Plot

A young girl living in a small town becomes curious about the mysterious work her mother conducts beneath ground at a facility known as the Loop.

A young girl living in a small town becomes curious about the mysterious work her mother conducts beneath ground at a facility known as the Loop. In her search for answers, the girl's life is changed forever.

An older man welcomes the viewer and introduces himself as Russ Willard (Jonathan Pryce), founder of the Mercer Center for Experimental Physics, which is located under the town of Mercer, Ohio. The locals refer to it as the Loop. Its purpose is to unlock and explore the mysteries of the universe. He warns that because of their unique research, the viewer will see and hear sights that may be thought of as impossible.

It's the 1950's. It's winter. Adults, mostly older, walk through snow-covered grounds to the entrance to the underground Mercer Center as if going to work. Elsewhere, fifth grade students take a test at their school room desks, except one girl, Loretta (Abby Ryder Fortson), who stares out the frost-covered window. There are three concrete towers in the near distance. The teacher (Stefanie Estes) calls her attention back to her work.

Later, over a frozen lake, Loretta skips stones off a pier toward a large anemometer frozen in the middle. She sits on the pier and notices a vibration, and then a thumping coming from underground. She leans her ear onto the pier and the noises increase. Loretta walks through town, playfully kicking at the snow on the ground, and catching water dripping off the icicles on the eaves with her tongue. A short distance away in the woods, a bipedal robot appears to be staring at her.

Loretta arrives home, a three-story clapboard house set off in the woods, and there are two people talking in another room. A man (Adam Hurtig) is chastising Alma (Elektra Kilbey) about her method for searching for answers. She counters with an argument against his Vagabond project. He says, "You can't just steal a piece of the eclipse and think no one will notice." He tells Alma that if she continues, Alma is placing her daughter Loretta in danger. Alma denies this and he urges her to put "it" back. She demands the man leave her house and when he does, kicks at a side table, knocking over a lamp. Loretta has been eavesdropping from the hallway but runs out when her mom hears the creaking of the floorboard.

In a quiet countryside are three concrete towers, each about 100 feet tall with a distinctive v-shaped light at the top.

Later, when Loretta comes home, Alma is in the bath singing, which makes Loretta smile.

Loretta cooks dinner. Later she and Alma play chess. Loretta asks Alma why the man was mad at her. Alma says she took something, although she denied it to the man. Loretta says Alma had told her she should never steal. Alma says she didn't steal it, she "obtained" it. She says she'll give it back after she's done with an experiment. Loretta offers to help, but Alma says it's too dangerous. Loretta asks if what she obtained was from underground. Alma nods. Loretta asks what Alma does there and Alma says she wouldn't understand. Alma says it would be something if, later, Loretta also worked there. Loretta says she'd like that. Alma says Loretta wouldn't know what they'll be doing, but Loretta says it doesn't matter, that they'd be together. Alma smiles.

Loretta, in her room, dances happily to a rumba playing on a record player. The electricity dies throughout the house, shutting off the music and lights. She goes downstairs as a rhythmic thumping sound echoes through the house. She calls for Alma, but there is no response. Loretta finds Alma in her office, back turned, at her desk. There is a glowing rectangular box in front of Alma. Loretta recalls their earlier conversation - that Alma will return what she obtained but only after her experiment. Suddenly the glow shuts off and the windowpanes of the room crack and shatter. Loretta runs back to her room and slams the door shut.

We see a spinning faceted marbled stone.

The three towers stand in the distance and there is a slight electronic hum.

In the morning, Loretta dressed for school, screws shut a thermos and places it in front of Alma's closed office door. She struggles bringing the garbage can out to the curb. At school, her teacher returns their schoolwork and whispers to Loretta that her mother would be proud - it's the mathematics test she took the other day. Loretta received an "A."

Loretta is waiting outside the Mercer Center as employees file out for the day. She is clutching her test, but her mom hasn't come out. When the last employee leaves, she folds the test and slips it into her pocket and heads home. She struggles to bring the garbage can back from the curb and then notices her entire house is not there. Instead, there is a smooth oval-shape patch of snow where the house used to be, and at the center is a faceted marbled stone, about the size of a baseball. She picks it up and presses her palm into the snow underneath. We see someone in the far distance, standing on top of a snowbank, waving. Loretta calls for Alma and hears a single metallic thump. She tucks the stone under her jacket and runs into the woods toward the sound. She sees a boy (Duncan Joiner), her age, throwing rocks at the robot we saw earlier. Loretta demands he stop but he claims its good luck if you hit it in the eye. She asks how he would like to be picked on. Indifferently, he reminds her it's a robot. Loretta runs off, calling for Alma. The boy follows, dragging his sled. The robot slowly turns its head, looking after them.

