FILM · 1993 · USA
Groundhog Day
- Directed by
- Harold Ramis
- Runtime
- 101 min
- Studio
- Columbia Pictures
34 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
A cynical TV weatherman, along with his idealistic producer and his sardonic cameraman, is sent to report on Groundhog Day in the small town of Punxsutawney, where he finds himself repeating the same day over and over.
Summary: TMDB
All facts (34)
- #001
Bill Murray was bitten twice by the groundhog during filming. As a result, Murray received a series of rabies shots. Harold Ramis said: "The groundhog does whatever you want as long as you keep feeding it bananas. Once the bananas run out, it starts eating Bill."
- #002
(At about the 59th minute) The scene in which Phil picks up his alarm clock and smashes it on the floor did not go as planned. Bill Murray slammed the clock shut hard but it barely broke, so the crew hit it with a hammer to give it a truly shattered look.
- #003
Harold Ramis initially wanted Tom Hanks for the lead role, but he abandoned the decision, saying Hanks was "too nice."
- #004
The film was not shot in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, but actually in Woodstock, Illinois (only fifty miles from Bill Murray's hometown of Wilmette, Illinois). On the sidewalk where Murray repeatedly steps in the puddle there is a small plaque reading "Bill Murray stepped here." On the building wall on the corner there is another sign reading "Ned's Corner," where Phil Connors is repeatedly greeted by Ned Ryerson. In the Ned scene, the "Woodstock Jewelers" sign is clearly visible in the background.
- #005
Because they were unsure of the scene's tone, they shot twenty-five takes of the closing scene in which Bill Murray wakes up next to Andie MacDowell. They were not sure whether Phil and Rita were still in their clothes. Ramis had everyone on the set, cast and crew, vote on how the film should play, and the final count came out in favor of the couple still being in their clothes because they had not yet slept together.
- #006
(At about 1 hour 35 minutes) In the final shot, Phil Connors carries Rita Hanson over the door and then climbs over it. This is because the door was actually frozen shut.
- #007
All the clocks in the restaurant were stopped, reflecting the predicament Phil Connors is in.
- #008
Among the contents of the DVD special features, Harold Ramis states that the original idea was for Phil to live through February 2 for about ten thousand years. He then says that Phil probably lived the same day for about ten years.
- #009
Harold Ramis instructed the children in the snowball fight to hit Bill Murray as hard as they could. Murray retaliated by throwing snowballs as hard as he could.
- #010
In the original version of the script written by Danny Rubin, Phil Connors was already stuck inside Groundhog Day at the start of the story. We joined him on an ordinary day, with the audience wondering how he knew everything that was going to happen. Harold Ramis promised not to change this aspect of the script, but in the end he decided to do so.
- #011
Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis said they avoided exploring the truly dark side of Phil's time, in which he could have committed consequence-free psychopathic and/or violent acts.
- #012
Exactly 38 days are depicted in this film, in part or in full.
- #013
Bill Murray was offered a spit bucket for the restaurant scene in which he stuffs himself with pastries, but he refused. In particular, the angel food cake made him feel sick shortly afterward.
- #014
Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis wanted to add one more Ned Ryerson scene at the last minute, so Stephen Tobolowsky wrote the scene in which he describes a large number of insurance policies. Tobolowsky based his character on his own insurance agent. After the film's release, the agent called Tobolowsky and thanked him for portraying agents so accurately, rather than mocking them as most films do.
- #015
Bill Murray was going through a divorce during filming and was obsessed with the film. He would call Harold Ramis constantly, mostly in the early hours of the morning. Ramis eventually sent screenwriter Danny Rubin to sit down with Murray and address all his concerns; this was one of the reasons Murray stopped speaking to Ramis for several years.
- #016
Since the film's release, the town of Punxsutawney has become a major tourist attraction.
- #017
According to the website Wolf Gnards, Bill Murray spends eight years, eight months and sixteen days trapped in Groundhog Day. The Movie Truth review series calculated that Murray is stuck in the loop for 4,576 days (twelve years, six months and eleven days). The website Obsessed With Film claims he is trapped for 12,403 days, or a little under thirty-four years, to account for his becoming a master pianist, ice sculptor and so on.
- #018
Danny Rubin's first draft of the screenplay ended with Phil Connors waking up on February 3 and discovering that Rita Hanson was trapped in her own time loop.
