10 Great Sci-Fi Movies Under 90 Minutes

In ARQ, Robbie Amell plays an engineer called Renton who's invented a machine which manipulates time. When a rebel group break into his house to steal the ARQ device, Renton is killed in the scuffle.

Moments later, Renton wakes up just before the robbers break in. Acknowledging the ARQ has trapped him in a time loop, Renton keeps reliving the home invasion over and over.

What's great about ARQ is how it doesn't waste a second to get going. Instead of opening the movie with an exposition dump, Renton is murdered in the first five minutes! While viewers are still trying to figure out what just happened, the home invasion begins again. And again. And again.

Now, starting a story in the middle can be confusing (especially when the plot revolves around the space-time continuum and causality loops).

However, jumping into the deep end works in ARQ's favour, since we're immediately invested in the protagonist's dilemma, despite not fully understanding it. Upon each cycle, we learn more about Renton, his killers, and the device. Also, watching the same scenario repeatedly never feels dull, since Renton keeps trying different tactics to escape the loop.

Because of how exciting and inventive ARQ is, it's a shame it isn't more well-known.