The boy says his older brother thinks they made the robots underground, or at least found them there. The boy asks why Loretta is in his woods, and if she's lost. Loretta says she's looking for someone, and its not his woods. They come upon a ramshackle cabin. The boy suggests she doesn't want to go in there as its haunted. Loretta goes inside anyway, calling for Alma. There is a hole in the roof; a pile of snow lies directly under the hole, but the snowflakes drift up through the hole.

In slow motion, the roof shingles of Alma and Loretta's house peel off and "fall" up into the sky. The chimney falls apart and the bricks also fall up into the sky.

The boy picks up a pine cone from the floor, saying he collects the good ones. Loretta confesses she's looking for her mom.

We hear Alma singing and then we see Alma, sitting alone at their dining table. The lights fade.

The boy offers to help Loretta find Alma. They run through the snow and stop at where her house used to be. The boy says he's never seen it. Loretta says it's because it's gone now. He asks if her mom works underground, as do his parents, so they might know where she is.

At the boy's house, he looks for his mother in her study. She (Rebecca Hall) is arguing with Russ Willard. She is defending her proposal, but Russ says there are concerns. The boy tries to interrupt, but the mother points out she's talking to his grandfather and ushers the boy out. (Loretta does not see any of the adults as she is standing further down the hallway.) Defeated, the boy offers to show Loretta his room. As they walk down the hallway, Loretta looks in another room and sees a man (Paul Schneider), shirtless, maneuvering his prosthetic/robotic arm (it is attached to his left arm from the bicep down). The boy introduces Loretta to his brother (Daniel Zolghadri) who is reading on his bed. The boy says Loretta is looking for her mother, and the brother asks if he spoke to their mother. The brother shows them a page in the book which states that when a star dies, it doesn't always supernova, sometimes it just vanishes, like a light switching off, and all that's left is its phantom - a black hole.

In slow motion, the shingles of Alma and Loretta's house continuing to fall up. The roof also falls apart and the pieces fall up as well.

Loretta, looking shocked, backs out of the room and starts to go outside, telling the boy she has to keep looking. He stops her and she comes back in. She shows him the stone, saying her mom took it from underground. The boy studies it and twists it in his hand, wondering what it's made of. She tells him to be careful with it and he lets it go - it floats in the air between them. He taps it to the side, and then up, and each time it floats away slowly. They both look surprised. The boy tells Loretta he's coming with her.

Outside, Loretta asks, and the boy confirms his father's arm is weird - that he takes it off at night and plugs it into the wall.

The boy says his mom is not really around and Loretta says that's just like Alma. The boy asks why Loretta doesn't call Alma, "Mom." When Loretta says it's because Alma doesn't like being called "Mom," the boy says his mom doesn't like being a mom, either. Loretta angrily says that is not what she just said. The boy asks Loretta to think as if she were her mom, where would she be right now. Loretta angrily says she is not her mom, but answers that she'd be at home.

The boy's mom is in her study going through the items in a memory box. The dad comes in, hugging her with his prosthetic arm on her shoulder, and asks what his father told her. She replies, the same thing he always says.

The kids go to the pier at the lake. Loretta lies down and tells the boy to put his ear on the planks. They hear a steady thumping. Loretta thinks it has something to do with the stone, with Alma, and with whatever they are doing underground.

They go to Mercer Center and the security guard at the entrance (Ato Essandoh) recognizes the boy, Cole. Loretta says she's looking for her mom, Alma, who works there. Cole adds that she disappeared. The guard makes a call and tells Loretta that her mom does not work there. Loretta accuses the guard of lying and runs off. Cole apologizes to the guard and follows Loretta.

The guard calls Cole's mom. He tells her Cole was just there with a little girl who was looking for her mother, oddly named Alma. The mom turns off a boiling tea kettle on the stove and slumps down to sit on the kitchen floor.

The kids head into town and stop and peer through the window of the Mercer Tavern. They don't see Alma, but to Cole's surprise, Loretta goes inside. The bartender (Robert Nahum) asks if she is looking for someone. Suddenly, a woman enters the bar, and Loretta runs to hug her, calling Alma. It is not her - it's Cole's mom. Disappointed, Loretta runs out. Cole's mom runs out, too, but Loretta is already gone.

