She feels responsible for the position he is in. She shows absolute focus in absolving that guilt, by fulfilling her duty to Manni. She does this at the expensive of her own life in the first run.

Ronnie is an Egoist - An egoist is a person who only thinks about him/herself and does things only for personal gain.

Utilitarianism (John Stuart Mills) - This is a moral philosophy that operates on the principal that optimising utility (happiness) should be the driving force behind all decisions made. It is to do with the greatest good for the greatest number. For example, knocking down one family house to build a motor way may put one family out, but will make thousands of motorists happy. Therefore total utility is greater when the home is knocked down. - Both Lola and Manni are utilitarian. They want Ronnie to have the money, they don’t want anyone hurt, and in the final run, they also walk away with 100,000 marks of their own.

Chaos Theory - Chaos theory refers to the behaviour of certain systems of motion, such as ocean currents, or population growth, to be especially sensitive to tiny changes in their starting conditions that then result in drastically different outcomes. When speaking of Chaos Theory, people often refer to the ‘Butterfly Effect’.

The flapping of a single butterfly's wing today produces a tiny change in the state of the atmosphere. Over a period of time, what the atmosphere actually does diverges from what it would have done. So, in a month's time, a tornado that would have devastated the Indonesian coast doesn't happen. Or maybe one that wasn't going to happen, does. (Ian Stewart, Does God Play Dice? The Mathematics of Chaos, pg. 141)

Determinism (Heidegger) - Determinism is the view that every event, including human behaviour (decisions, thoughts and actions) are determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences. Eternal Recurrence (Nietzsche) - Eternal Recurrence is the theory that the universe has been recurring and will continue to recur in a self-similar form an infinite number of times.

ALL CHARACTERS IN THIS FILM ARE HELD IN THE GRIP OF A WORLD DETERMINED BY CHAOS THEORY, DETERMINISM AND ETERNAL RECURRENCE.

QUESTIONS:

- How do humans transcend (rise above) the determinism that dominates their lives? How much control do we really have? Are there parallel universes? Is love a dominant force in the universe?