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The 25 Greatest Time-Travel Movies Ever Made

It must say something, surely, about humans, how often time-travel movies are about returning to the past rather than jumping to the future. As Mark Duplass’s forlorn character says in Safety Not Guaranteed , “The mission has to do with regret.” With all the potential to explore the unknown world of the future, so often when our minds conspire to bend the rules of time it’s instead to rehash the old. It’s compelling to watch a character in a movie do what we cannot — right past wrongs or uncover the reason for or meaning behind the events in their lives, whether they be emotionally catastrophic or merely geopolitically motivated.

So absent is the future from the canon, in fact, that when it is involved, typically future dwellers are leaving their own time to come back to the present. Back to the Future Part II aside, it seems as if there’s something about going forward in time that just doesn’t track for humans. (Of course, you could argue that this is because the present-day concept of bidirectional time travel would infinitely multiply or change beyond recognition any future that may occur, but that’s a knot for another article.)

In any case, the time-travel stories deemed worthy of Hollywood budgets aren’t always straightforward in their mechanics. Some films on this list barely qualify as time-travel movies at all; others could hardly qualify as anything else. There are movies about trips through time but also ones about the bending and fracturing and muddying thereof; then there are those about, as Andy Samberg aptly puts it in Palm Springs , “one of those infinite time-loop situations you might have heard about.” There’s even a movie in which we get only 13 seconds’ worth of time travel, when it functions more like a joke whose punch line hits at the film’s climax.

What these films all do have in common is a fascination with changing the way time works. That being said, the list leaves out movies in larger, more extended franchises in which time meddling is a one-off dalliance thrown into a sequel with little by way of foreshadowing: think Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban , Avengers: Endgame , and Men in Black III . (It also leaves off perhaps the Ur-time-travel movie, Primer , and the quite good Midnight in Paris because their directors don’t deserve the column inches.) We’re looking at self-contained stories using time mechanics from the start, with preference given to those that involve themselves more intently with the ins and outs of time travel; that ask questions about time, aging, memory and so forth; and that try to succeed at it in new and interesting ways. So let’s get to it.

25. Galaxy Quest (1999)

Does Galaxy Quest really count as a time-travel movie? Some compelling reasons argue that it doesn’t: Time travel isn’t a major factor in the plot, and the time traveling that does occur is, yes, only a 13-second jump. But its use of time travel is meaningful insofar as the movie itself is a loving spoof of Star Trek , which makes use of time travel in three films ( one of which made this list ), not to mention dozens of episodes across its various TV iterations. Tacking on time travel as a deus ex machina for the actors in a Star Trek– like show pressed into service as an actual space crew by an endangered alien race is the exact right amount of ribbing in a movie that’s as on point as it is hilarious.

Galaxy Quest is available to rent on Amazon .

24. Happy Death Day (2017)

Pick away at the surface of a time-loop movie and you find a horror movie. Most of the entries on this list are covered in enough feel-good spin to land as comedies, but Happy Death Day stares the horror of the time-loop phenomenon right in the face. (It’s also quite funny.) Reliving the same day over and over is an unimaginably potent form of psychological torture, and adding murder to the equation does little to dull that edge. The film follows a college-age protagonist struggling to escape from a masked slasher hell-bent on killing her again and again while she tries to solve the mystery of how she got stuck in a time loop.

Happy Death Day is available to rent on Amazon .

23. Back to the Future Part II (1989)

Seriously, this may be the only good movie in which the film’s whole focus is using a time machine to travel into the future. The fact that it’s a sequel is telling — the characters already traveled into the past in the first movie , and the filmmakers decided to save “traveling even further into the past“ for the third film in the trilogy. Still, Back to the Future Part II is a fun time that makes great use of sight gags and references, recasting scenes from the first film in the distant future year of 2015 with all its hoverboards and self-lacing Nikes.

Back to the Future Part II is available to rent on Amazon .

22. See You Yesterday (2019)

It’s a dirty little secret of time-travel movies that they tend to be, well, pretty white. Tenet ’s Protagonist aside, if Hollywood’s sending someone through time, they’re almost certainly not a Black person, and for obvious reasons: Most of post-contact North American history is deeply unfriendly to people of color, and the problems a person running around out of time and place is going to encounter are deeply compounded if they’ll likely be the target of racist abuse or violence — which makes See You Yesterday all the more compelling. Produced by Spike Lee and featuring one of filmdom’s most famous time travelers in a cameo role, it follows a Black teenage science prodigy who uses a time machine to try to save her brother from being killed by a police officer.

See You Yesterday is streaming on Netflix .

21. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)

No offense to the Back to the Future franchise, but time travel never looks more fun on film than it does in the first Bill & Ted movie. It’s a concept that feels distinctly of a different era, so pure is its zaniness, that it’s hard to imagine anyone concocting it today. The titular duo, Californian high-school students in the ’80s, travel through the past looking for historical figures in order to ace a history project, then bring them all back to the present. High jinks ensue! We get Genghis Khan in a sporting-goods store and Mozart on an electric keyboard. What more could you want?

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure is streaming on HBO Max .

20. Source Code (2011)

Time-travel-film aficionados know this won’t be Jake Gyllenhaal’s only stop on this list, but no matter. Source Code finds him repeating the same eight minutes over and over as he struggles to find the culprit in a train bombing — with each replay ending in his own death by explosion. For some reason, a romantic subplot is shoehorned into this, along with a bunch of frankly unnecessary technical mumbo-jumbo, but the core idea is a compelling mix of the time-loop movie and the train whodunit that Gyllenhaal is a perfect fit for.

Source Code is available to rent on Amazon .

19. 12 Monkeys (1995)

Some sort of law of nature dictates that every genuinely good idea and/or piece of true art has to at some point be turned into a Hollywood movie. Thank God La Jetée was adapted into something that can stand on its own feet artistically. 12 Monkeys may not retain its source material’s black-and-white look or stripped-down, static-image presentation, but it is a rollicking good time nonetheless. That’s in no small part due to director Terry Gilliam getting the best out of Bruce Willis and a young Brad Pitt, and recasting World War III as a planet-decimating virus. Which, like at least one other movie on this list , “speaks to the present moment,” or whatever.

12 Monkeys is available to rent on Amazon .

18. Run Lola Run (1998)

Unlike almost all of the other films on this list, the terms time travel and time machine don’t show up anywhere in Run Lola Run . Rather, it’s a sort of de facto time-loop scenario in which the protagonist tries repeatedly to pay a ransom to save her boyfriend’s life. In fact, if not for a few key details, it could easily be characterized (and often has been) as an alternate-endings movie rather than a time-travel film. But the fact that Lola seems to be learning from her past attempts with each successive one suggests that she is, indeed, using knowledge gained from previous loops to bring a satisfactory end to this situation.

Run Lola Run is available to rent on Amazon .

17. Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

One of the most striking things about Groundhog Day is the mutability and replicability of its core conceit. Perhaps the best case in point is Edge of Tomorrow , sometimes known as Live. Die. Repeat. after its original tagline. It’s the kind of physically grueling movie only an actor as genuinely unhinged as Tom Cruise could pull off. A noncombatant thrust into a war against invading aliens, Cruise’s character finds himself reliving day one of combat over and over, slowly but surely refining his techniques in order to survive the extraterrestrial onslaught. Like the central twosome in the much less violent Palm Springs , he winds up with a partner in (war) crime, teaming up with the similarly time-trapped Emily Blunt, and the explanation for the replay glitch here is actually pretty satisfying.

Edge of Tomorrow is streaming on Fubo TV .

16. Star Trek (2009)

If you could create some sort of an advanced stat to measure controversy generated per unit of interesting filmmaking decisions, J.J. Abrams would have to be near the top in terms of his ability to rig up movie drama from almost nothing. This is a guy whose filmography is like Godzilla rip-off, Spielberg homage, safe reboot of cherished IP, repeat. Star Trek may be his best film, though, a sure-footed reinvention of a dorky sci-fi franchise that made it, well, cool. Somehow, the beauty of Spock and Kirk’s bromance being woven through chance encounters with future selves kind of … works?

Star Trek is available to rent on Amazon .

15. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)

There’s a relative dearth of time travel in animated film, which perhaps is a function simply of the fact that it’s less impressive to stage in a world that’s already unreal. If you can Looney Tunes your way through physics, what’s so special about grabbing the flow of time and tying it into a bow? Still, the original Girl Who Leapt Through Time deserves mention here. It’s a beautiful story that interlaces the complexity of time leaping with the intensity of teenage emotion and the thorny process of growing up where the opportunity to redo things leads, over time, to growth — a less shitty Groundhog Day , in a way.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is available to rent on Amazon .

14. Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

She may not be the most famous, decorated, or emulated actress of her generation, but Aubrey Plaza is someone whose personality spoke to the irony-soaked 2010s in a way that simply could not be denied. Her character on Parks and Recreation , April Ludgate, was, by all accounts, created specifically to channel Plaza’s real-life personality to the screen, and she plays essentially the same character in Safety Not Guaranteed . Here, she’s a sarcastic intern at a magazine working on a story about a would-be time traveler and using her feminine wiles to slowly gain his trust. The chemistry between Plaza and Mark Duplass is probably the film’s high point; the subplot about the FBI feels like it was clipped out of a bad X-Files episode.

Safety Not Guaranteed is streaming on Tubi .

13. La Jetée (1962)

At only a 28-minute run time, La Jetée is arguably too short to merit inclusion on this list. However, what it lacks in content (and in, well, moving images; it’s almost exclusively a collection of static black-and-white shots set to voice-over), it more than makes up for in inventiveness and influence, and it would be a travesty to leave it out in favor of more recent by-the-book fare. Tracing the tale of a man held prisoner in post-WWIII Paris being used in time-travel experiments as his captors seek to remedy the postapocalyptic state of the world, he’s sent into both the future and the past and ends up unraveling a lifelong personal mystery while he’s at it.

La Jetée is streaming on the Criterion Channel .

12. Planet of the Apes (1968)

Unlike the worse but more straightforwardly time-traveling Tim Burton remake, the relationship between the original Planet of the Apes and time travel is inexact — technically, the astronaut crew that lands on the titular planet does travel forward 2,000 years, but it’s not done via a time machine. The travel isn’t instantaneous: It literally does take them 2,000 years to get there; they’re just unconscious and on life support. Still, the way the film’s ending handles the iconic reveal is exactly in line with the best of the time-travel canon, the telescoping, mise en abyme feeling of the world shifting in front of your very eyes without your moving an inch.

Planet of the Apes is available to rent on Amazon .

11. Groundhog Day (1993)

The famous Bill Murray vehicle essentially invented the infinite-time-loop genre (and it’s hardly a movie that succeeds on the strength of its concept alone), but the idea at its core is so steeped in the casual misogyny of late-’80s and early-’90s cinema that it’s hard to watch today without cringing. Murray’s character employing what amounts to PUA-style techniques over and over and over in a desperate bid to fuck his hapless co-worker just doesn’t hit the way it did back then. If the story arc didn’t present a guy detoxifying himself of the worst aspects of masculinity in order to be worthy of a woman’s love as the primary way for a 20th-century white man to achieve full personhood, this would be much higher on the list.

Groundhog Day is streaming on Starz .

10. Predestination (2014)

This is probably the most complicated film on the list. Following a “temporal agent” (played by Ethan Hawke) who’s trying to prevent a bombing in 1970s New York, it’s based on a Robert A. Heinlein short story and features Shiv Roy herself, Sarah Snook, in a star-making turn as someone with a complicated backstory and a secret. Like the best sci-fi, the film’s premise raises all kinds of fascinating questions about the titular concept and throws in some interesting musings on sex, gender, and the self in the process.

Predestination is streaming on Tubi .

9. Looper (2012)

Wes Anderson gets a lot of flak for his overwrought twee visuals, but Rian Johnson has a knack for making movies that feel and function like dioramas even if they don’t look it. Narratively speaking, everything here is constructed just so — and there’s a certain beauty in that — but who ever had a profound experience of art by looking at a diorama? Looper was probably Johnson’s least precious pre– Star Wars film, which is nice because the temptation to drastically overmaneuver the mechanics of a time-travel story can lead to disaster. The tech used to Bruce Willis–ify Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s face is distracting, and the third act’s retreat from the postapocalyptic city of the future to the postapocalyptic corn farm of the future is a brave choice that the film struggles to land. Still, Johnson’s vision of a future in which organized crime runs time travel is compelling and well worth a watch.

Looper is streaming on Netflix .

8. Donnie Darko (2001)

Donnie Darko is a bit of a genre mash-up. Part high-school movie, part sci-fi flick, part bleak meditation on the soullessness of late-’80s America, it’s nevertheless a weirdly successful piece of filmmaking that makes fantastic use of a young Jake Gyllenhaal, a great supporting cast (Maggie Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore, Jena Malone, and Patrick Swayze among others), and an absolutely iconic haunting cover of Tears for Fears’ “Mad World.” Watching high schoolers navigate parallel universes, wormholes, and time travel is a dicey proposition, but director Richard Kelly makes it work, somehow.

Donnie Darko is streaming on HBO Max .

7. Back to the Future (1984)

While it’s clearly superior to the sequel (and leagues ahead of the final film in the trilogy), the original Back to the Future is a bit of a mess (John Mulaney was right , to be honest). Its racial and gender politics are cringey, and the incest subplot is weird (“It’s your cousin Marvin. Marvin Pornhub . You know that new plot element you’ve been looking for?”), but there’s a clear interest in time travel beyond its shimmering surface: the very real addressing of the “grandfather problem” in time travel via the slow disappearance of Marty from his family photo, the accidental invention of rock music, and a genuine curiosity about the nuts-and-bolts mechanics of time machines. Ahh, what the hell. It’s a romp.

Back to the Future is available to rent on Amazon .

6. Palm Springs (2020)

No offense to Gen-Xers and boomers, but the best time-loop movie of all time is Palm Springs . The film isn’t without its missteps, but it’s much more curious about life than Groundhog Day was through the eyes of Murray’s misanthrope. Cristin Milioti and Andy Samberg‘s characters, stuck in the loop together, are a perfect comedic match, and their shared humanity makes for a beautiful arc. The film raises questions about what’s worth doing in life when nothing lasts and how to stay sane when every day is the same. Of course, as a sort of polar opposite of Tenet , it benefited from coming out during the pandemic by speaking, as it does, to the experience of lockdown.

Palm Springs is streaming on Hulu .

5. Tenet (2020)

Interstellar wasn’t enough for Chris Nolan, apparently. Tenet ’s legacy may end up being little more than that of the COVID action movie no one saw — a bloated thriller that Nolan fought to get into theaters and bar from home viewing reportedly to swell the size of his own pockets. It really did suffer from bad timing, though, because this is genuinely a quintessential big-screen popcorn movie whose absurdity is all the more palatable when it’s given the audiovisual bombast it deserves. Ambitious in scope as it traces a war on the past by the future (yes, you read that right), Tenet is as enamored of action tropes as it is in bucking them, and its investment in rendering visible the brain-bendingly knotty mechanics of moving through time is laudable, even when the movie itself remains opaque — as impenetrable as the future, as hazy as the past.

Tenet is streaming on HBO Max .

4. The Terminator (1984)

A partner to Blade Runner in the mid-’80s invention of sci-fi noir, The Terminator is a stunning film in many ways, despite the third act’s now-iffy visual effects. While it’s not James Cameron’s debut, and it would go on to be bested by its sequel , it functions as an incredible showcase for an emerging young director who would exclusively make big stories for the rest of his career. Arnold Schwarzenegger is perfectly cast as the relentless, unemotional killer cyborg sent back from the future to terminate the mother of the eventual resistance leader, and the film’s romantic subplot has just the perfect amount of time-travel-induced cheesiness for it to work.

The Terminator is streaming on Amazon Prime Video .

3. Interstellar (2014)

It’s not inaccurate to say Christopher Nolan is a director who’s more interested in scale and scope than in expressing the minutiae of the human experience in its purest form. But in Interstellar, a Nolan movie in its titular ambitions, there’s a core element of time travel wrought not as sci-fi fireworks but as a paean to the sheer force and will of the power of love. It both does and doesn’t work, depending on your capacity for cheese in space, but even besides that, Nolan’s use of time as story arc — the way Miller’s planet functions, in particular — is conceptually masterful in the best kind of time-travel-movie way.

Interstellar is streaming on Paramount+ .

2. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Whereas the franchise’s first movie spends more time on the question of time travel, in the second it takes a bit of a back seat to the action itself. It’s hard to fault director James Cameron for this decision; T2 remains one of the best action movies of the ’90s and — along with Jurassic Park and The Matrix — one of the decade’s best when for special effects. The groundbreaking T-1000 would honestly be enough to get this movie on the list; a tween John Connor grappling with questions of predestination and the fact that he is vicariously responsible for his own conception feel almost like icing on the time-travel cake. Much as in 12 Monkeys , time travel here is mistaken for delusion, as valiant Sarah Connor, in a Cassandra-esque nightmare, has to battle against the future only she knows is coming. Of course, Cassandra never had access to any firepower stored in underground desert arsenals.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day is streaming on Netflix .

