The Wave

Frank, an insurance lawyer, uncovers troubling information in a $4M policy on the fireman who died of a heart attack. He realizes the policy could influence a raise and promotion he desperately needs as he and Cheryl overspend. The revelation plants the seed for a dramatic night out with his co-worker Jeff.

Jeff invites Frank to celebrate the looming board presentation, and Frank agrees after a tense evening arguing with Cheryl. The celebration promises a distraction from their financial strain and Frank's ambitions. The mood shifts from professional pressure to nightlife and risk.

At Club El Madrid, Frank encounters a friendly homeless man bathing in a bathroom sink and shares drinks with Jeff, Natalie, and Theresa. Frank is drawn to Theresa, but she disapproves of his corporate ruthlessness toward dispossessed families. The encounter foreshadows a clashing moral arc to come.

The group goes to a house party where Theresa administers the hallucinogen with a kiss. Frank blacks out and wakes up alone the next morning. A family enters, police are called, and Frank flees with his wallet missing, eventually hailing a taxi to get home.

Back in his clothes, Frank materializes in his office and hustled to the board meeting by Jeff. He presents the policy data but is haunted by visions of the board reacting with satanic glee to a denial. He runs to the bathroom to throw up, realizing his high is ongoing and dangerous.

Cheryl calls, furious that their accounts are emptied. The boss instructs Jeff to take Frank home, but the duo instead returns to El Madrid to search for Aeolus and Frank's missing wallet. The delay continues as they wait for the bartender to shift and the party women to reappear.

In Jeff's car, Frank discovers his phone cannot be charged and slams the dashboard in frustration. The day abruptly flips to night, signaling another destabilizing time loop. The group realizes clocks and phones act as portals within this nightmarish experience.

Natalie shows up and teams with the pair to escape, but their car refuses to start. They wait as Frank witnesses a car colliding with a large blinking roadside clock, and his consciousness is teleported away just as he is struck again. The sequence deepens the sense that time is breaking down.

Frank materializes beside Theresa in an ethereal field, and they discuss finding each other amid a starry sky. He is astonished by the Milky Way and the cosmic scale of their predicament. Moments later, he is snapped back to Jeff’s car in front of Richie's dealer’s house.

Back at Richie's place, Richie offers a variety of drugs to bring Frank down, and Frank consumes several. He is blasted to a mythical place where Theresa explains that the universe seeks balance. He snaps back to reality with a deeper sense of the moral costs of his greed.

After a meeting with the friendly homeless man Aeolus, Frank transports to outside the club the next afternoon and makes a deal. The homeless man then arrives with $240,000 in cash from Frank's bank accounts and a new mortgage on his house. Richie and Lamont are shocked, but accept the improbable windfall and release the trio.

Jeff drives Natalie back to El Madrid where they encounter Theresa again, now played by a different actress who only recognizes Frank as a partygoer. The altered identities reflect the film's fragile sense of reality. Frank remains morally unsettled by the cascade of consequences his actions have caused.

Back in the previous day at work, Frank fills out paperwork for a $4M life insurance policy tied to his promotion. He decides to name the fireman’s widow as beneficiary, aware of the ethical weight. His boss threatens to fire him if he changes it, pushing Frank toward another temporal leap.

Frank time travels again to intervene at the car crash outside the El Madrid club, hoping to alter the outcome. He is struck by the intoxicated driver, who turns out to be his boss, and dies on the hood of the car. Police later arrive and find Richie's drugs in the trunk, and Frank’s consciousness wakes beside Theresa once more, ending the loop.