The concept of being able to TIME TRAVEL ahead into the future, even for a brief period of time, is positively captivating, despite the fact that time travel is more commonly associated with science fiction.
This list features a variety of movies, some of which examine the risks of time travel (primarily through time loops), but most of these movies view time travel as having a net positive effect.
Interstellar
There is also a lot in Interstellar. But the fundamental moral conundrum is this: would you attempt to save the planet if doing so meant missing your children’s entire lives? During a space flight, Matthew McConaughey has to land on a planet. The issue is that he spends seven years on Earth in each hour there. Does the significance of the trip warrant him missing the marvel of his children becoming adults? If you want to get picky, Interstellar is technically a time-distortion movie rather than a time-travel movie. However, McConaughey’s masterful ability to capture the misery of the situation makes it acceptable.
Avengers: Endgame
Endgame has so much content that it can be considered to be a time-travel movie with two completely different films acting as its bookends. And certainly, there are many liberties taken with time travel, from Tony Stark’s “Huh, I did it” creation to the careless use of other time-travel films as shorthand for the abilities of the protagonists. But when they do, the movie does a fantastic job. The Battle of New York, which features Captain America versus Captain America & the Hulk embarrassed by his unreconstructed former self, is undoubtedly the movie’s standout moment, but Tony’s meeting with his father as a grown man and subsequent learning to let go of the past serve as the movie’s true emotional center.
Planet of the Apes
I apologize for the major spoiler, but if you haven’t seen Planet of the Apes, the fact that I included it on a list of time-travel movies probably won’t surprise you. But what a revelation this is—what at first seems to be a funny film about some monkeys torturing Charlton Heston quickly turns into something more darker and ominous. If the trailer for the new Adam Driver film hadn’t revealed its big spoiler, it could have been able to accomplish something comparable.
Also, Read Best Inspirational Movies
Hot Tub Time Machine
Its significance was acknowledged in Avengers: Endgame. Hot Tub Time Machine is a film about an enchanted Jacuzzi that transports people to the middle of the 1980s. It is a straight-up comedy that basically exists to let a group of middle-aged guys act like teenagers. There is a possible message about the fallibility of nostalgia in this video, however, it may be a little too raunchy for its own good.
The Adam Project
When an older version of the little boy from the future visits him, it completely upends his existence. what is good news? He becomes a fighter pilot as an adult. Is that terrible news? He develops all the cadences and superficially sarcastic patter of Ryan Reynolds as well. What happens next is a buddy film where both of the friends are the same individual.
The Butterfly Effect
Lord, this movie. Ashton Kutcher portrays a character who suffers from blackouts and discovers years later that he can go back in time and witness the blackouts from his younger self’s perspective. However, he causes a host of unexpected effects in the process. He loses limbs and turns into a murderer. If you can, look for the director’s cut because Kutcher’s character purposefully strangles himself with his umbilical cord at the film’s conclusion. Actually, no.
Primer
Some people hold Shane Carruth’s Primer up as the model for what the perfect time-travel movie ought to be. From the stolid engineers to the understated nature of time travel itself, where individuals essentially just walk in and out of some boxes, it’s the kind of movie that appears unsettlingly plausible. Fans of Primer have relied on a series of graphs and charts for years to understand what the movie is because it is almost wholly unwilling to provide an explanation.
About Time
Without a question, About Time is the most sentimental movie on our list. Love Actually and Pirate Radio had previously won the hearts of viewers, but About Time allowed writer/director Richard Curtis to return to his Four Weddings and Funeral roots (which he didn’t direct but did write). About Time makes use of the time-travel genre’s capacity to wax poetic about regret and death by focusing on the very sincere bond between a father and a son. The romantic comedy scene starring Rachel McAdams and Domhnall Gleeson is the movie’s hook, but its heart is the heartwarming relationship between Gleeson & Bill Nighy’s time-traveling dad and son.
Idiocracy
That film, you recall, started out as ludicrous fiction but eventually started to take shape. Mike Judge, the director of Idiocracy, couldn’t have predicted how accurate the film would be for over a decade after it first came out, but Judge along with co-writer Etan Cohen certainly had their finger on the ground of what was going on in America at the time, allowing them to unearth unsettling facts that are still relevant today. Idiocracy thrives although the basic premise of a man being “frozen” for hundreds of years has been accomplished before, thanks to the comic agility with which Judge delivers his condensed prophecy of America’s future. The bat jokes are also included.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
The best movie in the series, Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban is also one of the best time-travel movies ever made (defend me). Alfonso Cuarón adapted the acclaimed J.K. Rowling book series, changing the aesthetic & narrative conceits. Rowling gave the plot its fundamental structure, but Cuarón’s execution truly makes this thing fly. Astonishing cinematography and auditory cues that help viewers understand the changing temporal circumstances make Azkaban a fascinating place full of wonder, curiosity, and danger.