- #019
The weather tended to change, and since they shot continuously from January into spring, they decided to film every variation of an outdoor scene back to back on the same day; an example is all five versions of Ned Ryerson that he encounters on the same day.
- #020
Danny Rubin, the creator of the original Groundhog Day screenplay, had mixed feelings about the finished film. "It's a great movie and it's made my life a lot easier in a lot of ways. But I quickly learned that working as a writer in Hollywood, you have to compromise for your work to come out. I'm very grateful that Harold Ramis took an interest and took the time to arrange and polish the script, and that he helped with fundraising as well as directing the film. At the same time, when I watch the movie, I see more comedy than I thought, I see more comedy. A more romantic story than in my script, and when you watch something you created, some things feel off and there are things you don't remember imagining, and again I don't want to be ungrateful. I understand that the chance of getting a film made from a spec script is like winning the jackpot in the lottery. It wasn't exactly as I imagined, and that's something I'll have to live with for the rest of my life."
- #021
There was a great deal of tension between Harold Ramis and Bill Murray on set. One reason was creative differences: Murray wanted the film to be more philosophical, while Ramis wanted it to be a comedy. Murray's personal problems, especially the end of his first marriage, were another factor that had a ripple effect on his behavior. This would lead to the end of their working relationship, and they did not speak to each other for several years. They had reconciled shortly before Ramis's death.
- #022
A family of groundhogs was raised for the production.
- #023
(At about 1 hour 2 minutes) While filming the "Kidnapping Phil" scene, Bill Murray improvised the line "Don't drive angry, don't drive angry!" on his own to cover the fact that the groundhog he was holding in his lap was agitated and was trying to climb over the steering wheel to escape. A minute later the groundhog bit Murray's hand so badly that he had to receive medical treatment. Decades later, this line would inspire the title of Nicolas Cage's action/horror film Drive Angry (2011).
- #024
A scene was shot in which Phil destroys his room, cuts up the pillows, spray-paints the walls and so on. He also shaves his head, after which the camera pulls back from his face to show that the next morning his hair and the room are back to normal. However, Harold Ramis had trouble making the melting-shot match, so the scene was replaced with Phil breaking his pencil.
- #025
After its release, several writers came forward claiming the story was stolen from their ideas. Science fiction writer Richard Lupoff claimed it was a copy of his short story 12:01, and Ken Grimwood, the author of Replay, was another. However, Danny Rubin said the only starting point for the film was William Dean Howells's story Christmas Every Day (1892).
- #026
While filming the Ned scene, Bill Murray noticed hundreds of spectators watching the events. He later went to a nearby bakery, ordered 500 Danishes and paid for them himself. He and Stephen Tobolowsky then handed them out to the grateful spectators.
- #027
(At about 1 hour 19 minutes) Bill Murray's overly familiar hug of Ned and his reaction were improvised. Murray had told Stephen Tobolowsky in advance that he was going to run away. Tobolowsky was completely surprised and followed along while staying perfectly in character. It is worth noting that he completed his audition in a single take, having prepared the night before, and then, at a time when no one was in the room except Harold Ramis and the casting director, gave the most exaggerated performance he could manage, leaving them rolling on the floor.
- #028
In 2020, Bill Murray, Stephen Tobolowsky and Brian Doyle-Murray reprised their roles in a Super Bowl commercial for Jeep (which was played that year on Groundhog Day). Like the original film, the commercial was shot in Woodstock, Illinois.
- #029
Andie MacDowell asked Harold Ramis whether she could speak in her normal (and quite heavy) South Carolina accent.
- #030
Andie MacDowell names it as her favorite among her films.
- #031
The groundhog ceremony is depicted as taking place in the center of town. Gobbler's Knob, where the ceremony actually takes place in real life, is a rural, wooded area about two miles outside Punxsutawney.
- #032
(At about 1 hour 23 minutes) Shaun Chaiyabhat, who played the boy in the tree, grew up and became a local television news reporter.
- #033
Sonny & Cher's song "I've Got You Babe," which greets Bill Murray every morning, was in Danny Rubin's original screenplay from the start. The song is known for its seemingly endless, repeating chorus, which mirrors Phil's predicament in the film.
- #034
The ice sculptures featured in the film (referred to as the Winged Victory) were carved by Randy Rupert, also known as the Chainsaw Wizard. Randy actually lives in Punxsutawney and has a shop in the center of town. Every Groundhog Day he can be found in the city park carving and selling his wooden sculptures.
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