1. Arrival (2016)

It’s fair to wonder whether Arrival really is, in fact, a time-travel movie. The Ted Chiang short story it’s based on isn’t about time travel per se; rather, it’s an exploration of alternate forms of temporal understanding. The linguist protagonist, played by Amy Adams, doesn’t travel through time so much as come to experience it differently. Still, the plot ends up hinging on foreknowledge that she is granted not via visions but by actually experiencing her future simultaneously with her present and past. For our purposes, though, that’s time fuckery enough to merit inclusion, and boy howdy does the film deliver in overall quality. Partly, that’s simply a question of the source material. Chiang is arguably the most talented (and possibly the most decorated) American sci-fi writer of his generation. But the source story is not especially Hollywood friendly, and director Denis Villeneuve has adopted it lovingly, borrowing a plot device from another of Chiang’s stories, the more straightforwardly time-travel-based “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate,” in order to add some third-act blockbuster flavor. The result is a beautiful meditation on love, choice, and courage that packs art-film ethos into a genuine sci-fi blockbuster.

Arrival is streaming on Hulu and Paramount+ .

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The 35 Best Time Travel Movies

Ready for 1.21 gigawatts of sci-fi greatness?

These are the 35 best sci-fi films that explore the fluidity of time.

🤯 You love mind-bending science. So do we. Let’s nerd out over it together.

35. Timecop

Jean-Claude Van Damme is a cop who polices time. Don’t need to say more, but I guess I will. In 1994, time travel becomes a favorite pastime of criminals, and timecops like Van Damme must catch any chronal abusers and bring them to justice. As is often the case, Van Damme’s own time-muckery with the past creates different and divergent timelines that not even Doc Brown’s chalkboard could work out. But Timecop isn’t exactly a film that’s going for narrative clarity here.

34. The Final Countdown / The Philadelphia Experiment

Although most people would file this film under “flop,” The Final Countdown contains such an amazing premise it has to be recognized. The crew of the U.S.S. Nimitz enters a storm vortex and is transported to Pearl Harbor in 1941, turning a favorite imaginary war-game scenario into real life. Although the actual film elements aren’t necessarily memorable, it does give us an incredibly good look at the Nimitz (the film was shot on the actual carrier).

We tossed in The Philadelphia Experiment at the same spot, since it’s essentially the reverse of The Final Countdown .

33. Men in Black 3

By the time director Barry Sonnenfeld directed Men in Black 3 in 2012, the franchise was 15 years removed from its fun and campy original, and Men in Black 2 had sucked out much of the charm. That’s why MiB 3 , despite its faults, is still a surprising underdog of a film.

Agent J (Will Smith) goes back in time to stop an alien from mucking up the past and killing Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones/Josh Brolin). The film recaptures much of the original’s fun, and Josh Brolin’s portrayal of a young Tommy Lee Jones playing Agent K is simply awe-inspiring. Honestly, that acting work alone earns this spot for MiB 3.

32. Flight of the Navigator

Sort of like E.T. , but with time travel. What Flight of the Navigator lacks in a substantial plot, it more than makes up for in charm.

David Scott Freeman falls into a ravine and is knocked unconscious—for eight years. Although he doesn’t age, everyone he knows does, and he soon finds he’s part of something much larger. It’s a fun film that will never outshine any Spielberg classics, but its campiness is too genuine to ignore.

31. Time After Time

H.G. Wells, Jack the Ripper, and time travel ... that’s it . Just click the arrow.

30. Timecrimes

A film with perhaps the lowest budget on this list, Timecrimes is a Spanish-language movie that follows a typical time travel trope (many copies of one person causing major problems) but creates 92 minutes of truly enjoyable cinema. The fun moments of Timecrimes are the reveal after reveal after reveal, which snowballs into a fascinating plot.

29. Source Code

Source Code is like Groundhog Day and Edge of Tomorrow with a twist. Instead of going back in time as himself, Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) enters the body of someone else as he tries to stop a mass murder attempt. What the film lacks in depth, it more than makes up for in pulse-pumping action, and the premise itself is a refreshing take on the usual time travel idea.

It will likely never be considered an example of high science fiction, but as far as time travel goes, it gets good grades.

28. Donnie Darko

Perfect amounts creepy and perplexing, Donnie Darko is another strange example of time travel, which is why it belongs on this list all the more. Darko (Gyllenhaal again) is a high school kid with a less-than-sunny disposition. But when he begins seeing frightening hallucinations of a deranged and grotesque rabbit, things slowly begin to unravel, going from bad to weird pretty quickly.

For such a small-budget film (that was almost released straight to home video!) it’s made an outsized impact on science fiction and indie filmmaking. It’s a great movie, but also a polarizing one.

27. Safety Not Guaranteed

Director Colin Trevorrow’s debut film Safety Not Guaranteed follows three journalists—well, one journalist and two interns—on a road trip to meet the eccentric Kenneth (Mark Duplass), who placed an ad in a local newspaper looking for a time-travel companion. Although at its heart a romantic comedy, the film explores human perception of time and the indelible regrets, traumas, and even fantasies that fill our memories. Although the idea of actual time travel plays a significant role in the film, it’s used mostly as a symbol to analyze the importance of being present and always looking with hope toward the future.

26. X-Men: Days of Future Past

Smashing together the old X-Men guard with the new is what makes X-Men: Days of Future Past one of the more successful cinematic outings for the mutant team.

In the film, Kitty Pryde sends Wolverine back through time to stop apocalyptic events from unfolding. Maybe that’s not the most original plot, but it’s one that’s too fun to resist (if only for the Quicksilver scene alone ).

25. Predestination

Based on Robert Heinlein’s sci-fi short story “All You Zombies,” Predestination is a head trip, like any proper time travel film should be. With a strong performance from Ethan Hawke and a script that will keep you guessing, the film is one of the more solid time travel entries in recent years and is a film that garners a rewatch so you can catch every detail.

24. Star Trek: First Contact

The Next Generation ’s big screen outings are a mixed bag, to put it nicely, but the best film by far is the time-bending Star Trek: First Contact . Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise-E travel to the past to prevent the cybernetic Borg from mucking with Earth’s history. It’s a good film all by itself, but even more excellent if you’re an invested Star Trek fan. We get to see huge, never-before-seen moments in the Star Trek universe, like humanity’s first encounter with the Vulcans, and the Borg are just an excellent adversary.

23. Army of Darkness

“Shop Smart. Shop, S-Mart.”

Depending on who you ask, Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness is either the best sequel to any film ever, or the worst—there isn’t much room in between. The chainsaw-toting Ashley “Ash” Williams is tossed back to medieval times where he must fight off a horde of undead monstrosities with only his ingenuity and his “boom stick.”

Even though it’s slapstick comedy with wonderfully B-movie action sequences, it remains an absolute joy to watch.

22. Doctor Strange

In this Marvel sleeper hit , Stephen Strange (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) becomes the Sorcerer Supreme, and in typical Marvel fashion, is tasked with saving the world. Although the visuals alone are worthing giving this movie a shot, its manipulation of time as a superpower rather than a world-altering plot device is what sets it apart from the rest.

21. Sleeper

Although not technically time travel (long stretches of cryo-sleep instead), Sleeper is Woody Allen’s sci-fi comedy that’s absurd, hilarious, and strangely poignant. Miles Monroe is a jazz musician and health-food-store owner who wakes up in the 22nd century after a botched gall bladder operation. The world is, as you’d expect, quite different, and Monroe is a hilarious character to explore it with.

Tenet is an “A for effort” addition to this list. The film has all the trappings of a Christopher Nolan flick—stunning cinematography, a star-studded cast, head-scratching plot points, etc., etc. And Tenet does take time travel movies one step further with the introduction of time inversion, the idea that objects and people can travel into the past at the same temporal pace that they can travel into the future. Although a fascinating concept, it’s also a confusing one, which is why Nolan spends much of the film’s 150-minute runtime explaining what’s going on. Tenet is a fascinating time travel story though ultimately one a bit lost in its own exposition.

19. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

This 2006 award-winning anime is a coming-of-age time travel story that even rivals Back to the Future . After schoolgirl Mokoto Konno discovers a time travel device that gives her the power to leap through time, she uses her new gifts for mundane high school stuff, passing tests, avoiding awkward conversations, and to address her chronic lateness.

When she learns what her time traveling does to others around her, and as the seriousness of her time jumping becomes more apparent, the film blossoms into an important story about loss and friendship.

Crime noir meets science fiction in Rian Johnson’s Looper , and the match is magical. In a future where time travel is invented and immediately made illegal, crime syndicates use the technology for time-hopping assassinations. But to tie off some temporal inconsistencies, the assassin must eventually become the target—and that’s where things get interesting. This isn’t flawless sci-fi, but it’s certainly inventive.

