Any fan of science fiction films will agree that time travel ranks pretty high in the annals of sci-fi plot lines. There's something about being able to go forward into the future, or backward into the past, that's intriguing for us stuck-in-the-present folks. For futurists, it gives them a chance to see what the world might be like hundreds of years from now, whether it's positive or downright terrifying. Lovers of the past get a chance to go back in time to experience a bygone era or right some wrongs, despite the largely held belief that changing something from the past can have pretty drastic effects on the present and future. Hello, McFly! While compiling a top 20 list like this is a matter of pure subjectivity, it must be done. If you don't agree with the picks, then there's only one choice: You must go back in time and thwart this effort. Or it might just be easier to send us feedback via our Facebook page.
19: Kate & Leopold and The Time Traveler's Wife
If a light-hearted rom-com is what you're hoping for, Kate & Leopold fits the bill nicely. Rather than traveling back in time like Peggy, Leopold, the leading man (played by Hugh Jackman), travels to the future where he finds his love interest, Kate (played by Meg Ryan). And if you're after a more somber note, cue up The Time Traveler's Wife. Unlike these other love-struck time travelers, whose journeys seem to be relatively fixed, Henry De Tamble (played by Eric Bana) has no control over when, where and for how long he goes. While this is certainly interesting for viewers, it proves difficult for his love interest who, like Bruno Mars, does seem to be inclined to do anything for love.
The ideal segue here would be if our next entry had something to do with space of the final frontier sort. Why you ask? Because the man behind our favorite science officer (and Vulcan), Leonard Nimoy, happens to be starring in an alternate version of Bruno Mars' video of The Lazy Song. But alas, we can't make it so. But keep reading to meet an international man of mystery. Yeah, baby, yeah.
18: Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
Time travel: check. Mike Myers playing three kitschy characters: check. Nods to a bevy of Bond-film goodness: check. Seth Green: check. Yup, that's all we need to put this one on the list. Oh, and the tagline, "If you see only one movie this summer, see Star Wars. But if you see two movies this summer, see Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" helps, too.
In a nutshell, Dr. Evil (played by Mike Myers) uses a time machine to go back to 1969 to steal Austin Powers' (also Mike Myers) mojo. Powers gets wind of Evil's plan and using his own time machine -- a psychedelic-looking, modern model Volkswagen Beetle -- travels back in time where, with help from CIA agent Felicity Shagwell (played by Heather Graham), he battles a series of Evil's henchmen and eventually saves the day and recovers his mojo.
Now, we go from a movie taking its cues from the father of Bond, James Bond (Ian Fleming), to a film inspired by the kid in us.
16: Army of Darkness
In an age of darkness, at a time of evil, when the world needed a hero, what it got was -- Bruce Campbell…
"This is my BOOMSTICK!" says time traveling hero Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) of his shotgun in the third and final installment of the director Sam Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy. The first two Evil Dead films didn't actually have anything to do with time travel, instead focusing on Ash's battles against the evil Book of the Dead, The Necronomicon. At the end of the second installment, Ash casts the book back to its origins, sending himself and his Cadillac along with it, to the year 1300. This is where Army of Darkness picks up, with Ash both praised and persecuted throughout the film as the odd man from the future. Fans of the series generally consider part two to be the strongest film, but Army of Darkness scores points for its humor and art direction. Seeing Ash do battle with an army of stop-motion skeletons is one of the highlights, along with a running series of put-downs Ash has for his primitive new friends.
In a six-degrees-of-separation note, the film's writer and director Sam Raimi (also of Xena and Hercules fame) was a producer for … wait for it … Timecop.
Next up, time travel meets the wonderful world of wizardry.
15: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
If you've seen Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, then you know why the movie made the list. Although it doesn't appear as a major plot point of the film at first, time travel is integral to certain action later in the movie. For much of the story, Hermione uses a "time-turner" she acquired from Professor McGonagall as a time-management tool. She has a particularly hectic class schedule and the time-turner basically enables her to attend more classes than she'd normally be able to without the aid of the special necklace. For those of you who have not read the book or seen the movie, we won't spoil things by relaying any more of the plot. Suffice it to say, though, that Hermione and a friend put the hourglass-esque talisman to good use.
