Phil the constant cave.

Phil becomes trapped in the same day over and over again because he, at first, failed to see that his shadow was trapping him and that in order to escape, his supposed hell redo, he needs to change.  He needs to change from being the asshole and always thinking about himself and highly about himself, to thinking about others first instead.  At first he falls for his shadow, his egotistical self, and chooses to take advantage of repeating the day to day events for his own benefit.  To be honest, if I was trapped in the same situation as he was I would definitely take advantage of it probably not as bad as he did, as when he met Nancy, his ex-fiancé.   

As soon as he starts to realize that it then becomes hell and just too much to handle, he choose to end his life however he can.  That is his escape, he chooses not to go back to being chained or egotistical asshole, his suffering was his passage through the tunnel, his hits on the head, scratches, scraped on the knees.  It the nature of the cave changes depending on what it is that the person is trying to escape.   The suffering that we endure can either be directly on us or it can be on others that cause to push closer towards the light.  As when Phil  met the old man who died, no matter what he did, how happy he made the old man he was destined to die and that caused him pain not being able to do anything about showed him he is not as big or as important as he thought he was. 

Phil being aware of his situation fits to what the prisoner in the escaping the cave, he knew where he was but not why he was going there.  The prisoner, just as Phil took the time to enjoy their time and freedom but then suffered.  They both knew that eventually they would need to reach the light but never knew what they would see once they got there.  The closer they both go to the light they began, the prisoner hear and Phil see things in a different way.  They opened their mind sub-consciously to see what was wrong with their world and how they could change and live a better life.