17. Run Lola Run

On its surface, the German film Run Lola Run is about a blazingly red-headed woman running through the streets of Berlin in an attempt to save her boyfriend’s life. However, the twist is that once Lola reaches a dead-end (sometimes literally) in one of her runs, the film starts over from the beginning and Lola runs through Berlin once again, only this time small changes in her path create largely divergent outcomes by the film’s end. Although time is more of a thematic device than a strictly plot-driven one in Run Lola Run, its ruminations on time and the exploration of the Butterfly Effect , the idea that small incidents can have lasting repercussions, makes Run Lola Run one of the most unique films on this list.

16. Avengers: Endgame

What happens when the big purple monster man annihilates half the population? Time travel, baby. Tony Stark and gang concoct a convoluted plan that’ll save the universe from being cleaved in two, including some very inventive scenes that play with time travel. Like most time travel plots, Endgame creates more questions than it answers, but it’s best to just sit back and enjoy.

Darren lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes/edits about sci-fi and how our world works. You can find his previous stuff at Gizmodo and Paste if you look hard enough. 

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The 20 best time-travel movies – ranked!

As Adam Driver accidentally winds up 65m years ago , facing not just dinosaurs but an asteroid, we count down the best films about going backwards, or forwards, through the ages

20. Timecop (1994)

Regardless of what anyone says, I believe in my heart that Timecop was greenlit because someone showed a studio executive a picture of Jean-Claude Van Damme and said the word “Timecop” out loud, at which point they had to throw a script together as quickly as possible. Nothing about Timecop makes sense. It is the most 90s film ever made.

19. Tenet (2020)

I have to be careful here, because Tenet might not be a time-travel movie. Certainly time passes in it and some of the people are going backwards in time in it. But I’ve seen this movie twice now, and it mainly just seems to be about people mumbling everything, except for Kenneth Branagh, who gets to shout very loudly three times. Anyway, here it is.

18. Cavegirl (1985)

Finally, a film that uses time-travel for the correct reason; to allow a horny 1980s high school student to go back to prehistory so that he can convince a smoking hot, bikini-wearing cavegirl to have it off with him. You will note I’ve ranked this above Tenet .

17. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)

Weird to think that Austin Powers was originally a fish-out-of-water comedy, in which the promiscuous titular character had to navigate the (then) uptight world of the 1990s. That all fell apart for the sequel, where Powers was sent back to the 60s to shout his catchphrases at people who actually appreciated them. That makes it a time-travel movie, right?

16. The Butterfly Effect (2004)

God, this film. In summary: Ashton Kutcher plays a man who experiences blackouts, only to learn some years later that he can travel back in time and inhabit his younger self’s mind during the blackouts. But in doing so, he unleashes a world of unintended consequences. He becomes a murderer and loses limbs. Seek out the director’s cut if you can, because it ends with Kutcher’s character deliberately strangling himself in the womb with his umbilical cord. No, really.

15. The Tomorrow War (2021)

Wherein Chris Pratt is drafted into a war that takes place 26 years later, because the invading aliens have already killed all the soldiers who were alive at the time. It’s a great premise for a film – we all pay the price for the actions of other generations – let down by a truly confusing ending. Admit it, you forgot this film even existed, even though it cost $200m to make and only came out 18 months ago.

14. The Time Travelers (1964)

A 1964 movie made on the cheap with genuinely terrible effects, The Time Travelers is about a group of scientists who travel to the future, fight some mutants and then return. What sets it apart, though, is its crazed ending. The film ends with the scientists venturing into the distant future, whereupon the film plays through again, faster and faster and faster until it cuts away to a still of the galaxy. Are they trapped in a loop? Is free will an illusion? Did the producers just run out of money? We may never know.

13. The Adam Project (2022)

In which a young boy’s life is turned upside down when he is visited by an older version of himself from the future. The good news? He grows up to be a fighter pilot. The bad news? He also grows up to have all the cadences and surface-level snarky patter of Ryan Reynolds. What follows is a buddy movie where the two buddies are the same person.

12. Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

So seminal that it was namechecked in Avengers: Endgame . A flat-out comedy that primarily exists to allow a bunch of middle-aged men to act like teenagers, Hot Tub Time Machine is a film about an enchanted Jacuzzi that sends people back to the mid-1980s. Possibly a bit too bawdy for its own good, there’s a hint of a message about the unreliability of nostalgia here.

11. Flight of the Navigator (1986)

This family film involves a young boy who goes missing in a Fort Lauderdale ravine, only to show up eight years later having not aged. There are UFOs and rubbery little creatures and whatnot, but there’s a real emotional wallop to the moment when the boy realises that the world has moved on without him, right down to the scene (that plays out like a horror movie) where the boy realises that his parents have become unrecognisably ancient, even though they are probably only in their early 40s.

10. Primer (2004)

Some see Shane Carruth’s Primer as the gold standard of what a time-travel film should be. It’s the sort of movie that seems unnervingly realistic, from the down-at-heel engineers to the unshowy nature of time travel itself, where people in effect just get in and out of some boxes. Almost entirely unwilling to explain itself, for years Primer fans have come to rely on a series of graphs and charts to figure out what the film actually is.

9. Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

A time-travel movie that may or may not have any actual time-travel in it, Colin Trevorrow’s Safety Not Guaranteed is a delicate wonder of a thing. A man places an ad in a magazine asking for a time-travel companion – “Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before” – and the respondents slowly come to realise that all is not quite as it seems.

8. Planet of the Apes (1968)

If you haven’t seen Planet of the Apes, then the fact that I’ve put it on a list of time-travel movies is probably quite a heavy spoiler, and for that I’m sorry. But what a reveal this is – what seems at first like a silly movie about Charlton Heston being persecuted by some monkeys quickly becomes something darker and much more sinister. That new Adam Driver movie probably could have achieved something similar, if it hadn’t blabbed its big secret in the trailer.

7. Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Endgame is a lot, so much so that it is effectively a time-travel movie bookended by two entirely separate movies. And, yes, it takes a lot of liberties with time-travel, from Tony Stark’s “Huh, I did it” invention to the lazy referencing of other time-travel movies as a shorthand for what the characters can do. Nevertheless, when they get to it, the film nails it. The Battle of New York is the obvious highlight, with Captain America fighting Captain America and the Hulk embarrassed by his unreconstructed former self, but the heart of the film really comes when Tony meets his father as a man and learns to let go of the past.

6. Interstellar (2014)

Interstellar is also a lot. But at its core is a simple ethical quandary: would you try to save the world if it meant missing your children’s entire lives? Matthew McConaughey has to touch down on a planet during a space trip. The problem is that every hour he spends there is equal to seven years on Earth. Is the trip important enough for him to miss seeing the wonder of his children grow into adults? Technically, if you want to be fussy about this, Interstellar is a time dilation movie rather than a time-travel movie. But it gets a pass, largely because McConaughey sells the agony of the moment so beautifully.

5. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)

There are times when Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure feels like it was written by a toddler off his face on pop. But that’s a deliberate ploy, a way to camouflage all the careful rigour that underpins the script. The lead characters are initially reluctant to embark on their time-travel adventure, until they’re visited by versions of themselves from the near future who compel them to do it; a beautiful and hilarious example of predestination in action. Extra points are awarded thanks to the film’s total lack of interest in consequences. Swiping Abraham Lincoln and Napoleon from their respective eras has no bearing on world history whatsoever, which is probably quite lucky.

4. Looper (2012)

One problem with time-travel movies is that the rules always need to be explained upfront. In lesser hands, this can lead to all manner of clunky, stilted exposition. But when Rian Johnson dabbled in the genre with Looper , he gave us a masterclass in “show, don’t tell”. The sequence where poor Paul Dano’s character is tortured at two different points in time simultaneously, with the older version following instructions carved into the younger version’s arm, is arguably one of the most inventive uses of time-travel in the entire history of cinema. All that plus this is Bruce Willis’s last truly great performance.

3. The Terminator (1984)/Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

The lure of the first two Terminator movies were the killer robots running around murdering everyone. But they were very smartly built around a framework of pure time-travel. We only see the future in brief flashes, but what’s important is the present. It is very, very important that Kyle Reese (a guy from the future) has sex with Sarah Connor (a woman from the present), because only that will save humanity as we know it. It’s a hell of a pickup line, but the device also elevates what could have simply been a shonky B-movie into the realm of the classics.

2. Idiocracy (2006)

The smartest time-travel movies use the device as a mirror, telling us more about the times we live in now than the times the characters visit. Enter Idiocracy, Mike Judge’s stinging satire about modern times. An average person is cryogenically frozen and wakes up in the future, shocked to discover that the global IQ has fallen off a cliff in the intervening years. Surrounded by aggressive stupidity, he single-handedly saves the US from famine by suggesting that they use water – and not an electrolyte drink – to grow crops. We are conservatively 15 years from this happening in real life.