Back outside, Loretta is upset that she should have checked on Alma that morning; that if she had, or if she had stayed at home, they would still be together. She pulls out the stone and tosses it away angrily. The stone floats a few feet away; Cole retrieves it and returns it to her. Loretta says if she had a kid, she would never do this to them, that she'd always be there for them. Cole gives her a hug. In the background, a man is standing next to a car, holding a small device with a cord attached to his car.

The kids are at Cole's home watching TV; his brother is there. Loretta walks through the house and enters the study. She sees a memory box on the desk and opens it; there are small toys and other objects inside.

Cole's mom is walking through the woods. She stops and kneels onto the snow-covered ground.

Loretta unfolds a crumpled piece of paper from the box. It's an old math test. She pulls out her own math test from her pocket and they are the same. Cole comes in and tells Loretta that it belongs to his mom. Anxiously, Loretta asks Cole his mom's name.

Cole's mom places her hand into the snow, into the hand print Loretta made earlier. Cole's father has driven up alongside and calls to her, Loretta. Loretta says that it really happened, that it wasn't a dream. She says the girl is her.

Alone, Young Loretta (henceforth) runs through the woods and enters the cabin. She picks up some twigs and starts a fire in the wood stove. She falls asleep on the floor and dreams of playing chess. As she reaches for the queen, the piece suddenly moves by itself. She wakes with a start.

Loretta returns home with her husband and asks Cole where the girl is. He says she was in her study and then ran off. Loretta goes to the study and sees her old math test unfolded on the table. She looks at it knowingly and grabs a flashlight.

Loretta goes to the cabin - there's a glow from the wood fire through the windows. Young Loretta is singing a song. Loretta sees her through the window and notices water dripping off the icicles hanging from the eaves. Loretta slowly enters and asks Young Loretta if she knows who she is. Young Loretta knows. Loretta admits it is confusing. Young Loretta asks where Alma is, and then reading Loretta's expression, concludes she doesn't come back. Loretta shakes her head. Young Loretta picks up a glass jar and angrily throws it at the wall. Young Loretta asks if she did something to make Alma leave. Loretta says no, and Young Loretta asks why Alma left her. Loretta says Alma was conducting an experiment; that she (Loretta/Young Loretta) spent years trying to find out what happened, but never did. Loretta concludes not everything in life makes sense. Young Loretta asks if Loretta is she. She touches the bridge of her own nose, and then Loretta's. Loretta says she knows Young Loretta feels alone now, but she won't always feel that way. She says her house is also Young Loretta's, and that Cole and Jakob are (Young Loretta finishes) her sons. Loretta promises that Young Loretta has a home and a whole new life; she just needs to give it time. Young Loretta asks again about Alma. Loretta thinks Alma never wanted to be a mother. Young Loretta says Cole said the same thing about Loretta; Loretta does not look happy. Young Loretta takes out the stone and asks Loretta to show her where it came from.

Loretta leads Young Loretta, hand in hand, to the Mercer Center. They go through the complex, down a long tunnel and through a heavy door into a large room, where there is a steady thumping sound. Floating in the center of the room is a large faceted sphere which seems to be made of thousands of pieces of the same stone. Loretta calls it the Eclipse, the beating heart of the Loop. She says that everything above ground, and the reason Young Loretta is here now, is because of the Eclipse. Alma had taken the stone for her experiment - to see where the Eclipse came from. Young Loretta asks if that's where Alma is now, but Loretta says no one knows. Loretta says Young Loretta will wonder if this really happened or if it was a dream, and years from now will have the same conversation after she hears of a girl looking for her mother. Young Loretta lets go of the stone and it floats into a gap in the sphere.

Young Loretta asks, what now? where does she (Young Loretta) go? Loretta answers, home.

Young Loretta places her hand into the snow at the site of her old house. In a voice over, Loretta says that as time passes, she will see so much, things that may be thought of as impossible, yet there they are.

Loretta is at the Eclipse alone. Russ comes in and calls to her. Loretta asks if they could discuss this the next day. Russ says whenever she's ready.

Cole wakes up in bed and goes downstairs. Young Loretta is sitting alone in the dark at the dinner table. When Cole turns on the light, its Loretta. He asks if she found the girl. She says yes, and that everything is okay. He asks if he did something wrong. Loretta says no and produces a pine cone from her pocket for his collection and happily asks him if it's a good one. Cole looks on the verge of tears. Loretta says her mom left her when she was his age; and she wants Cole to know that she will always be there for him. They hug.

END