FAQ

It's from a song: Jacques Brel, "La bourrée du célibataire" (1957).

Groundhog Day is based on an original script by screenwriter Danny Rubin and further adapted for the screen by Rubin and director Harold Ramis. The time-loop idea was inspired by the novel Replay (1987) by Ken Grimwood.

There is no definite reason as to why the time loop started. It was originally planned for the time loop to have started with an ex-girlfriend of Phil's putting a voodoo curse on him in order to get revenge, which was later considered a bad idea. It was deliberately decided by director Harold Ramis to let the reason as to what triggered the time loop remain a mystery and is completely left to the viewer's interpretation.

No. The man was simply a homeless man that Phil decided to help. Phil just affectionately called him "Dad" and "Pop". Notice that Phil seems to do this with older people anyway, referring to his B&B hostess as "Mom" on at least one occasion.

He did try staying up all night. After Phil gets Rita to believe that he has been reliving the same day over and over again, she decides to stay with him just to see what happens. First she thinks it will end at midnight, but finds out that it starts over at 6:00 AM every morning. She falls asleep but Phil stays awake all night just whispering to her as she sleeps. The alarm then goes off and he looks where Rita was just sleeping to see that she has disappeared. Although we do see him getting thrown in jail, we don't know what time it is. Then we see him waking up the next morning, happy that he is no longer in jail.

Just because we don't see Phil try certain things in order to prevent the recurrence of Groundhog Day doesn't mean he didn't try it. Some things occur off camera. Considering he mentions dying in every way there is possible, but we only see him kill himself a few different ways. Also, he gets to know everything about every person in the town. He is clearly not seen doing this throughout the film. So we are led to believe he took at least one day to get to know every single person.