1. Back to the Future (1985)/Back to the Future Part II (1989)

The only conceivable first choice. The first two Back to the Future films (the third, which is basically just a western, is far less imaginative) have come to define time-travel as a genre. They deliver a complex set of hard sci-fi rules about what can and cannot happen during time-travel and – miraculously – manage to do it in a way that kids can understand. Good music, cool clothes, a million catchphrases and, in the case of the second film, an unnervingly prescient prediction of how Donald Trump would turn out. Just perfect.

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The Time Traveler’s Wife: Plot, Cast, & Everything Else We Know

Here’s all we know about HBO’s reboot of the 2009 film The Time Traveler’s Wife.

What would you do for love? Would you travel across time for it? Embrace all its complications and hardships for a moment, a sliver of peace and happiness? That is the question raised in HBO’s newest series, The Time Traveler’s Wife , coming this spring.

This science-fiction romantic drama, which is a reboot of a 2009 film of the same title , is set to further explore the story and give audiences the details the film forgot or could not fully provide. Although the 2009 retelling did its best and was a commercial success, earning $101 million at the US Box Office, the new series offers a chance to tell more of the story. Like with any book-to-screen adaptation, things get lost in the transfer, or it just isn’t feasible to fit 600 pages into 107 minutes, no matter how well done it is.

The series has a stacked cast and an impressive arsenal of producers at the helm. Since its first trailer, which premiered only a week ago, the series seems to be garnering quite an audience already. The mysterious and intriguing love story is certainly one for the books or rather a certain book in particular. Let's find out everything we know so far.

The Time Traveler’s Wife was a book before it was a film and a soon-to-be series. The 600-page novel of the same name was written by author Audrey Niffenegger in 2003. Instantly, readers were captured by the story of a man, Henry DeTamble, whose time-traveling affliction seemed to have only one constant -- love. Throughout his travels, he always came back to the love of his life, Clare Abshire. From the time she was young, he visited her, only for them both to meet up later in life and pursue a romantic relationship and later marriage and a family. The story, although on the surface a love story, is one of complications, tragedy, and the idea that the small moments are what is important to live a full life.

The Cast & Crew

When it comes to the cast of the fresh-take series, it doesn’t leave much room for wanting. While it’s no Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams, it certainly has a cast worthy of their own hype. Theo James takes the lead as the mysterious time-traveling Henry DeTamble. James has been on the scene for quite some time, earning praise from his role in the Divergent series, based on the book saga of the same name. This role made him quite the heartthrob amongst teen fans who have undoubtedly grown and followed the actor's career and are looking forward to his current role. But James is not the only actor that fans will recognize. Taking on the role as the smart and r omantic counterpart to James’ DeTamble will be Rose Leslie as Clare Abshire. Leslie was a big hit in HBO’s Game of Thrones as Ygritte, the wildling that stole John Snow’s heart, amongst other things…*wink* *wink*. Together the two showcase an amazing amount of chemistry in the trailer for the series and will be joined by fellow actors Desmin Borges, Jaime Ray Newman, Kate Siegel, and others.

Related: Here's Some of the Most Intellectual Sci-Fi Movies and the Ideas They Explore

But the cast is not the only part of the series that stands out. The people behind the camera also hold their own when it comes to the incredible feat of taking on the series. The series was written by the incredible Steven Moffat, whom time-travel fans might know from his work as the writer, showrunner, and executive producer of a little show called Doctor Who and Sherlock . Moffat is joined by David Nutter, who directed all six episodes of the upcoming series. Nutter has done extensive work on shows like Arrow, Deception, The Flash, and even Game of Thrones, where he was nominated and received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. Nutter also had a history of directing pilot episodes that led to many long fruitful series -- a pattern of sixteen pilots from 1995 to 2010 -- until the streak ended in 2011 when his pilot for CBS’ The Doctor was not picked up. He would go on to direct the pilot episodes for both Arrow, The Flash, not a bad rebound.

The Release Date

The upcoming sci-fi romance series will be airing sometime this May on HBO and the company’s streaming service HBO Max.

Everything Else to Know

There are many fans of the initial film and book that are voicing their concerns that the series might not be successful in its attempt at furthering the story of Henry DeTamble and Clare Abshire’s love , but writer Steven Moffat isn’t as worried. The writer tried to put the worries to rest when he gave a statement at HBO's virtual TCA press day on February 15th, saying, “we’re not messing around with the stuff that really matters.”

Related: These Are the Best Meet-Cute Moments in Rom-Com History

He also voiced his love for the route of story-telling the show will take saying, “by scrambling it all up and constantly reminding you that love is inextricably linked to loss, which is a cheery thought, you make this very common phenomenon of a happy marriage, thrilling and full of attention and tragedy.” However, he does want the audience to understand that while “this is a story of loss” it is most definitely “not [solely] a tragedy.”

Cast & Characters

Clare Abshire (Played by Rose Leslie)  

She's fiery, clever and unstoppable — and for most of her life she’s had an amazing secret. Since she was 6 years old, Clare has had an imaginary friend: a kind and funny man, sometimes old, sometimes young, who appears in the woods behind her house and tells her tales of the future. Visits from the mysterious Henry are the bright spots in the tedium of her childhood. As the years pass and she grows into a beautiful young woman, she starts to realize her friend is not imaginary — he’s a time traveler, visiting from the future. And he’s not just from any old future, he’s from her future. Clare has a literal date with destiny. One day she’s going to meet a young man called Henry DeTamble, whom she’ll know very well but who won’t recognize her at all, and she will become the time traveler’s wife.

Henry DeTamble (Theo James)

Since he was 8 years old, Henry's been a time traveler. It’s not a superpower, it’s a condition; he can’t help it. Sometimes, when Henry is stressed or worried — and sometimes for no reason at all — he loses his grip on the current moment and falls naked into the past or the future. One minute he’s making breakfast, the next he’s naked at a hoedown in 1973. He can be stuck there for any amount of time, he never knows. His life is a rollercoaster of constant danger and white-knuckle survival. Until one day he meets a beautiful redhead in the library where he works. Her name is Clare Abshire, and although he’s never seen her before, she claims to have known him all her life. Finally his curse has given him something good, and Clare and Henry are about to have the time of their lives.

Gomez  (Desmin Borges)

One of Clare’s best friends...who is also secretly in love with her. Gomez being Gomez, it’s a secret he’s managed to keep from absolutely no one. Truculent, clever, with an often blundering sense of humor, he is also fiercely honorable. Over the years, despite everything, he becomes Henry’s best friend, and his savior many times.

Charisse (Natasha Lopez)

She's no nonsense, has no filter, is a little neurotic and she is Clare’s closest confidante and her roommate - and also Gomez’s long-suffering girlfriend. When the mysterious Henry arrives on the scene, Charisse is determined to get to the bottom of who he really is. And when Charisse wants to know something, the questions don’t stop.

Young Clare Abshire (Caitlin Shorey and Everleigh McDonell will play younger versions)

Growing up in a wealthy family, Clare’s world revolves around Henry's visits. Intelligent and charismatic, she is wise beyond her years.

Philip Abshire (Michael Park)

Clare’s father. A high-powered Chicago lawyer, he is brisk and orderly, and expects all his children to fall into line.

Lucille Abshire (Jaime Ray Newman)

Clare’s mother. She is sweet but always slightly vague and emotionally aloof. Through most of Clare’s childhood, she has not been an ideal nurturer for Clare or her siblings. Her controlling husband runs the family and she follows along with little fuss.

Alicia Abshire (Taylor Richardson)

Clare’s little sister. Alicia is trying to find her place in the world. She loves her role as younger sister and enjoys pestering and teasing Clare any chance she gets.

Mark Abshire (Peter Graham)

Clare’s blunt speaking older brother, with whom she has never had a strong relationship. He’s in law school to follow in his father’s footsteps and takes after him in many ways.

Shots from the Series

Young Henry DeTamble (Brian Altemus and Jason David will play younger versions)

Growing up with a problem - time travel - presents unique challenges for young Henry. First discovering his ability at age eight, he is mentored by an older time traveler whose true identity will one day come as a surprise to him.

Annette DeTamble  (Kate Siegel)

A talented and world-renowned opera singer, she’s a devoted mother to Henry. She is the heart and soul of the family. While braving torrid winter weather to pick up her husband for Christmas, Annette gets into a freak auto accident, changing young Henry’s life forever.

Richard DeTamble  (Josh Stamberg)

Henry’s father. He played the violin in the Chicago Philharmonic, where he met the love of his life, Annette. But after an accident, Richard and Henry are never the same again.

