‘Groundhog Day’: Is Bill Murray’s fate actually controlled by Ned Ryerson?
It is often the case that comedy has a level of darkness to it. Even the most unsuspecting, family-friendly comedy might have an underlying darkness and intrigue in its composition or background. In the case of Bill Murray’s 1990s comedy classic Groundhog Day, for instance, some fans theorise that Satan himself might underpin the narrative. Reportedly, Beelzebub appears in the family-friendly film in the form of an unsuspecting insurance salesman by the name of Ned Ryerson.
For the uninitiated few, Groundhog Day centres around a despondent and fairly unlikeable weather presenter, played by Bill Murray, by the name of Phil Connors. The presenter is forced to travel to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to cover the annual Groundhog Day celebrations. With the backdrop of a strange weather storm, Murray’s character soon finds himself stuck in a time loop. No matter what he achieves during his day, he wakes up to the sound of Sonny and Cher’s ‘I Got You Babe’, living out the exact same day as before, encountering the same people and situations.
Over the course of the film, Murray’s character adapts his actions and behaviours in order to try and break the time loop. In the end, he is only able to successfully return to his usual timeline when he earns the love of his producer, Rita Hanson. At least, that is the narrative that most viewers subscribe to. After all, the film ends with Connors waking up to ‘I Got You Babe’ with Hanson beside him, signifying the end of the time loop. However, there is also a theory that the time loop has nothing to do with Hanson at all and is actually controlled by Ned Ryerson.
Ryerson is one of the first people that Connors encounters during his day. While walking through the town, Murray’s character is interrupted by Ryerson, who introduces himself as an old school friend of Connors’ who has since become an insurance salesman. During the first interaction, Connors does not remember Ryerson and tries to escape as quickly as possible. In a theory that first appeared online in 2017, some fans think that Ryerson’s character actually represents the devil himself.
While an insurance salesman representing a demonic entity is not all that revolutionary, the theory becomes more convincing the deeper you dig. The theory centres around the idea that Ryerson is the one who traps Connors in a time loop, hoping that the presenter will eventually sell his soul to the insurance salesman by purchasing insurance. Admittedly, this does seem to line up when watching the film.
When Connors first walks away from Ryerson after refusing to buy any insurance, the presenter steps into a deep puddle as Ryerson laughs devilishly and exclaims, “Watch out for that first step; it’s a doozy!” You could infer that the “first step” refers to Connors’ first step into the time loop after being condemned to this hellish method of torture.
What’s more, Ryerson seems to be aware of Connors struggle with every subsequent day. At one point, after multiple repeated meetings, the insurance salesman says “You’re on fire today,” to Connors, seeming to suggest that Ryerson has been present and aware of all the other days, too.
The biggest argument for Ryerson being representing Satan, having cast Connors into this hellish time loop torment, is the idea that he is the character who actually breaks the time loop. Towards the end of the film, Connors treats the insurance salesman with kindness rather than dismissal and agrees to buy some insurance. Rather than earning the love of Rita Hanson, you could argue that it was this act that freed Connors from the time loop, selling his soul to Ryerson.
Whether or not director Harold Ramis intended these themes of Satan and eternal damnation remains unknown. It would certainly be a strange angle to enter into a family-friendly comedy flick, but then again, the realisation of this theory adds entirely new layers of enjoyment to the cult comedy. Devil or not, to pin the key to a narrative’s resolution in a seemingly unsuspecting side character is a pretty genius move.