Now we leave Hogwarts for … a hot tub.
14: Hot Tub Time Machine
One of the newer time travel films, Hot Tub Time Machine is by no means perfect, but it has a few things going for it. The cast includes John Cusack, Craig Robinson, Rob Corddry, Chevy Chase and Crispin Glover. For a story that revolves around a group of male friends traveling back in time -- via a malfunctioning hot tub -- to 1986, you can see the beauty in having Lloyd Dobler and George McFly -- urm, I mean John Cusack and Crispin Glover in the film.
The story begins by showing us three not-so-happy men who have reached middle age without achieving certain goals and dreams. In an attempt to cheer up their potentially suicidal pal, two of the friends make plans to visit the Kodiak Valley Ski Resort -- a place that has become synonymous with good times and epic in their memories. The group is rounded out to four with the addition of Cusack's character Adam's nephew. Sadly, upon arriving at the legendary resort, the men find an aging, gloomy place that essentially mirrors the way the older friends feel. After a night in the hot tub, though, the fellows wake up to find themselves in 1986. Yes, even though Jacob, Adam's nephew, would not have been born yet, there he is looking exactly the same as he did in 2010. The others, however, appear as their youthful 1986 selves (except to each other and Jacob). Immediately thereafter, as expected, a series of we've-traveled-back-in-time hijinks ensue.
Next up, space: the final frontier.
13: Star Trek Movies
Several of the Star Trek films involve some form of time travel, including:
- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
- Star Trek Generations (1994)
- Star Trek First Contact (1996)
- Star Trek (2009)
In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, which was directed by Leonard Nimoy, Admiral Kirk and crew travel back in time to 1986 to save the whales. Yes, that's right -- they need to find whales to take back to the 23rd century, where they've become extinct. Why do they need the whales? A space probe back in the 23rd century is trying to communicate with Earthlings. However, they can't respond because the communication from the probe is that of the humpback whale.
Through some time travel magic, Star Trek Generations brings two crews together -- that of Kirk and Picard -- to save, well, lots of people. And Star Trek First Contact finds Picard and crew traveling back in time in hot pursuit of the Borg to, you guessed it, save planet Earth.
What would happen if you created a time machine only to discover a friend is using it to flee criminal charges? Keep reading to find out.
12: Time After Time
So far we've had time travel coupled with revenge, romance, humor, redemption and spaceflight. Now it's time for a touch of historical fiction and a dash of suspense.
This 1979 film puts a nice spin on the time travel subgenre thanks to its clever historical fiction twist. In the movie, the real-life author of The Time Machine, H.G. Wells, is actually a character who creates a functional time machine in London in 1893. After a visit from the cops, Wells learns that his friend Stevenson is a suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders. Stevenson uses Wells' time machine to escape into the future, present day 1979. The rest of the movie is a cat-and-mouse game, mixed with some romance and an interesting point of view of the future, as a result of Wells' take on 1979. The great Malcolm McDowell and noted character actor David Warner play Wells and Stevenson, while a young Mary Steenburgen shows up as Wells' modern-day love interest. What's not to like about Jack the Ripper in a time machine pursued by a legendary author?
Next up -- from murder mystery to musical, see what happens when a 20th-century mechanic travels back in time to King Arthur's court.
9: Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
Strange things are most definitely afoot at the Circle K. And by strange, we mean time-traveling telephone booths taking two history-challenged teens on an adventure that spans 7,000 years. Bill and Ted are in danger of flunking their history class, which as Bill puts it, would be most heinous. A failing grade would ensure the dissolution of their band, Wyld Stallyns, and even worse, military school for Ted.
