It’s About Time
Traveling to the past or the future is a staple of the science fiction genre. Imagine getting to change a mistake, or see how things turn out millions of years in the future. These films use time travel to tell great action stories and explore the human condition. Here are the best ones, past, present—and future?
Timecop (1994)
Time regulator Max Walker attempts to stop a politician from changing the past for his own benefit. This entry in Jean-Claude Van Damme’s film career uses time travel as a vehicle for the action audiences expect from the Muscles from Brussels.
Largo Entertainment, Timecop (1994)
Army Of Darkness (1992)
The third film in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead series sees protagonist Ash Williams, played by the lantern-jawed Bruce Campbell, transported back to 1300 AD. He continues his battle with the “Deadites” while trying to find a way back home.
Renaissance Pictures, Army Of Darkness (1992)
Idiocracy (2006)
Mike Judge’s frighteningly prophetic film features Luke Wilson as an average guy who is put in a top-secret hibernation chamber…and promptly forgotten. He awakens to a world of complete idiots who view him as the world's smartest person.
Twentieth Century, Idiocracy (2006)
The Butterfly Effect (2004)
The famous "butterfly effect," which is that one small change can have huge ramifications, is put to use by Ashton Kutcher’s Evan Treborn. Evan tries to fix mistakes in his life, but the changes he makes have unintended consequences.
New Line Cinema, The Butterfly Effect (2004)
Freejack (1992)
A race car driver from 1991 is kidnapped at the moment of his death to the far-flung future of 2009 (!). There, a dead billionaire hopes to install his personality in the driver’s body. Starring Emilio Estevez as Alex Furlong, who tries to escape being used as a backup body.
The Final Countdown (1980)
Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen star in this moving drama about an aircraft carrier sent spiraling back in time. The carrier arrives in 1941 near Hawai’i, just before the historic attack on Pearl Harbor, and the sailors must decide what to do with their future knowledge.
Bryna Productions, The Final Countdown (1980)
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)
A telephone booth. A mysterious man from the future. Two regular guys caught up in the adventure. No, it’s not Doctor Who, but the first of Bill and Ted’s adventures in time, space, and other dimensions. A classic that launched the career of Keanu Reeves.
DEG, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)
The Lake House (2009)
Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock are a pair of time-crossed lovers who exchange letters through the mailbox of the lake house they both somehow inhabit. The mystery deepens before the two figure out the nature of their relationship.
Warner Bros., The Lake House (2006)
Predestination (2014)
A clever, complex time travel adventure about stopping a bombing in 1975. Ethan Hawke is a temporal agent attempting to stop the bombing, but what seemed to be a simple task turns into a twisting, turning labyrinth of surprises.
Screen Australia, Predestination (2014)
Next (2007)
This unconventional time travel film features Nicolas Cage as a magician who can see into the future for a brief amount of time. He is caught up in an investigation of a nuclear attack that the FBI is trying to prevent.
Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)
Kathleen Turner faints at a high school reunion and wakes up 25 years earlier. Seeing all the mistakes she thinks she has made throughout her life, she tries to fix the journey that led her to an unhappy marriage and a divorce.
TriStar, Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)
The Time Machine (2002)
The second adaptation of HG Wells’s seminal time travel novel. Guy Pearce plays the time traveler this time around, and the future society he travels to is a spectacular dystopian world. Our hero from the past tries his best to help the beleaguered Eloi.
Warner Bros., The Time Machine (2002)
13 Going On 30 (2004)
Most children, at some point or another, wish they could just grow up and get on with their lives. 13-year-old Jenna Rink gets just this opportunity when she wakes up in her 30-year-old body, and life, one day.
Revolution Studios, 13 Going On 30 (2004)
Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
Traveling into the past often endangers the very existence of the travelers themselves. This is the case for John Cusack as a malfunctioning time machine that looks like a hot tub sends him back in time, where he must ensure that his nephew’s existence is not erased.
MGM, Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
Looper (2012)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s turn as a young Bruce Willis is worth the price of admission for this twisty time travel film. A gun for hire is sent into the past to be “retired” by his past self. A game of wits between young and old Joe ensures.
Midnight In Paris (2011)
While wandering the streets of Paris at midnight every night, Owen Wilson finds himself transported back to the 1920s. He encounters great writers and artists and learns that meeting your heroes can have both good and bad consequences.
Mediapro, Midnight In Paris (2011)
Sleeper (1973)
A man from 1973 is forgotten in cryopreservation and is awoken 200 years later to help overthrow the notorious dictator, “The Leader”. What sounds like a serious time travel film is one of Woody Allen’s most celebrated comedies.
Rollins-Joffe Productions, Sleeper (1973)
Time Bandits (1981)
A young boy falls in with a time-traveling crew of thieves who use a stolen map to jump from period to period. Pursued by the sinister Evil, the boy and his companions must avoid capture and navigate the dangers of the strange times and places to which they travel.
HandMade Films, Time Bandits (1981)
Happy Accidents (2000)
After numerous failed relationships, Ruby Weaver finally finds the man she thinks she’s been waiting for. But when he reveals that he’s a traveler from the future, Ruby begins to doubt his sanity, even as some of his information and predictions seem true.
Somewhere In Time (1980)
Superman’s Christopher Reeve plays a playwright who uses self-hypnosis to travel back in time. Reeve’s Richard Collier falls in love with an actress from 1912 whose older self visited him in the present just shortly before passing away.
