20 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn’t Know About Groundhog Day

1. This Is How Long He Spent Trapped...

In the original screenplay, Phil was supposed to be stuck in his loop for 10,000 years, marking each day by reading one page of a book in the library, eventually reading everything and mastering all of the skills he shows on screen. But that was all a bit vague, and one terribly smart website once (hint: it's us) worked out exactly how long Phil is trapped for.

12,395 days - or 33 years and 350 days.

Stephen Tobolowski, the film's Ned Ryerson, actually responded directly to this important science in a radio interview, not only confirming that he agreed, but also with the fact that the first script had been very clear about its 10,000 year timeline. After hearing an assessment that put the time loop period at 10 years, Harold Ramis gave his own reading, ignoring the original script, and basically endorsing our brill work.

"I think the 10-year estimate is too short. It takes at least 10 years to get good at anything, and allotting for the down time and misguided years he spent, it had to be more like 30 or 40 years."

Go us, then, and happy Groundhog Day!