Ingrid (Chelsea Frei)

She's motionally fragile, but more fierce and chilly than weak. She dated Henry for a period of time before he got met Clare. When she finds out about Clare, she's not afraid to speak her mind and the encounter descends into chaos.

Nell (Marcia DeBonis)

The Abshire’s longtime housekeeper, and friend to Clare. Although she’s patient towards the Abshire family, there’s a tough side to her.

Ben (Will Brill)

A former co-worker of Henry's at the library, who has since become a “chemist" of sorts.

Jason  (Spencer House)

A tall, muscular and good looking classmate of Clare's who becomes embroiled in a heated situation with Henry .

Who’s behind the scenes?

The HBO and Warner Bros. production based on the book by Audrey Niffenegger, is executive produced by Steven Moffat ( Doctor Who ,  Sherlock ), Sue Vertue ( Sherlock ,  Coupling ), and Brian Minchin ( Doctor Who ,  Torchwood ), Joseph E. Iberti (HBO's  Watchmen   and  Boardwalk Empire ) and David Nutter (HBO's  Game of Thrones  and  The Sopranos ). Nutter will also direct Season 1.

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The Time Traveler's Wife - Full Cast & Crew

• 47   Metascore
• 1 hr 48 mins
• Travel, Drama, Fantasy, Science Fiction
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Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams star in this dramatic fantasy about a librarian whose genetic disorder causes him to hurtle through time when under extreme duress. Despite this condition, he tries to build a relationship with a young heiress.

Screenwriter

Executive producer, co-producer, music director, cinematographer, production company, sound effects, special effects, production designer.

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Meet The Cast Of “The Time Traveler’s Wife”

The classic Audrey Niffenegger novel  The Time Traveler’s Wife is finally getting the TV treatment. Years after the novel was adapted for the big screen, HBO is set to premiere  The Time Traveler’s Wife  for TV. The show is created by Steven Moffat, who previously worked on  Doctor Who and  Coupling . In an interview with Deadline , Moffat talked about the story: “What is thrilling of the interaction of time travel and a love story here, is it makes the most common phenomenon of a completely happy marriage, interesting again. Love stories, or love movies, tend to end at the alter. We never do the bit where people are perfectly happy for decades because it seems like a dramatic thing. By scrambling it all up and constantly reminding you that love is inextricably linked to loss, which is a cheery thought, you make this very common phenomenon of a happy marriage, thrilling and full of attention and tragedy.”It seems like Rachel McAdams, who starred in the movie version of The Time Traveler’s Wife , is thrilled to see the story on TV, saying to IndieWire : “Adapting a book is always hard, and that was one of my favorite books, and it was always so painful to have to let so many things go because you had to just cram it all into an hour and a half or whatever it was,” she said. “I love that it’s being expanded. I think that the book lends itself well to that. And Rose Leslie, [who is] playing Claire, I think she’s phenomenal.” The show will be produced by Moffat, alongside Sue Vertue, Brian Minchin, and David Nutter. If you are interested to learn about the cast members of the series, read ahead. Here are the actors set to appear in the upcoming HBO romantic-drama TV series  The Time Traveler’s Wife .

Rose Leslie

Rose Leslie will be starring in  The Time Traveler’s Wife as Clare Abshire. Most fans would recognize Leslie for her role in  Downton Abbey , playing Gwen Dawson. She’s also appeared as Ygritte in  Game of Thrones . Leslie also starred in the legal and political drama  The Good Fight , portraying the character of Maia Rindell. The actress’ most recent appearances on the small screen include  Revolting Rhymes, Luther,  and  Vigil . On the big screen, she most recently appeared in  Death on the Nile .

Theo James will be playing Henry DeTamble in  The Time Traveler’s Wife . The actor is best known for his role as Tobias “Four” Eaton in the highly acclaimed  Divergent  series. He has also starred in  Golden Boy, Underworld: Awakening, Underworld: Blood Wars, How It Ends,  and  Archive.  Like Leslie, James also appeared in  Downton Abbey , playing a pivotal character in the series although only appearing for one episode. James’ most recent film appearances include  Dual, Mr. Malcolm’s List,  and The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf . Aside from his acting work, James also runs the film and TV production company Untapped.

Desmin Borges

Desmin Borgez will be playing Gomez in the upcoming romantic drama The Time Traveler’s Wife . The actor is most prominently known for his role as Edgar Quintero in the comedy-drama  You’re The Worst. He has also guest-starred in shows like Preacher, Divorce, Bull, The Guest Book, Madam Secretary, and The Mysteries of Laura . He played a recurring role in Living with Yourself and appeared in eight episodes of Utopia . On the big screen, he’s appeared in Private Life, DriverX, Carrie Pilby, and Open Tables . He is set to appear in Shotgun Wedding , which is currently in post-production.

Michael Park

Michael Park will be playing Philip Abshire in  The Time Traveler’s Wife . The veteran actor is a familiar sight on Broadway. He’s played in three Broadway musicals:  Smokey Joe’s Cafe as Michael,  Tuck Everlasting as Angus Tuck, and  Dear Evan Hansen as Larry Murphy. He earned a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album and a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Musical Performance in a Daytime Program in  Dear Evan Hansen . On TV, Park is best known for playing Tom Holloway, a reporter in the third season of the hit Netflix streaming TV series  Stranger Things .

Jaime Ray Newman

Jaime Ray Newman will be playing Lucille Abshire in  The Time Traveler’s Wife . The actress starred in the soap opera General Hospital as Kristina Cassadine. She also played Mindy O’Dell in the hit drama series  Veronica Mars . On  Eastwick,  she portrayed the character of Kat Gardener. Newman is an Academy Award winner. She won, along with her husband Guy Nattiv, the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2019 for the drama  Skin.  In 2017, Newman starred in  The Punisher.  Since then, she’s appeared on shows like  Imposters, Midnight, Texas, Deputy, Little Fires Everywhere,  and  Dopesick . Alongside  The Time Traveler’s Wife , Newman is also set to appear in another upcoming series titled  Grendel , where she is set to portray Jocasta Rose. Newman also has some experience working on stage. She’s performed in theater productions such as  Fat Pig, Some Girl(s),  and  The New York Idea .

Natasha Lopez

Natasha Lopez will be playing Charisse in  The Time Traveler’s Wife . She’s previously appeared in  Runner Runner and  Law & Order: Special Victims Unit .

Kate Siegel

Kate Siegel will be playing Annette DeTamble in  The Time Traveler’s Wife . She has worked on movies like Oculus, Hush, OuijaL Origin of Evil, and Gerald’s Game.  On TV, she’s worked on  The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor,  and  Midnight Mass . She often collaborates with her husband, filmmaker Mike Flanagan. Alongside  The Time Traveler’s Wife , Siegel is also set to appear in  The Fall of the House of Usher . Siegel has also lent her voice to horror podcasts including  Calling Darkness  and  The NoSleep Podcast .

Josh Stamberg

Josh Stamberg will be portraying Richard DeTamble in  The Time Traveler’s Wife . He is best known for his starring role in  Drop Dead Diva from 2009 to 2012. He then appeared in blockbuster TV shows like  The Affair, Parenthood, Nashville, The Loudest Voice , and most recently, the MCU hit TV series  WandaVision . On the big screen, he worked on  Saving Lincoln, Dark Skies, Havenhurst, Day Out of Days,  and Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal .

Other cast members

Other actors set to appear in  The Time Traveler’s Wife include Taylor Richardson, Peter Graham, Chelsea Frei, Marcia DeBonis, Will Brill, and Spencer House.

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When he's not obsessively writing about cheesy celebrity news, A.E. is pretentiously contemplating on the origins of the cosmos.

Here's Where You Know The Cast Of The Time Traveler's Wife From

"The Time Traveler's Wife" is an HBO romantic drama series. It's based on the 2003 romantic science fiction novel of the same name by Audrey Niffenegger. "Doctor Who" writer and "Sherlock" co-creator Steven Moffat helms the TV show. He revealed to The New York Post that he jumped at the opportunity to work on it because he is a huge fan of Niffenegger's book and it's the kind of story you don't see on the screen very much. "Audrey does something very unusual. She takes the story of an absolutely happy marriage ... [but] I think by using time travel, Audrey does a thing that allows you to remember on every page that love is inextricably linked to loss." he said.

The novel was previously adapted as a feature film in 2009, but this series will follow the plot of the book rather than that adaptation. The film's cast (Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana) will not reprise their roles. Instead, Rose Leslie plays Clare Abshire and Theo James is the new time traveler Henry DeTamble. Casting is not the only thing changing in this adaptation, though. Speaking to Express , Caitlin Shorey (who plays the teenage version of Clare) revealed that the series is "much darker" than the Robert Schwentke-directed film.

