Editing Run Lola Run (section)

==Themes==
The film touches on themes such as [[free will]] vs. [[determinism]], the role of [[randomness|chance]] in people's destiny, and obscure cause-effect relationships. Through brief [[flashforward|flash-forward]] sequences of still images, Lola's fleeting interactions with bystanders are revealed to have surprising and drastic effects on their future lives, serving as concise illustrations of [[chaos theory]]'s [[butterfly effect]], in which minor, seemingly inconsequential variations in any interaction can blossom into much broader results than is often recognized. The film's exploration of the relationship between chance and conscious intention comes to the foreground in the casino scene, where Lola appears to defy the laws of chance through sheer force of will, improbably making the roulette ball land on her winning number with the help of a glass-shattering scream.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://slamdunkstudios.webs.com/apps/blog/show/22844572-run-lola-run-film-essay|title=Run Lola Run (film essay)|first=Duncan|last=Hubber|publisher=Slam Dunk Studios|date=13 May 2010|access-date=12 June 2016|archive-date=3 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160803033637/http://slamdunkstudios.webs.com/apps/blog/show/22844572-run-lola-run-film-essay|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://screenprism.com/insights/article/how-does-run-lola-run-demonstrate-chaos-theorys-butterfly-effect|title=How does "Run Lola Run" demonstrate chaos theory's butterfly effect?|first=Jeff|last=Saporito|publisher=Screen Prism|date=8 June 2015|access-date=12 June 2016|archive-date=1 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160701112400/http://screenprism.com/insights/article/how-does-run-lola-run-demonstrate-chaos-theorys-butterfly-effect|url-status=live}}</ref>

The thematic exploration of free will vs. determinism is made clear from the start. In the film's brief prologue, an unseen narrator asks a series of rhetorical questions that prime the audience to view the film through a metaphysical lens touching on traditional philosophical questions involving determinism vs. [[Libertarianism (metaphysics)|philosophic libertarianism]] as well as [[epistemology]]. The theme is reinforced through the repeated appearance of a blind woman who briefly interacts with Manni in each alternative reality, and seems to have supernatural understandings of both the present and potential futures in those realities. The film ultimately seems to favor a [[compatibilism|compatibilist]] philosophical view to the free will question as evidenced by the casino scene and by the final telephone booth scene in which the blind woman redirects Manni's attention to a passerby, which enables him to make an important choice near the film's climax.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://infolab.stanford.edu/~prasanna/dmc/chance.html#runlolarun|title=Chance, chaos and coincidence|first=Prasanna|last=Ganesan|publisher=Stanford University|access-date=12 June 2016|archive-date=14 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414144514/http://infolab.stanford.edu/~prasanna/dmc/chance.html#runlolarun|url-status=live}}</ref>

Several moments in the film allude to a supernatural awareness of the characters. For example, in the first reality, Manni shows a nervous Lola how to use a gun by removing the safety, while in the second timeline she removes the safety as though she remembers what to do. This suggests that she might have the memory of the events depicted in the previous timeline. Also, the bank's guard says to Lola "you finally came" in the third timeline, as if he remembered Lola's appearances in the previous two.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.reviewessays.com/English/Run-Lola-Run/54320.html|title=Run Lola Run|publisher=Review Essays|access-date=12 June 2016|archive-date=24 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624204023/https://www.reviewessays.com/English/Run-Lola-Run/54320.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://joshepq.blogspot.com/2012/12/summary-run-lola-run-lola-rrent.html|title=Summary — Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt)|first=Joshua|last=Milton|date=6 December 2012|access-date=12 June 2016|archive-date=12 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161012144028/http://joshepq.blogspot.com/2012/12/summary-run-lola-run-lola-rrent.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The theme of desire is expressed through the film as a driving force for Lola's actions. In Ingebord Majer O'Sickey's essay "Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets (Or Does She?): Time and Desire in Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run" she argues that "what Lola really wants is to get into time sync with Manni in sexual terms". The conflict in the plot is driven by the initial phone conversation following Lola being late, leading to their timing to be out of sync. After the end of the first "episode", the bedside questioning by Lola reveals her dissatisfaction with the relationship, leading Manni to ask "Do you want to leave me?". O'Sickey makes the argument that each repeated return to the day is driven by Lola's continual attempt to adjust Manni's timing. The entirety of the film portrays Lola as "postmodern heroine who could leap over traditional time-constraints" giving the expectation that she ultimately would get what she wants. By the third arrival in the film, O'Sickey argues that "Lola not only loses her super heroine status, but her desire to desire". She claims the ending portrays "the tradition of classical Hollywood cinema's economy of desire". With Manni having reacquired the money, Lola's desire to be "in sync" disappears as she watches Manni's "metamorphosis from a bungling and fairly ineffective lover to a man in control of the situation". O'Sickey makes the claim that this deflates Lola's heroine status in the final act.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/10509200214827|title=Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets (Or Does She?): Time and Desire in Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run|first=Ingeborg|last=O'Sickey|journal=Quarterly Review of Film and Video|date=27 October 2010|volume=19|issue=2|pages=123–131|doi=10.1080/10509200214827|s2cid=192177461|access-date=25 April 2021|url-access=subscription}}</ref>