A snarky, ill-mannered Pittsburgh weatherman by the name of Phil Connors has to travel to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania for the fourth year in a row to report on the Groundhog Day events featuring Punxsutawney Phil the groundhog. After checking into a bed and breakfast and staying the night, Phil finds himself awakened by his alarm clock radio playing “I Got You Babe” by Sonny and Cher, followed by two comical men discussing the upcoming events and a blizzard scheduled to hit the area later that day. Phil then makes his way downstairs but is stopped by a friendly fellow who tries to make small-talk about their Groundhog Day predictions. After making some sarcastic comments, Phil continues downstairs, where he talks to the owner of the bed and breakfast, which is followed by even more sarcasm. Then, after heading out to the big event, Phil is stopped by an old high school peer, who tries to sell him life insurance. This is followed by even more sarcasm. Phil then steps in a rather large puddle on his way to cross the street, where he makes his report on the event. Afterward, himself, his producer Rita, and his cameraman attempt to leave Punxsutawney, but they are stopped by the blizzard.
The next day, Phil wakes up to his alarm clock radio playing “I Got You Babe” by Sonny and Cher, followed by the same two men making the same comical comments about the day ahead. Phil thinks nothing of this at first, thinking they have accidentally played yesterday’s tape. However, after the men start to mention Groundhog Day, Phil gets suspicious. He leaves his room and is greeted in the hall by the same man, making the same conversation as yesterday. Phil is then greeted by the owner of the bed and breakfast once more, who also attempts to have the same conversation. The events of the day keep repeating, and Phil becomes convinced he is reliving the same day.
The day after, he wakes up, greeted by his alarm clock radio playing the same song with the same two reporters. The events of the day repeat themselves, except this time Phil avoids all the people he does not want to talk to. He finishes this day by breaking a pencil in half and placing it on his nightstand. However, when he wakes up the next day, the pencil is in one piece and has been placed in the drawer, where he originally found it. He follows the same events as usual, but later sees a psychiatrist, and gets an x-ray of his skull. Neither of which help him figure out his predicament. At the end of the day, he gets drunk in a bowling alley with two strangers, whom he gets into a police chase with after driving into a mailbox and driving into an oncoming train, which he swerves away from and survives.
The next day he wakes up again, finding that nobody has any recollection of his crimes the previous night, including the police. He visits a diner and asks a woman for her name, what high school she attended, and the name of her grade 12 English teacher. He leaves shortly after doing this. The next day he sees her at the celebration, pretends to be an old friend from high school, and he ends up sleeping with her.
By the seventh day, Phil can predict almost everything that is to come, even a gust of wind. He decides to get adventurous and devotes the following days to attempting to win the heart of Rita. He gets to know everything about her, yet as the days go by, they all seem to end with Rita getting angry and a slap in the face for Phil, so he gives up.
One day, Phil kidnaps Punxsutawney Phil the groundhog and gets into a chase with the police, the mayor, and his crew. The chase ends with Phil driving off a cliff in an attempt to kill himself, yet he still wakes up the next day in a bed and breakfast with Sonny and Cher playing on the radio.
Phil spends the next few days trying different suicide methods including bathing with a toaster, getting hit by oncoming traffic, and jumping off a building. There are several other methods however they are only mentioned and not seen. This leads Phil to believe he is a god.
Finally, Phil attempts to convince Rita that he has been reliving the day over and over again. By telling her everything he has learned about everyone in the diner and predicting small events, Rita eventually believes him. She spends the night at Phil’s hotel where he confesses his love to her and for the first time, he does not get slapped. This influences him to spend his next few days being kind and patient with everyone he meets. He gradually learns how to do new things, such as ice sculpt, and play the piano. He meets an old homeless man,and after learning it is his last day, he contributes the next one to making the last day of his life the best yet and attempting to save him, but he still ends up dying.
Each day afterward, he runs “errands” consisting of helping people around town, and before he knows it, he is the most popular man in Punxsutawney. That night he falls in love with Rita for the last time. She stays the night, and the next morning they wake up next to each other greeted again by Sonny and Cher, but this time the two men are complaining about hearing the song two days in a row. Phil then realizes it is finally a new day.