"The Time Traveler's Wife" is split into six hour-long episodes for the first season. The first episode premiered on HBO Max on May 15, 2022, so let's dig in and see where you know the cast of "The Time Traveler's Wife" from.

The Time Traveler's Wife isn't Theo James' first romantic drama

Theo James plays Henry DeTamble, the titular time traveler in Steven Moffat's series. Henry has a genetic "condition" that gives him the ability to travel to the past or future, but he can't control it. The 37-year-old actor plays two versions of the character — one in the present where he's an hasty young man in his mid-to-late-20s and the other when he's in his mid-40s and more grown-up. "It's great that I'm in between [those ages]," he explained to TV Insider , "[because] I'm young enough to remember my stupid self, and the mistakes I made, and the cockiness, and the dumb, impulsive decisions. And I'm old enough to imagine a more settled sense of self, hopefully a little bit longer in the tooth, and a little more thoughtful with my actions."

James might be best known for his action movie roles (playing Four in the "Divergent" series and David in the "Underworld" franchise), however, he's no stranger to romantic dramas. The British actor had a main role in the first season of the historical romantic drama "Sanditon" in 2019. He played Sidney Parker in the series, which is based on Jane Austen's unfinished novel manuscript of the same name. James told Collider he enjoyed playing the somewhat unlikable character because of how much he then evolves. "The great thing about TV is that you can really play that, over eight hours of television, where someone who seems very guarded and is quite judgmental, changes and evolves, and you get to see a different person."

Rose Leslie switched accents for her role

Opposite Theo James' Henry DeTamble is Rose Leslie's Clare Abshire. Clare's known her future husband all her life (as a young girl, the future mid-40s version of Henry would visit her, sort of like an imaginary friend), but the series begins when she and Henry meet for the first time in the present, when Clare is 20 and Henry is 28. "[Henry]'s always had this pivotal role in her life as a figure of love and hope," Leslie explained to TV Insider . However, the series really focuses on Clare's experience. "As she grows up, we see that she is constantly juggling these two scenarios in her life. Who is she when Henry is around? And then, who is she when Henry has disappeared? And I just found that very, very interesting to play."

The Scottish star has acted in many different accents — from Ygritte's northern drawl in "Game of Thrones," to Gwen Dawson's refined English in "Downton Abbey" (which is her actual voice), and now Clare's American diction. These aforementioned series are Leslie's most notable roles, but in the years since Ygritte was killed off of "GoT," Leslie has nabbed roles in movies like "Death on the Nile" and "Morgan." For the former, which was directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh, Leslie's character, Louise Bourget, spoke with a French accent. To prepare for the part, she visited her sister in France and practiced the accent "to make it as authentic and real as possible," per Digital Spy .

Desmin Borges brings some comedy to The Time Traveler's Wife

Gomez is one of Clare's best friends. He's "fiercely honorable" (despite secretly being a little bit in love with her) and over the years he becomes Henry's best friend too, per HBO . "Private Life" actor Desmin Borges plays this entertaining character.

Borges is best known for his TV roles and you might remember him as the Iraq War veteran Edgar Quintero from the FX series "You're the Worst." The series ran from 2014 to 2019 and he appeared in all 62 of the show's episodes. Borges's character Edgar suffered from PTSD as a result of his time in the army, and this is something that the actor was proud to portray on screen. "We as a show give voice to the voiceless ... we are telling a very different vet story than we've ever seen on television before," he told Vulture . Borges also opened up to the outlet about research he did for the role, explaining that he learned a lot from war vets and family friends who opened up to him about their experiences with PTSD.

When the series ended, Borges bagged a recurring role as Dan in the comedy-drama "Living with Yourself," alongside Paul Rudd and Aisling Bea. Latterly, he's been racking up credits as Wilson Wilson in the science fiction drama "Utopia." Though he often stars in dramas, Borges always brings a bit of comedy to his roles — which will definitely be the case in "The Time Traveler's Wife."

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website .

Natasha Lopez is pretty new to acting, but you might have seen her before

"Gomez's long-suffering girlfriend" Charisse (as described by HBO ) is played by Natasha Lopez. Charisse is also Clare's roommate and "closest confidante." Lopez told Instyle Mexico that she's excited about this role, which she got as part of an open casting. She went on to say that everyone needs a best friend like Charisse in their lives and praised her character for being incredibly honest. Since she and Gomez eventually find out about Henry's time traveling abilities, you can expect her to drop a few home truths on Clare later in the series.

The Puerto Rican actor's career is just getting started, and she only has a few credits to her name so far. However, they're still pretty impressive. She had a brief stint on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" as Gabriela Montes in 2019 and a supporting role in the Ben Affleck, Justin Timberlake, and Gemma Arterton-led film "Runner Runner" before that.

"The Time Traveler's Wife" is Lopez's biggest role to date and she has rightly been celebrating the series and her casting on social media. "What feels like a lifetime of work has come to fruition!" she wrote on Instagram .

Taylor Richardson has racked up some impressive credits in her decade-long career

American actor Taylor Richardson will play Clare's younger sister Alicia Abshire. While Richardson bears a striking resemblance to a young Rose Leslie, Alicia is her own person and "is trying to find her place in the world," per HBO . They have a strong sisterly bond, though; Alicia looks up to her big sister and goes to Clare for help and advice.

If you're a fan of period dramas, you've probably seen Richardson on the small screen before. She's been playing Bridget in the second season of "The Gilded Age." Playing Bridget in the HBO series is one of her most notable TV credits, but the actor also has a handful of film credits under her belt. She's appeared in movies like "All Together Now," "Slender Man," and "Jack of the Red Hearts." The latter was such a unique role for Richardson. "I knew that I wanted to play Glory because I've never had a role like her before, and I don't think I'll ever have a role like her again," she said in an interview with Shock Ya . The actor played Glory Adams, an 11-year-old girl who's severely autistic. Though she's not the main character, the film takes the time to portray life from Glory's perspective. "After reading the script, and speaking with Janet Grillo, our director, I knew that I wanted to share this beautiful story," Richardson said.

Richardson started her professional acting career playing Duffy, and then Annie, in the 2012 Broadway revival of " Annie: The Musical ."

Michael Park is an impressive addition to The Time Traveler's Wife cast

Prolific stage and television actor Michael Park plays Clare's father Philip Abshire in "The Time Traveler's Wife." He's described as a "high-powered Chicago lawyer" who is also a strict father, per HBO . Viewers will no doubt recognize the former star who's appeared in a variety of genres of television programmes throughout his career. In 2019, he joined the cast of "Stranger Things" and played Tom Holloway in the show's third season. Before that, he had recurring roles in "Chicago P.D." and "House of Cards." However, if you watched daytime TV in the late-90s and throughout the 2000s, you'll probably recognize Park as Jack Snyder from "As the Word Turns." He, along with "General Hospital" star Maura West, brought one of the greatest soap couples to the screen.

In 2016, Park returned to Broadway, originating in "Tuck Everlasting" and "Dear Evan Hansen." He played Larry Murphy in the second of those productions, a role which he told Broadway World helped him grow as a parent. He explained, "As guarded and as distant as Larry Murphy is, it makes me all the more open and connected to my children."

You may also know the actor from some of his smaller guest roles. He played Jim Gordon's (Ben McKenzie) father Peter in an episode of "Gotham" and took on the role of Inspector Keith Sullivan in an episode of "Blue Bloods."

Jaime Ray Newman is a staple on the small screen

Academy Award-winning actor Jaime Ray Newman plays Clare's "emotionally aloof" mom, Lucille Abshire, in "The Time Traveler's Wife," per HBO . Lucille has often taken her parenting lead from her controlling husband, Philip, and viewers will see in a brief childhood flashback that Lucille is quite checked out of her children's lives, in contrast to her husband's forceful presence. Newman was one of the last additions to "The Time Traveler's Wife" cast, but she celebrated her announcement on Instagram , saying, "[I'm] honored to join this magnificent cast to tell this emotional story."

Whatever your preferred genre of TV, Newman has done it all. From soaps like "General Hospital," to science fiction like "Stargate Atlantis," to drama-thrillers like "Red Widow," to superhero action shows like "The Punisher." She even previously worked with "The Time Traveler's Wife" director David Nutter on "Eastwick." More recently Newman has starred in miniseries like "Little Fires Everywhere" and "Dopesick."

Alongside acting, Newman has also collaborated on several projects with her filmmaker husband, Guy Nattiv. In 2018, the pair produced the short film "Skin," which won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. She had a great experience working behind the scenes, rather than in front of the camera. "Working with my husband was very natural ... we're very similar people with very similar taste and it was just totally easy," she gushed to The Upcoming .