Rufus, played by George Carlin, travels back in time via the phone booth to help Bill and Ted. Why? In the future, the duo's music is an integral element to, well, everything. So Bill and Ted embark on their most excellent adventure and gather up key historical figures along the way including Napoleon, Billy the Kid, Joan of Arc, Sigmund Freud, Genghis Khan, Socrates, Beethoven and Abraham Lincoln. Party on, dudes.
8: Donnie Darko
Where does one start with a description of filmmaker Richard Kelly's cult masterpiece Donnie Darko? Is it a movie about time travel? Not exactly, although time travel is a central theme. Is it a thriller, horror movie or science fiction film? It's kind of none of these, and kind of all of them. The movie was a critical success, but went largely unseen in theaters, thanks in part to its release shortly after 9/11. It gained traction as a DVD cult hit and even gained limited theatrical re-release for the director's cut. The plot is too convoluted to summarize here, but it has to do with a jet engine landing on a house, waking hallucinations, a character named "Grandma Death," a pederast motivational speaker (Patrick Swayze), and an evil, human-sized, stainless-steel rabbit named Frank who lives in Donnie's nightmares. And yes, time travel is indeed a large part of the movie. It stars sibling actors Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal, and look for small roles from producer Drew Barrymore and a young Seth Rogan. The low budget but well-done special effects and 1980s soundtrack help to land this one in the top 10.
Next up, another time-travel tale that puts Bruce Willis front and center.
7: 12 Monkeys
To stay on track with including interesting six-degrees-tips, this film was directed by Terry Gilliam, who also directed our #10 entry, Time Bandits, and its cast includes one Christopher Plummer, who we've already established has a penchant for romantic time-travel flicks.
It would be 14 more years before Gilliam would turn the genre on its ear with the time-bending sci-fi thriller 12 Monkeys. Gilliam weaves a very complex and smart story involving Bruce Willis' character, Cole, and a struggle to save the future from a virus created in the past. Along the way he falls in love, meets up with a revolutionary in an insane asylum, and witnesses his own future death as a 7-year-old child. Brad Pitt earned an Academy Award nomination and Golden Globe win as mental patient/revolutionary Jeffrey Goines, and Gilliam's typical visual feast is fully on display. A final warning -- the complexities of the plot can lead to multiple viewings.
Next, find out what sort of time-travel film $7,000 will produce.
5: Groundhog Day
Imagine a particularly trying day at work. Let's say you're a TV meteorologist on assignment in early February in Punxsutawney, Pa., eagerly (OK, maybe not so eagerly) awaiting the appearance of Punxsutawney Phil, the Groundhog. An unexpected blizzard hits leaving you stranded in the small town. You retire to your room at the local inn hoping to head home the next day. Only you don't get to go home because when you wake up, you realize you're stuck in an endless time loop and are reliving the same day over and over and over again. If you can clearly picture this, then you've got a perfect idea of what the movie Groundhog Day is all about. Of course, lots of stuff happens as the main character relives February 2nd, and, as you would expect, there is a happy ending.
If you think being a slave to the calendar and waiting days on end for a little groundhog to appear sounds scary, keep reading to see what life on a planet run by apes is like.
4: Planet of the Apes
The original Planet of the Apes was released in 1968. Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, it stars Charlton Heston as Colonel George Taylor, Linda Harrison as Nova, Kim Hunter as Dr. Zira, Roddy McDowall as Cornelius, Maurice Evans as Dr. Zaius and Lou Wagner as Lucius.
The story begins with Colonel Taylor, an astronaut from the year 1972, and his small team of astronauts, crash landing on an unfamiliar planet. Upon disembarking from what's left of the spacecraft, Taylor realizes the year is 3978! And things start to unravel from there. He's eventually captured by a group of talking apes who have developed a civilized society on the planet. Taylor plots to escape with his beautiful and mute new friend, Nova, as he learns more about the apes, gaining insight into their militaristic methods and curious class system, thanks in part to sympathetic chimpanzee researchers, Dr. Zira and Cornelius.
