In an early screenplay Phil Connors manages to leave Punxsutawney
Did you know that in the original screenplay of "Groundhog Day", after many years of repeating the same day over and over, Phil Connors steals an airplane and actually manages to leave Punxsutawney, flying to his mother's house in Cleveland? The scene, found in Danny Rubin's excellent How to Write Groundhog Day, goes as such:
DISSOLVE TO: POV SMALL AIRPLANE Surreal atmosphere of cloud wisps, snowflakes, pitching and rolling, all illuminated only by small colored lights. It is night. The hum and pitch of a small airplane is heard.
PHIL (V.O.) Unless you were me, unless you had lived an eternity, you couldnât possibly understand my feelings. I was beyond frustration, beyond hope, beyond isolation. The word âlonelinessâ doesnât begin to describe how alone I was. The clouds break apart, and we begin to see the lights from a city. We realize now that Phil is in an airplane.
PHIL (V.O.) Still, I could surprise myself with undying human resourcefulness. I lived in a world where time was cheap, where it was no more bother to steal a plane than it was to make a cup of coffee.
EXT. RESIDENTIAL CLEVELAND STREET --NIGHT The street is empty. It must be very late. The small plane descends and lands in the middle of this street.
PHIL (V.O.) Tedious logistics restricted my choices, but not my resolve. After all, where does a poor boy go when heâs hurt and lonely beyond all comprehension?
INT. APARTMENT HALLWAY --NIGHT Phil stands facing a closed door. It opens. A little old LADY in a bathrobe answers.
MRS. CONNORS Philip! What time is it? Whatâre you doing here? They enter the APARTMENT
PHIL Sorry about the hour.
MRS. CONNORS You look freezing. Take off your shoes.
MRS. CONNORS Put your feet up on the table. Itâs warmer up there.
MRS. CONNORS Youâre gong to make yourself sick.
Phil pulls off his shoes quickly, like a petulant child.
MRS. CONNORS Doesnât that feel better?
MRS. CONNORS Whatâre you doing here at this crazy hour? I thought you were starting a new job today.
MRS. CONNORS Whatâs wrong?
PHIL Nothing. Really. I just wanted to see you.
MRS. CONNORS What kind of job is a weatherman, anyway? People want to know the weather, why canât they look out the window?
MRS. CONNORS You are wasting your talents.
MRS. CONNORS You could be anything you want to be. I always told you that.
PHIL Ma, weâve been over this a hundred times.
MRS. CONNORS Maybe you need a hundred and one to get it through that thick head of yours. You know your problem ...
PHIL Ma, I didnât come here to ...
MRS. CONNORS Your problem is all you think about is yourself.
MRS. CONNORS Itâs true.
PHIL How can you say that? Ma, I just flew four hundred miles in this blizzard thing ...
MRS. CONNORS ... Because YOU were lonely. Whenâs the last time you visited me because I was lonely?
PHIL Ma ... you donât understand. Iâm not like everybody else.
MRS. CONNORS Yeah, well, who is? Could I get you some soup?
SHE proceeds to open a can of soup.
PHIL (V.O.) Every visit to my mother was an exercise in aggravation. That hadnât changed in three hundred years.
MRS. CONNORS Iâll put the shoes on this radiator by the door. That way you wonât forget them on your way out.
As you can see the visit doesn't actually provide Phil with the comfort he's looking for. His mother points out the problem that he still hasn't figured out himself: "Your problem is all you think about is yourself." Also another thing to note is that in this screenplay Phil is a much younger man. He isn't the middle aged weatherman that Bill Murray ultimately portrays, but he's much younger. In fact this day, which has lasted hundreds of years by this point, was his first on the job. Ultimately it was decided that Phil shouldn't be able to escape the town and this scene was removed.