You might recognize Peter Graham from one if his impressive guest roles

Peter Graham plays Mark Abshire, Clare's older brother, who's studying to be a lawyer like their father. "So thrilled to be joining this dream team!" the actor wrote on Twitter to celebrate his casting. Clare shares a close relationship with her sister Alicia, but according to HBO , that's not the case with Mark, so viewers should expect to see some family tension on the screen. In the first episode, the characters are briefly depicted as children, and Clare interacts with her sister Alicia (Adeline Turco) fondly, but avoids Mark (Finn Brown) and their father.

Before joining the cast of "The Time Traveler's Wife," Graham had a main role in "O.T.P." He also served as an executive producer on the web series which is described as a show "about friendship ... and smutty Hobbit fan fiction," per Twitter . Graham's TV career has only gotten busier since the web series ended, and he's gone on to bag some pretty high-profile guest roles in shows like "The Resident," "Will & Grace," and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." He almost even earned an Emmy nomination for playing Trevor in one episode of "Will & Grace." "At the beginning of the pandemic I was lying in bed stress-eating a full sleeve of Oreos when I got an email that the producers of Will & Grace wanted to submit me for an Emmy nomination," he admitted on Instagram before adding, "I laughed. I cried. I finished the Oreos."

Everleigh McDonell and Caitlin Shorey are in the early stages of their careers

Everleigh McDonell and Caitlin Shorey play younger versions of Clare Abshire. McDonell will play the youngest version of Rose Leslie's character. You might be wondering where you recognize this young actor from. McDonell has already appeared in a popular Netflix TV series. She played Jane Boland in "Good Girls" alongside Christina Hendrix and Matthew Lillard, who played her parents. The young star has shared regular updates about her role in "The Time Traveler's Wife" on social media, celebrating this dream role. "Joining the HBO family at 8 years old has been a true dream come true. Being Clare Abshire has been unreal!" she gushed on Instagram , adding that she's so happy to be starring in an adaptation of her mom's favorite book.

Viewers will meet McDonell's Clare as a six-year-old when the future version of Henry first comes to visit her in the meadow outside her house. Theo James appears to her as the older versions of his character (from around his 30s to mid-40s) and later in the show's first episode, Leslie's version of Clare reveals Henry visited her 152 times during her childhood and adolescence.

Shorey will take over the character for Clare's teenage years. "I really enjoyed trying to bring Clare's emotions and conflicts to the screen to help tell this amazing story," the actor said to Naluda Magazine . This is Shorey's first professional acting role. "I learned so much every day on set and really became comfortable being in front of the camera," she added.

Jason David and Brian Altemus play younger versions of the time traveler

Two actors will also play the younger versions of Henry DeTamble, with Jason David portraying him as a child and Brian Altemus playing him during his teenage years. Viewers will meet David's version of the character at seven-years-old, which is the age Henry was when he time-traveled for the first time. The pre-teen actor has racked up a hefty stack of TV credits , which include almost fifty episodes of "General Hospital," "NOS4A2," and "For All Mankind."

Altemus will take on the adolescent iteration of the character. The model transitioned into acting in 2020, appearing in "Never Rarely Sometimes Always" and "Grand Army" before he joined the cast of "The Time Traveler's Wife." "I read this script on a plane and cried like a baby," he said on Instagram , adding, "I had an enormous amount of fun filming this."

Part of Henry's condition means he travels back to people and places that feel familiar, so just as he visits Clare as a child, he also visits himself. So, viewers can expect both David and Altemus to have scenes with Theo James, which is only slightly less confusing than the scenes James has with himself.

Kate Siegel swapped horror projects for a romantic drama

Actor and screenwriter Kate Siegel plays Henry's mother Annette DeTamble, who viewers will get to know through flashbacks. She was an opera singer and is described by HBO as being the "heart and soul" of the DeTamble family before she died in a car crash while Henry is a young boy.

A romantic drama marks a change in tone for Seigel, whose acting credits include mostly horror projects. You might recognize her from "Ouija: Origin of Evil," "The Haunting of Hill House," or its sequel "The Haunting of Bly Manor." Although it's by no means a horror series, "The Time Traveler's Wife" does enjoy a few darker moments (queue the pool of blood that spontaneously appears on Henry's floor in the first episode). So, perhaps it's not a total departure from Siegel's usual work.

It was Steven Moffat's involvement which drew her to the series. His projects "are ones that I'm excited to share with my children," she explained in an interview with Inverse . "Stories about hope and stories about love and stories about overcoming difficulty and how the world can be a terrible place. But somehow we all find ourselves in it. So let's do the best we can."

Josh Stamberg is a triple threat in the entertainment industry

"WandaVision" star Joshua "Josh" Stamberg plays Henry's father, Richard DeTamble. Richard's not a bad man, or a bad father, but he's never been the same since the death of his wife.

Stamberg worked on a variety of film, TV and theater projects before joining the cast of "The Time Traveler's Wife" — from "Pacific Rim: Uprising" to "Parenthood" to "Nashville." But it's probably his role as Max Cadman in "The Affair" that he's best known for. Viewers have probably never seen more of Stamberg than in the second season of the series, which required the actor to lay himself bare for a full frontal scene. "The important question to me, as a theater actor or really any actor, is: what is the pertinence? Does this move the story and why? I had a lot of qualms about how this helped and wanted to be sure it wasn't just a gimmick  ... [but] I think it all plays and makes sense," he explained to Entertainment Weekly .

"The Affair" ended in 2019, but before long, Stamberg was cast in "WandaVision," Marvel's first Phase 4 TV series on Disney+. He played S.W.O.R.D. Director Tyler Hayward. The nine-episode miniseries left his character's fate open and, speaking to Entertainment Tonight , Stamberg admitted he'd be surprised (and disappointed) if he didn't reappear somewhere else in the MCU sooner or later.

Chelsea Frei, Will Brill, Marcia DeBonis, and Spencer House round out The Time Traveler's Wife's supporting cast

Chelsea Frei, Will Brill, Marcia DeBonis, and Spencer House round out the cast of "The Time Traveler's Wife," Deadline confirms. They each play characters with connections to either Clare or Henry's past, but, as of this writing, they'll probably only appear in one or two episodes apiece.

Chelsea Frei has made a name for herself starring in "Dollface," "The Moodys," and "The Addams Family." In "The Time Traveler's Wife" she's playing Henry's ex-girlfriend Ingrid. During the first episode, Henry technically refers to her as his current girlfriend, which, of course, doesn't go down well with Clare. However, she's got an ex-boyfriend of her own and there's probably going to be some drama there. The unnamed character is played by Will Brill, who's most notable roles to date have been playing Noah Weissman in "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" and Scott Brown in "The O.A."

Former "Orange is the New Black" star Marcia DeBonis plays Nell, the housekeeper at the Abshire family home. You might also recognize her as Lorraine in "Letters to Juliet." And, last but not least, is Spencer House, who you might know from "Teenage Bounty Hunters," "Space Force," or "Jessica Jones." House plays Jason, "a tall, muscular and good looking classmate of Clare's who becomes embroiled in a heated situation with Henry," per HBO . Another of Clare's former love interests, perhaps? These supporting cast members are certainly putting the "romantic" in romantic drama.

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Grand Tour: Disaster in Time

Before they can complete renovations on their new inn, Widower (Ben Wilson) and daughter (Hillary) are visited by a woman seeking immediate lodging for her strange group of travellers. Why t... Read all Before they can complete renovations on their new inn, Widower (Ben Wilson) and daughter (Hillary) are visited by a woman seeking immediate lodging for her strange group of travellers. Why they won't stay at the hotel in town is just the first of many mysteries surrounding the gr... Read all Before they can complete renovations on their new inn, Widower (Ben Wilson) and daughter (Hillary) are visited by a woman seeking immediate lodging for her strange group of travellers. Why they won't stay at the hotel in town is just the first of many mysteries surrounding the group that lead Wilson to a startling discovery affecting his family and neighbours.

• David Twohy
• Henry Kuttner
• Jeff Daniels
• Ariana Richards
• Emilia Crow
• 36 User reviews
• 18 Critic reviews
• 2 wins & 4 nominations

• Hillary Wilson

• Madame Iovine

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• Undersecretary

• Sue Appleton
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• Trivia Based on the novella "Vintage Season" by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore , which originally appeared in the September 1946 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. It was credited to Lawrence O'Donnell, a pseudonym used a few times by Kuttner and Moore.

Undersecretary : There is a purpose to Time, you know... keeps everything from happening all at once.

• Connections Referenced in Serial Mom (1994)

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• Apr 3, 2001
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• May 9, 1992 (United States)
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• Disaster in Time
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• Runtime 1 hour 39 minutes

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