We won't spoil the ending, but suffice it to say that Taylor's eventual journey to "The Forbidden Zone" reveals one of the most memorable and satisfying denouements in film history.
3: The Terminator Series
"Are you Sarah Connor?" This question was asked several times by Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator. If the answer was "yes," then the character ended up dead. That pretty much sums up the plot of James Cameron's 1984 sci-fi action film. But it's a little more complicated than that. Turns out the Terminator is a cyborg sent from the future to kill the mother of the eventual resistance leader against the artificial intelligence outfit that built the Terminator series. And the father of that son is also a resistance fighter, sent from the future to protect Sarah Connor from the Terminator. Cameron's film was a modest hit in 1984, but its legacy cannot be overstated.
In the next two installments, Schwarzenegger reprises his role as a cyborg, but this time his goal is to protect the Connors rather than do away with them. James Cameron took a big risk in making the bad guy the good guy, but it paid off as audiences shelled out more than a half a billion dollars to watch Arnold do battle with the more advanced T-1000 cyborg.
The films made Schwarzenegger a star and launched James Cameron's career into full swing. In addition to enhancing a few Hollywood careers, the film has also popularized some pretty memorable catch phrases, including:
- "I'll be back" -- just be sure to extend the "aaah" sound in "back" and make it sound like Aaaahnuld does.
- Hasta la vista, baby.
- I'm back.
- Talk to the hand.
And unlike many 1980s films, most sci-fi fans contend that The Terminator holds up despite the synth-heavy score.
2: Back to the Future (1, 2 and 3)
Most lists of best time travel movies feature Back to the Future near the top. This is for a good reason. Even if you haven't seen all of the Back to the Future films, it's likely the mere mention of the series name conjures images of a gull-wing DeLorean, a young Michael J. Fox (Marty McFly) sporting a puffy vest and jeans, possibly carrying a skateboard or hoverboard, and a wild-haired Christopher Lloyd (Doc Brown) laden with all sorts of technological gizmos. And even if you're a Coke person, you could be craving a Pepsi. All of this is because these films are more than entertainment; they're forever entrenched in our pop-culture vernacular.
Seriously, ask anyone between the ages of 10 and 40 years old what a "flux capacitor" is, and you'll likely hear "It's what makes time travel possible." Ask how many gigawatts are needed and how fast the DeLorean must be going and you'll hear "1.21 gigawatts and 88 miles per hour."
By wrapping humor, action and some light science fiction into a neatly trimmed, family-friendly package, Back to the Future ensured its immediate success -- it was the top-grossing movie of 1985 -- as well as a healthy set of "legs," upon which the series still stands.
If you don't know the story, it involves a teenager named Marty McFly, who's sent back in time by accident and then must ensure that his future parents fall in love so he can be born. And for a final piece of Back to the Future trivia, the movie originally starred Eric Stoltz, but he was replaced by Michael J. Fox after five weeks of shooting.
Keep reading to see what landed in our #1 spot.
1: The Time Machine
Although this film is not as well known as the previous two series, and even several other titles on this list, it has influenced many time-travel and sci-fi films, which is why it finds itself in the #1 spot. The story, which opens in 1899, is pretty simple and is wholly concerned with time travel, centered on an inventor, H. George Wells, played by Rod Taylor. Wells invites several friends to his home to see what he's been working on for two years -- a device to be used for traveling in the fourth dimension: time. His friends scoff at the idea, with only one person almost believing him. Over a span of time, Wells travels into the future and back -- going as far as 1966. An atomic blast hits while he's in his time machine and he's propelled incredibly far into the very distant future: 802,701, where he finds that society has changed immensely, and not for the better. Wells eventually finds himself returning to his home, in "his time" of Jan. 5, 1900, at which time he tries to prove his journey to his friends. Again, most do not believe his fantastical tale.
By today's standards, the special effects would not be impressive, but The Time Machine actually won the Academy Award for Best Special Effects in 1961.
To satisfy your curiosity with some other interesting articles, peruse the links on the next page.
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