In Before I Fall, did the main character really have to do this?

Question

I recently watched the netflix movie Before I Fall, about a young girl stuck in a time loop on valentines day where she ends up in a car crash.

At the end she decides

to jump in front of the truck that Juliette, a pariah girl she and her friends mocked through high school, had jumped to herself in the previous loops. Doing so, she saves Juliet and ends the loop. (It's not officially said but I guess this ends the loop and let her be dead for good.)

Did she really have to do that though?

I mean, commiting suicide.

It appears as if she is just struck with the idea after her conversation with that character, even though the actual action she takes seems more of a reflex, she behaves likes it's premeditated.

What was the actual thing that needed to happen in order to end the loop ?

Was it the sacrifice she made to save Juliet, to maybe have absolution for what she and the others did to her Or was it merely preventing juliet from killing herself, and just maybe tying her down would have done the trick?

I guess the answer is pretty subjective but maybe I missed things in the movie that hinted at one or the other (or maybe a third option?)

Answer 1

Death will only end the loop when it's the only way. Also, it's written in the book.

In Groundhog Day Phil - the main character

tries to kill himself to end the loop, but he has unfinished tasks to complete and the purpose of the time loop is to complete them, therefore his death isn't the answer.

In Happy Death Day

tree repeatedly dies while trying to find her killer, but she lives another day, because she also has unfinished tasks to complete that won't allow her death to be the answer.

Basically, although Sam may have been able to find another way to save Julia, it was the thing she needed to do, because the loop finished. Her task of saving Julia was complete, and she sacrificed herself for it - fitting considering she was part of the reason she was trying to commit suicide in the first place.

If there was another way the loop probably would've sent her back to find another way, and although maybe she shouldn't have started something she couldn't finish with her crush, she probably thought it was better to leave him with something than to leave him with him never knowing she felt the same.

This is from an interview with the director- Russo Young - about the ending, and it turns out that in the book she was dead all along:

"People who haven't read the book may be surprised by the ending -- I certainly was. Was there ever any point in the process where you consider making any big changes to that ending?"

"Not really. It was kind of like a joke, almost. Because the book is so clear from the very beginning that she's dead, and the movie actually is pretty clear from the get-go that she's dead, too. Lauren's thing from the very beginning was, "The way to f**k up this movie is to make her live." That was so clear, and that was something that producer Jon Shestack and I talked about a lot. Like, the Hollywood ending of this movie, in the most clichéd sense, is like, And she opens her eyes at the end. And did we shoot that? Ab-so-lutely! With the intention of using it? Not at all. We were like, "Let's shoot it to have it and then try to not use it." Because that's not what the DNA of this project wants to be [or] what this movie is."

Source: http://www.etonline.com/features/211955_exclusive_before_i_fall_director_ry_russo_young_on_mean_girls_alternate_endings