Rastar, Somewhere In Time (1980)
The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009)
A man who travels randomly to different points in his life tries to have a normal relationship with the woman he loves. The two navigate the problems of his temporal condition and discover that love isn’t always linear or simple.
New Line Cinema, The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009)
About Time (2013)
When he turns 21, Tim discovers that all the men in his family have the ability to travel through time. He believes he can make his life better by going back and changing events.Tim discovers that some things are easier said than done.
The Philadelphia Experiment (1984)
While trying to solve another science fiction standard, invisibility, two navy sailors are sent hurtling 40 years into the future. The journey through time causes nasty physical side effects, and the two have to evade capture by a corporation seeking to perfect the technology that sent them forward.
New World Pictures, The Philadelphia Experiment (1984)
Edge Of Tomorrow (2014)
A soldier fighting in a war against aliens realizes that he restarts the same day every time he loses a battle. As he becomes more and more frustrated with living the same day over and over again, he tries to find answers to his fatal time loop.
Warner Bros., Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Pleasantville (1998)
Two modern-day teenagers are pulled into the world of a 1950s television show. At first, they enjoy the simplicity of their new surroundings, but their modern ideas begin to affect the inhabitants of Pleasantville. They must decide whether to stay in their new home or return to the modern day.
New Line Cinema, Pleasantville (1998)
X-Men: Days Of Future Past (2014)
The original X-Men from the 2000 film cross over with their younger selves as Wolverine is sent back in time to stop an apocalyptic future from happening. If the ferocious X-Man doesn’t succeed, all of the future X-Men will fall victim to an authoritarian regime, himself included.
Marvel, X-Men: Days Of Future Past (2014)
Timecrimes (2007)
Traveling back in time doesn’t always have to be about the far future or the distant past. In Timecrimes, a man travels back one hour into his own past, and the consequences of his journey are dangerous and unpredictable.
Karbo Vantas Entertainment, Timecrimes (2007)
Frequency (2000)
In this heartfelt film, a radio serves as a conduit between a man and his father 30 years in the past. In the present day, Dennis Quaid decides to try and save his father’s life, but as any time traveler knows, changing the past has unforeseen consequences.
New Line Cinema, Frequency (2000)
12 Monkeys (1995)
Time traveler Bruce Willis ends up in an asylum in this strange and twisting Terry Gilliam film. Featuring a star-making performance by Brad Pitt, 12 Monkeys is a tale of global pandemics, untested technology, and the tenacity of one man on a mission.
Interstellar (2014)
An astronaut is sent into space to find a new home for humanity when the Earth becomes uninhabitable. During his journey, he begins to experience strange phenomena, including traveling backward and forward in time in strange and unexpected ways.
Paramount, Interstellar (2014)
Primer (2004)
A group of inventors realize that their new invention can allow them to travel through time. While they argue over the ramifications of the invention, some of them begin using it to change events, unbeknownst to their colleagues.
Groundhog Day (1993)
One of the seminal time travel films, the story of Bill Murray’s obnoxious weatherman reliving the same day over and over is a truly great and hilarious movie. While covering Groundhog Day festivities in Punxsutawney, weatherman Phil Connors is forced to repeat a single day until he learns a lesson or two.
Columbia, Groundhog Day (1993)
Planet Of The Apes (1968)
SPOILER ALERT! This 55-year-old film wasn’t advertised as a time-travel film and is only revealed to be one at the very, very end. Charlton Heston plays an astronaut who crashes on a planet filled with intelligent apes, where he must battle against those who see humans as an inferior species.
Twentieth Century, Planet Of The Apes (1968)
Donnie Darko (2001)
It begins with a jet engine falling through a suburban roof. Events get progressively stranger and stranger for high schooler Donnie and his family. You’ll probably need to watch this one a few times, and even then you might not quite be able to figure out what’s going on.
Adam Fields Productions, Donnie Darko (2001)
Time After Time (1979)
Victorian London ghoul Jack the Ripper uses HG Wells’s time machine to travel to the future. Wells follows the maniac into the present day of 1979, leading to a spectacular game of cat and mouse by two men out of time.
Warner Bros., Time After Time (1979)
The Terminator (1984)
“Come with me if you want to live”. The famous line is spoken to Sarah Connor by a time traveler there to save her life from a robotic assassin. A malevolent AI believes Connor’s son will lead a future resistance movement and meddles with time to stop his conception.
Cinema '84, The Terminator (1984)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
A storytelling and special effects extravaganza, this sequel to The Terminator reveals even more about the dystopian future from which Arnold Schwarzenegger’s original killer android traveled. Linda Hamilton reprises her role as Sarah Connor, facing off against the even deadlier T-1000.
Carolco Pictures, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Back To The Future (1985)
The Back to the Future series made a huge star out of Michael J Fox. As Marty McFly, Fox travels forward and backward in time in his DeLorean time car, trying to fix the mistakes of the past without erasing the present, and future, he loves.
Universal, Back To The Future (1985)
The Time Machine (1960)
In the original adaptation of HG Wells’s novel, Rod Taylor’s unnamed time traveler journeys forward, witnessing the triumphs and tragedies of humankind through future history. He finally lands in a far future world, and witnesses the conflict between the peaceful Eloi and the cavern-dwelling Morlocks.
Conclusion
Did we miss any of your own favorite time travel movies? Let us know in the comments!
